Tom Warren

Tom Warren BA(Hons), MEng, MA(Cantab)

(Engineering Project Manager)

After completing my engineering degrees at Cambridge, I joined the automotive industry as a design and development engineer specialising in groundbreaking computer based stress analysis techniques in the early 1990's. In 1995 I joined Scope to run their fledgling mobility project which was developing a new track following wheelchair device.  It became apparent very soon that there was considerable interest in the technology; which led to the inception of the ‘guided mobility project' which aimed to manufacture and install the technology in schools, homes and other environments, alongside the continuing engineering development.

I have run the project for 25 years now, working at Vranch House since 1999. This 'robotic' wheelchair tracking system has now been installed adn is maintained in over a hundred educational and healthcare establishments in the UK, allowing an adapted powered wheelchair or custom built platform to automatically follow a safe, predetermined route controlled by a single switch, which allows a child to experience independence and potentially develop mobility skills, and has proven to provide a powerful motivation for learning in many cases.

In recent years my role at Vranch House has changed significantly. In the simplest terms this has involved taking technical work that has historically been done for us by outside companies and developing the capacity to manage as much as possible 'in-house', which has financial and response time benefits for us as an organisation. This includes the website, network, IT support, environmental control, hydrotherapy support and plant, signage, mobility, communication, electronic hardware repair, manufacturing of custom parts, switching, software and programming, and security. I work in conjunction and co-operation with my colleagues' similar support work and hopefully our efforts much benefit the smooth operation of Vranch House.