Community
9 April, 2024
Award leads to full-time job
JAMES Cook University Smithfield alumni William Belcher, who recently graduated with a combined Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) – Bachelor of Science, has won Engineers Australia’s C. N. Barton Prize for his outstanding honours thesis.
After recently completing his Bachelor’s degree, Mr Belcher said he had always been interested in engineering.
“I loved seeing the rockets from SpaceX when I was in high school, and I just thought working in this area would be cool,” he said.
“From there, I looked at what careers would lead into working in this field, and I realised that engineering was the career for me.”
Mr Belcher was also interested in science and decided he wanted to study a combined Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) – Bachelor of Science.
“I majored in data science, and it really benefitted the engineering degree, where I majored in Electronic Systems and the Internet of Things,” he said.
“In engineering, and especially electronic systems, we study all of the sensors and we collect data. And then my data science degree helped with processing and visualising the data. So, the two majors really complemented each other.”
Mr Belcher said that a double degree allowed him to combine two areas of specialty and save time as well.
“I actually started studying just engineering. But it was only an additional year to complete a joint degree, so I decided to add in the Bachelor of Science as well,” he said.
While studying at JCU, Mr Belcher also worked as a self-employed web developer for almost three years.
“That was fun. It was something I learned in school, and then gained experiences with managing clients,” he said.
Mr Belcher’s experience in web development, along with his interest in networking with like-minded people, helped him land his first job with TensorWorks, which are based in the Ideas Lab at the JCU Nguma-bada campus in Cairns.
He said that three years ago, a chance to meet with people at the pop-up ‘Triumphs and Disasters Café’ in the Ideas Lab provided a new opportunity. “Engineering students like me would talk about their studies, and these startup people would talk about what’s going on in their startups,” Mr Belcher said.
This was also where he met the TensorWorks team and asked them if they were interested in an intern.
After presenting the outcomes of his honours research and receiving the Engineers Australia C. N. Barton Prize for his Honours thesis, he is now working full-time as a software engineer for TensorWorks.
“My job title and the type of work has changed, now that I’m full-time, and I’ve finished study. I can start to take on more responsibilities within the company,” Mr Belcher said.
