BCS Mid-Wales branch.
Watch the video
Synopsis
Fieldwork in any environment carries challenges and surprises but working in the extreme cold multiplies the opportunities for mistakes and failures in a number of ways.
A recent trip to Greenland to perform surveys with a novel deep-water sonar scanner exposed a number of interesting problems and modes of equipment failure. It also revealed that the majority of failures were due to "normal" human error which lead to failures, increased expense and reduced data quality on a number of occasions.
I will describe the conditions that we worked in on the floating ice, transport of equipment and people, the experience of working with complex IT systems and software in that environment and a few of the lessons that I learned. In particular the need for lightweight equipment, robust connectors, robust interfaces (hardware and software), reliable power sources and well established routines are considered.
About the speaker
Dr Mark Neal, Ystumtec Ltd
Mark Neal left academia 4 years ago and now runs his small company that specialises in custom building hardware, firmware and software systems for research organisations in academia and industry.
The company has customers working in a number of fields including precision agriculture, autonomous survey, wild animal tracking, environmental monitoring and agrochemical application.
Our events are for adults aged 16 years and over.
This event is brought to you by: BCS Mid-Wales branch
