Meet the scientists!

As a systems engineer I am responsible to make sure that all the products we developed are “fit for use”. This implies that if I am doing a good job our astronomers (UK and European) will have telescopes and instruments to do great science with . To ensure that the telescopes and instruments are fit for use I have to make sure that we define it correctly by analysing the requirements and capture it correctly . Once we know what we need, then it is my job to make sure that the design complies to the requirements. I also have to make sure that the resulting product is easy to make, easy to integrate and easy to use. Being the systems engineer of an astronomy project is extremely creative and rewarding. I hope one day I hope I can say that I was instrumental when one of the UK astronomers win a Nobel price having used an instruments for which I was the systems engineer. I am also invloved in small research projects. For example we are investigating the possibility of using micro-autonomous robots to pick-off the objects in sky which the Astronomers would like to analyse. These robots can be as small as 20 x 20 mm.

During a typical day I will attend various types of meetings , for example project, group or one-to-one meetings with members of my team.I will also spend a lot of time speaking to members of the engineering team regarding their design inputs to my current projects. The rest of the time I will use various Systems Engineering tools (PC and software based) to capture system design and requirements of the product we are developing. A typical day away from the office will normally be spent in a team meeting environment where the project team will work together and make decisions on the final instrument or telescope design.

. The child will be selected via a science competition.