Sky's the limit for engineer
Andrew Carryer is a systems engineer for MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd., in unmanned air vehicle programs.
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All Art Hanger could do was wait for the rescue planes to arrive.
An unmanned aircraft spotted the plane crash survivor—its distant operators then guided a ground team of rescuers to the crash site. Hangar, a Calgary MP, was rescued while the aircraft continued to fly overhead and monitor the operation.
For Andrew Carryer, 29, the exercise was one of the proudest moments of his five-year career at Richmond's high-tech firm MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd.
"We've gone from an idea to winning a number of major contracts with customers around the world," he said in an interview.
Carryer, a systems engineer for MDA's unmanned air vehicle programs, has been building the technology beyond military uses, making it available for any firm requiring surveillance.
The technology allows sectors such as oil and gas, forestry and insurance to collect a reliable and steady stream of information while reducing the human risk of deploying pilots in treacherous or remote areas.
Driving Carryer to push limits is recognizing just how new the technology is—especially considering manned aviation has enjoyed 100 years of innovation.
'"If there's a way of being involved in the early boom, that's a huge motivator," he said. "For me, it's what can we achieve, how far outside the box can we lean, how do we enable the sector to grow, and how can we be on the leading edge of it."
Carryer earned his mechanical engineering degree from Queen's University in 2003, and completed a master's degree in aerospace engineering in 2005 from Carleton University. He continues to shape the future of unmanned flight while building interest in the field. In 2005 he began developing a student competition for Canadian universities.
"Basically we're developing a pool of students who understand the challenges so that when they leave they can either go out and continue to push the sector, or we can identify them in the industry...and then roll them into bigger projects."
