Vasileios
"What I loved about my placement was that every day was an opportunity to learn new things." Vasileios

Name: Vasileios
Sponsor: Spirit Semi
University: University of Cambridge
Degree Course: MEng Engineering
What appeals to me about Electronics?
Ever since I was little, I was drawn to technology. I was always interested in how phones, TVs and computers worked and wanted to try out all different operating modes and settings. This naturally led me to electronics because as I went deeper and deeper, I stumbled across the actual circuits. There is always something to learn in electronics. Every transistor in a processor and every capacitor in a radio have a role in the circuit and discovering that or even designing it yourself is fascinating.
Why I wanted a scholarship with Spirit Semiconductor
I was taking courses on radio electronics and communications which I found really interesting, since I could finally get a glimpse on what is actually going on when data is transferred. I was looking for a scholarship from a company in the RF/communications industry and I came across Spirit Semiconductor. At the interview, I learned more about the company and realised it was a great opportunity to see what RF engineering is about.
My placement and its value
I worked close to the Director of Systems and Validation. I was given a signal processing project and mostly worked with MATLAB. What I loved about my placement was that every day was an opportunity to learn new things. I was always encouraged by my supervisor to take time and teach myself what I needed to know that would lead to understanding the problem I was facing. In many occasions I even got one to one whiteboard lessons. I was surrounded by experienced Engineers so I could always reach out and get an expert’s advice. This way I learned a lot about RF, semiconductors, and state of the art signal processing techniques. I was up to date with the company’s targets and progress by attending meetings which gave a lot of worth to my work, as I felt I was contributing to something real and valuable.
My interests
I love cooking and baking. My next short-term goal is to recreate Ratatouille from that Pixar movie. I enjoy hiking. Breathing in fresh mountain air is one of the best feelings. My favourite actor/director is Mel Gibson
View other scholars profiles

Abhishek
Qualcomm
“I was developing an existing verification system further for the machine learning developments added to Qualcomm’s proprietary processor"

Abi
Graphcore
“During my placement I joined the Silicon team, where I was working to improve the silicon design flow with respect to clock domain crossing.”

Andrew
CSA Catapult
Ben is a Physical Design Engineer at Graphcore and in 2021 won the RAEng Young Engineer of the Year. Here he shares his journey so far, and tells us why he chose to pursue Electronic Engineering: