Phillip Higgins
Prototype (Mechanical) Technician: National Graphene Institute
Being research, we don’t know what we want. It could be absolutely anything. The researchers come up with little bits of kit they need but we might need to change a few things if what they ask for is impossible. It’s a two-way thing. We talk, we come to an agreement. If they need a little jig making, I’ll make it. What we’re doing is unique I think. We’ve got this material. Where’s it going? What are we going to do with it? How do we get the best out of it? You don’t know what you’re going to get.
Compared to industry, in university you’ve got a lot more freedom. It’s more about people than industry would be, so you’ve got to not mind folk mithering you and some of the researchers quite naturally have limited engineering nouse. We’re looking at stuff here that potentially could make trillions and if we can do it in a pleasant way, that’d be brilliant. It’s nice being at the start of something.