• Question: Do you find it daunting that you could be the one blamed for something that goes wrong?

    Asked by Jazzy to Chris, Paul, Priyanka, Ryan, Sarah on 6 Mar 2016. This question was also asked by Alex.
    • Photo: Ryan Bakewell

      Ryan Bakewell answered on 6 Mar 2016:

      It’s a very good question. I am not sure daunting is really the way I’d describe it though.
      I definitely feel a sense of responsibility to make sure I do everything I can to avoid failures. If I do this, and I genuinely believe I have done it, then I can be satisfied with my work and be safe in the knowledge that I couldn’t have done more.
      The way I like to think about it is this: I imagine sitting in a court of law… perhaps an American court as they always seem more fun on the TV… and being asked to explain what I did to make sure the things I’ve engineered on the car can’t go wrong. If I think nobody will laugh at me and say: “Yes but you could have done more” then I’m good with it.
      This is what makes engineering a ‘profession’ in many ways. You can’t just let anyone do it and hope for the best! Instead we have to be trained and learn how to do things in structured and thorough ways.

    • Photo: Priyanka Dhopade

      Priyanka Dhopade answered on 8 Mar 2016:

      I agree with Ryan – engineers have a sense of responsibility towards their work to make sure they do the best possible job they can. Being thorough is very important.
      Having said that, I work as part of a team, so no one really “blames” each other for any failures. If there is a problem, we all work together to fix it and to put safety measures in place so that it doesn’t happen again.
      In research, we’re always pushing the limit of what we can achieve, so things are bound to go wrong! The important thing is to learn from your mistakes 🙂

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