• Question: what safety precautions do you put in your work?

    Asked by tree to Alex, Chris, Mohamed, Rik, Victoria on 6 Mar 2015.
    • Photo: Rik Allen

      Rik Allen answered on 6 Mar 2015:

      Hello,

      Most of my work is not really safety critical – it doesn’t matter too much really if a video conference system glitches a bit, but some colleagues are working on parts for cars, including cameras to let cars see for themselves. There are quite strong rules for them on what they need to do. For example, they sometimes have two or more computers all running the same program and checking each other.
      There are people studying how you can prove mathematically what a computer program will do, so that you can say for sure it doesnt have any bugs, but that is pretty tricky.
      We do spend a lot of time thinking about what can go wrong, and designing tests to check that it won’t. Sometimes that takes longer than writing the program in the first place.

    • Photo: Victoria Sharpe

      Victoria Sharpe answered on 8 Mar 2015:

      Safety is vitally important to the way we work. My company designs large steel structures that are welded together. This means that when visiting the fabrication yard, safety glasses, steel toe cap shoes and hard hats are essential. The same applies when visiting, installing or commissioing equipment at the shipyard.
      For every large piece of equipment we supply, we have to carry out lifting studies to ensure that the equipment can be moved without it swinging dangerously. We also check that the slings holding the equipment will not break or stretch more than expected.
      We also have to review the mechanical, electrical and hydraulic systems that drive the equipment to ensure they always fail safe.

Comments