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Family helps celebrate academic success

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Ocean engineering graduate Uddish Singh drew inspiration from his hardworking parents and boxing legend Muhammad Ali to complete his studies with first-class honours.

He was awarded the prestigious University Medal at the University of Tasmania’s 2018 Launceston Graduation Ceremony in recognition of his efforts.

The University Medal is the highest academic award made to an undergraduate student who has a consistent record of exceptional academic achievement. What made the accolade even more rewarding for Uddish was being able to share it with his family who travelled from New Zealand to attend the ceremony.

My main inspiration was my parents back home in New Zealand. They have worked tirelessly to provide me and my younger brother with opportunities that we wouldn’t get anywhere else and for that I am ever grateful towards them,” he said.

“I aspire to work with the same resilience and determination that they possess and in turn provide to my community in the same way that they have. A few of my driving figures are my partner back home and the late Muhammad Ali, who have both taught me the balance between hard work and that to be great you must first believe that you are great yourself.”

Growing up in New Zealand and surrounded by its natural beauty fostered a love of hiking, diving and other water-based activities. Uddish also developed a strong interest in physics and calculus during high school, so choosing marine engineering as a tertiary study pathway was the perfect fit as it combined these two passions.

Uddish completed the first two years of his degree at the Auckland University of Technology before transferring to study the final two years of a Bachelor of Engineering (Ocean Engineering) at the Australian Maritime College.

Although a little nervous to relocate at first, he was soon won over by the numerous opportunities, hands-on facilities and exposure to real industry projects that AMC provided.

He particularly enjoyed the practical nature of the degree, with a five-day voyage aboard the training vessel Bluefin where he was part of a team tasked with developing, deploying and retrieving a marine buoy equipped with ocean measurement instruments proving to be a highlight.

During one of his major projects, Uddish and his team worked on the redesign and optimisation of the newly-installed Norwegian underwater restaurant “Under” for Tasmanian waters. This required the students to work closely with clients CoreMarine, who originally designed and installed the first restaurant, to achieve their specific set of requirements and deliverables.

He then focused on renewable energies for his final-year thesis which focused on testing a wave energy converter model – an oscillating water column – in a realistic sea environment using the Model Test Basin.

I would highly recommend AMC to any person keen on the ocean. The facilities, support and spirit that AMC provides, along with the unique and practical work/study environment cannot be found anywhere else in the southern hemisphere,” Uddish said.

He has secured employment as a Graduate Marine Structures Engineer at Wallbridge Gilbert Aztec in Adelaide, South Australia, where he is part of the maritime team working on projects from coastal to offshore developments.

“I enjoy the fact that I’m working in a field that I studied and which I am passionate about. The ocean has always been a great interest to me and having the opportunity to maintain, preserve and still develop structures in this environment has always been my dream,” Uddish said.

“For now, I would like to develop my network and experience working in the industry along with progressing towards chartered engineer status. However, in the future I would like to return to AMC to potentially undertake a PHD in renewable energies.”

(Photo): Uddish Singh (second from left) celebrates his graduation with his father Neresh, mother Ranisha and younger brother Khushaal Singh (Scott Gelston/The Examiner).

Published on: 20 Dec 2018