Hardit Sahota

Even before I can remember, I have always been creative; weather I was drawing vehicles spitting flames, robots, dinosaurs or on the odd occasion, on the wall!

I remember as a child, my mother would often hang my drawings and paintings in the main room of her dental surgery, proudly showing her patients my work. I equate a good amount of my drive to pursue automotive design to their support throughout my childhood and schooling. At school I had excelled in most subjects, though there was always something special about Art & Design that never felt like work to me, I could sit for hours and hours continuously creating, where most of my designs were vehicles of some sort.

Growing up I hadn’t ever heard of a specific vehicle design course, so Architecture was the next best thing for me and became my focus for the future as a stepping stone to become an automotive designer… Or so I thought! I remember on a hot summers afternoon when I was 13 or 14, my family and I had travelled up to Central London to enjoy a day out with my uncles and cousins. I distinctly remember speaking with one of my uncles about Industrial design and my aspirations for the future. When he told me I could actually study at university and graduate as a car designer - I was immediately focused on pursuing this dream, researching the best undergraduate and postgraduate courses for me.

Whilst studying Automotive and Transport Design at Coventry University (2016-2020), I had a great opportunity in the summer of 2017 to visit Ford’s advanced design studio in California, meeting Freeman Thomas and gaining an invaluable insight into the life of an automotive designer. It was in that studio that I had learnt 75% of the designers at the time were Coventry University graduates from my course. This further reinforced my belief that I was on the right path.

For me, the opportunity to transform my vision for vehicle design from 2D sketches into real life, is the ultimate goal, however I don’t want to go through my career only creating beautiful products. I have the passion to create innovative solutions to current and future problems through design, that helps to enrich the lives of its users whether they know it or not. I feel most proficient in both analogue and digital design when visualising concepts in their future settings, though I also greatly enjoy working with my hands through materials such as clay and wood.

Upon graduating at the start of a global pandemic, I looked to my future - determined to break into the automotive design industry and pursue my life goals…

• IT and Administrative Manager: 

Experience with data entry, confidentiality agreements, data protection, health and safety, customer service and following COVID-19 protocalls. Designed some informative posters for the dental surgery's patients as well as creating a website (though a decision was made that the website would not be needed after all).

• Coventry University Men’s Rugby Union:

As the social media manager I was part of the team committee that ran the club for the 2019-2020 season.

My key responsibilities were to design exciting posters that grabbed the publics attention and made them attend any events we were promoting. As well as this, i had to constantly update all social media platforms of updates and key gameday information so that the sports team could continue to interact with other students, and the Coventry locals. This work helped to improve the clubs reputation and steer it towards a better future for students wanting to join the sport by removing the negative stereotypes associated with university rugby union.

I also created a team YouTube channel that allowed me to film the team's sporting events and edit full game videos to post, with the goal of attracting new/ prospective students to attend Coventry University and join the club.

• Coventry University Jets American Football:

As the social media manager I was part of the team committee that ran the club for the 2017-2018 season.

My key responsibilities were to design exciting posters that grabbed the publics attention and made them attend any events we were promoting. As well as this, i had to constantly update all social media platforms of updates and key gameday information so that the sports team could continue to interact with other students, and the Coventry locals. As well as to grow awareness for the sport in the UK and help increase its popularity be making new students want to join the team through exciting social media campaigns.

For my final thesis I had chosen to explore solutions to disarm and dispose of landmines that remain buried in rural areas around the world post-war. Currently there are an estimated 110 million landmines still in the ground, that with current technologies would take up to 1100 years and $100 Billion dollars to completely remove. The 5 countries with the most remaining landmines are Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria.

AEGIS is a modular, remotely operated, three-vehicle system that efficiently detects, clears, and disposes of landmines. The upper part of the vehicle is modular and slots into place like Lego bricks when interchanging attachments. The second module is farming-focused, with flowing architectural forms that are inspired by large boulders and rocks. This design makes the vehicle more approachable to the locals in the area.

During my studies, I also represented the university in the following sports; Men’s Rugby Union, and American Football.