Siemens Medal Winner 2009
Ryan Bakewell is currently a student in his penultimate year of the MEng programme in Systems Engineering at Loughborough University. He spent the academic year 2007/2008 on a placement with BAE Systems, most of it with the Autonomous Systems and Future Capability section of the Military Air Solutions division.
Ryan was involved in two major projects concerning very different forms of autonomous vehicles. One centred around the development of HERO, a ground based, wheeled vehicle that can be used for inspecting the underside of trucks and other large vehicles. The other centred around a launch mechanism for small (<25Kg) Unmanned Autonomous Vehicles (Project Artful) that would utilise existing equipment normally carried in a vehicle when conventional techniques would require a launch ramp to be towed behind the vehicle.
Ryan played a key role in a month long technical trial of the HERO vehicle, in the Port of Calais. He recalls working to very tight time schedules in making modifications to the vehicle to provide the performance sought by the customer: “I spent two weeks in France providing technical support and guidance to prospective customers of the BAE Systems’ HERO ground vehicle as part of a very small team. We managed to complete the trial while responding to the customers’ ever-challenging needs. A good example was when we had to redesign the bumper (in white on the photo) and the new part was re-engineered and manufactured overnight at the BAE Systems facility at Warton while the main trial continued.”
Project Artful saw Ryan acting as chief Engineer on an Unmanned Autonomous Vehicle launcher project that utilises existing ballistics technology to launch the vehicle. Besides the technical challenges he had to manage a small team and a complex set of stakeholders. The work eventually resulted in a series of successful flight trials in Cumbria. A patent is currently pending relating to this work.
For his contribution to the Hero vehicle Ryan was awarded a Bronze BAE Chairman's Award. For his contribution to Project Artful Ryan was awarded a Bronze and Silver BAE Chairman's Award. In addition Ryan was nominated for a Gold BAE Chairman's Award for Innovation and achieved third place. This event covers all BAE sites and projects worldwide and took place in December 2008 at the Ronald Reagan International Trade Centre, Washington DC.
The level of Ryan’s contribution to BAE Systems was considered by all to be well above that which could be normally expected from a placement student and made him a worthy recipient of a Siemens Medal.