Daniel Marquiegui – MSc Coastal Engineering graduate

Daniel Marquiegui discusses the benefits of the MSc Coastal Engineering course and his life at AECOM since graduation
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Daniel Marquiegui - Hero

This is Daniel's story...

  • 'Current employer: AECOM

  • e Current job title: Coastal Engineer

  • ( Current location: Basingstoke

  • &Year of graduation: 2014

Daniel's experience at the ²ÝùÊÓƵ...

COAST Laboratory, Marine Building

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The reason I chose the ²ÝùÊÓƵ to carry out my masters is simple. ²ÝùÊÓƵ has one of the most advanced schools of marine and coastal engineering in the EU, in teaching as well as equipment. ²ÝùÊÓƵ has some excellent facilities when it comes to ocean or maritime studies, but the best thing of all is that most of them are available to every student. I had the opportunity to carry out my thesis research using the wave tank in the Marine Building. There are only a few facilities like it in Europe and this really gave me the opportunity to carry out as many laboratory studies as I felt necessary.

During my master’s degree at ²ÝùÊÓƵ, I went from general civil engineering to specializing in coastal, maritime and port engineering. This gave me a greater understanding of the vast amount of diversity in this sector. It made me understand what subjects I liked more than others and those that I did not find as interesting as I thought they would be.

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Visitors on a tour of the campus in the Marine Building Wave Tank

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My teachers were always very responsive. Whenever I needed help or support for my thesis or any other matter, I always got the help I needed. Also, the library services at the ²ÝùÊÓƵ are excellent. Once you learned to use the library facilities, everything became really easy as the library provides you with a huge amount of services that facilitate your studying experience.

When we are students we think that we are experts in our fields when we are not. I learned more in three months at AECOM than during the whole three years of my undergraduate degree. I recommend carrying out a placement year, not only for CV purposes but also because you will be able to see your studies in a different perspective and will gain a much deeper understanding of your topic.

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Since graduation...

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I finished my masters in coastal engineering in October 2014. In January 2015 I left the UK and headed to Bologna, Italy, where I managed to secure a position as a graduate civil engineer. I worked there for about a year when I decided to head back to the UK, where I got offered the job as a coastal engineer in AECOM.

As a coastal engineer I rarely get bored, but I will admit that engineering is only a 20 or 30 per cent of my daily activities. The majority of my day to day tasks are different from what I did the day before and I did not expect this in an engineering role. Some days I’m studying some design manual, other days I am analysing data extracted from a buoy 200km from the nearest shore or I’m designing a breakwater for a port in Chile.

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Alderney - Island in Guernsey (OCtober 2002)