Touching Base with Joe Hill
‘There are more opportunities here than at a bigger company’
Hi Joe! Where are you from?
I'm from Brighouse, near Leeds. It’s famous for being home to the Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band, which was originally formed in 1881. I went to primary school in Leeds, even though it was an hour away from where we lived. My mum worked at Leeds General Infirmary as a paediatric intensive care nurse and I think it was easier for her to pick me up.
Did you have many ambitions growing up?
I’ve wanted to get into engineering for as long as I can remember. My dad is an engineer, although he builds performance car race engines, so it’s a bit messier than what I do. I’ve always liked playing around with stuff and building things. As a kid I loved Lego and when I was seven or eight I got into computers. I was always on the family computer trying to make it go faster. It wasn’t always appreciated but I was having fun. As I got older I started building custom machines – I once won £300 of equipment to add water cooling to my computer. It’s a bit like the watercooling in a car via a radiator. I used it to keep my computer temperature lower so I could tune the noise level vs performance.
What subjects did you enjoy at school?
I did like IT and computer science and I loved physics. Maths was ok but only because it meant I could do more with physics and computers. I was into sports as well, playing on the rugby team and competing in the triple and long jump events. I liked history but couldn’t write fast enough in the exams so dropped it after GCSE.
When did you get into parkour (or free running)?
It's something I started when I was 14 or 15. I’d seen a video online and found out there were some classes nearby, so I went there and just kept going. After I did some volunteering for my Duke of Edinburgh Award, I started volunteering as an assistant coach. That progressed to paid work, which was a nice part-time job. I basically lived at the gym, training, coaching or just hanging out. We travelled internationally too – visiting Italy and Thailand. Parkour is also what took me down to Brighton for the first time. The city is a mecca for parkour.
You studied electronic and computer engineering at Brighton – tell us how you chose that course?
I just fell in love with Brighton. When I visited there, I knew I had to live there at some point in my life. But the university also had a course that wasn’t available at many other universities and it sounded like the perfect fit for me. In the end, the course was a bit too basic, but I loved being in Brighton. I also had the time and headspace to do electronics projects for friends, and I started doing some photography and videography jobs on the side. I’d gotten into videography through parkour. I loved learning video editing, and all about cameras and lenses. I was still doing a bit of parkour in Brighton but not as much as at home.
I did a year in industry as part of my degree, working with the engineering consultancy Mott MacDonald. It was interesting but happened during the Covid-19 pandemic so I only ever met one person from the whole company when he came down to Brighton. I was working in the systems safety department for HS2 and found the whole thing very slow moving. It made me realise I didn’t want to work at a big corporation in the future.
What happened after you graduated from Brighton?
My favourite part of my degree was working on my dissertation, when I’d focused on electro-tactile haptic feedback. My lecturers were happy for me to look at it as a research topic but couldn’t help me with anything other than some of the electronics. I also struggled to find much research on electrical stimulation itself, so wanted to investigate that further. I was excited by prosthetics and wearable electronics in particular, and applied to do a Master’s degree at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. Sadly I didn’t get in but that led me to a course in biomedical engineering at the University of Kent. It was also a Master’s by research and thesis, which suited me perfectly.
How did you hear about TG0, and what attracted you to the company?
I found the job online and it just felt like the perfect fit. All of my university work was relevant, and it looked like a fun company to work for… plus I wanted to move to London. The social side of working here has also been incredible. I go climbing with colleagues or out for drinks most weeks. It’s one of the benefits of working in a smaller company.
You’ve been an electronics engineer at TG0 for just over a year. What sort of projects are you most excited about?
The work is amazing – it’s so varied and there’s so much to do. I’m an electronics engineer but I also work with firmware, software, and design engineers, and can have input everywhere. That’s not an opportunity I’d have at a bigger company. In terms of projects, I’m just finishing up one for a high-end audio company, which has been interesting. There’s been some complex and tight integration with printed circuit boards (PCBs), and I’ve had to do a lot of research to find new chips and new ways of sensing. It’s been good fun. I’m also excited about a new prosthetics project. Perhaps it’s the influence of both of my parents but I find the opportunity to revolutionise healthcare exciting.
Outside of work, what hobbies do you enjoy?
As well as climbing with colleagues, I still do parkour, although it’s been a bit harder to get outside recently because of the weather. And I still like doing little electronics projects in my spare time.
Tell us one thing your colleague’s wouldn’t know about you?
I’m a pretty good juggler, and I can complete a Rubik’s cube in under a minute.
