Hi, I’m Erin Nolan and I’m currently working on my PhD in soft robotics for internal transport of granular materials at University College London under Professor Mark Miodownik, and Professor Sarah Spurgeon!
I dabble in many buzzword-filled things like embodied intelligence, morphological computation, machine learning, entrepreneurship, and robotics, and am generally considered to be doing too many things. According to the psychologists I have a high IQ, I am significantly Extroverted and Open to new ideas in the NEOPIR analysis, and I have ADHD with some occasional Anxiety thrown in the mix.
I previously completed my Electrical and Mechanical Engineering BEng at the University of Edinburgh where I was a member of a variety of other clubs and societies from CompSoc to Cricket, Wakeboarding to Murder Mystery, and was the Lead Engineer in the University’s first solar vehicle team – Edinsolar .
Amongst everything else I occasionally work on a personal project developing ‘OneStep’, my invention to aid walking devices, such as crutches or walking canes, on soft terrains like sand and mud. It started as a self-made brief for my Design & Technology A2 coursework but I have since continued working on it with a possible aim of even manufacturing it. Through the project so far I have won various awards, including representing the UK at Intel ISEF 2013 in Phoenix, Arizona.
In 2012/2013 I completed a ‘gap year’ with the EDT’s Year In Industry Scheme with the STFC’s ASTeC Vacuum Science group, researching the ultra high vacuum science of particle accelerators and superconducting thin films at Daresbury Sci-Tech.
Blue Pigeons 
What do you plan on doing once you complete your Electrical and Mechanical M Eng degree?
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I’m not sure yet, there are so many things to do!
Through my work on the OneStep I’ve become very interested in the field of prosthetics and orthotics, which is still an incredibly underdeveloped area with many things yet to be discovered and created.
On the other hand, I’ve been really enjoying my work on particle accelerators this year, maybe not so much the vacuum science (a lot of chemistry that I’m not so fond of) but the magnets and the cryogenics work is an area I’m looking into further.
I know these are 2 very different areas but I’m hoping that after university and pursuing research in both (and other areas of engineering) I’ll have a bit more of an idea. You never know, I could invent something that uses my interest in both!
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Well good luck in your endeavors. I know you will be successful. My daughter is a Biomedical Engineer at Arizona State! http://www.segmation.wordpress.com
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I may need that walking aid — my cane definitely needs more traction! I’m sure there are millions of baby boomers like me that are sliding, slipping and falling right now. We’d love to look more like our younger, more agile selves, but it’s hard to do when lying on one’s side in the dirt 🙂
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Hey nice to read your blog about fictional engineers, actually it was really inspire me so much to share with my younger brother and sister at school. Good luck for you to continue your study at Edinburgh. Well, I see at your blog that you will continue MEng, is that true MEng stands for Master degree or bachelor degree at your 19th?
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Thanks! It’s a Bachelor’s degree followed by the Master’s in the final year. I hope your brother and sister enjoy it too!
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wow thats great major, hope you will enjoy it there. Well, thanks a lot for replied, I come from Indonesia, at the same age with you 19th and go for the same major in Bachelor of mechanical engineering, it would be so nice if you want to share with me about it, nurmech.eng27@yahoo.com, see you 🙂
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