Tank Museum trip

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Students get stuck in on first trip to Tank Museum

Wednesday, 12 March, 2025

A mix of students from BSU’s Computing, Cyber Security, Games Development and Creative Computing degrees visited the Tank Museum in Dorset to learn about the intricate technology behind tanks, and find out more about the role of high-tech engineering in the defence sector.

Accompanied by BSc (Hons) Computing co-course leader Dr Ed Longford, and MSc Cyber Security lead Dr John Curry, the lucky students benefitted from an in-depth talk with one of the Tank Museum’s tour guides, as well as the opportunity to explore the museum throughout the day. When speaking to Ed about the trip, he explained the reason behind choosing the Tank Museum as a point of interest for the students: 

"In many ways it is different from what people expect, but tanks (and the military in general) have always been on the cutting edge of technology and encountering problems that need solving and fixing them before most others know it is a problem....

Students will be able to see how tank designs fail, both from an implementation and design viewpoint. These were then improved either by new production methods, new designs, or scrapping things and starting again. There is also political or managerial interference which causes some of these problems. All of which is a good tutorial for how development for computing systems will be in real life."

The trip felt especially relevant for our Games Development cohort, who could see how the popular online game World of Tanks modelled their own digital tanks on those found in the Tank Museum. The Museum has a dedicated 'Gaming Zone', where visitors can see first-hand how collaboration between game developers and the museum staff led to a hugely successful gaming franchise. The Tank Museum proudly stands as a clear example of the intersection between digital technology and the heritage sector, and how gaming development can take many different paths.

Students across our computing courses have previously enjoyed field trips to Bletchley Park, IBM, and the War Games Jam with the Imperial War Museum. Perhaps most importantly, however, this was the first field trip where they could climb into a tank! 

Curious about what other fun stuff our Design School students get up to? Be sure to follow @bsu_schoolofdesign on Instagram!