Russell Simpson recently joined our Research & Development team as a Senior Electronics Design Engineer. We caught up with Russell to find out a little more about him and his at role at Online.
Tell me a bit about yourself
Hi, I’m Russell Simpson and I’m a Senior Electronics Design Engineer in the R&D department. I live locally in a small village just up the road, so will be delighted to save lots of money using less fuel for the daily commute! I’ve lived there for 12 years now, with my wife Laura and 4 children. They are all still at school, at different stages, even my wife who is a primary school teacher! Spare time is dominated by the children’s activities (football, horse riding, dancing, gymnastics, swimming) but I still ‘enjoy’ going to watch Aberdeen FC and the odd gig or film.
What is your background and how did you get into the industry?
I grew up not too far away in Mintlaw and attended local schools there before graduating with an honours degree in Electronic and Information Engineering from Robert Gordon University in 1994.
From there I moved to Edinburgh and worked for a couple of companies; firstly related to Oil and Gas and then in the semiconductor design and manufacturing industry. Almost 13 years ago now, we decided to return to the north-east of Scotland to be closer to family and I worked for a short time with a company involved in display and communication systems in the aviation industry. Thereafter I have worked in the Oil and gas industry again with three further companies including Online Electronics, all in slightly different areas, but all in Electronic product design and manufacture.
What is your role at Online Electronics and can you explain a little about what you do?
I am a member of the Research and Development group at Online Electronics and will be one of several electronics engineers within the team. We, along with mechanical and software engineers, are responsible for a variety of new designs, whether it be revisions and upgrades of existing products, completely new products or potentially looking into diversifying into other areas away from the current core product offering; basically, anything that can address the needs and solve the problems of our customers. The idea is to grow the business and to look to collaborate more with our wider parent company, IK Group and deliver more.
What are you most looking forward to in your role at Online Electronics?
I’m looking forward to getting stuck into work at Online. I enjoy the variety of product design, whether it be researching a new concepts or techniques, designing electronics and firmware, test and manufacture, and best of all product release and the satisfaction that comes with meeting the customers expectations and solving their problems. I’m looking to use my experience from all my previous roles and hopefully as we grow the department and company, become more involved in group and project management, mentoring younger engineers, and continuing to learn and develop myself as an engineer. I’m hoping, after a turbulent few years, for some stability and to be here for a good number of years!