 Professor Ewing left the university in 1903 to become the first Director of Naval Education at the Admiralty but Inglis remained; he was appointed a university demonstrator in mechanism by Professor Bertram Hopkinson, Ewing's successor, and worked with him to study the effects of vibration. Inglis was promoted to lecturer of mechanical engineering in 1908. Hopkinson recognised Inglis' academic abilities and assigned him the heaviest teaching load of all the staff, covering statics, dynamics, structural engineering theory, materials engineering, drawing, engine balance and the design of steel girders and reinforced concrete. Inglis later recalled that if he wished to learn more on a subject then he volunteered to teach a course on it. From 1911 Inglis became involved in hydraulic engineering and served on the board of the Cambridge University and Town Waterworks Company, serving as deputy chairman from 1924 to 1928 and chairman from 1928 to 1952.
