#BIGIMPACT - Alex Mcvey

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Alex McVey

Founder & CEO at ogibiotec hosted a digital placement student - Robyn Liu (Biomedical Engineering MEng Student, Imperial College London)

1. What inspired you to get into the biotech industry?

I’ve always enjoyed seeing the impact of what I do. The biotech industry is perfect as it’s making tangible improvements to people’s live on such a broad scale. I’m also blown away by the scale of opportunity for biotech to make even greater differences in so many areas including biological, alternative fuels, food production and climate change. It’s so exciting to be able to support those huge goals in even a small way.

2.  What do you enjoy most about the work you do?

I love seeing the tools we’ve developed making an impact on people's work. It’s rewarding seeing the time saving that our systems give to our clients in their day to day research but also when they tell us the reductions in development times that the improved data our devices provide give them

3.  What piece of advice would you give your younger self?

Find a problem that you enjoy working on. If you're enjoying the work then it makes it far easier to get yourself out of bed!

4.  What motivated your company to participate in the #BIGIMPACT Digital Industrial Placements programme?

When we were approached we were really excited by the calibre of applicants for the placements. For us it is also really brilliant that the candidates have a wide variety of skills and are passionate about adding to these.

5.  What skills or qualities did you look for when selecting a placement student?

As above really. The wide variety of backgrounds is a very appealing part of placement students. It brings an element of challenge to the status quo, questioning why things are done as they are - something we look for in our employees. The ability to apply themselves to a wide variety of challenges and problems is also a real asset.

6.  How has Robyn contributed to your team and projects? Can you share a highlight or success story from Robyn’s time with you?

Robyn jumped in feet first with the technical team applying knowledge she obtained from other sectors to the challenges we faced. She participated in a broad range of development steps but was heavily involved in testing and validation of products as we geared towards our most recent product launch at the end of 2024. Over the course of the placement Robyn gained some real insight into the processes we work with, growing to a confident independent member of the team capable of running testing and validation of our products on her own by its conclusion.

7.  How do you think these placements benefit both the company and the student?

There are lots of benefits for the company. We got the benefit of a complete outsider to the sector coming in working with us. With Robyn her different approach to our challenges and eagerness to apply knowledge she's obtained from other areas was really useful insight into how we develop solutions to the biotech sectors challenges. I don't want to speak for Robyn, but hopefully we exposed her to a different approach to solving problems, gave her some insight into what biotechnology can offer as solutions to many of the worlds problems. I know we also gave her plenty of opportunity to learn bench-skills for laboratory, something that she enjoyed.

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