Our Principal Solution Architect, Robin Edge is an EW expert with 10 years industry experience. He’s a keen sports fan and a fitness buff (which he maintains using our gym membership discount). Robin is also a Masters Swimmer for Lincoln Vulcans, which makes you wonder, is there anything he can’t do?
We decided to find out more about him in this Q&A piece, touching on a variety of topics including his degree choice of Physics and Business Management.
Why Physics and Business Management as a degree choice?
I liked the finance elements; it was the minor aspect of my degree and something completely different hence the intrigue, I guess.
And Electronic Warfare?
It has elements that relate to what I studied at university and an area I can apply my skills and knowledge. It also interested me because as you can imagine it’s not your usual career path coming from a degree in Physics and Finance!
Why MASS?
I already had knowledge of the company from being in the industry and the fact that it is a relatively smaller company compared to the other companies I had worked for, it provided me with the opportunity to be at the heart of things and the potential work across the breadth of the business. At MASS, I get to use my skill and knowledge across a range of roles and projects.
What has been your highlight working at MASS?
Being involved in the successful delivery of a large project to a key industry customer has been a highlight for me. It involved developing solutions that will help shape requirements for a future capability which will be used by the customer’s project teams across the next 10 years.
Another highlight is working with junior engineers and seeing their technical and personal development across the few years I’ve been at MASS. I like to give them opportunities (e.g. presenting to customers) to highlight the importance of their work.
What would you say is the biggest surprise about MASS?
It’s a great place to work, nice offices and friendly people. At MASS you get a greater variety of work than I’ve had in previous companies - one day you can work on technical bids, another assisting with project financials, another reviewing the teams’ technical output, and another producing your own technical work. I enjoy the variety.
How do you see the role of modelling & simulation and in general new technology impacting the future of EW?
CEMA data will become even more important; how it is gathered, processed, stored, analysed and distributed. Also, how that data will be analysed to explain patterns of life/behaviour will be key to providing better understanding of situational awareness on the battlefield in the future.
Where do you see MASS’ role in this?
THURBON will play a key role in the future in terms of how you process and access CEMA data. With the emergence of system of systems, where smaller systems talk to each other, modelling what that looks like will see us play a leading role. Capturing our capabilities and software tools within that and how to leverage them in different contexts such as distributed countermeasures within MDI (Multiple Domain Integration) for example.
In addition, the work we are currently delivering for one of our key customers puts in a good position. We’re enabling them to develop, design, test and evaluate future equipment solutions within a synthetic environment. This means our work is at the heart of activities that is and will continue to shape what is possible in the future.
Describe MASS in one or two words.
Versatile and Intelligent