From Oxford Brookes Racing to Design Engineer at Encocam

Magesh’s Story

Corex Honeycomb has been a frequent sponsor of the Oxford Brookes Racing (OBR) team and supported their work for Formula Student. Now, Magesh Muthu, an OBR alumnus, is a Design Engineer at Encocam. The connection? Corex Honeycomb is a business unit within Encocam Ltd, a leading engineering and manufacturing business. We interviewed Magesh about his journey into engineering, his time in the OBR team and his innovative work with Encocam Ltd.

The journey into engineering

As a child, Magesh always loved cars. Specifically, fast cars. By age 10, he was an avid Formula 1 fan and by the age of 15, he was already independently taking cars apart before rebuilding them. Like many engineers, he was fascinated by the idea of exploring how everything worked.

Fast forward to 2018, Magesh had completed his bachelor’s degree in Automotive Engineering and was pursuing further education with a master’s degree in Motorsport at Oxford Brookes University. During his 2-year course, Magesh was an active part of OBR, working on many aspects of car design including the front wing, rear wing and the chassis.

OBR is one of the most successful UK Formula Student teams, consistently demonstrating excellence in innovative engineering and racing performance. They have been the top scoring UK team 7 times, have 11 total wins at Formula Student UK and this year they reached the 500 members milestone (with 23% of members from disciplines outside of Motorsports).

OBR continue to be an inspiring example for anyone interested in motorsports, and they are scheduled to showcase their latest innovation (their 2024 all-electric vehicle, ‘Wheatlie’) at the 2025 Learn to Win event. Corex Honeycomb began sponsoring the OBR team in 2018 when students identified our aluminium honeycomb core as having the best material characteristics for their racing car chassis. Prior to this, the Corex team had sponsored teams from competing universities, but were swayed by the professionalism and level of commitment presented by OBR. This was a natural fit with Corex Honeycomb’s central values, and so the new partnership was established.  

OBR’s use of Corex aluminium honeycomb has consistently achieved an optimised balance between strength and weight, which allows for a rigid structure that can withstand the stresses of racing whilst also minimising the overall weight. The honeycomb core can also be incorporated to absorb energy through permanent deformation of the honeycomb cells (often referred to as crushing). By incorporating industry-leading materials into their design, the OBR team continue to redefine innovation in Formula Student racing.

Magesh focused his dissertation on the design of OBR’s 2020 electric car chassis because he believed that electric cars were the future of Formula Student. Formula Student is an educational engineering competition run by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers which aims to develop enterprising and innovative young engineers. Student teams from over 600 universities across 20 countries, are challenged to design, build and race small-scale formula style racing cars.

“Formula Student is an excellent opportunity for students to gain experience in optimising and improving designs… the experience gained by the students puts them in good stead for an engineering position in their professional future.”

– Matthew Dyer, Business Unit Manager for Corex Honeycomb and Cellbond

It was early days for electric competitions in 2020 and Magesh’s project was not without its challenges. Problem solving skills were key for Magesh throughout his degrees and time with OBR and the tight regulations and timelines for Formula Student were excellent preparation for the world of work.

“I have a goal for today and I’m going to finish it today.”

– Magesh Muthu, Design Engineer, Encocam

Magesh’s determination saw significant improvements made to the electric car chassis’ design: bringing the chassis weight down from around 30kgs to 21.8kgs and an improved front robustness. Magesh feels that he owes a lot to his time at Formula Student with OBR, stating that without the experience he gained there, he wouldn’t have the knowledge that he does now and wouldn’t be where he is now at Encocam Ltd.

“That is my fuel, [Formula Student] that is my place where everything started.”

– Magesh Muthu, , Design Engineer, Encocam

Magesh’s career at Encocam

After Magesh completed his master’s degree, he pursued contract work with several manufacturing companies. One of these was Cellbond, a leading supplier of vehicle crash safety test equipment including: crash test barriers, trolleys and anthropomorphic test devices (ATDs) also known as crash test dummies. Whilst researching the company for his interview, he recognised a familiar name from his time with OBR: Corex Honeycomb (the team’s sponsor and provider of aluminium honeycomb).

Founded in 1988, Encocam encompasses six business units, two of which are Corex Honeycomb and Cellbond ATD. Magesh transitioned from contract work to full time employment and now works with Encocam Ltd.

“All my previous experience was designing but I wanted to explore more. The company is so wide; you can learn so much.”

– Magesh Muthu, , Design Engineer, Encocam

Magesh recalls the best experience of his career as an engineer so far is working on Cellbond ATD’s Large Omnidirectional Child Dummy (LODC) project. This biofidelic dummy represents a 10-year-old child and is used for evaluating large belt-positioning booster seats. It involved working on the whole dummy and exposed Magesh to all elements of the project: design, testing, snags, production, sales, project management and more. During this project, Magesh found a passion for testing and feels as though every day is a learning opportunity. To him, moving to a permanent role with Encocam is the best decision he’s made, and it allows him to explore all aspects of the business.       

In 2023, when Encocam celebrated its 35th anniversary, Magesh’s experience with OBR and Formula Student truly came together with his work at Encocam. OBR’s 2022 electric vehicle, ‘Nessie,’ was displayed at the event, featuring the chassis from Magesh’s original design with slight adjustments to meet recent regulation changes from Formula Student. Having missed out on seeing his designs being manufactured in 2020, due to COVID disruptions, the opportunity to see his work fully realised was an incredible feeling for Magesh.

Design engineer,Encocam 35th Anniversary iMET building oxford brookes racing 'Nessie) honeycomb core chassis

Advice for aspiring engineers

For anyone considering a career in engineering, Magesh’s advice is simple:

“Dream. Working hard is a thing you have to do but follow your dream. I’ve met people, sometimes the most genius people in the room but they always question themselves. If you’re scared to make a move, you can’t move forward at all… You have to take a jump.”

– Magesh Muthu

Magesh now works as a Design Engineer for Encocam, supporting the business with production and development testing as well as strategy analysis.

Find out more about how we can support your automotive project here or contact our Corex Honeycomb sales team directly for a free consultation. Our latest career opportunities, including apprenticeships, can be found here.

Encocam has been an award-winning and highly accredited engineering company for over 35 years. We thrive on innovation and creating opportunities for aspiring individuals to drive their careers with support from our experienced team. Since first starting apprenticeship schemes at Encocam, we have expanded the range of opportunities and currently employ 9 apprentices across the following disciplines:

Why should people pick an Apprenticeship over College or University?

The annual cost of an undergraduate degree in England and Wales has now gone up to £9,535 per academic year, meaning apprenticeships are becoming increasingly more popular. Apprenticeships are paid full-time jobs where you can learn and gain valuable experience working within your desired industry, which makes them the perfect opportunity for individuals to get hands on experience into their future.

According to research from 1,000 employers, 49% said they would employ candidates from their experience opposed to the 24% who would employ based on relevant degrees.  Anyone over the age of 16 can apply to apprenticeships and there are multiple levels that you can choose from, including: Intermediate (Level 2), Advanced (Level 3), Higher (Level 4,5,6,7) and Degree (level 6 and 7). Each level ranges in duration, varying from one year to 4 years and there is also the opportunity to progress the apprenticeship to a higher level after beginning your course if you would like. The benefits of an apprenticeship include the ability to earn whilst learning, gain a certification relevant to your apprenticeship, acquire industry experience, no debt and a variety of career opportunities.

Why choose Encocam?

We are committed to showcasing our apprentices’ skills and encouraging progression opportunities within Encocam; many previous apprentices have stayed with us after they have completed their studies. This includes Encocam’s HR manager, Chris Hartley, who first joined us in 2017 as a HR trainee on a Level 3 Business Administration Apprenticeship. He then advanced to a Level 3 CIPD HR Support Apprenticeship and has since developed within our company to become a manager. In addition to progression opportunities, we also run an Apprentice of the Year competition, our apprentices are given a challenge and set of tasks to complete which aligns with their apprenticeship courses and then they go on to present their ideas to our Business Unit Managers. We believe that this benefits our apprentices by gaining new, important skills for their futures. The goal of the competition is to challenge our apprentices to think innovatively whilst developing their skills further.

We believe that apprentices are beneficial in bringing fresh perspectives and a new energy to the work environment at Encocam. We are passionate about developing our apprentices and this has been recognised. In early 2024, Matthew Wiltshire, Engineering Apprentice, received the Engineering Apprentice of the Year Award from Cambridge Regional College, with the judges commending him for his performance and perseverance in progressing from a Level 3 to a Level 4 Apprenticeship.

We are also members of the Apprenticeship Ambassador Network (AAN) for the East of England, supporting an initiative to encourage businesses to be actively involved in apprenticeship schemes.

Working as an apprentice provides individuals with benefits such as:

What our apprentices think:

Evie Ferry – Level 6 BSc (Hons) Digital Marketer Degree Apprentice

I have worked with Encocam since August 2024 and recently began my 4-year course at Anglia Ruskin University, where I learn the key fundamentals for marketing, with this I attend workshops each term and learn through an online platform. I was determined to do a degree apprenticeship due the ability for me to achieve a degree whilst receiving an income and valuable work environment experiences. The support from my team, mentors and other staff has been extremely helpful and welcoming. I have found it to be very hands-on which has been great for my development and confidence; I am given a variety of tasks which is helping me to learn different aspects of Marketing whilst also contributing to business development. I am extremely grateful that I began working at Encocam, every day is different, and I am constantly learning.

Ciera Norman – Level 3 HR Support Apprentice

I started my apprenticeship in September 2024 at Cambridge Regional College. It’s coming up to a year since I began working at Encocam, the support from the team around me has made any challenges far less turbulent, but I also used these experiences as opportunities for me to learn and broaden my expertise within the HR field. It has been great, and I am looking forward to what is next. The last few months have been very busy, and my workload has massively increased, however, I have enjoyed every moment of it. My team are always supporting me with skills and knowledge from their expertise and assist me whenever necessary, making my experience here an incredibly rewarding one. I chose to work at Encocam because of my passion for helping people. Working here has given me the opportunity to learn and develop both my personal and workplace skills, as well as allowing me to learn more about engineering, which I have never previously been exposed to.

Megan King – Level 2 Textiles Apprentice

I have worked at Encocam for 14 months. The work has been very versatile, whether it be making various products from our range, working on Adobe/Inkscape training, projects delegated by my manager such as re-upholstering chairs or product research. I have received incredible support from my manager and other members of staff. One of my favourite moments so far has been starting my training at WEBBS in September 2024, which is a training course where I learn new machinist skills which may open further opportunities for me. Encocam provides great opportunities to learn new skills within a different industry, I have always loved textiles and being able to work within an in-house textiles department is rare, so the opportunity is great to experience. This has always been what I wanted to do for my career and my age isn’t seen as a lack of experience, it is seen as a fresh perspective so I knew this would be a great place to work, along with working with other creative, knowledgeable and innovative individuals.

Tyler Dunkley – Level 3 Business Administration Apprentice

My experience so far at Encocam has been great. I felt reassured during the first couple of months as the people at Encocam made it easy for me to settle in to both the work environment and the apprenticeship. There has never been a lack of support, I am comfortable with asking people questions and have found that everyone in the workplace is happy to help where needed. I had my mind set on an apprenticeship and knew it would be the best thing for me to gain hands on experience whilst being able to learn. My favourite experience so far is helping with customer enquiries, it was nice being able to look back and acknowledge where I’ve been able to assist customers with their problems. After my first interview, I knew Encocam was the right place for me, and I wanted to work here because of the people, their professionalism, and resources.

We have incredible support systems around the business which will help you along your journey, including a friendly apprentice networking community, mentor support and a HR team with apprenticeship experience to assist with any concerns. We are always looking to welcome new apprentices into Encocam, so If you think you are ready to embark on a new journey, build your career and contribute to our dynamic work environment, please contact us at recruitment@encocam.com for further information.