After achieving a music diploma from the University of West London in 2016, James joined the University of Warwick as a general engineering undergraduate student in 2017. He specialised in the field of manufacturing and mechanical engineering in 2019. His BEng 3rd (final) year individual project 'Development of a 4MW Wind Turbine Gearbox using SMT MASTA' was supervised by Professor Ken Mao and was awarded a first-class mark. Dr. Ed Brambely was his personal tutor throughout the BEng study.

Along with six other Warwick engineering undergraduates, James participated in the Sir William Siemens Challenge in 2019 and won the runner-up trophy for the University of Warwick.

From 2016 to 2020, James has completed four summer internships with three industrial partners: once with Hycrome Europe Ltd in the fields of aerospace, power generation, and oil & gas; twice with Futaba Manufacturing UK in automotive manufacturing; and once with Siemens in rail infrastructure.

In 2020, James took on a PhD project in the field of Physics - Nanoelectronics and his research area are theoretical nanoscale electronics and computational material discovery. He collaborates at the interface between electronic engineering, physics and chemistry. He is hoping to discover novel materials that will potentially contribute to existing consumer electronic technology advancements.