1646 – Issue 2

Victoria Sauven We spoke toOldBlueVictoriaSaven (2010) about the challenges and rewards of working in the world of engineering. What subjects did you study at Blue Coat? A-level Physics, Maths, Physical Education and AS Chemistry. What was your university degree? I did a five year Aeronautical Engineering Undergraduate Masters at Bath University, with a year spent out in industry. What did you do on your year out in industry? I worked for Hawk-Eye Innovations travelling worldwide to operate the line-officiating system for the Tennis World Tour. This was an incredible experience, I visited ten countries and worked at all four grand slams. It was a hands-on job consisting of three to five days equipment set up and then operating the system during the tournament for those all important line call challenges. The role required strong problem solving skills as the equipment often got damaged in transit. Can you tell us about your career to date post university? The first company I worked forwas TotalSim, a small aerodynamics consultancy based in Northampton. My role was to set up a new company designing and selling the world’s fastest cycling skinsuit. TotalSim previously worked with Team GB to design suits for the Beijing, London and Rio Olympics and wanted to bring the technology to the general public. It was a really varied role. As the only employee assigned to the project for the first year and a half I was able to get experience across all work streams, from technical work to business development. The initial technical work involved designing and facilitating the build of a small scale wind tunnel for testing the aerodynamic properties of the suit fabrics. The design phase involved carrying out computational fluid dynamics of the tunnel’s airline, which means virtually simulating the air flow around the tunnel and test piece. I also had to create a program to operate the tunnel and configure the instruments so we could take drag measurements. We created a new brand, VORTEQ, which has recently launched its first product line and will be worn by Team Malaysia at the Tokyo Olympics. My current role is a Senior Test and Development Engineer at Oxford Flow. Oxford Flow design and manufacture flow regulating valves for water and gas distribution networks. The company was formed just three years ago off the back of an innovative new design by an Oxford University professor. The valves ensure the downstream pressure is maintained whilst demand changes; for example if everyone turns on their taps at once, increasing demand, the valves react and open allowing more water to flow through, so everyone receives a consistent water pressure. My role involves designing and implementing tests to ensure new product developments meet their performance criteria. As a new company I have had lots of opportunities to improve processes to produce better quality data; this data enables us to improve our product design and substantiate our unique selling points to customers. Can you tell us a bit more about a typical day for you? Working in a small company means I can be juggling several different projects at once. One day I might be talking to external testing houses to understand their capabilities in testing certain performance characteristics of our valves, discussing costs and testing timescales. Another day I might be writing some code for a test programme our test engineers would perform, then we’d review the data analysis. I enjoy being able to spend some time at the R&D workshop as well as being at my desk. What are the benefits of working for a smaller company? All three companies I have worked for have been SMEs (Small Medium Enterprises) with less than thirty staff. Whilst each experience has been very different, due to their size they have all given me the opportunity to get involved in a much wider variety of responsibilities, day to day tasks and areas of the business. Why did you decide to go into engineering? When I chose my university degree it was based on what subjects I enjoyed at school. I had family members in the engineering industry, but beyond that little exposure into what an engineering career entailed. At school I was always good at Maths. My favourite part at A-Level was the Mechanics module, which is the closest you get to engineering at school. I liked that engineering was the practical application of maths. Someone advised me that maths at degree level would be very different to school and that I may not enjoy it as much; this was definitely true, the core maths modules I took in my first year were my least favourite. INTERV I EW WI TH: 14