60 second interview: Dave Williams

How did you get into the engineering industry? I got into engineering straight from college really. I had just finished doing mechanical and production engineering at Oxford Polytechnic (now Oxford Brookes University) and I went straight into mechanical production engineering in the defence aerospace industry making seals and bellows devices. What does your role involve on a day-to-day basis? I am responsible for sales across Europe for 3M Touch Systems. We are a division of 3M, selling interactive touch displays and interactive touch screen components to a myriad of different markets across Europe. Our products mainly cover the 10 inch up to 42 inch range. What are some of the projects that you are currently working on? We've just launched a slightly different technology. Most of our products for the last 10 or 15 years have been single touch input units, but we recently launched a projected capacitive touch (PCT) screen which enabled us to develop a digitiser solution and allows multi-touch operation. It means we can start playing in a whole different group of markets and what most of my team has been working on is finding new markets and new applications for what for us is a relatively new technology. What is the most interesting project or piece of engineering that you have been involved in? I was involved in the development of an in-store, interactive ATM for a large banking ATM manufacturer, where they have been trying to move away from an 'in-wall' solution to give the customer a more interactive feel and genuine two-way interaction. Has the industry change a great deal since you joined? Very much so. Over the last 15 to 16 years touch screen has gone from being a very niche premium product where customers were excited about the technology to a very commoditised solution where most people may have a couple of touch screen devices in their pocket. What are the big issues facing your industry? Because it is becoming a commoditised market the biggest issue has to be competition. Larger manufacturers are driving cost down and we're starting to find that we're up against HP, Samsung and LG where previously it wasn't a market that was of interest to them. We have to develop our own value proposition now in terms of service and support and local expertise to ensure that we can win in the 'relatively' niche markets that we operate in. How do you see the future of the industry? We see the market progressing differently in different regions, with many areas struggling more than the UK economically. That said, the amount of activity and the number of new projects are ever increasing and we're excited about having a PCT solution. What still excites you about engineering? It's the continuing change that excites me; and it's clear that the rate of technological change - as magazines like Eureka demonstrate – is showing no signs of slowing down. Quite the reverse in fact it's almost certainly increasing at a very fast rate with new technologies hitting the streets every day. That's why most engineers still remain loyal to their trade; it's the excitement of not quite knowing what you'll find on your desk.