Your engineering qualifications could take you anywhere around the globe. Even to the southernmost continent.
This week we talk to a South African electrical engineer who overwintered in Antarctica. From December 2015 to February 2017, Paddy Riley, a graduate of the University of Cape Town, tells us how he spent 14 months in Antarctica, assisting with the operating electrical equipment at space weather research base, SANAE IV.
The South African National Space Agency sends electrical engineers (and other researchers) to Antarctica every year to ensure that the radars and core engineering equipment is still functioning in the bitterly cold temperatures. Riley talks about what the radars are used for and what overwintering in Antarctica is really like.
What follows is a conversation about the prospect of working in the coldest temperatures known to man and the challenges of working with a small team of people. But what remains clear is that engineering in Antarctica is an exciting, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and something that graduating engineers should consider signing up for.
