Joaquín Flores先生：來自墨西哥、理大和倫敦國王學院的生物醫學工程博士後研究員

Mr. Joaquín Flores from Mexico: PolyU and King’s College London Postdoctoral Researcher in Biomedical Engineering @ Fireside

Interviewer 採訪者: Riya Didwania

Q: Thank you for being here. So let's start by having to introduce yourself to our audience and share a little bit about your journey so far.

A: Okay, so my name is Jackie Flores, and I am Mexican. So have a bachelor degree in chemical engineering, but now I am doing things more related with biophysics biomedical engineering. So I did my bachelor's degree in Mexico, and then I did a master's degree also in Mexico.

So during my master, I moved to Barcelona one year. So I spent one year in the University of Barcelona, and then I came back to Mexico, finished my master's degree, and then I did a PhD also in chemical engineering. But at that time, I started to work a little bit in fleet mechanics, which is the topic I am developing now. And I work with some professors. They're very nice professors that help me to figure out that I really like biomedical engineering things.

So I moved to Barcelona again, I stayed in Barcelona during my PhD one year, and then I moved to Coimbra, which is a city in the center of Portugal, and I work at the University of Coimbra for almost one year. And then I came back to Mexico, I finished my PhD, and then I worked in Mexico at both a private university and also in a public university. I want to mention that the university is a public university, you only pay a small amount. It's almost like free universities. So it's affordable for medioclass people, which my family is from middle class, low class, so it's affordable for us.

And then finishing my PhD, I worked for university, and then I got a scholarship from the Mexican government to go to the UK. So then I moved to the UK. I work with a professor from the King's College London, and after that, I came back to Mexico, also worked for a public university, and then I got a position here in the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, where I am now doing research. So now I am Researcher. So I've been doing both teaching at universities and doing research.

So it's my main work, teacher and researcher.

Q:That's amazing Joaquin. I'm so impressed by how you did so many different degrees and your teaching, as well as your researching. And you've moved around a lot. You've lived in Mexico, you've lived in Barcelona, you've lived in Portugal, London, and then now in Hong Kong. So you're very international and very well accomplished academic researcher and person. So thank you for sharing that. And I must congratulate you on all the amazing achievements that you had.

Q: Can you talk a little bit about how did you first get interested in chemical engineering, and how did you decide to pursue this field?

A:Well, at the beginning, when I was at high school, I was very interested in mathematics, physics, and chemistry. So then I thought, what is a topic that relates all these subjects? And I realized that chemical engineering will be an option. So at that time my mom was working at the university. She was working for the administrative part of the university and she was very committed with my education like Mexican Monday with the sample ready to hit you if you don't live properly. So she brought me to the university to talk with some experts in different fields.

So I talked with a chemist, with a physicist, with pharmacobiologist, chemist, also with some physicians, also veterinarians, because I also wanted to study something related with medicine. So when I talk with the people they talk about the advantages to this certain topic ...

Due to word limit, see full transcript at: https://bit.ly/fireside45

Editor: Vynci Law

Jennifer Lau 小姐：英國出生的華裔英語老師、現於香港教學、曾在英國攻讀數學

Ms. Jennifer Lau: British-born Chinese, English teacher in HK who studied Math in the UK @ Fireside

Interviewer 採訪者: Riya Didwania

Duong Thuy 小姐：來自越南、幫助香港少數族裔的非盈利組織翻譯員，曾在瑞典學習

Ms. Duong Thuy: Non-profit Interpreter helping HK ethnic minorities from Vietnam, studied in Sweden @ Fireside

Interviewer 採訪者: Riya Didwania

Guest Bio 嘉賓簡介:

Duong grew up in Vietnam, studied in Sweden and now works in Hong Kong as an interpreter at a nonprofit helping ethnic minorities who have recently moved to Hong Kong adjust to the country and culture. She is passionate about travel, meeting new people, art and poetry.

Duong 在越南長大，在瑞典學習，現在在香港一家非營利組織擔任翻譯，幫助最近移居香港的少數族裔適應新生活和文化。她對旅行、結識新朋友、藝術和詩歌充滿熱情。

Bogdana小姐：來自烏克蘭的英語老師，國際經濟與管理碩士和銀行家

Ms. Bogdana: English Teacher from Ukraine, International Econ & Management Master & Ex-Banker @ Fireside

Interviewer 採訪者: Riya Didwania

Guest Bio 嘉賓簡介:

Ms. Bogdana hails from Kyiv, Ukaine. She studied International Economics and Management for her Master's Degree and after working in banking, she moved halfway across the world to Hong Kong to teach English eight years ago. She has also taught English in China while learning Chinese simultaneously.

Bogdana 女士來自烏克蘭的基輔。她持有國際經濟與管理碩士學位，並在銀行工作後，八年前移居世界另一端的香港教英語。以前在中國教英語時，她也曾學習中文。

金融數據分析師, 美國大學數學、經濟畢業生, Mångata 播客創辦者 Jessie Chen

Jessie Chen: Finance & Data Analyst, US Uni Math & Econ Grad and Mångata Podcast Owner @ Fireside

Interviewer 採訪者: Riya Didwania

英文老師、詩人與作家，前南非助理大學講師 Harriet Bentley

Harriet Bentley: English Teacher, Writer and Poet Former Assistant Lecturer in South Africa @ Fireside

Interviewer 採訪者: Riya Didwania

來自比利時的中國語言與文化、性別與多樣性中大博士生：Kika Man

Kika Man: CUHK PhD student from Belgium studying Cultural Studies, Gender & Diversity @ Fireside

Interviewer 採訪者: Riya Didwania

杜拜營銷專家，UCLA 本科畢業生，多倫多大學碩士Bradley Aranha 先生

Mr. Bradley Aranha: Dubai Marketing Specialist, UCLA Undergrad, University of Torronto Masters Grad @ Fireside

Interviewer 採訪者: Riya Didwania

Riya

Hi, Bradley. Thank you so much for being with us today on Echo HK. And I really appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to share your story with us today. So let's start by having you tell us a little bit more about yourself and your journey so far.

Bradley

Yes. So thank you very much for having me. I'm happy to be here. So I am currently a content writer and e-commerce specialist for an e-commerce startup here in Dubai. I was born and raised here and then I did my undergraduate at UCLA in the US, and then I did a master's degree in the University of Toronto in Canada. So after that I came back here during the pandemic and during the lockdown and yeah, since my current position and a little summary of my academic and career journey so far.

Riya

Okay, awesome. That's very impressive that you got your undergraduate degree at UCLA and then you got your master's degree from a totally different country at the University of Toronto. Can you tell us a little bit more about your role as e-commerce specialist? What does that mean and what exactly do you do?

Bradley

Sure. That's a question I ask myself every day too. Kind of. So it's quite helpful to think about it. So my job involves mainly copywriting creating classes for the platform where we as an educated place offer classes and services to connecting institutes and freelancers and individuals to customers through an online marketplace. So I'm responsible for class creation, updating schedules and prices, as well as account management, which involves negotiation with our partners on prices, on getting current information, on agreeing to special deals available on our platform that they don't offer directly. My duties to also include social media management, scheduling social media posts and creating them and monitoring our activity and engagement and analytics. So it's kind of an ongoing process. There is also SEO or search engine optimization where I write text specifically to boost our rankings on Google and other search engines to again improve brand exposure and expose more potential customers and visitors to our product.

So those are essentially the general scope of things that I do here, involving around brand exposure and also creating marketing and uniquely appealing class descriptions that will convince customers to buy these classes and learn a new skill, develop a new hobby or professionally or personally growing in some way.

Riya

Wow. Okay. That's a lot. That's a lot of different things that you do.

Bradley

Yeah. It's quite a diverse role, so it keeps me on my toes. I'm learning something new every day.

Riya

Okay, that's nice. We all want to do something where you can learn different things and not get bored of doing the same thing over and over again. Alright. That's really awesome. So what did you study in college and your undergraduate, as well as new master’s, and how do you think that relates to what you're doing now?

Bradley

Sure. So I don't think it's the most obvious path, but I do think there's some connections I can make. I think obviously a journey is hindsight is 2020. So it's like you look back and you can kind of see how even at the time you didn't know what you were doing or where you were going to go, but you can kind of see how those pieces have aligned to create your own unique journey. So for me...

Due to word limit, see full transcript at: https://bit.ly/echobradley

Editor: Christine Bombardieri

香港英語大學生兼作家，Queer Straight Alliance 副主席 Beth Kong 小姐

Ms. Beth Kong: Full-time English Major and Part-time Writer in HK, Vice President of Queer Straight Alliance @ Fireside

Interviewer 採訪者: Riya Didwania

機械工程師，University of Glasgow 畢業生 Indra Deo Mishra 先生

Mr. Indra Deo Mishra: Mechanical Engineer, University of Glasgow Graduate @ Fireside

Interviewer 採訪者: Riya Didwania

Riya: Hello, Indra. Thank you so much for being with us today at Fireside by Echo HK. Can you start by telling us more about yourself and your journey so far?

Indra: Well, it's been a long journey, I must admit. I was born in India a long time back, and then I moved to Hong Kong when I was quite young. So switching countries at a young age really difficult, especially back then, because then you have this cultural identity of being Indian, but then growing up in a Hong Kong culture, so you don't know which culture best represents you. So, yeah, I moved to Hong Kong and I studied in South Alaska, so that was fun. You could get away with a lot of things back then that you can't get away with, especially with cameras and phones and everything. So I feel like kids were more adventurous. And then I went to University of Glasgow, where I studied mechanical engineering. And then I started my first job as supervisor for construction of these giant container ships, which you get to learn a lot when working on these container ships. And then I moved to managing these container vessels. And now I'm back in Hong Kong and supervising or reviewing new building projects or

pre- purchase inspections for rentals. So it's been mainly in the maritime industry.

Riya: Okay, awesome. That sounds like some great experience you've got there and going back, so you mentioned that you moved from India at a young age. You moved to Hong Kong. So can you talk a little bit about did you face any challenges with the move and how did you overcome those?

Indra: So moving from a young age, so I moved a couple of times between India and Hong Kong, and you learn really quickly that you have to be very extroverted to make friends in these places because everyone has their tight groups and their tight communities and they don't really want to mingle with new people. So you have to be ready for one rejection and not let that get you down. And also be very outgoing. So make a lot of friends and just talk to people. That sort of a thing. And I'm also terrible at names, so I just call everyone my friend. So I think that usually helps the extroverted nature. So that's one of the things I learned. Be out there, be outgoing. Over time you do lose that because you do find it sick or you find a little friend group. Then you do start to become more introverted, hanging out with the same people. But in Hong Kong, one of the best things is to be extroverted because there's so many multicultural people that you can learn from a lot of different cultures and how they behave, how you can take maybe their strengths and make it yours. So I think that usually helps.

Riya: Okay, awesome. You said you majored in mechanical engineering at the University of Glasgow. So how did you go about choosing that this is what you wanted to study?

Indra: Well, the jokey answer is that I used to be one of those comic book kids, so I loved Iron Man, and he's a mechanical engineer. And I was like, hey, I could do that. I could build my own Iron Man. That's how I explained it to people. I could build my own Iron Man, too. I'm not there yet. I'll be honest. Apparently there's something called fiction, and that's really bummed me down. But honestly, my family is, like all engineers. So when it came to choosing university topics, I looked at banking and finance, economics, and I didn't understand any of that stuff. Engineering is very logical and very real life...

Due to word limit, see full transcript at: https://bit.ly/3whi1yU

Editor: Christine Bombardieri