My name is Chris Coulson, and I am a Principal Engineer at AVIRE. I hold a BEng in Electrical & Electronic Engineering from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, where I also spent four years as a postgraduate gaining hands-on experience in embedded systems development. This experience laid the foundations for my career path. After leaving university at the end of 1998, I began my commercial development journey in the HVAC controllers section at Satchwell Control Systems in Slough. From there, I moved to the De Beers R&D Centre in Maidenhead, where I focused on hardware and firmware development for gemstone analysis instruments. A brief spell at Edicon, a small design house in Watford, saw me working on assisted living devices and an IR comms library for smart meters. In 2010, I joined MEMCO, now known as AVIRE.

I joined the AVIRE team on 2nd February 2010. My role has matured rather than evolved over the years. While I remain a hands-on design engineer—a role I excel in and that keeps me motivated—I have also taken on additional responsibilities. These include mentoring less experienced engineers, developing system architectures, and helping shape departmental policies and procedures. This shift has seen my role transition from a mid-level design engineer to the principal engineer level I have recently achieved.

What excites me most about my job is the constantly changing nature of engineering, with all its opportunities to learn new things and improve existing skills. At AVIRE, I have significantly contributed to several projects, including the Memcom phone & 2G GSM, C100 phone, RT60 emergency phone system for China, Lift Hawk, Connex, Low Power Bus Inductive Loop, and Area of Refuge.