Alumni in profile
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Philip Bickerdike
Bachelor of Engineering/Bachelor of Computing 2002
Every day is new and exciting in Philip Bickerdike's job as emerging technology specialist at Telstra.
Mr Bickerdike is at the forefront of telecommunication technology innovations and 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. In high school I did a lot of maths and science subjects because I was interested in that sort of thing,' he said.
`This job is always exciting and I get to look 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 Bachelor of Engineering (Computronics) and Bachelor of Computing (Computer Science and Software Development) in 2002. During his studies he carried out a work placement at Telstra and obtained a position in Telstra Research Laboratories Fellowship program at the end of his fourth year. After graduating he secured the position as a research specialist in Telstra's Research Laboratories.
He initially worked with wireless network technologies in the areas of mobile commerce applications, performance enhancing proxies, network dimensioning, quality of service mechanisms and Transmission Control Protocol (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.'
Mr Bickerdike has recently been investigating new technologies such as 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.
'In my honours project I learnt to take research and use it in a different context,' he said.
'I also learnt valuable time management skills, problem solving and the technical skills that I'm using in my job at Telstra.'
Mr Bickerdike says he appreciated Deakin's small class sizes which gave him the opportunity to build a rapport with his lectures, enhancing his experience at Deakin.
