Jacob Bircher is a MEng Mechanical Engineering Student at University of Southampton. Colleagues describe him as "I had the privilege of both managing and working closely with Jacob during his placement year at Gill R&D. During that time, Jacob worked diligently and studiously on a number of activities that went well beyond his training as a mechanical engineer. He became a key contributor to one of the projects that were underway and helped to guide development through testing and analysis. Jacob would be a great asset to any development project which requires a mix of skills from material research to mechanical design as well as prototyping and testing."