Our Visit to BAE Systems

OUR VISIT TO BAE SYSTEMS

On Thursday the 13th of October, we visited BAE systems in Rochester to meet our designated engineer and to be introduced to the project. This is where the project would really start for us all.

We began the day by watching a presentation aimed at introducing us to the scheme by Matt Fox. He told us about the background of the scheme and what its aims are. We then had a chance to demonstrate our engineering abilities and were tasked with building a tower as tall as possible to support a golf ball. Unfortunately we didn’t win. However, we did demonstrate our ability to design and build a tower which supported the weight with ease. We were all rather happy with the outcome. Richard Tomkins, our engineer, left us to our own devices at the beginning and helped to strengthen our design at the end with supporting braces. We then had some much needed tea and biscuits. BAE SYSTEMS Source: www.rochesteravionarchives.co.uk Retrieved: March 2012

The next presentation introduced us more thoroughly to the project. We were told in detail what exactly we were to produce. We needed to solve a problem set by our engineer and produce a presentation that would last 10-15 minutes and a portfolio outlining the whole project. To help plan this, we were advised to create a Gantt chartto help schedule our project. This would include various dates for completion of each section such as the portfolio, the model, and the presentation. Obviously there were many more things that would need to be allotted time.

We had learnt a lot from these presentations such as the importance to plan everything. If one part of the project fell behind, it could delay the whole project and this could be detrimental to the finished project. We also learnt the importance of details and how our research should be thorough. If not, small assumptions could lead us astray from our project and cause bigger problems later on. We would like to thank everyone involved in the presentations in BAE Systems, Rochester.

Throughout the day we also had a chance to meet our engineer, Richard Tomkinsfrom Laing O’Rourke who are one of the biggest concrete fabrication companies in England who specify in pre-manufactured concrete components.