Recruitment
“Syed joined Arup as a graduate Rail Systems Designer in August 2018. He first impressed us at interview with his passion for the rail industry. At the time he was part way through his masters degree in Controls & Systems Engineering and was undertaking a year long placement with a supplier of safety-critical sub-systems for rail and commercial vehicles. Whilst this placement confirmed his desire to work in the rail industry it also led him to realise that a design & consultancy role would be what would suit him best. Syed was able to articulate to us how he had used his educational and industrial experience to develop transferable skills and how these were relevant to the role we had on offer.
Syed settled quickly into Arup. He established himself as a reliable, cheerful, flexible and conscientious member of the rail telecoms team. Project work to date has included the RIBA3 design of station information and security system (SISS) for two high speed rail stations and two London Underground (LU) stations. He is responsible for producing drawings and schematics in Revit, drafting design reports, co-ordinating with other design disciplines, attending design reviews and updating issues logs, comments logs and tracking actions to completion.
Keen to understand the wider Arup business, Syed arranged short secondments to other business areas including the Smart Cities and Strategy & Architecture teams. During the latter he completed research into the emerging area of Digital Twin technology. As a result he has been appointed to join an internal Digital Twin Working Party to develop the business proposition in this area, recognising his enthusiasm and appetite for innovation.
Syed is always up to date with internal training including attending the bi-monthly rail safety briefings. He has attended many talks and seminars in his own time extending not only his technical skills but learning “What it takes to create a great customer experience†for example. He has diligently completed self study to prepare for the Institute of Railway Signalling Engineers (IRSE) professional examinations taking the first two papers in October 2019 and planning to take the remaining modules in October 2020. He is a member of the IET and is working towards Chartered Engineer status.
As well being interested in his own development Syed has been proactive in helping the whole team develop further too. He maintains a CPD events tracker for rail related events being organised by professional institutions such as the IET, IRSE, IMechE, INCOSE and RIA and volunteered to assist the Rail Sector Business Leader with the monthly rail sector team meetings. This has involved everything from booking rooms and co-ordinating attendance to delivering the safety moments and updating the team on industry news.
Syed is an active board member of the Erasmus Student Network at City University London, responsible for events and soft skills workshops as well as a mentor to engineering students. He will be part of the UK delegation at the 2019 Western European Platform in Utrecht in November 2019. He also takes part in Arup STEM activities encouraging students to take up engineering as a career during school visits. He is also a member of the Young Railway Professionals London Committee and a volunteer with the Railway Children charity.
Finally Syed demonstrated important qualities such as being a team player, determination, use of initiative and even bravery at the Big Rail Diversity Challenge in June 2019. Organised by Women in Rail, Syed was proud to be part of the Arup team and even though he did not know what to expect he threw himself into the full range of fun and adventurous activities with enthusiasm.“
“I would like to nominate Syed for this award. Since his relatively short time at Arup, he has established himself as a brilliant and invaluable member of the Rail Telecommunications team.
Syed worked for me on a key high-speed rail project, which he joined very late on in the design stage. He very quickly understood the demands of the project and was responsible for producing design documentation, drawings and was instrumental in ensuring that design work was delivered to a very demanding client to budget and programme.
What impresses me most about Syed is his ability to produce high quality work under very tight timescales and pressure, whilst maintaining calmness. Syed displays a natural intelligence and flair for engineering, is very hard working and demonstrates an extremely high level of technical competency - far greater for someone at this level in the industry. No task was a problem for Syed who was very pro-active in liaising with other disciplines to co-ordinate design activity and displayed a very thorough approach to problem solving and quality reviews of design work. Syed is also a great team player, very quick to adapting and learning new skills, is versatile, resilient and displays a maturity and professionalism in getting tasks done.
As well as ensuring work is done to the highest possible standards, Syed is also proactive with other activities outside of his ‘day job’, that includes involvement with Rail CPD events tracker and Rail Sector Focus team meeting for the Sector Lead. He has attended many seminars and technical presentations and has taken responsibility for self-development in the form of IRSE examinations. Syed also participates in Arup’s STEM activities.
Syed is a bright individual and a great asset to the organisation and displays exceptional ability as a professional graduate, who I would have no hesitation in working with in the near future!“
“I attended the awards last weekend and very good they were too!”
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