Babcock, BMT Support Human-powered Sub Races
Photo: IMarEST
Babcock International Group, a worldwide engineering support services company with a particular presence in the marine sector, and BMT Group, an engineering, science and technology consultancy, are confirmed as sponsors of the IMarEST’s third biennial European International Submarine Races (eISR 2016). The races, to be held from July 6-15, 2016 at QinetiQ’s Ocean Basin in Gosport, England, will challenge 12 university teams from across the world to design, build and race human-powered submarines.
“We are delighted to confirm two such leading forces within the marine sector as our major sponsors for an initiative that aims to engage engineering students. It’s wonderful that we can work together to stoke up excitement about marine engineering and, by doing so, to encourage more young people into the sector,” said David Loosley, IMarEST Chief Executive.
A Careers’ Day will also be held on Saturday July 9, at Hilsea Lido, Gosport, where sponsors will have the chance to talk about the broad range of opportunities within their organizations. The Careers’ Day is open to all ages and will include live-demonstrations of the human-powered submarines.
Jeff Owen, Director, Business Growth, Marine & Technology Division, Babcock International Group, said, “We’re passionate about developing young engineers and these races are an excellent way of raising the awareness of the fact that the marine industry offers tremendous technology and engineering challenges to inspire future engineers. With business activity in the countries of the participating Universities we’re delighted to encourage the development of local engineering talent.”
Catriona Savage, Technical Director at BMT Defense Service, said, “The races are an excellent way for students to apply the theory they learn in their undergraduate degrees to a real, tangible machine. It is also a great way to learn to work together as a team in a pressured environment.”
There are nine university teams that have now qualified: Texas A&M, University of Michigan, Rhine Waal University, Ecole de Technologie Superieure, University of Bath, Delft University of Technology, University of Auckland, University of Warwick and University of Washington.
Bentely Altizer, Captain of the University of Washington team, commented, “We have a very unique situation where dozens of people get together and rally around a common goal. It's a really beautiful thing to see a group of people grow to be just as passionate as myself about a project like this. We build submarines for the world to see and we build trust, respect, and teamwork for ourselves.”
February 2024
