Science and music course hit just the right note with Orla
ORLA MURPHY developed a keen interest in science, maths and engineering from a young age. But the 26-year- old from Leamington Spa also had a passion for music and played the viola in an orchestra.
So at school in Cork, Ireland, she was torn between studying for a STEM — science, technology, engineering and maths — subject at university or focusing on becoming a professional musician.
‘While I was looking into both avenues, by chance I came across an engineering course at the university of Glasgow called Electronics With Music, where the first year was a third physics, a third maths and a third music,’ she says. ‘It was all the things I liked and straight away I knew it would be perfect for me!’
Orla knew little about engineering until she undertook internships with firms including Jaguar Land Rover, where she worked on audiovisual projects.
She decided it was the perfect career for her and joined Jaguar Land Rover’s graduate scheme after leaving Glasgow with a Masters of Engineering (MEng) degree in 2013.
She now works as an acoustic and audio engineer at the company, where her small team in the infotainment department is tasked with improving the vehicles’ listening experience. Orla is particularly interested in getting the prototype cars and audio features to an acoustically releasable level.
She says: ‘For me this is a dream, but it is challenging.’
Orla is now keen to promote careers in the industry and give school pupils a better understanding of what it really entails.
As a STEM ambassador, she has represented Jaguar Land Rover at engineering recruitment events and university talks, and even continued this work during her international placement in portland, Oregon in the u.S.
She has now been named the Institution of Engineering and Technology’s young Woman Engineer Of The year 2015/16 and believes it will provide more opportunities.
‘This opens so many doors — I’m meeting different people and broadening my network,’ she says.
‘I hope to be given more opportunities to talk to schools and perhaps to bigger audiences.’