{"id":1326,"date":"2023-12-14T11:54:21","date_gmt":"2023-12-14T11:54:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/?p=1326"},"modified":"2024-09-11T15:36:20","modified_gmt":"2024-09-11T14:36:20","slug":"parade-profile-chris-dorling-bsc-mathematics-1979-phd-mathematics-1983","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/2023\/12\/14\/parade-profile-chris-dorling-bsc-mathematics-1979-phd-mathematics-1983\/","title":{"rendered":"Parade Profile: Dr Chris Dorling (BSc Mathematics 1979; PhD Mathematics 1983)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mathematics graduate Dr Chris Dorling discovered his affinity for software development while studying<\/span> to become a maths teacher. He tells us about his time at Bath, his love for the city, and why he <\/span>chooses to <\/span>donate <\/span>to the University.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Why did you choose to study at Bath?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When I was thinking about going to university, I had already decided that I wanted to be a maths teacher. At the time, only two universities offered the option of studying maths and education as a degree, and of those two, only Bath offered the option of studying for a teaching qualification alongside a full maths degree.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This meant that I could complete my studies and have a BSc in <\/span>Mathematics<\/span><\/a> plus a Certificate of Education, allowing me to enter teaching straight away as a probationary teacher. I could also spend six months gaining work experience on a placement.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Can you tell us about your experience of studying here? Any favourite memories, or places to go on campus and in the city?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Bath has changed a lot since I was a student, but I still like coming back, which I did most recently this summer. I liked the ready access to the countryside when living on campus and often went out walking. I also liked the walk down the back of Bathwick Hill into the city to go shopping on a Wednesday afternoon. Sitting by the lake on a summer afternoon is also a favourite memory.\u202f\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Academically, I found my undergraduate years very interesting and thus satisfying, although at times it was challenging. I recall spending a lot of time in the library looking for ideas on how to solve some of the trickier problems we were set. And as a postgraduate, I spent a lot of time in the library combing through journals!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Describe your career journey since graduating.\u00a0<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Although I successfully obtained the Certificate of Education in addition to my <\/span>maths degree<\/span><\/a>, I never went into school teaching. My placement at the RAF Institute of Aviation Medicine sparked an interest in software development (although I had some experience of that from school and my first two years at Bath).\u202f\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Then a well-received education dissertation and my successful final year project gave me a taste of research, and when I was offered the opportunity to work for a PhD in Control Theory. This was followed up with a post-doctoral research position at Sheffield University (where I met my wife).\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When an opportunity came up to join a consultancy working on the control of noise and vibration came up in Cambridge, I took it.\u202fThis gave me the opportunity to mix my mathematical knowledge with software development as the business started to look at developing noise-cancellation products.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After ten years in this area, I spent a few years in contract work in telecoms, before joining a company developing fibre optic switches, where I spent twenty years developing the low-level embedded software that controls the switching of the optical signal between fibres.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What is a typical day like in your current role?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I've been fully retired since March 2023, but in all my previous roles, there was never a typical day! The only constant through all my jobs has been cycling to work most days if not all, something I used to do in my last two years in Bath \u2013 via the Wellsway, not Bathwick Hill!\u202f\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the office, I might be designing or implementing an algorithm or a new feature for the latest control system when someone would ask me to look at an issue that was being seen in production or had been raised by a customer. Or I might be trying to debug some code, either mine or a colleague's.\u202f\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Then there were meetings, some regular ones to discuss the work ahead or review progress, some one-offs to discuss a problem or make detailed plans.\u202f As a team leader, there were often one-to-one meetings or discussions with members of my team.<\/span><\/p>\n

How did your studies help you to develop?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Beyond sparking my interest in software development, I think the most useful development from my studies was a methodical approach to problem-solving.\u202fWhether writing software, solving a maths problem or proving a theorem, a logical approach is essential.\u202f\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I also believe that my education studies helped me develop a degree of patience with more junior colleagues and made me understand the importance of explaining a topic appropriately. This also helped when I was a cycle trainer for several years, teaching adults and young children to ride a bike safely.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What advice would you give to prospective students thinking about studying at Bath?<\/span><\/b>\u202f\u202f<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Do it!\u202f The University, the surrounding countryside and the city all make for a great place to study and live, and a degree from Bath is well respected.\u202f\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If a sandwich course is offered for your preferred field of study, take the opportunity to gain some valuable real-world experience.<\/span><\/p>\n

What motivates you to donate to Bath, and what would you say to others thinking of doing the same?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I started making a monthly donation to the University when I received a request soon after leaving to support the development of the Arts Barn, as it was then.\u202fI had enjoyed doing the lighting for a play there in my first year and attended several other plays and events there.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This then rolled over into more general support, which I kept up to help others less fortunate than myself (I got a full LEA grant as well as some additional support from my father's employer) be able to take advantage of studying at Bath, to benefit from the education I had over my seven years there.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mathematics graduate Dr Chris Dorling discovered his affinity for software development while studying to become a maths teacher. He tells us about his time at Bath, his love for the city, and why he chooses to donate to the University.\u00a0...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1077,"featured_media":1328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[128,119],"tags":[5,12,91,158,159,105,9],"class_list":["post-1326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","category-parade-profiles","tag-alumni","tag-careers","tag-case-studies","tag-mathematics","tag-parade-profiles","tag-postgraduate","tag-university-of-bath"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2023\/12\/Parade-chris-dorling.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1077"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}