Thales

Interview Wessel Wits

Hardware Architect

WRITTEN BY LEX VERBERNE

On the Wednesday after carnival, which you may know better as the weekend we could all go ice-skating, I met online with Wessel Wits, a Hardware Architect at Thales. I had the opportunity to ask him some questions about what working at Thales is like and how he experiences it. You may know Thales from their location in Eindhoven where they produce cryogenic coolers, but there are many more projects this multinational company works on. However, before we dive in deep, let’s start with some general background.

Who is Wessel?

As mentioned before, Wessel is an engineer at Thales. But before you end up with such a specialized job, he was a student like all of us. He began his study Mechanical Engineering in 1997 at the University of Twente, after which he did his Master in the specialization of mechatronics. During his study, he had the opportunity to do his internship in Queensland (Australia) and his graduation project was about combining different engineering design disciplines into one design tool. This part of engineering has always fascinated him and so he continued in this field of expertise later on.

How did you end up at Thales?

After graduating at the UT, Wessel surely wasn’t done there yet. He was asked for a PhD project in which he could work on optimizing antenna designs to enable cost benefits of mass production. As you might have guessed, this assignment was supported by Thales, so that’s when he first got in touch with the company. During his PhD, he already worked in the head office in Hengelo for a few days a week. This even resulted in him being the first Dutch engineer to receive the Thales PhD price in 2010 for the best PhD research within the Thales organization worldwide!

After his PhD, Wessel decided to remain at the UT, where he could work on his research and teach Mechanical Engineering students courses on engineering design. While being Assistant Professor, he set up his own research line not surprisingly with topics close to Thales’ interests, such as thermal management. This included research on how new technologies, like 3D printing, could be used in this field of engineering. While doing so, he mentored quite some students for their graduation project, many of them doing projects at Thales.

After almost 15 years of working for the UT, Wessel decided it was time for something new. After a 6-months sabbatical at NLR (Netherlands Aerospace Center), he was invited by Thales to work as a Hardware Architect. They were looking for an outsider however with experience and knowledge of the company, which made him the perfect candidate. So, finally after being in close contact with Thales for a long time already, as of 2018 Wessel became an official employee.

Could you give a general description of your function?

As Hardware Architect, Wessel holds an interesting position. He works at the Mechanical and Electrical Engineering department, where he has two roles. On the one hand, he is hardware architect for several projects, which means he is responsible for the design of new products, how they can be fabricated and how they meet customer requirements.. Some examples can be seen later in the interview. On the other hand, Wessel is responsible for implementing new technologies and processes into the department: an interesting challenge! Take for instance hot topics like Industry 4.0, artificial intelligence or 3D-printing. These techniques have been hyped for the last couple of years in academia and industry, but how can they be implemented effectively? Wessel tries to find way to supplement their existing design tools, develop new working methods, and find potential new employees through his academic contacts.

What is the working environment within Thales like?

Wessel experiences a relaxed, yet energizing environment at his department. He notices that colleagues are very cooperative when someone needs something and always like to help out. Since the products they develop are rather expensive, budget for full-scale prototyping is limited. Hence, they follow the so called ‘first time right’ principle, in which the first produced product needs to be fully functioning and error free . As you can imagine, this requires comprehensive modelling, testing and simulation beforehand. Also expertise is of crucial importance in order to succeed with this way of working. This expertise is passed on from colleague to colleague smoothly, as they work in multidisciplinary project teams and due to the approachable working culture.

What are the projects you are currently working on?

Currently, Wessel is working on two projects, both in the area of radar systems and antennas.

The MMR during operation

The MMR (Multi Mission Radar)

The hardware design for this project is almost finished. The launching customer is the Dutch Armed Forces. For this project, a radar system needs to be developed that is suitable for fast and flexible deployment on land. Typically, our radar systems are integrated on a naval vessel, but for this application the system needs to work on a moving truck. This was a challenging design task, since the vessel normally houses essential services to the system like climate control, power and a stable basis. Now this needed to be implemented in a movable platform. Furthermore, during deployment the radar must be raised from a horizontal transport position to a vertical operating position quickly. This is in order to deploy, operate and transport the system as fast as possible. So, in short, a challenge that requires innovative solutions. Currently, the MMR is being produced so Wessel remains in contact with the production floor to resolve potential assembly and production hick-ups.

The NS50

The other project is a new radar system (the NS50) which has been recently contracted for the new Mine Counter Measures Vessels (MCMV) of the Belgium and Netherlands navies. Challenges of this new system are related to the strategic choice of offering both search and fire control capabilities for small to mid-size vessels. For larger vessels Thales already has high-tech radar systems in their portfolio. For smaller ships weight and size requirements are naturally different, but still a high quality solution must be developed first time right. By working together as mechanical and electrical engineers in the department, they are working efficiently on the release of the first product.

Why would someone want to work at Thales?

With all the research experience Wessel already has, he found that Thales is a good fit between in-depth research and industry development. With about 30% reinvestment of annual sales into R&D, this is no surprise. This results in high-tech systems and developing products that are the best of the best. Furthermore, all fields and disciplines within Mechanical Engineering are applied in Thales projects, from heat and flow to mechatronics and structural analysis, and from design to production and logistics. Since everyone has their own kind of expertise, you learn a lot from other colleagues on the job while deepening your own area of expertise.

Because Thales is a multinational company that has facilities worldwide, there are possibilities to work abroad as well. Although Wessel mainly talked about radar systems they develop in Hengelo, Thales has many other fields of expertise as well. In the Netherlands alone, you can also find departments for cybersecurity, communication systems or cryogenic coolers for instance.

Would you mind to share some final advice?

Wessel remembered that during his studies, he was asked if he saw himself as a specialist, designer or organizer. This distinction had nothing to do with his technical field of interest, but he has noticed that these three distinctions are also typical for industry work. In the end, all three are needed to make a project a success and all three complement each other.

“Thales is a good fit between in-depth research and industry development”

Impression of the NS50

Are you curious what Thales could offer you? There are many internships, graduation projects and vacancies which you can find at https://jobs.thalesgroup.com/

LEONARDO DA VINCI

A man far ahead of his time

WRITTEN BY KIM VAN LOON

“The earth is not in the centre of the sun’s orbit nor at the centre of the universe, but in the centre of its companion elements, and united with them. And anyone standing on the moon, when it and the sun are both beneath us, would see this our earth and the element of water upon it just as we see the moon, and the earth would light it as it lights us.”

~Leonardo Da Vinci~

Leonardo Da Vinci, a name that should ring a bell for everybody.

Born as the illegitimate child of a nobleman and a peasant in the 16th century, he was unable to receive a formal education. He did receive some informal education in Latin, Geometry, and Mathematics. In his teenage years, he started working as a studio boy where he gradually learned arts. As we all know Leonardo became a well-known artist with his most famous piece being the Mona Lisa. A little less known is the influence Leonardo had as an engineer. Because of his art studies, Leonardo was a great observant and maybe that is the reason he was also a great engineer and inventor. But what is it exactly what Da Vinci contributed as an engineer?

During his life, Leonardo kept notes on everything he thought about from the perspective of an engineer. Two of his most important works are the ‘Codex on the Flight of Birds’ and the ‘Codex Atlanticus’. The last one got its name by the massive size of it. Because it was so massive, the paper that was used for atlases was used for it. The Codex Atlanticus consists of 2238 pages and is divided into twelve volumes. It consists of a lot of notes made by Leonardo in his lifetime with the oldest from 1478 and the newest from 1519.

Codex on the Flight of Birds

In the Codex on the Flight of Birds Leonardo analyses the way birds fly. Special in this analysis is that a biomechanical approach was taken in answering the question ‘how can birds fly?’ Also, the answer to that question was translated into a way to reproduce the flight of birds. A technical, greatly simplified approach of flight is given with, for example, pulleys and strings. An example of this can be seen in the picture with on the right the original by Leonardo and on the left the translated version. Even an actual flying machine is proposed here, to be followed by more flying machines later in his life. The full codex on the Flight of Birds is translated and can be read by scanning the QR code. It is not very big and if you are interested in the mind of Da Vinci it is great to read it.

Codex Atlanticus

The Codex Atlanticus, as said above is huge and it would be impossible to go over everything in it. The full Codex can be found by scanning this QR code. As said before the Codex Atlanticus contains almost all notes of Leonardo between 1478 and 1519, also a lot of inventions done by Leonardo are in there. Most of these inventions were not recognized at the time because Leonardo was not seen as a real scholar. Things that he worked on were devices for manufacturing, transportation, and war. The last two came together when he designed movable barricades to protect the city of Milan in an attack when he was employed as an engineer there.

Codex Leicester

Leonardo wrote the Codex Leicester between 1504 and 1508. The codex is a mixture of all of Leonardo’s observations and theories on astronomy. In this codex he states that he believes plate tectonics are the only reason sea fossiles can be found on mountaintops. This was far before that theory was widely accepted. Da Vinci also wrote down his thoughts on the luminosity of the moon. He believed the moon was coverd in water, which reflected the light of the sun. Also he stated that the dark part of the moon is still slightly visible because sunlight reflected from the earth shines on it. This phenomenum later got the name planetshine as Johannes Kepler proved the theory.

Influence of Da Vinci today?

Unfortunately, because Leonardo was not taken seriously by other scholars, he did not have any real influence in the work of others and the only influence he left was the work he personally worked on like the defences of Milan. What also did not help his case was how he was always doing a lot of things at the same time. This caused him to not finish a lot of his projects.

Much of his ideas were unfortunately never used anywhere although they were ground-breaking discoveries later on, by someone else. Yes, you read that correctly, many of Leonardo’s ideas were later re-discovered by people who had no idea Leonardo was the first to come with the idea. Take for instance the steam engine. Quite an impressive invention by James Watt, only it was not Watt who designed the first steam engine… As you might guess, Da Vinci designed the first steam engine. It was even simpler than the one Watt designed as Watt used complicated transmissions because it was feared that a simple crank-and-rod would not work. Unknown to Watt, Da Vinci had proposed an idea more than a century before him that did work quite like that. Da Vinci had used a crank and something that would now be called a flywheel in his much simpler design.

Another example is the worm gear. Leonardo had invented this ‘endless screw’ in his time, only he never got the credit for it because two centuries later it was rediscovered by an English clockmaker who had no idea he was not the first to discover it.

A lasting mark on the work

Fortunately, Da Vinci did get some record for his great mind, even if it came 500 years later. In his time, Leonardo designed a bridge for the sultan of the Ottoman empire where the ships with sails would be able to pass underneath. At that time the sultan thought it was impossible to build that bridge and it was therefore never built. Half a millennium later, however, a Swiss scientist concluded his plans were technically feasible, and in 2001 his bridge, although scaled-down in size, was built over a Norwegian highway.

Leonardo also worked on a way to provide Florence with a waterway. The only way to do this was to use sluice gates, Leonardo was the one to think of this and to design the gated canal. He designed the technique that is still used in for instance the Panama canal these days.

Did you know?

•Leonardo was left-handed and wrote everything mirrored.

•Da Vinci is not Leonardo’s official last name. Because he was a bastard he had no official last name. ‘Da Vinci’ simply indicated he was from Vinci. Leonardo’s full name, with his father’s last name, was: Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci.

•Leonardo was at some point under the protection of the pope.

•Because Leonardo was not trained to be a scholar, his work was largely ignored by other scholars of his time. Appreciation for his work only started 150 years ago. Because of this it is believed that about 75% of his work is lost.

•A documentary ‘Leonardo’s dream machines’ build and tested some of his machines. A giant crossbow and a hang glider are made.