Grant Powell MBCS recently spoke to Joanna Bako, digital consultant at Arup about tech innovation in the smart buildings environment and why inspiring others is so important.
Joanna Bako entered the industry as a graduate Smart Buildings Engineer with Arup. In just 18 months she has progressed into a consultancy role, working to advise companies and individuals on the best ways to unlock intelligent insights from collected data and deliver smart buildings, including appropriate smart enablement, delivery platforms and relevant apps. Whether looking to reduce costs, lower the carbon footprint, or just gain greater knowledge about how buildings are being used, Joanna helps her clients explore the avenues open to them.
Here, Joanna shares her thoughts on greener building design, explains why being part of a great team is so important and enthuses about tech innovation. She also introduces her Tiko Time podcast born from her drive to encourage other young black women into STEM careers.
Can you provide some background?
I moved to the UK from Nigeria when I was 14, right at the time when I had to pick my GCSE options. I particularly enjoyed design and technology. At a school trip to a car manufacturing plant I was fascinated by the robots, which made me think seriously about a career in engineering for the first time. After my GCSEs I studied design and technology, physics and maths at A-Level and then joined the University of Brighton to study a BEng in electronic engineering.
I finished my degree in 2021, right in the middle of the COVID pandemic when finding graduate jobs was a real challenge, so I decided to continue my education with a master’s at the University of Sussex. I had my eye on robotics, but was drawn to another course: 5G mobile communications and intelligent embedded systems. It sounded very interesting. The course description mentioned the internet of things (IoT) and smart cities, which immediately resonated with me. While studying for my degree I had designed a smart greenhouse, with an automatic door which opened and closed according to temperature. So, while I loved robotics, I also had experience of the IoT, data collection and the cloud.
The Masters course turned out to be thoroughly enjoyable and gave me some really in-depth knowledge. In terms of applying for graduate schemes, that has to be done quite early on in the year, so I started applying for various positions and gaining interview experience. The graduate smart buildings engineer role at Arup stood out as something very special, so I decided to go for it. It seemed so aligned with what I really enjoyed doing. I’ve been with Arup now for 18 months and have progressed to a new role as a digital consultant.
What aspects of your role do you enjoy most?
I think one of the most enjoyable things about working with smart buildings is being able to sit down with a client to learn exactly what they want to achieve, and then set about helping them to do so. We work with many commercial office buildings and have done a lot of work around what the office looks like post-COVID now that hybrid working is commonplace.
There is a strong user experience element to smart buildings design, and a lot to consider when it comes to the implementation of technology, the sensors to be used, what the client is trying to measure and how the data needs to be visualised. It’s also worth mentioning that a huge part of why my role is so enjoyable is the people within the team at Arup. Throughout my time here, my team has been really helpful and supportive, and I really believe that having a good team around you is paramount to success. It’s a small, quite diverse team with an interesting and varied mix of engineering specialisms — mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, software development — that all come together collaboratively to work on some fantastic projects for a great range of clients. It’s the fascinating projects and the wonderful people I get to work with that make this role really great.
How important is environmental impact when it comes to smart buildings design?
People and companies are now so much more aware of their impact on the environment, and technology is enabling people to work smarter and greener. There are inefficiencies everywhere, so having something in your building telling you what's going on, providing a greater degree of control over waste and emissions, for example, can only be a good thing. We see many requests from businesses that want to understand where they can make changes to benefit people and planet, bringing down energy use and reducing their carbon footprint. Gaining deeper insights and using those to take action is really important.
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Air quality is a great example. People are now more concerned about the air that they're breathing within a building, following the COVID pandemic. Ventilation is important, as well as high quality air conditioning systems. Taking this a step further, temperature sensors can be implemented to control heating according to real-time demand. Sensors and people counting analytics can ensure that a comfortable temperature for staff and visitors is maintained while reducing unnecessary drain on resources by turning off or lowering heating in less frequented areas. This helps to minimise carbon footprint while also leading to significant cost savings over time. Technology and data analysis is allowing us a level of control that would previously have been impossible, and putting this to good use for environmental benefit feels very rewarding.
What advice would you give to someone considering a similar career path?
If you choose to pursue engineering, computer science, computer engineering, or a similar career, it's very easy to feel discouraged at times because it's very technical and certainly not an easy subject to study. But my advice would be to keep going. I think it’s also important to keep your options open. This kind of industry — IT, engineering, computer science — it's so broad, and you can find so many opportunities within this space and so many different ways in which you can apply your skills. You could be a data engineer in healthcare, you could be a data engineer in education, or you could be a data engineer in banking and finance, for example.
And on the practical side of things, if you're looking for a graduate role, start early, keep a list of the companies you've applied for, and what stage you're getting to regarding applications, interviews, second interviews and the like. If you’re at University, make use of your careers team for interview preparation, help with covering letters, CV construction and submitting job applications. Making use of the resources from institutions and membership bodies, such as BCS, is also invaluable, as well as using these channels to network and getting to know those working in the industry.
Finally, can you tell us about your Tiko Time podcast and the inspiration behind it?
I started a social enterprise called Tiko which seeks to encourage young black girls in their STEM journey. The podcast, Tiko Time, is an avenue to create awareness of the exciting roles that exist, and an opportunity for followers to hear from black women who are enjoying success in the IT and tech industries. It’s fascinating to find out how people got into their roles and their motivations, and if that can help someone get to where they want to go, then that’s fantastic. I wish I had something like that when I was studying, or considering my career options, because I do feel that there have been points when I didn't have a lot of direction, and no real role models.
I hope that the podcast will serve to show how broad the industry can be, with many options, because it can seem a bit daunting and a little scary for those just starting out on their career journey. For the podcast I have some very interesting people in the pipeline such as a lady who has a PhD in engineering, and has actually started her own healthcare technology company. I think she’s pretty phenomenal and I'm looking forward to speaking with her about her journey. It's truly inspiring to me to speak to these people, I absolutely love it, and I hope the listeners enjoy it and get as much out of it as I do.
