Mark Colby
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Mark Colby |
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After Uni I did five varied years at Marconi Research and GEC Sensors. The normal stuff: experimental radar, satellite image processing, safety-critical system analysis, a passenger aircraft telephone exchange ... and once I wrote a report I didn't have security clearance to read :-) It was time for a change - I joined Pectel Control Systems to work on racecar engine and chassis management electronics. That lasted seven years, ending in April 2002 when I left to become Systems Designer at the birth of a new company, Life Racing. Right now I'm in it down to the silicon, designing a new range of control systems from scratch. In case you are wondering, all the cars on this page are controlled by electronics I had a major hand in. |
| Motorsport's challenges aren't always obvious. During the 1999 Safari rally I had to produce some new software for the Ford Focus WRC engine management electronics in just a couple of hours (an additional strategy to help cope with some unexpectedly harsh conditions). I was back in the UK, so as soon as I had written and tested the new code, the team downloaded it via a portable satellite dish sitting on the sand in the middle of the desert, to program into the car for the next stage. This works fine, albeit slowly - except when a tribe of nomads parks its camels in front of your dish. |
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My idea of a good time? See left. I've done quite a few things over the years. Back at Uni I did a lot of target and practical pistol shooting, and I played a bit of jazz piano. I've been playing county squash leagues on and off since I was about 13, though I get worse injuries now I'm 33 :-( C'est la vie, just need to be fit in time for the skiing season. Most of the rest of my spare time goes on gym, badminton, reading (most recently Iain Banks, HP Lovecraft, Terry Pratchett, Algenon Blackwood and yes, JK Rowling) and music (from 3LW to Yada Yada to Wynton Marsalis to Sibellius) but above all it's just nice to relax with friends, particularly when good food, good beer, or good whisky (Port Ellen anyone?) is involved. |
| Last but not least is of course this site. I started it back in 1996 when my mother Jane's first ME book ME - The New Plague was about to be published, just to make details of it more easily and widely available. We started adding documents and information from various professionals soon after that, and Young Action Online was properly born. |
