Placement Years with Hawk-Eye
Hawk-Eye Innovations is pleased to offer summer or year-long placements for university students. The company has built up a strong relationship with Bath University, employing undergraduates during their ‘Year in Industry’, many of whom go on to become full-time employees after graduation. Hawk-Eye would welcome applications from students at other universities.
**Applications for placement scheme beginning June 2010-Sept 2011 are now closed**
The case studies below will explain a little more about what applicants can expect from the role, although no two experiences will ever be the same. That is the unique benefit of a Hawk-Eye placement: no other student will encounter anything quite like it.
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Adam Jefferies studies Sport Engineering at Bath University. “Since the start of my Hawk-Eye career I’ve been given a large amount of responsibility. I’ve always been in close contact with the managing director and the tennis operations manager, which has allowed me to experience the running of a whole business, rather than just a small sector. I joined the Hawk-Eye Tennis Team at a crucial point in the company’s development. The summer of 2006 was seen as a ‘make or break’ time for Hawk-Eye and, during this important time, I was in a team of four people that set up and operated the system for several of the Women’s US Open Series events. The summer culminated in setting up the system in New York for the US Open, at which Hawk-Eye was used officially for the first time. The tour was perhaps the longest that any Hawk-Eye employee has to do, covering most of the US for approximately twelve weeks with very little to no time off. This is, of course, dramatically differently to the standard ‘nine till five’ job, but this hard work paid off: Hawk Eye now has a firm place in the future of tennis. After the success of the US Open many events made enquiries into using the system at their own events. I’ve been to the following events to help set up and operate a system: Davis Cup Semi Final (Russia Vs USA), Kremlin Cup (Moscow), Paris Masters, Masters Cup Final (Shanghai), Davis Cup Final (Russia Vs Argentina), Hopman Cup (Perth) and the Australian Open (Melbourne). These events provided me with a great opportunity to gain more experience in the system. At many of the events I worked with the main developers of the system, which gave me a perfect opportunity to be trained on the Hawk-Eye system and to develop my engineering skills. It has not only been the technical skills I’ve had to develop: working with many different people, ranging from a grounds man at a relatively small venue to the managing director of the USTA (United States Tennis Association); my general people and interaction skills have improved dramatically. The next stage of my placement was to run my own tennis team. I was in charge of a team of four people at the Tennis Channel Open in Las Vegas, setting up and running a system. My experience at Hawk-Eye has certainly provided me with some valuable experiences that I can take into my further years of study at Bath University.” |
Samantha Softley is also a Sports Engineering student at Bath University. “Hawk-Eye to date has been a very insightful experience. Not only has it allowed me to put into practice some of what I have learnt during my first two years at university, but it has also given me the opportunity to see how a tennis tour operates and then to see how that integrates with live broadcasting. When working as a VR operator, it gives you a sense of pride when you see your work broadcast on television, especially when you know that it is being viewed by a worldwide audience. It definitely makes all the hard work and stressful days in the lead up to an event worthwhile. I believe the hard work that I put in was reflected in the responsibility that I was awarded. Having learnt how to set up and operate the system I was given the chance to lead a team in the recent ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam: I was initially responsible for negotiating the deal and then had to liaise with the tournament director, TV engineers and ATP to make Hawk-Eye a success in Rotterdam.”
She was the second woman to be employed full-time by Hawk-Eye as she embarked on her year-long placement in June 2006.
