After studying for four years at The University of Exeter to obtain my Master's degree I graduated in July 2007 and started work at Arup as a Graduate Structural Engineer in September 2007. I work in Arup's Buildings Engineering London Group 1. A famous building that was designed in our group is 30 St Mary's Axe in the City of London (The Gherkin).

I am currently working on the design of a £150m development in the City of London. It is a 14 storey office building directly outside Aldgate Tube Station called St Botolphs. My work includes designing the basement columns and slabs and liasing with people on site, answering queries they have regarding the design.

On a summer placement at Arup I designed many of the floor beams in the new development 1 Coleman Street in the City of London.

During my third year at university I studied in Prague for 5 months at the Czech Technical University. My work included developing new software to describe, what we engineers call, the constitutive behaviour of soils. This is a fancy way of saying the response of the soil to being loaded. I became fascinated by the Czech Republic and its people and have visited regularly ever since.

Whilst at university I got involved with IStructE by joining the Devon and Cornwall Branch Committee. I was impressed with the enthusiasm the Institution has towards supporting its young members and so decided to set up a scheme "Engineering For Everyone" where we took engineering students into local primary schools in Devon to give fun and interactive lessons about structural engineering. This year I am a member of the Institution's Young Members' Panel working to support the student, graduate and newly chartered members of the IStructE.