The 2nd of November is National Engineering Day in the United Kingdom.
To mark the day, Olivia sat down with Sanome’s Engineering Lead, Eddie Pease, to find out a bit more about how he got into engineering and the journey so far.
Hi Eddie, thanks so much for talking to us on National Engineering Day. I’m really looking forward to hearing more about your journey into the world of Engineering, and life at Sanome.
To kick off with a slightly obvious question, how did you get into or interested in engineering?
I distinctly remember that the first time I did any coding I didn’t like it at all! I studied Physics at university and we did a practical where we had to build a simulation in C… I found it incredibly frustrating! However, despite that first experience, I have come to enjoy it more and more. What I find fascinating is the combination of higher-level design of a solution combined with the lower-level implementation work of actually building it. I find it tremendously enabling and am constantly learning new things.
I love that description of the continuous evolution! So, when you left school, did you have a clear vision for your career path ahead? How did it all unfold?
I remember leaving university and thinking that I wanted to do a job which used the problem-solving and analytical skills that I’d learnt during my Physics degree. My first job was financial modelling (I used to say that I worked in ‘modelling’, much to everyone’s surprise…) before becoming very interested in machine learning. I did the Machine Learning MSc at UCL and then did a couple of data science roles which involved increasing amounts of software engineering. I enjoyed the engineering side of things so much that I decided to pursue it full time.
That’s very cool! Has anyone in the field particularly inspired you or could you pick as your engineering hero?
I watched the Imitation Game a few years ago and was hugely inspired by the sheer brilliance of Alan Turing – his vision and foresight was remarkable. I have also been lucky enough to have worked for several fantastic mentors over my career who have all taught me a huge amount.
I completely agree, that’s such a great film and Alan Turing’s story is truly inspiring. Speaking of inspiring, how has your digital twin journey evolved?
The way I see it, our experience of interacting with the healthcare system has not kept up with our experience of other areas (food delivery, online retail etc) and yet good quality, affordable and inclusive healthcare is so important. I see what we are doing at Sanome, with our ambition of a human digital twin, as desperately needed to ensure that healthcare is more preventative, instead of reactive, as well as more affordable.
You’re doing some truly cutting edge work to change the future of healthcare. As Engineering Lead , what are you most excited about that’s happening at Sanome?
While my day-to-day is usually focussed on nitty-gritty implementation of whatever system I’m working on at the time, what I find exciting is taking a step back and having the chance the contribute, step-by-step, towards making healthcare work better!
What do you enjoy about working with Sanome?
Everyone is great fun and it is really exciting working in an inter-disciplinary team with such a diverse range of skills. I feel like I learn something new every day.
Finally, do you have any advice for someone considering an engineering path?
My advice would be to start coding – pick a project (no matter how small) that interests you and pick a popular language (such as python or javascript). It is the best way to learn and find out whether it is something that you want to pursue further. There are so many excellent resources online that building something small probably won’t take as long as you think!
Great advice to end on! Thanks so much for your time and sharing your story with us Eddie, and thanks for all your doing at Sanome. Happy National Engineering Day!
To find out more about how you could pursue a career in Engineering, or for more info on National Engineering Day, check out the Royal Academy of Engineering, here.