Student profiles

Philip Bickerdike
Bachelor of Engineering (Computronics) and Bachelor of Computing (Computer Science and Software Development) Hons.

EVERY day is new and exciting in Philip Bickerdike’s job at the forefront of telecommunication technology innovations.  As emerging technology specialist at Telstra, Mr Bickerdike spends his days learning about new technology and considering whether they could be useful to the company.  It has proved to be a dream role for someone who has been interested in technology from a young age.

"I’ve always been interested in computers and in high school I did a lot of maths and sciences because I was interested in that sort of thing," he said. "This job is always exciting and I get to look ahead at the world’s leading technologies to decide how they could fit our business."

Mr Bickerdike stepped into the role at Telstra after he graduated from Deakin’s Engineering (Computronics) and Computing (Computer Science and Software Development) courses in 2002.  During his course he had carried out a work placement at Telstra and won a position in Telstra Research Laboratories Fellowship program at the end of his fourth year.  After graduating he was asked to apply for a job as a research specialist in Telstra’s Research Laboratories, and secured the position.

He initially worked with wireless network technologies in the areas of mobile commerce applications, performance enhancing proxies, network dimensioning, Quality of Service mechanisms and TCP performance optimisation.

Mr Bickerdike said a highlight of his current job is the opportunity to contribute to Telstra’s business through the introduction of new technology.  "It’s always exciting and there are new interesting projects all the time," he said.  "It’s also very rewarding to see the impacts of projects that I have been involved with on the business."

New technologies he has been investigating include Web 2.0 technologies, rich internet applications, the latest broadband devices and new paradigms of use for mobile and fixed line devices.  Mr Bickerdike said in his role with Telstra he continued to experience the benefits of his education at Deakin University.

"One of the main things was that it taught me to think in a different way," he said.
"In my honours project I learnt to take research and use it in a different context.  I also learnt valuable time management skills, problem solving and of course the technical skills that I’m still using in my job at Telstra.

"I appreciated that Deakin’s classes were relatively small, and that gave me the opportunity to build a rapport with my lecturers, which enhanced my experience," he said.