Recruitment
“Oscar is very unusual for someone new to the industry as he has made a difference to both our company, the wider industry and the wider community. He has enhanced our business as well improved our reputation.
His work on minimum staggers was ground breaking in the electrification industry and will change the way the industry as a whole approaches this element of OLE. This will also in the long term improve reliability not only on Great Western where we are working, but also on other lines across the UK.
Oscar has also worked closely with the engineering development trust to benefit future generations of potential engineers, he has given lectures to school children encouraging them into the industry. He is also working closely on schools helping them develop engineering projects.
I think he sums up everything that is good about employing a graduate.“
“I am nominating Oscar for this award for his outstanding work on the calculation of minimum staggers for OLE registration arms taking into account European standards for pantograph head roll. A study never before undertaken in the UK. This innovative new way to consider minimum staggers marks several improvements from the old version, a project for which he was awarded a Future Industry Leader Award by the Engineering Development Trust.
Oscar was the first in his position and has used the opportunity to craft the role to his strengths. In his first year, he has built an impressive range of achievements and knowledge. His other key contributions to the company have included organising fatigue testing on the Tensorex anchoring arrangements for single span overlaps and identifying areas for possible improvements that could increase the lifespan by up to 30 years. Soon, he will be mentoring budding engineers from a nearby school on a partnership he was instrumental in setting up. We cannot speak highly enough of Oscar, who has taken every challenge thrown at him.“
“Gave a great presentation of his work at the EDT awards, he has been really articulate about his passion and drive in improving the railway industry. He is a great advocate for Furrer+Frey.“
“I always found Oscar to be eager to face new challenges and learn new techniques. He never gave less then 100% when given new tasks and always completed them to a high standard.
He helped developed more efficient methods of completing these tasks.“
“I always found it a pleasure to work with Oscar. His enthusiasm for engineering was contagious and the energy he brought to the company was invaluable.
His work with pantargraphs was completed like all other tasks he completed. With dedication, patience and intelligence.“
“I was very impressed with Oscars knowledge and attitude towards his work. He will be a great asset to the railway.“
“The attitude and approach towards his work, and the willingness to take responsibility is what make Oscar special. The way he has managed to take up and complete varied tasks is commendable. His work sometimes required dealing independently with high rank officials from client, and he handled that with maturity.“
“Oscar has contributed to many projects during the course of his experience with Furrer+Frey. Oscar worked beyond the scope of his original assignment which was calculation of minimum staggers for OLE registration arms to assist various parts of the business delivering complex and challenging projects to the UK Rail Industry. He notably provided us with invaluable help and insight for the creation of material specifications for UK Master Series. His thirst for knowledge and continuous improvement was contagious making it very difficult for future graduates in our company to follow in his footsteps.“
“Oscar has added a huge amount to the whole rail industry. Despite being new to the industry he has really made a difference to our company, and the whole industry. For Great Western he managed electrical fault current testing in Geneva. I couldn’t spend the time going through the exact details with him but he read the standards and put together a thorough test plan, agreed it with the client, arranged the materials then supervised the testing at 12,000 Amps and ensured the results were accurately recorded. He pulled vast volumes of data together into a concise report demonstrating compliance where appropriate and where further work was needed. This resulted in a simple route to product acceptance for our components, ultimately that are currently being installed on Great Western now and are all the more reliable for it.
Further to this he devised and completed a ground breaking new method to calculated appropriate minimum staggers for registration arms taking into account new European standards, never before undertaken in the UK. This will ensure the reliability of Great Western OLE installations for years to come.
He also took responsibility for the testing of the fatigue life of the new Tensorex C+ units for the Series 1 OLE single span overlaps to be installed all over Great Western, using a special test rig developed with Birmingham University. This was our first collaboration with a UK University. He was involved in design improvements to improve the fatigue life as a result, ensuring that both UK and Swiss design teams were working to the same goal and that the client was informed of progress.“
“I am nominating Oscar for Graduate of the Year in recognition of his commitment and contribution to allocation and detail design projects on The Great Western Route Modernisation. Oscar supported the design team at critical moments to achieve upcoming milestones. Oscar's ability to absorb scope requirements and produce high quality work in challenging timescales was impressive. In addition to assisting the main design team, Oscar used his initiative to come up with ways to enhance our deliverables and productivity, enabling us to reduce timescales and therefore make cost savings.
Oscar demonstrated his enthusiasm to learn about other aspects of design and his commitment to the company's reputation by willingly volunteering his time to assist the allocation teams, in addition to his main work streams. Oscar took the opportunities offered to him from various parts of the business to develop his knowledge of OLE, enabling him to take a challenging and multi-dimensional approach to his work in stagger calculations and mechanical testing which is evident in the success of these projects.“
“Oscar has showed great enthusiasm throughout his time at Furrer+Frey and this can be seen in the high standard of work he has produced for a variety of projects such as the fatigue testing of the Tensorex units.“
“Oscar is an accomplished graduate who brought new skills and experiences to the work place. By working in the engineering and project management divisions he was always looking for opportunities to improve himself and the business. Oscar has easily demonstrated dedication, energy and always approaches every issue in a logical and methodical fashion. Oscar’s work on OLE parts testing, client facing workshops, graduate presentations and company exhibitions has proved he has sought to find opportunities to broaden himself, gain knowledge and experience. It was great working with Oscar and he is a real asset to the company.“
“Oscar has proved himself to be a major asset to the development of Series 1. His commitment to the progression of the Tensorex unit with pulley attachments has been very impressive.
He was the influential collaborator with University of Birmingham and with senior engineers within Network Rail.
Oscar lead the study for minimum staggers developing a multi-layered mission-critical Matlab Program to implement the findings into the Series 1 Manuals.
I have been thoroughly impressed with his attitude and commitment to the jobs that he has carried out, Oscar will be a great asset to the future of global engineering.“
“Once again the RailStaff Awards lived up to expectations, what a fantastic event to mark the 10th Anniversary! Thanks especially to Karen for ensuring everything ran smoothly throughout the process”
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