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Engineering graduate soars at aviation multinational
Internship transforms into dynamic career in aerospace industry
An initial industry placement at Thomas Global Systems has since evolved into an exciting career building cutting-edge aviation prototypes for one engineering graduate.
University of Sydney alumnus Joshua Gibbons has always had a penchant to tinker with things to discover how they work.
As a child he could be found building towering structures from plastic blocks and designing his own functional mechanisms using metal construction models.
It was therefore only natural for him to pursue a mechatronic engineering degree when the time came so he could transform his childhood passion into a full-fledged career.
“I’ve always enjoyed learning and creatively solving problems and playing with Lego Technic and Meccano kits are some of my fondest memories,” explains Joshua.
“So when it came time to pursue my interests at university, studying mechatronic engineering stood out as the obvious choice purely for its combination of mechanical, electronic and software engineering disciplines.”
Later while studying his Bachelor of Engineering Honours (Mechatronic), Joshua decided he wanted to compliment what he was learning in the classroom with important practical hands-on professional experience to further develop his technical and critical thinking skills.
He pursued, and ultimately secured, an industry placement with Thomas Global Systems, a pioneer in the production of innovative electronic systems solutions for aerospace and defense.
“This was a great opportunity to put into practice many of the engineering concepts taught in the classroom and provide context for much of the content," notes Joshua.
“For instance, learning about the groundwork of microcontroller programming with approaches such as interrupts and circular buffers allowed me to start contributing to Thomas Global Systems immediately.
“I was able to apply what I learnt in my mechatronic core units to a work project creating a hardware 'firewall' for a CAN bus."
Joshua now works as a Development Engineer at the aviation multinational, using his mechanical, electrical and software design skills to produce early proof of concept prototypes and assist with the initial designs of new products.
This may someday complement existing Thomas Global Systems-created products including primary flight displays present in the flight decks of commercial airlines and biocular sighting equipment used in military vehicles.
As part of an assignment for his new company, Joshua travelled to the United States for three months to study Biocular Image Control Units (BICU), which are used in military vehicle sighting operations.
Joshua intends to use this training located in Irvine, California to assist Thomas Global Systems in developing a next-generation BICU which uses high resolution LCD panels and 4K cameras.
“The strong research skills I obtained during my degree are an invaluable asset in the information age,” says Joshua.
“It’s something that can be transferred into any career, which I’m doing now with Thomas Global Systems.”
Opportunities like Joshua's to undertake valuable industry experience is one way our undergraduate engineering students can contribute towards their mandatory Professional Engagement Program requirements.
Our award-winning PEP program encompasses all our undergraduate engineering degrees. It aims to develop our undergraduate engineering students’ workplace competencies and transferable employability skills that companies look for in engineering graduates.
28 May 2019
