Oli Stocks
Summary
Oli is a drummer and mechanical engineer who spent four years in surgical robotics before becoming a freelance engineer. He used his flexible working arrangement to travel the world, ultimately becoming a professional drummer in Vietnam. Berkana Drums is the combination of his two biggest passions: music and engineering.
Engineering background
After graduating from the University of Southampton in 2019 with a masters in Mechanical Engineering, Oli spent four years at CMR Surgical, a surgical robotics company based in Cambridge, England. His work ranged from redesigning surgical instruments to solve fundamental technical issues, to attending live surgeries to provide technical support. CMR gave him exposure to a highly regulated, precision engineering environment which influences his approach to design and testing to this day. After CMR, Oli began freelance work, including a stint on the R&D team at GHD Hair and two contracts implementing manufacturing improvements on a Vietnamese production line for medical device company SiFO International. His choice of projects has always been guided by a love for solving novel problems.
This love for novel problems predates his career. At University, he built a working drone vision system for the IMechE UAV Challenge in three weeks, led a team to second place in the UK Eurobot challenge, and was published in the Journal of Open Source Software. He works best with a deadline and a challenge nobody's quite solved yet.
Life outside engineering
Before Berkana, Oli spent three years travelling and working with his hands — carpentry, farm work, installing solar panels, cleaning, and other miscellaneous jobs. He ended up living in Vietnam for over a year, working as a drummer and starting several business ventures, including an English language teaching service specifically for engineers and a custom guitar accessories company. He learned a lot about business, marketing, and the realities of running a small company.
The idea for Berkana Drums came from Oli's lived-experience of being a drummer hauling equipment to venues. He set out to design a drumkit that's easy to transport, and sounds great - there was nothing on the market that did both. Now, there is.