National Engineers Week takes place this year from February 27th until March 5th. The week-long festival of nationwide events, of which Intel is a proud supporter, celebrates the world of engineering. 63% of all Intel employees are engineers and to coincide with Engineers Week, Intel Ireland will share our #HowIBecameanEngineer series. The series shares an insight into the many different and diverse pathways that can lead to a career in engineering. The last installment in the series is Electronic Engineer Kieran Roughan, who shares an insight into how he became an engineer.
Kieran Roughan
Virtual Platform lead, VPU IP team
Joined Intel in 2016
Can you share a brief description of what your job today at Intel involves?
I run a team of 20 engineers whose job is to develop simulation models of the next generation VPU designs. We help architecture teams determine the optimal design solutions, and we enable software teams to start developing their code as early in the project timeline as possible.
Can you tell us about your pathway to engineering at Intel?
During my secondary education, I was very much torn between languages and maths/physics. My CAO selection alternated between both paths. In the end I got my first choice, which was electronic engineering in University of Limerick (UL), graduating with a 1.1, specialising in telecoms and lasers.
I still managed to combine my love of languages with my engineering course – by firstly doing a 9-month internship in an avionics company in France, enabling me to develop a high degree of fluency in French. And then for my final 1.5 years of my degree, I took the option to learn German.
My internship in France was really interesting in terms of the engineering aspects. But living in another country and experiencing a different culture was a very formative experience. I would strongly encourage students to seek internships in Europe, as you can learn so much more than just engineering skills. It really expanded my way of thinking.
And since graduation I’ve continued to embrace my love of languages, having learnt basic Japanese, dabbling in Dutch when I worked there for a few months, and now I’m focusing on developing fluency in Spanish.
Check out the other stories in our How I became an Engineer series.
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Media contact: Sarah Sexton | sarah.sexton@intel.com | + 353 1 606 8537