“I enjoy being able to show others that even though I'm still learning, an apprentice can do some really valuable work."
Matthew is a second year apprentice in the Scientific Computing Department at STFC's Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire. He says that opting out of the traditional university route has allowed him to thrive. “It allows me to study for a degree in the subject while gaining on-the-job experience. I can appreciate how different classroom learning is to what goes on in industry."
Matthew's preference for hands-on learning goes right back to secondary school study. “At GCSE, I took electronics which taught me about soldering and a bit of wiring knowledge I've taken with me into general life. I studied computer science and maths at A-Level with a software engineering role in mind." After talking to former apprentices, as well as current employees of STFC, he decided that an apprenticeship route would suit him best.
As a computing apprentice he rotates roles every six months, trying out new departments and building his skillset. “I enjoy the wide variety of work," he says. “There's always things I'm more interested in doing due to experience and confidence levels with the technologies used, but it's good to be exposed to new things." He spent one rotation working with high performance servers in the scientific computing department's 'batch farm', and another developing and maintaining a tool to update operating systems used on the Scientific Computing's cloud service.
More recently he has worked on testing tiles of the Large Pixel Detector (LPD), a large x-ray laser which can image ultrafast chemical reactions is exceptional detail. The LPD was developed, built and tested by scientists at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory before being shipped to its home in Hamburg, Germany. A staggering 256 tiles make up the full laser, with each tile only half a millimetre thick. Previously the testing was done manually, a time-consuming and repetitive task. Matthew worked with end-users to write a program which semi-automates the testing process and outputs the results to a file which is easy for users to read.
“Since the detector is in Germany, it's a lot of effort to have new tiles shipped in," he explains. “This becomes especially important if scientists have travelled to Germany especially for the detector and their experiments are delayed due to failing hardware." By eliminating human error, “this will help ensure quality control is met".
Recently Matthew attended the Research Software Engineers Conference in Birmingham to give a talk about his work with the LPD. This was his second year in a row speaking at the conference – after a well-received speech last year, he was thrilled to be invited back. “It feels very rewarding to be invited again this year to talk, especially as applications are peer reviewed. I enjoy being able to show others that even though I'm still learning, an apprentice can do some really valuable work."
One of the highlights of Matthew's time as an apprentice at STFC has been the encouraging and supportive atmosphere. “I feel STFC is a good place to learn and as an apprentice, I'm never punished for mistakes I make. Instead they're turned into learning experiences, which is good for building confidence." And, he says, this has made him a better team-player in turn. “I try to help others when I can, specifically helping new apprentices who aren't familiar with the technology used here."
He also appreciates the opportunities he has to keep learning and to explore areas that he didn't know would interest him. “I've discovered you can work in this industry without initially thinking you're interested in science but having worked here, the science that goes on throughout the campus is really interesting and diverse. Seeing the amount of work that goes into making a scientific facility such as ISIS is amazing. There's so many aspects to the facility and an incredible amount of skilled engineers have built it."
Matthew hopes these core values of curiosity and teamwork will stay with him throughout his career. “In 10 years' time, I'd like to be a trained software engineer working on a project using technology I've become knowledgeable in, while making use of brand new technology I've never used before. I'd hope to be part of a closely knitted team, making use of best practices in software engineering to improve the workflow of each developer in the team."
Outside of his work, he values the work-life balance he is able to achieve at STFC, and says it's one of the things that attracted him to apply for his apprenticeship. His main hobby is mechanics. “If programming didn't capture my interest when I was younger, I think I'd be working as a mechanic. It interests me so much that I work on my own cars in my spare time. I own a late-90s Japanese sports car which I take round racetracks on track days when possible. It's a lot of fun even though it means spending most weekends lying underneath a car covered in dirt and oil!"
60 second sketch
Every member of staff that is profiled is asked to answer ten simple questions that we think will help you to get to know them better.
- What did you want to be when you were six years old?
Formular 1 racing driver
- What was your favourite TV programme during childhood?
Tom & Jerry
- Who's your favourite scientist (dead or alive)?
Stephen Hawking
- Where is your favourite place on Earth?
Anywhere with a calm body of water - very relaxing.
- What music do you like?
I'm into a wide range of music (from The Rolling Stones to more relaxing stuff) but right now I'm listening to a lot of The Stranglers, particularly their early material produced during the late '70s.
- If you could only take one luxury item to a desert island what would it be?
Solar-operated music player.
- Staycation or vacation?
Vacation
- What book are you currently reading?
Life by Keith Richards (Rolling Stones guitarist)
- If you could be any animal, what would you be (and why)?
I'd be a bird as with the ability to fly, you have the ability to go wherever you like, and you become freer than the majority of the human population.
- What do you think is a healthy work life balance (do you achieve this)?
Being able to fully switch off from work when away from site is
important to a good balance. This allows me to really enjoy my time away from
work which is imperative to avoid burning out at work.
