Aerodynamics Engineer - Summer Placement Review

My role was in the aerodynamics department was to use in house aerodynamic tools as well as develop new and upcoming coding tools in MATLAB and Python. I would have regular meetings every other day to ensure colleagues are kept up to date with my progress, this also gave me the opportunity to ask questions and advice on my work. Half way during my placement I had an interim presentation where I collaborated with another summer placement student and demonstrated our work towards stakeholders. Furthermore, at the end of my placement myself and my colleague gave a final presentation summarizing our findings.

This placement was a great environment to learn new technical and soft skills. One main example was to be able to use comprehensive aerodynamics simulation software and use its results to the help my project. Another example is MATLAB, I went from not knowing the basic syntax to be able to read other people's code and start to create my own. There was also an emphasis on Python which tested my current skill set while developing it further. Finally, through the means of presentations throughout my placement, it allowed me to gain confidence in my speaking ability especially when it came to technical content.

During my internship I was responsible for developing code colleagues were actually using, this meant I was responsible for making tools work better. Furthermore, the work I was doing was unique meaning the results and discussion I proposed mattered. Finally I was given the responsibility of meeting deadlines and creating meetings with other summer placement students while collaboratively creating presentations. Overall I was given project work which was actually interesting and tested my knowledge and skill.

During my placement I had received plenty of support and guidance across the whole department. Throughout my placement my line manager was a big source of technical support, this ranged from double checking my analysis of results to helping make sure I had everything I needed to complete my work at all times. Furthermore, if I was was curious to learn more about a certain area, people in the department were more than happy to give a crash course in what they do and offer help.

With MBDA being my first experience in an engineering role I was delighted to find a supportive working environment. In my first week I was introduced face to face with a buddy and was taken around the office to get the opportunity to speak to many people from the department. Everybody was very welcoming and through out my placement was considered just as a valued as any other employee. The general atmosphere was nice as it felt as you could ask any question with no pressure.

I really enjoyed my placement as I was fortunate enough to gain new insights into aerodynamics which I had not experienced at university. Being able to work with colleagues and develop software tool capabilities was really fun, as I got to understand what colleagues do day to day. I also really enjoyed learning the life cycle of MBDA's products and understanding where the aerodynamics department fit in that life cycle. Lastly one aspect I really enjoyed at MBDA was dynamic working, it allows you to work less on one day and balance it by working more on others, allowing good flexibility.

Yes

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