Leaving school only slightly over a decade ago, he has worked for a number of the UK’s leading engineering companies. Those roles have enabled him to travel the world, and set foot many of the planet’s most revered corridors of power. He’s also carving out an impressive track record in inspiring and supporting future generations of engineers and technologists to follow in his footsteps.

It’s not stretching things to say that the University of Plymouth has been among the main catalysts for his success. Sam graduated with a First from the MEng (Hons) Electrical and Electronic Engineering programme in 2020, earning numerous prizes – including being named School Rep of the Year by our Students’ Union – along the way. And he has now been given opportunities to pass his knowledge on to the next generation of university engineers, having been appointed an Honorary Professor in Practice of Robotics and Autonomy within the Faculty of Science and Engineering.

As his work in the autonomy sphere neared its end, Sam decided it was time for a new challenge and through fellow members of The IET, he became aware of an opportunity with Dyson. While it may on the face of it seem a seismic shift from autonomous vessels to more domestic innovations, as Sam says: “The technology in a cutting edge drone is exactly the same as the technology in vacuum cleaners and supersonic hair dryers.”

His role in the company was, once again, not dissimilar to the work of Q Branch – take an idea handed down by, in some cases, the company’s founder Sir James Dyson and try to make it a reality: work out how to power it, how to configure its circuit boards, where to place its sensors, and how to make all of that as small as possible. He also had to established how to make the innovations financially viable, and ethical in terms of materials and resources.

However, with his team at Dyson being disbanded, Sam decided it was time to return to Plymouth and took on a role working for the software firm Balena. An Internet of Things (IoT) and Edge AI company, he had worked with the firm during his time at Dyson. Now he is leading a professional services team whose focus will be partnering with small to medium enterprises to provide them with the digital infrastructure they need to accelerate them from “prototype to production” and take their product to market.

“I’ve taken on a strategic leadership position within Balena, which feels like a natural progression in my career,” Sam says. “I’m not quite as hands-on as I might have been to this point, but I can still use my technological and leadership experience to benefit my team – and the company as a whole – in various ways.”

There is another reason Sam volunteered to take on the role. And it’s a similar one that influenced his decision to agree to being an Honorary Professor in Practice at the University. Early in his career, Sam had a number of influential people who provided him with advice and guidance (including the suggestion that he should get a degree in the first place). That continued through his degree, where lecturers encouraged him to pursue avenues and ideas that he came up with. He now has a chance to do the same for others and, in particular, to demonstrate to them that there are career opportunities in Plymouth when they graduate.

“I ended up moving away from Plymouth a few years ago because I didn’t feel there were the right opportunities here,” Sam says. “But this year, we have seen major commitments around defence and marine autonomy, in particular, that are going to be a real game-changer for current and future generations of young engineers in the Plymouth area. I hope I can help younger people appreciate that, so that they don’t need to leave their hometown to be successful.”