The Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes (ING) is an establishment of the STFC which operates two optical telescopes on the sub-tropical island of La Palma in the Canary Islands.  As well as delivering on our core mission to provide an effective telescope operation, the ING is involved in scientific research and instrumentation development, and has an active student programme.  In the past, we've also accepted second-year STFC trainees on graduate placement.  ING's operational environment provides a wide range of opportunities for graduates to  develop professional skills and to apply these skills in the pursuance of operational excellence whilst working with world-class telescopes.  The establishment is now actively seeking to attract more placement graduate trainees to the island to work on one of a number of ongoing projects which require mechanical engineering, optical engineering, electronic engineering, project management, system engineering  and computing expertise.

The ING has two active projects both of which include a range of disciplines.  The first of these involves an upgrade to the low-level control system of the 4.2-m William Herschel Telescope.  The overarching objective is to provide a control system that permits operation of the 220-Tonne telescope via a Linux PC and a Beckhoff PLC.  This work comprises the application of control loop theory, programming at both the PLC and PC levels, safety-related electronic control systems, and interface design and construction.  The second project is an international endeavour to deliver a multi-object, fibre-fed spectrograph where the fibres will be positioned at the telescope prime focus using robotic technology.  This work encompasses mechanical engineering, electronic engineering, optical engineering, project management and computing.  More information about this project can be found on the WEAVE web page.

Graduates interested in a placement on the island should discuss this with their line manager and contact ING's Head of Engineering, Don Carlos Abrams (Don.Abrams@stfc.ac.uk), with a brief description of their career development interests and how these could be enhanced through a placement at the ING.