Sometimes it’s not what’s on our CVs or our academic qualifications that give us the ‘X Factor’ which propels us to success – it’s the ability to adapt, problem solve, and creatively apply our hidden talents. Tyndall’s goal is to attract and nurture people with diverse talents and excellent skills, enabling all to reach their full potential.
Meet this week’s hidden talent at Tyndall; singer songwriter and Tyndall ICT4EE intern Ross O'Halloran.
Tyndall ICT4EE intern
I’m a singer songwriter with music on Spotify. I started playing the guitar when I was young because I was a little bit hyperactive and found it hard to focus, but music captured my full attention. I started writing and singing when I was around 18 and I never looked back.
Sometimes engineering can feel binary in that a problem has one specific solution, but turning my brain to music mode for a while often helps me to come up with creative solutions in my engineering work. For example, if I’m programming and I’m stuck on something, I’ll play the guitar for an hour and let the problem churn in my sub-conscious and suddenly I’ll have a eureka moment. I love music because there’s no right or wrong way to do it, while engineering on the other hand can feel the opposite. Being a musician and studying engineering allows me to see the similarities between the two and apply creativity to my engineering work.
If people are interested in becoming a musician or taking up a new instrument as a hobby, the first step is YouTube, YouTube, YouTube. I started with a plastic string guitar and a YouTube video on how to play One by U2; I never had a professional lesson. After 2 years I actually started to teach guitar to others and earning a little money from it. There’s so much free material out there these days that you can learn virtually any skill from YouTube, and if you have the desire and the patience you could be a pretty handy musician in months.
My music is available on Spotify and iTunes under Ross O’Halloran here.
Ross is currently programming a battery life calculator for the Enables project at Tyndall, an integral part of their project mission is to create ‘self-sustaining’ energy solutions to ‘power the internet of things’.