What did you study and where?

Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) dual major; Mechanical and Aerospace at the University of Queensland.

When did you first learn about Arup? Why did you choose to join the firm?

I first learnt about Arup when I was looking to finalize my work experience hours in my final year of studies. I had attended a networking night and a previous graduate from Arup attended. After talking a little I decided to investigate the firm. I knew in my search I was looking for a company with a genuine interest in sustainability, compassion for community and a positive internal culture. When I looked into the website I fell in love with Arup’s outlook and approach to shaping a better world.

I realized that Arup’s values spoke true to my own while simultaneously offering the opportunity to work on interesting projects and across the globe if I desired… The rest is history.

What's your favourite part about being a graduate at Arup?

I’m consistently inspired by my coworkers and team-mates across Australia. People at Arup seem to always be striving to develop new tools, improve their approach and share their knowledge. The opportunities to follow your own interests, learn new skills and show initiative are almost infinite. I love this about my job because it never feels stagnant or repetitive and if you have a cool idea it’s always easy to find an enthusiastic person to share it with. It is a humbling and inspiring place to be.

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Arup also has an awesome inclusive culture. I feel comfortable being myself at work and I genuinely feel surrounded by friends. My team implements flexible hours so I can work whenever is best for me and there are just overall no strict formalities or unnecessary stressors in the workplace. ”

How do Arup's goals and values align with your career goals and your own personal values?

From the get go, as a grad, you get an appraisal – that is; after a year of learning on the job you have a review of your progress, constructive criticism and an in depth discussion about what you like and what you want from your career at Arup. The people around you are invested in you and help push you in the direction you want to go, whatever that may be.

Arup also has an awesome inclusive culture. I feel comfortable being myself at work and I genuinely feel surrounded by friends. My team implements flexible hours so I can work whenever is best for me and there are just overall no strict formalities or unnecessary stressors in the workplace. When you get settled in, you begin to see just why it is that many people stick with Arup for over 20 years…

The last thing I’ll say is that Arup is invested in the SDGs (UN Sustainable Development Goals). Around the office and within each of my projects and teams we are always being pushed to consider sustainability. I love that I can feel proud of what I do each day and sleep easy knowing that I am contributing to a brighter future.

What is the most exciting thing you have worked on since joining?

I have been very lucky and had the opportunity to work on some pretty awesome projects, picking just one would be a big challenge… and here’s why;

I had the opportunity to spend the day on a boat in the Gold Coast Broadwater while measuring underwater construction noise. I had an awesome time assisting with the commissioning testing for the Fortitude Music Hall in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley. I’ve loved the projects where I’ve learnt about rail vibration… the Brisbane Cross River Rail and Melbourne’s Suburban Rail Link are examples. I’ve had to undertake overnight building acoustic testing for large offices, built noise models for auditoriums to inform the architectural treatments and models for major road projects such as the Brisbane Exit 41 upgrade and the Townsville Ring Road. I’ve worked on schools, medical clinics, offices, railways, roads, music halls, cycle ways, helicopter pads and more…

Looking back on it all makes me excited to think about what else I can add to the list in the future!

What’s your favourite Arup project?

I have a personal interest in health and how acoustic design can be implemented to enhance a user’s experience within a space. This is a little left of center in terms of your typical acousticians’ fascination with music halls or the usual approach of mitigating sound rather than taking advantage of it… For this reason, I would nominate the Humming Puppy Yoga Studio as my favorite acoustics project in the region.

This project included the design of an audio system and soundscape for the Yoga studio, tuned to specific frequencies to promote reaching a higher state of consciousness including intuition, creativity and insight for its users. The soundscape was a recording of singing bowls with the amplitude modulated at 7.83Hz; the frequency known as the Schumann Resonant Frequency a.k.a the frequency of the Earth.

This is certainly a smaller scale project for Arup, but for me it’s a special one. I love the idea of enhancing a user’s experience using sound and what I find exciting is the artistic and organic nature of the project, which is not something I necessarily realised I would get to think about in a technical role.