There is a problem with investigating the Antarctic - how do you get there without ruining the environment you want to explore?
The answer is a seven metre long robot submarine. It's being designed by a team of people that includes Dr Miles Peabody and will travel under the ice into these uncharted waters, laden with scientific instruments. They hope to find out information about global warming and climate change.
Meet Miles
What do you enjoy about your job?
"Working on autosub, and with the autosub team is excellent, it's good fun and the work is challenging…"
Audio
Save this MP3 file to your computer You need the Flash Player (version 7 or higher) to use our MP3 player - download Flash. Copyrighted The Open University Download What can I do with this?Text
It’s really good fun. The work’s challenging and sometimes the hours are really long, but it’s really satisfying to see something that starts off as a pile of nuts and bolts and bits of wire all be assembled together and put in the water and go off and do expeditions under the Antarctic ice sheets. I think I’m really lucky to have landed in this place.
Why did you do engineering?
"I've basically followed things I'm interested in, I didn't set out to be an engineer but am glad I am now…"
Audio
Save this MP3 file to your computer You need the Flash Player (version 7 or higher) to use our MP3 player - download Flash. Copyrighted The Open University Download What can I do with this?Text
Engineering provides sort of doorways into all sorts of things, especially things like software. I mean software seems to be absolutely everywhere. So if you have an interest in something, chances are if you do engineering you can get a bit more involved in that.
The work in itself is not that hard. I guess I’ve been lucky, I’ve followed what I’ve been interested in. So since I left school I did farming and I was interested in that until I found that it wasn’t going to be quite the life story for me.
But it’s really sort of taking opportunities that you find present themselves and making the most of what you’re interested in. I think if you’re doing something you’re interested in then I think it’s a lot less like work and it’s easier to find your way.
What's the best thing about your job?
"The sea tests are the culmination of the work we do…"
Audio
Save this MP3 file to your computer You need the Flash Player (version 7 or higher) to use our MP3 player - download Flash. Copyrighted The Open University Download What can I do with this?Text
To see an auto-sub working at sea from a ship is, it’s what the whole thing is about really, it’s what you’re planning for when you’re designing all the systems, you’re thinking about how auto-sub has to be able to work and what possible situations it might encounter, and it’s not really until you get to sea and you’re actually working for real that you see whether these things that you’ve thought up work or not. And even when it gets to systems that we’ve tried and tested many times before, we get to an unusual situation and you can still be caught unawares and have to work out something on the fly and make up something to get things to work again.
How important is the work of autosub?
"Autosub is increasingly important, there's no other way to get under the ice to find out how currents are changing, to monitor global warming and so on..."
Audio
Save this MP3 file to your computer You need the Flash Player (version 7 or higher) to use our MP3 player - download Flash. Copyrighted The Open University Download What can I do with this?Text
Most of the Antarctic, seas around the Antarctic are covered in ice and you can’t see under there. You can’t, satellites can’t see down under, ships can’t get through the ice, so no-one has ever been or seen under the ice except for a few people who’ve drilled holes and had a quick peep. But basically auto-sub is the only sort of vehicle that can get under the ice, and so for the very first time we shall be able to see what’s there. And it’s one of the few places in the world which haven’t been explored at all, so we’ll be one of the first to get glimpses of that.
What did you want to be when you were little?
"An astronaut. It was the time of the Apollo moon landings, my Mum said 'there's someone up there walking on the moon' and I thought it was really cool. It was the exploring aspect I liked."
What was your favourite subject at school?
"Geography, because I loved exploring and learning about different landscapes. We had a great teacher who had loads of interesting stories to tell - he'd been to all the places and used to draw great big maps on the board."
What A levels did you study?
"Geography and Biology."
What was your ambition when you left school?
"To be a farmer. We had friends who lived on a farm so I was always into the idea of working on one."
What did you do between leaving school and starting university?
"Worked on various farms around Britain for 2 years, but eventually I couldn't face any more potato sorting and didn't have a farm of my own so couldn't see the future in it."
When and where did you go to university?
"1987 Brighton College of Technology; HND Electronic Engineering and Computing Technology."
What were your ambitions after your degree?
"Find an interesting job that was fun… and that paid me some money."
Have you any further degrees or qualifications?
"MSc. Information Technology 1991 Edinburgh University and PhD. Instrumentation and Systems 1997 University of London."
What are your ambitions now?
"To do further research into autonomous robots, especially underwater ones, but other environments are interesting too. To make the robots cleverer at getting jobs done. Oh yes, and to carve-jibe on the windsurfer."
What was your first paid job?
"As a farm worker - which was great fun until I had to sort potatoes for two years. It gave me a bit of thinking time about what I wanted to do. I liked the big tractors but didn't like the early mornings!"
When are you happiest?
"Now, because everything's going well, work is good, home is good. I'd never really planned anything, it just evolved, I've taken opportunities as they've arisen and just steered them towards my interests."
What three luxury items would you take to a desert island?
"Windsurfing kit - my favourite sport. A solar powered laptop PC with at least a software compiler, to programme computer games. My guitar - to play music to the fish."
What's your favourite saying?
"It'll be all right"
What was the last thing that you cooked?
"Rhubarb crumble and custard. I'm quite partial to a bit of rhubarb, we do grow our own but the slugs tend to get to it first."
How did you spend your last Sunday?
"I went windsurfing because it was windy; otherwise we go to visit friends and relatives or do DIY."
Who or what would you put in Room 101?
"Thoughtlessness and intolerance - not sure how you can do that though."
Be the first to post a comment.
Login or Register to post comments