Aerospace placement inspires high hopes for award finalist

A University of Dundee undergraduate who was given a life-changing diagnosis during his studies has hopes of changing the face of total artificial heart technology after becoming a finalist for a national award.

Second year Biomedical Engineering student, Cyrus Goodger, is a 2021 finalist for the TARGETjobs Undergraduate of the Year Award for Excellence Through Adversity partnered with Rolls-Royce.

After impressing the judges with his outlook on equality and diversity and the future of total artificial heart technology, Cyrus has been offered a three-month paid Civil Aerospace engineering internship.

Cyrus is one of 10 finalists for this award who will be spending their summer working with Rolls-Royce on innovative projects to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be an engineer in the industry.

After excelling in the online psychometric assessments and giving compelling presentations to the judges, Cyrus will be joining the Rolls-Royce team for a paid internship as a Civil Aerospace engineer this summer.

Throughout Cyrus’ academic career he has been dealing with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and a debilitating pain condition known as trigeminal neuralgia. He only became aware of his ADHD and how it impacts his ability to learn halfway through his studies, however, has not let his diagnosis knock his confidence.

During the interview process, Cyrus focused on Equality and Diversity in STEM and how it can be promoted more widely in scientific organisations. As an Equal Engineers ambassador, Cyrus views his neurodiversity as an asset that can help shape more diverse and inclusive organisations in the STEM community.

Cyrus said, “I am delighted to have been selected and hope that this motivates others from a neurodiverse background to put themselves out there. Having the support from the School of Science and Engineering and encouragement from the careers service was brilliant.

“During my time at the University of Dundee, its Disability Services staff gave me a massive confidence boost and transformed what could have been quite an uncertain time for me into a positive experience. I’ve never worked with such an in-touch and understanding disability service at any other organisation or university.

“I cannot wait to start my internship this summer with Rolls-Royce. I’m extremely honoured to have been given the opportunity and I can’t wait to see where it will take my career.

“I want to help develop a total artificial heart in the future and I think working with such an exemplary engineering organisation will equip me with the right skills to reach my goals.”

Cyrus plans to pursue an academic career after graduating and wants to focus his research on further developing the total artificial heart, a complex medical device that he hopes will one day mitigate the need for human transplantation.

At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, Cyrus also joined a ventilator crowdsourcing project where he learned key skills that he hopes to put to good use during his internship with Rolls-Royce.

The TARGETjobs Undergraduate of the Year Awards is an annual competition aimed at finding the best undergraduates in the UK. The full list of awards can be found at the Undergraduate of the Year website.