Nic Adams was born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa, but currently lives in Sydney, Australia, with his wife and one-year-old son.
He holds a bachelor’s in mechatronics engineering from the University of Cape Town, and has been lucky enough to have lived and worked in the USA, UK and now Australia. At present, Nic manages a team of field engineers servicing pathology labs in transfusion and core diagnostics, and specializes in lab automation systems himself. He was also the winner of GrabCAD’s ULA Rocket Hardware Challenge from December of last year.
What’s one class that you wish had taken in college but didn’t? Thinking back to my mechatronics degree, I wish I had taken on more computer science classes. Everything these days relies on a sound programming background.
What’s your favorite hobby? I have a one-year-old son, so apart from hide and seek, I would have to say CAD is my primary pastime. Not much time to catch a surf or ride bikes, but it'll come back around.
Best advice you ever received? My parents were always very supportive and gave me the freedom to do as I feel and always encouraged learning, exploration and to think for myself. Aside from that, I ascribe to the teachings of Sir Deadpool and apply Maximum effort! When required.
When you were younger, what did you want to be when you grew up. Ninja pilot with a BMX racing gig on the side.
What’s your favorite thing to model in CAD? And why? I'm really motivated by the great design challenges GrabCAD and co. present on occasions, nothing gets the brain working like healthy competition. Otherwise, I've certainly enjoyed modeling structural brackets for 3D printing. If you treat it like a sculpture where every millimeter counts, a palm sized doohickey feels like a skyscraper in the CAD realm.
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