Personal Statement
Andrew Gordon is Principal Engineer, Future Technology for BAE SYSTEMS Air. His career spans over 35 years working in engineering, technology and information systems. In his current role Andrew is focused on research and development of information technologies to support BAE SYSTEMS digital strategy, with a specific focus on Industrial Internet of Things, Integrated Vehicle Health Management, Analytics & AI, Digital Twin and System Architectures.
Focus and Key Interests
Andrew has a specific focus on emerging Digital technologies including:
- Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and Integrated Vehicle Health Management (IVHM)
- Data Science, Analytics, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence
- Digital Twin, including Model Based Systems Engineering and Multidisciplinary Design Analysis Optimization
- Augmented / Virtual Reality
- Cloud, including Hyperconvergence, DevSecOps, Containerisation and CI/CD
- Architectures
Career Background
I am of the generation who were part of the Home Computer boom of the late 70s / early 80s. This was the era of the ZX80/81, Commodore VIC-20, and BBC Micro. My first experience of computing was a Research Machine 380Z (and there was only one!) at High School. It was on this machine that I taught myself BASIC, my first ‘real’ program a game called Shoot the Rapids which had you steering a canoe down an ever narrowing rapids with increasing numbers of rocks to crash into. Safe to say it never won any game awards, but none the less taught me the basics (pun intended) of programming.
I started my career as an Engineering Technician in the Mechanical Engineering Department of The University of Leeds. My role was providng engineering support to research programmes, predominately design and manufacture of specialist test and experimental equipment. It was here I started to become more involved in information systems professionally, working in Computer Aided Design & Manufacture research. It was from this work I moved into the CAD and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) industry for a number of years. I worked at Ernst & Young as a Technology Strategy Management Consultant for a couple of years before joining BAE SYSTEMS in 2003.