What is your role at Ada Mode?
I joined Ada Mode in February as a Senior Engineer, with a background of 10 years in the nuclear industry as a reactor systems design engineer primarily working on Small Modular Reactors. I’m expecting my role to straddle the line between the more traditional engineering and programme support that we provide to our clients alongside leading on some of the data-led projects that we’re working on, as well as picking up a range of interesting and useful miscellaneous business support tasks.
What does an average day look like for you?
Although I have only just joined Ada Mode, so far there has been a huge variety in the type of work that I’ve been doing – from upskilling and training to working on bids, and even supporting our recruitment efforts. It’s a part of the job I have really enjoyed so far, and one of the benefits of working for an SME with such a positive working culture.
Since joining Ada Mode, what has been a memorable project or challenge to work on?
My main project at the moment is to design and update our internal data storage and management systems to ensure that the right information is available to the right people when it’s needed, whilst accommodating the growing business. It’s given me a great insight into how we work as a business and allowed me to brush up on my Azure and Databricks skills.
It seems like everyone at Ada Mode shares the same passion for tech. What about AI technology are you most passionate about?
For me there are two key areas where I think AI can provide benefits to everyone. Firstly, it is incredibly useful for automating manual, process driven tasks – freeing people to spend their time focusing on the more complex, creative (and interesting!) tasks. As well, when used carefully AI can be an incredibly effective learning tool, particularly in areas like programming and data analysis. By providing explanations and rapid feedback, it helps democratise learning and allows people to build new skills much more quickly.
And that’s without even touching on some of the more advanced applications, like Ada Mode’s outage optimisation capabilities using our Atom platform. You can read more about this application in this case study. I’m very excited to see under the hood in the coming weeks and months.
Where do you see the industry heading in the next 3-5 years?
I feel like we are at an inflection point for use of AI in some of the more traditionally conservative industries like nuclear, but I don’t think many within those sectors are quite sure yet how best to apply AI. That’s where our expertise at Ada Mode comes in - it’s exciting to be in a position to help clients adopt AI in a practical and responsible way where it adds value, in a way that leaves a human firmly in control.
What do you enjoy doing when you’re not working?
On weekends I can usually be found outdoors somewhere running or cycling around the countryside. I’m also very slowly making my way around the 92 football league grounds so will occasionally be popping up in Cheltenham, Leyton or some other random town or city.
What are your top 3 books/podcasts?
Bill Bryson – A Short History of Nearly Everything
Andy Weir – Project Hail Mary
Pierre Boulle – Planet of the Apes
Peter Sibley wants to ask you about the convergence of nuclear engineering and digital solutions to enable successful Small Modular Reactor (SMR) implementation. How optimistic are you about the positive impacts that this could have?
There’s an interesting synergy emerging at the moment between advanced nuclear (including SMRs) and AI – in many ways nuclear energy is key to support the AI revolution as it provides reliable baseload electricity generation to power data centres, but those same digital tools can then be used to deliver nuclear projects more successfully.
Historically, many nuclear projects have suffered delays and cost overruns in part because of their reliance on fragmented systems and manual processes to manage large volumes of complex information. A modern digital approach, incorporating tools like digital twins and machine learning driven analytics, will help to manage that complexity and improve confidence certainty of cost and schedule.
It’s a space with huge potential and I’m very excited to see what the future of the industry looks like – it feels like the cards are all falling into place for the nuclear industry in general, with public perception improving and a growing recognition of the role it can play in supporting net-zero goals.
