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ABOUT ME

My name is Harry Watkins and my family is from Surrey, England. I grew up studying in Oxfordshire and am currently nineteen. Despite being fascinated by aviation from a very young age, I never seriously considered a career in aviation as mechatronic engineering has always been my passion. I built my first 3D Printer from scratch when I was thirteen and at the age of sixteen I started an engineering company where we invented new methods of 3D Printing for our clients.

I am also severely dyspraxic, which means that a lot of people doubted how well I would be able to drive a car let alone fly an airplane. I have faced these challenges throughout my entire life and have always been motivated not just to overcome them but to take them to the extreme. As a young child, both my hand eye coordination and my fine motor skills were in the bottom 0.5th percentile but through tenacity, dedication and daily work for many years I was able to overcome these struggles. I went from not being able to catch a ball, to rowing in my club's first eight and coming fourth in the country; from not being able to put a peg in a hole, to designing and building machines with tolerances in the tenths of millimetres.

 

Before aviation, my passion was scuba diving but a few years into diving I discovered that I have a heart condition that prevents me from scuba diving. On hearing this news I was really disappointed, as not only did it mean I could not scuba but also that I could not base jump, skydive or go wingsuiting - all of which were different activities I had intended on taking up. I was determined to find a new passion and it was around this time that flying came into my life.

Growing up in a military family, I always loved being in the military cadets and aspired to pursue a career linked with the military. The British Royal Air Force Cadets awarded me a flight scholarship where they would pay for me to go to Scotland and have 12 hours of flight training.

I wasn't that interested in learning to fly as my previous interest had always been more in the Air Traffic Control and Engineering departments but I thought I would be a fool to not accept this opportunity. I first flew completely solo after eleven hours of training and from that moment I have been totally hooked.

Currently, I am studying at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia where I am pursuing a degree in Computer Engineering. I am the founder and president of Yellow Jacket Aviation which is a student organisation that is building an aircraft. I have a passion for entrepreneurship and creating new technology and this is how I would like to spend my future.

 

My Career Goals

1. Use engineering to help others

Something that is really important to me is being able to use engineering to contribute meaningfully to the betterment of society and the well-being of individuals. This desire drives my passion to innovate and develop technological solutions that address current challenges and help build a sustainable future.

2. Always be innovating​

 

I believe that continual innovation is one of life's paramount virtues. When we stop trying to evolve and instead settle into stagnation, I believe that we expose ourselves to significant risks as a society.

3. Be Tenacious

 

I firmly believe that when faced with challenges, maintaining resilience and tenacity is key to eventual success. Through unwavering determination and relentless effort, I strive to overcome obstacles and achieve my goals.
 

4. Enjoy life

Finally, something close to my heart is the ability to savor life's joys. I've learned from past experiences of overworking and burning out that such pursuits aren't ultimately fulfilling. 

My inspiration

Here are a few quotes that inspire me as an engineer.

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"We are the Pilgrims, master; we shall go 
Always a little further; it may be
Beyond that last blue mountain barred with snow 
Across that angry or that glimmering sea"

James Elroy Flecker

  1. Good design is innovative

  2. Good design makes a product useful

  3. Good design is aesthetic

  4. Good design makes a product understandable

  5. Good design is unobtrusive

  6. Good design is honest

  7. Good design is long-lasting

  8. Good design is thorough down to the last detail

  9. Good design is environmentally friendly

  10. Good design involves as little design as possible

Dieter Rams

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“We shouldn’t be afraid to fail- if we are not failing we are not pushing. 80% of the stuff in the studio is not going to work. If something is not good enough, stop doing it.”

Jonathan Ive

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