Emily, who graduated from the 91¶¶Òõ in 2011 in Product Design with Professional Experience, was keynote speaker at the university’s graduation award ceremony at the 91¶¶Òõ Centre .
She shared three lessons with graduates, the first: “Life is short and life is for living.” She told how a charity cycle ride stretching the length of Britain helped her fall in love with cycling. It took place at the beginning of her final year at 91¶¶Òõ and she said she wanted to do something on cycling and was determined to design something of value.
Emily developed the Laserlight which projects a bike symbol six metres in front of the cyclist. It has been hailed as a major breakthrough in safety and is now selling in 65 countries. It has been fitted to London's Santander Cycles and New York's Citibikes.
Emily said her second lesson was: “Do something you really love...have the courage to live your own life. That lesson brought me here.”
Emily said she was originally reading physics at Oxford University, something that would have led to a great job in the City: “But it didn’t make me happy. I really missed the creativity of design. So possibly the best decision I ever made – I dropped out of Oxford, did an art course in the middle of the countryside and I came here to study product design.