Profile

I’m Jamie, a Control Engineer living in Oxford.

I studied Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Southampton. I was lucky to be offered summer jobs at UKAEA, and I loved it so much I joined them after and am still here two years later!

I like to play the ukulele (I have tried guitar but could never get my head around 6 strings).

I’m really into nerdy stuff (Star Wars, Lord of the Rings…), my favourite film is The Iron Giant. I love both board games and computer games.

I like comedy, anything with a silly joke or pun is going to make me laugh!

UKAEA is an organisation that researches Nuclear Fusion. This is the process of joining atoms together, giving off energy in the process. This is how stars (including the Sun) are able to give out heat and light.

UKAEA is home to the JET fusion reactor. A fusion reactor is a machine (mostly donut shaped) that produces Nuclear Fusion on Earth.

There are lots of things you need to control in a fusion reactor:

-How much power is going in

-How strong the magnets are

-Is the system getting too hot?

That’s where I come in. I design equipment that keeps an eye on these areas and can make changes to the setup in order to keep them right. That way if a magnet is too strong, the control system will see it, make the magnet weaker and check again to see if the problem has gone.

This means the fusion reactor can work with fewer problems.

I get the train to work, normally doing the daily Wordle as a way to keep myself entertained. When I arrive at work I normally go straight to the electronics lab.

I have two major jobs that I might do:

Repairing old electronics – Most of the electronics we use are older than I am and have a habit of breaking when you don’t want them to. It’s important to get these working again as it’s hard to buy replacements these days. Repairing electronics is a bit like detective work, you need to start at where you can see the fault and work your way back into the board until you find the point where the problems start. You can then replace broken parts and test to make sure the fault has disappeared.

Designing new electronics – This involves using a computer to draw a circuit and a program that can work out if the circuit will work how you want it to. You can then make a prototype the circuit to show that it works in real life. Once this is confirmed you can look at getting it made properly and installing it.

I will then come home and relax. Sometimes this is just YouTube and games, but I do a local quiz on Tuesdays with my flatmates.