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Guest blog: Owen Evans, BAE Systems

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Owen Evans 07 July 2011

Since our first day back in 2007, it’s been thrilling to work on the BAE Systems-UK Sport Technology Partnership. The relationships we’ve built and the projects we’ve delivered in that time have proven to be a wonderful success. The Partnership was created to bring together UK Sport and the 18,000+ professional engineers and scientists at BAE Systems in the UK. The purpose is to tap into technologies and expertise normally reserved for the Defence industry to help improve athlete performance.

With UK Sport and BAE Systems both being at the forefront of science and technology in their respective domains, the link up has been really smooth and we’ve tackled some tough projects – learning a great amount from one another and sharing best practice. We’ve worked with twenty different Olympic sports ranging from Cycling and Sailing to Skeleton Bobsled and Wheelchair Racing. It’s allowed us to create large collaborative projects normally involving ourselves, UK Sport, various universities and valuable connections with athletes and coaches. As a project manager, it’s my role to ensure that all these projects are delivered on time, on budget and with sufficient quality to give a competitive advantage to Britain’s best athletes.

Our biggest successes to date include the re-design and manufacture of the GB skeleton bobsled, a laser guided timing system for the Manchester velodrome and a weather modeling & performance analysis tool for Sailing. More recently we’ve had Paralympians Shelley Woods, David Weir & Rachel Morris in the wind tunnel at our Military Air & Information site near Preston. This is where Typhoon is currently being constructed and so these engineers have an acute understanding of aerodynamic optimisation. Applying that knowledge to our athletes will be immensely powerful in their development. We’ve got many more ideas up our sleeve but these will have to stay secretive for now!

However, it’s not all been about improving athlete performance. BAE Systems has long since realised that skills in science, technology, engineering and maths (the STEM subjects) are vital to economic and social welfare in the UK. Therefore, we invest strongly in our Education Programme, apprenticeships, graduate schemes and engineering road-shows to promote the STEM subjects to young professionals and children. The UK Sport Partnership fits very nicely with these initiatives because the engineering is fascinating and really helps to engage youngsters in an exciting way. The goal is to inspire our future generation and with the help of UK Sport we’re certainly doing this, as our wonderful Partnership continues to go from strength to strength.

From a personal point of view, these projects have been extremely satisfying to work on. I come from a background in professional rugby and can fully appreciate how sport is the ultimate driving force in an athlete’s life. Everything revolves around attention to detail in preparation and performance and to know we’re improving that is very rewarding. I can speak on behalf of all my project teams at BAE Systems when I say an immense amount of satisfaction is gained from these projects. Not only from being involved with elite sports and seeing their awe-inspiring commitment but also from witnessing our own engineering helping to maximise Britain’s efforts leading into 2012.

For more information visit the BAE Systems website.

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