Peter Visscher

About me

I was born/grew up in: Exeter, Ontario

I now live in: Stratford, Ontario

I completed my training/education at: I attended the University of Western Ontario and completed a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering.

What I do at work

As a robotic vehicle designer, I get to work with plenty of super smart people! They are experts in various engineering fields. Together, we design, build, and test lots of cool hardware.

My job is to find interesting business opportunities for our company. Then I create a vehicle design that gets the client excited. Then, I get to work with my team to turn ideas into reality. This involves coordinating activities related to mechanical, electrical, and even software engineering. We use several software tools such as CAD for creating mechanical designs. We also use specialized software for electrical design. There is a lot of brainstorming and problem solving required. But this is something that engineers love to do!

My career path is

I was a potato and broccoli farmer and a mechanic until I was 27.  Then I got married. My wife encouraged me to go to school to become an engineer. I think it was because I was continually modifying everything that we owned to make it go faster or be louder.

Then, I worked at a company making off-road vehicles. Then someone asked me if I wanted to help design a lunar rover. So, I did that until now.

Today I’m the General Manager of Canadensys Aerospace Corporation in Stratford, Ontario. We design and build advanced vehicles for civil, defense and security use. We are also designing a Lunar Rover that will be used on the moon. It’s pretty cool to be involved in that!  

I am motivated by

Engineering and robotics is a lot of fun! Working with people that share the same passion makes it even better. We get a great deal of satisfaction in being able to follow an idea through the design stage, into the prototype state, through testing, and finally into production.

How I affect peoples’ lives

We design robotic vehicles that can be used for a wide variety of tasks. These tasks include protecting our soldiers and even exploring other planets.

Outside of work I

My hobbies include hiking, mountain biking, and napping. I occasionally work with students at local high schools. I also do some volunteering at church.

My advice to others

Get as much hands-on experience as you can before or during college or university. This will greatly improve your education and make it more interesting and effective. Book knowledge becomes more concrete when put into practice.