First of all, I would like this article to show people who have learning difficulties, mental health conditions and diagnosis, people who have had traumatic events occur to them such as being attacked, people who have been affected by physical illnesses in their past and people who don’t have the best grades, that they are capable of becoming an engineer.

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My name is Danyaal Kaleel. I am 23 years old and currently studying for my PhD in underwater soft robotics. Since I was a child, I have always been a fan of science fiction. My Dad has always been very enthusiastic about science and has passed this on to me. When I was younger, I built robots with my Dad, which I found enjoyable and fun. My grandparents also bought me a remote-controlled robot, when I was nine, that I enjoyed playing with. These things inspired me to take up robotics and become a robotics engineer. From there I decided in primary school, that I would one day like to become a Robotics Engineer and build robots to help people in many different aspects of their lives.

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Despite not being the top of my class when I left primary school and being diagnosed in primary school with Aspergers syndrome, a learning disability, I was determined to study harder when I got to secondary school and to realise my dream job. I also had other big goals in life including buying my dream car, an Audi R8, which helped me stay motivated. My secondary school life was very enjoyable. I had good friends and was enjoying the variety of subjects that I was learning. Unfortunately, a couple of months after I had started at age 11, I was physically attacked in an alley way on my way home from school. I fortunately escaped with my life. After a police investigation and court hearing, my attacker was sentenced. It was a lot to go through, especially being 11 at the time, and it changed my perspective of how safe my surroundings really are. When I was in year 9 (aged 13) I was given the opportunity to study a GCSE subject early. I choose resistant materials as I enjoyed Design and Technology, and I thought it would be useful in my future career. I worked extremely hard to learn the content and enjoyed learning about different materials and CAD and enjoyed seeing my engineering creations come to life through building them. At the end of the academic year (aged 14) I was due to take the early GCSE exam. However, unfortunately the weekend before my exam, I had terrible stomach pain. Over the next few days, I lost the ability to walk and talk due to being in immense pain. On the Monday I got seen by many nurses and doctors who failed to help diagnose my condition and thought it was due to exam stress. Fortunately, one surgeon, thought that I might be suffering from appendicitis. I was then scheduled for surgery during the time my exam was supposed to take place on Tuesday afternoon. It was then found that I had a ruptured appendix. After I woke up, I had 7 tubes coming out of me. It was scary. I spent 2 weeks in the hospital recovering and then spent several months recovering at home after suffering from complications including my biggest surgical incision opening up. During this time, I lost not only the chance to gain my extra GCSE but also lost out on vital learning before my two GCSE years and also on the first part of the GCSE syllabus which they started teaching at the end of year 9. Over the next two years I struggled a lot and had to work hard to catch up on what I had missed. Despite this medical setback, I fought through and got 3 As, 4 Bs, and 2 Cs.

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I scraped getting into Sixth Form College where I studied A-level qualifications in Accounting, Mathematics and Computer Science. I continued to work hard and came out with 2 Bs and a C.

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By some miracle I got onto my dream course, Robotics Engineering, at Queen Mary University of London, despite not having the A-level grades to be there. Over the next three years I struggled with every single module. From not studying Physics at A-level, I had no knowledge of electronics, but I didn’t let it stop me even though I blew up an LED during the first lab. I was out of my comfort zone. Unfortunately, during this time, COVID-19 lockdowns happened, which meant that I was studying from my bedroom. It was not easy, but I did my best to stay on top of my work. 

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I ended up graduating from my bachelor’s degree with First Class Honours, and getting two prestigious academic awards: an award for my dissertation and an award for graduating as the top robotics engineering graduate.

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Because I had performed well academically, I was offered the opportunity to do a fully funded PhD in underwater soft Robotics Engineering. It was an incredible opportunity and I decided that it was the best option for me.

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However, for the prior 2 years before starting my PhD, during my bachelor’s degree, I started developing complications from my appendicitis surgery including extreme amounts of flank pain in my kidney region. After three years of lengthy investigations into my daily flank pains I was finally diagnosed with a chronic condition called bowel adhesions as a result of my appendicitis operation. It had taken a long time due to having investigative surgery performed twice due to the surgeon misplacing the chart discussing my diagnosis and treatment plan and me having to have the surgery again as well. It was tough especially during my bachelor’s degree which was during COVID-19 lockdowns where every6thing was uncertain and I didn’t know when I could get my condition investigated.

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Going back to my PhD, it was an incredible experience, and I enjoyed every single moment of it. I was building soft robots, attending conferences internationally and nationally, working on lots of different engineering projects, demonstrating and lecturing engineering modules that I had been a student on a couple of years before and helped students with their bachelor’s degree thesis projects only a year after finishing my bachelor’s degree thesis. During this time, I had saved up enough money to afford to buy my dream car, an Audi R8. It was a big moment for me as it had been one of my biggest motivators growing up. It lived up to every expectation I could have imagined. During the second year of my PhD, I started to notice that I had mental health issues. I believe I had been experiencing mental health problems for a while before my PhD studies, but these had not affected me so significantly until I started my PhD. After struggling immensely for some time, I told my parents and PhD supervisor. It was daunting and I was extremely nervous. But they were very supportive. I saw my GP, who diagnosed me with anxiety, depression, and OCD. My PhD supervisor kindly offered me the chance to take a 6 month break from my PhD studies to recover, which I took. During this time, I started therapy and also started going to the gym regularly. This improved my condition significantly.

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You now find me continuing my PhD journey and have just published my first ‘first author paper’ and a third author paper, which I am very proud of. I would love to make an impact on the world and create cool engineering systems to help people in their everyday lives and push the boundaries of science. I know that where I am currently is exactly where I want to be and am so proud of myself of how far I have come.

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I hope this helps anyone to see that it is possible to do anything including becoming a Robotics Engineer.