Formula Student is Europe’s top educational motorsport competition, with students and teams from all over the world coming to compete. The competition is integrated into engineering degree courses, allowing students to take what they are learning in the classroom and lab, into the real world. It tests both engineering skills, and the project management that is vital to a professional career.  In this episode, we take you behind the scenes at Silverstone, as this year’s finals took place, with over 50 teams competing across a variety of disciplines. 

Chief judge Dan Jones went from competing in Formula Student, to a career in motorsports. He explains the process each team goes through on the day. But the work, he says, goes on throughout the year as they design and build their car. Jones also explains how Formula Student has played an integral role in helping him get into a career in motorsport. 

We also hear from the teams themselves and explore how these engineering students tackle everything from design and manufacturing to testing and racing. From internal combustion engines, to the EV cars that now dominate the competition and even new AI cars, we hear from teams competing in all the different classes.

Guests

Naomi Rolfe, project lead Formula Student, IMECHE

Dan Jones, chief judge, Formula Student

John Dangerfield, head cost and manufacturing judge, Formula Student

Cara Fox, team principal, Queen Mary Formula Student

Prescott Campbell, team leader, Oxford Brookes Racing

Dash Gilbert, technical partnerships lead, Oxford Brookes Racing

Links

Formula Student

The post #290 Racing for Innovation: Inside Formula Student first appeared on Engineering Matters.

Lean production techniques have become common across heavy industry. They cut resource use, and promote quality assurance. They were inspired by shelf stocking techniques used in US grocery stores. But can they now be turned to the start of the grocery supply chain, farming itself? That is the goal of Engineering Matters Awards Sustainability Gold Champions, Intelligent Growth Solutions.

IGS’s vertical farming towers take components from heavy industry, and repurpose them for farming. Within a structure around the size of a two-storey house, plants and seedlings grow in trays, in precisely controlled conditions. Clever control of LEDs and other electronics, makes the towers energy efficient, and particularly suitable for use with intermittent renewable energy.

For some crops grown in warmer climates and traditionally transported by road or air, these can deliver carbon benefits in terms of reduced food miles. The towers allow crops to be grown anywhere, meaning that land currently dedicated to farming can be used for carbon sequestration and biodiversity renewal. And, by allowing tree seedlings to be grown reliably at scale, they could help boost reforestation efforts.

Guests

Colin Campbell, chief executive, The James Hutton Institute

Dave Scott, CTO, Intelligent Growth Solutions

The post #289 Bringing lean production to agriculture: Engineering Matters Awards 2024 Sustainability Gold Champions — Intelligent Growth Solutions first appeared on Engineering Matters.

The adventures of astronauts have inspired the dreams of many young people. But once those dreams collide with the reality of years of demanding training and study, they often fade. Today, space is about much more than high profile crewed missions. In the UK alone, tens of thousands of workers will be needed by the space industry. 

In this episode, part of a series on Engineering Matters Awards winners, we speak to Diversity and Inclusion Champions the UK Space Agency, and learn how their Space for Everyone tour has helped demonstrate the real opportunities available in space, and the wide range of skills the country will need.

The tour saw a full size, 72ft (21m) replica of the first rocket to launch from the UK, crossing the country. It visited towns and cities without an existing link to the sector, and was part of a fuller programme of online and in person engagement, helping to show young people that their space dreams could become real, and the many paths they could take to join the sector. 

Matthew Archer, director of launch, UK Space Agency

Simon Foster, outreach manager, faculty of natural sciences, Imperial College London

The post #281 A rocket in the high street: Engineering Matters Awards 2024 Inclusion Gold Champion — Space for Everyone first appeared on Engineering Matters.

Britains biodiversity has been declining sharply over the last 50 years. We are now one of the most nature depleted nations in the world. Despite legislation and efforts to stem the tide of wildlife population decline, nothing has worked.

Some Wildlife Trusts and organisations now support a more nature based approach to wildlife and land management. Rewilding is the process of helping nature return to its natural state and one of the best ways of doing that is by letting big animals do the job of wildlife managers.

In Kent, in the Summer of 2022, a family of European Bison, the first to roam wildly in the UK for thousands of years, were released into the Blean Woods. The hope is as they move through the woods, they will interact with the environment around them creating better, more livable habitats for the entire ecosystem.

It’s also not just Bison, across the UK species that once lived here are being returned to see if they can play a role in managing and improving this island’s depleted wildlife.

Guests

Paul Hadaway, Kent Wildlife Trust

Sara King, Rewilding Manager, Rewilding Britain

Resources

For more on the Bison reintroduction project, click here

For more on Rewilding Britain, click here 

The post #211 Rewilding the UK first appeared on Engineering Matters.

Last week the UK government announced plan to ban the sale of wet wipes to deal with the problem of fatbergs in sewers. This week we’re rerunning an episode from 2019 where we venture down into the sewer system to see the largest fatberg in Europe.

Underneath cities all over the UK subterranean mountains of calcified fat are gathering in our sewers as fat, oil and grease stick to baby wipes and harden to form a blubbery bacterial blockage. Removing them is dangerous, manual work, putting people and the infrastructure itself at risk. Special projects manager Andy Howard, who is clearing Europe’s biggest fatberg in Blackfriars, London with Lanes Group, explains that removing a fatberg is not necessarily the end of the story. Unless people change their habits, fatbergs will come back. At Whitechapel, in east London they have already witnessed the return of the fatberg.

Hear Andy describe in detail how fatbergs are hacked, drilled and dug out as well as describe a new phenomenon plaguing the sewers – concretebergs.

GUEST

Andy Howard, special projects manager, Lanes Group

A new report from Lanes shows that public awareness of fatbergs is increasing with 77 percent of people knowing what they. However 85 percent of people had never heard of concretebergs! Full survey here.

SPECIAL THANKS

Lanes Group

Thames Water

Water UK

The post #210 Revisited: Return of the Fatbergs first appeared on Engineering Matters.

In a world of complex supply chains, how can owners secure their assets against risks like climate change and disease lockdowns? By using the concept of resilience, owners can form strategic asset management plans, which balance the level of service required, against the cost of that service, while paying attention to all the risks faced: both by the asset itself, and by the supply chains it is part of.

In this episode, Shiv Iyer and Donna Huey explore how asset management experts can help owners methodically break down each of the risks they face. This approach can be used to bring together large groups of stakeholders, to understand how assets connect to the world around them. These can be modelled over decades, using simulation software from Atkins.

Owners can use resilience to inform their decisions about the location and design of new assets. It can also allow them to update their existing maintenance programmes to respond to new and changing risks, And it can help them win the confidence of insurers and bond ratings agencies.

Guests

Donna Huey, chief digital officer, SVP, Atkins US

Shiv Iyer, technical director, asset management, Atkins US

The post #209 Asset Management, Resilience, and Climate Change first appeared on Engineering Matters.

The first edition of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Whole Life Carbon Assessment for the Built Environment, published in 2017, is a professional statement that establishes a methodology for calculating the carbon cost of buildings, and now infrastructure, from construction, through use, to end-of-life.

The guidelines already allow users to make finely tuned carbon cost/benefit calculations. For example, do the energy savings of added insulation justify the embodied carbon cost of the insulating material? Or, has a building truly reached the end of its life, or could it be more efficiently re-used or retrofitted? If it cannot, can any carbon costs be saved through salvaging materials?

The professional statement is now being revised, and a public consultation is taking place until 18 April 2023. In this episode, Simon Sturgis, who has led the development of the guidance, explains its origins, and the ideas behind it, and the RICS’s Matthew Collins explains how it is being used, and why it is being revised.

Guests

Simon Sturgis, founder, Targeting Zero LLP

Matthew Collins, senior specialist, construction and infrastructure management, RICS

Resources

Simon Sturgis’s paper Redefining Zero, which helped spur debate on the carbon costs of buildings.

The UK House of Commons environmental audit select committee report Building to net zero: costing carbon in construction.

The Bath University Inventory of Carbon and Energy (Bath ICE) database.

The post #208 Counting Carbon Costs in the Built Environment first appeared on Engineering Matters.

For 50 years the North Sea has been critical to European energy. Technology and skills developed over decades enabled the extraction of oil and gas in some of the most extreme and hazardous conditions on the planet. 

As the world transitions away from oil and gas, the North Sea will again be a critical source of energy. In time it will play host to thousands of wind turbines, generating unlimited clean power. 

The UK is targeting 50GW of offshore wind power by 2030. To realise this dream, and future growth, will mean drawing on the experience of the offshore drilling and production industry, as well as new technologies and approaches, as  energy companies look to site and maintain more assets than anyone had ever imagined. 

From anchors styled like spider legs to inspection robots mimicking octopuses; design, technology and robotics advances will be continue the North Sea’s tradition as the offshore energy sector’s incubator. 

This episode was recorded live in Edinburgh. 

Guests

James Faroppa, Director, Marine Geoconsultancy Europe and Africa, Fugro

Pawel Michalak, Global Innovation Director, Fugro

Laura Aldren, Digital and Data Manager, Total Energies

Yvan Petillot, Professor of Robotics and Autonomous Vehicles, Heriot Watt University

Francesco Giorgio-Serchi, Institute for Integrated Micro and Nano Systems, University of Edinburgh

The post #207 Revolution in the North Sea first appeared on Engineering Matters.

The Swedish city of Gothenburg is celebrating its 400 year anniversary in 2023 and as part of the celebrations the city is undergoing a construction boom. For much of the city’s 400 year history, major construction projects have been very limited by the wet and weak ground conditions beneath the city.

This means that Gothenburg, unlike most comparable European cities, doesn’t have an underground metro network or any skyscrapers.

But now thanks to new innovation in construction, particularly in the ground shoring sector, digging deep underground and building up to the sky, can take place on Gothenburg’s weak clay. 

This is the story of how Gothenburg is building its first underground metro line and Scandinavia’s tallest skyscraper, when only a few years ago these projects may have been impossible.

Guests

Sam Oldroyd, European sales manager, Groundforce

Richard Dawson, Senior Operations Manager at Groundforce

Olaf Buerger, Project Manager, NCC

The post #206 The Giant Props of Gothenburg first appeared on Engineering Matters.

In recent decades, companies have moved manufacturing to countries offering low cost labour. Today, as they aim for Net Zero, they must also consider their carbon footprint. And that is almost impossible to do if raw materials are sourced from around the world, from countries with highly emitting energy systems and poor record keeping.

Sam Turner, Net Zero champion for the UK’s High Value Manufacturing Catapult, proposes a new approach: not offshoring, but ‘greenshoring’. The strategy would see countries competing not just on their ability to supply cheap labour and materials, but on their ability to reduce carbon emissions and other environmental harms.

It’s an approach that has been adopted by Frog Bikes, a manufacturer based in the UK’s Bike Valley, a regional cluster of businesses that aims to develop bicycle manufacturing in the country. 

But the company has struggled to find the data it needs to prove its ability to compete in terms of carbon costs. Doing this will require the development of new carbon accounting tools, and of standards that allow them to be validated. 

Guests

Katherine Bennett, CEO, High Value Manufacturing Catapult

Sam Turner, Net Zero champion, High Value Manufacturing Catapult

Russ Hall, Chief engineer – Net Zero, High Value Manufacturing Catapult

Shelley Lawson, director, Frog Bikes

Jerry Lawson, chief frog, Frog Bikes

The post #205 The Green, Green, Shores of Home first appeared on Engineering Matters.

The Engineering Matters and Reby Media team has been working on a new podcast series in partnership with HS2. How to Build a Railway is a twelve-part podcast series exploring the story behind the construction of the UK’s new high speed rail line.

The podcast series features industry experts and special guests giving their unique insight on a whole range of topics including tunnelling, archaeology, ecology, architecture, building bridges, innovation, and rail systems.  Each episode will focus on a different aspect of our story so far, from archaeology to enabling works, the main civils works underway and much more.

Across the series, Engineering Presenter Fran Scott, known for her explosive demonstrations on CBBC’s Absolute Genius with Dick and Dom and Channel4’s Lego Masters, will lead listeners on a journey covering every aspect of Europe’s largest infrastructure project.

The podcast series will feature insight into how the project is progressing, including huge feats of engineering such as tunnels, brand new stations, depots, viaducts and bridges.

Episode One: “The What and the Why of HS2”­ explores why HS2 is needed, the progress so far and upcoming goals. It features HS2 Ltd’s CEO Mark Thurston, West Midlands Mayor Andy Street, HS2’s former Chief Engineer Andrew McNaughton and National Railway Museum Associate Curator Bob Gwynne.

The post Introducing: How to Build a Railway first appeared on Engineering Matters.

Globally, the aviation industry accounts for 2.5% of all carbon emissions. The emission of other gases and particulates at altitude may make its warming impact even larger.

Industry wide, manufactures, airlines and even airports, are all looking at how to bring in a new age of green plane technology, whether it’s hydrogen fuel cell, battery electric, or some other sustainable source of power.

However, for airports, the arrival of a green plane does not mean they will have decarbonised their own operations. Airports will have to find their own ways of reducing their carbon emissions while also helping accommodate new flying technology.

Atkins’ Decarbonomics programme is being brought to airport to help identify the areas responsible for the most carbon emissions and creating a roadmap towards net zero.

Guests

Justin Jones, Global Aviation Market Lead, SNC Lavalin

Isabelle Smith, Director of Engineering Net Zero, SNC Lavalin

Resources

For more on Decarbonomics and Engineering Net Zero, click here

The post #204 Creating Green Airports of the Future first appeared on Engineering Matters.

In light of the recent earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, this we are revisting the story of Nooraullah Kuchai. Noorullah is a civil engineer, a humanitarian and a refugee twice over. He lived in a tent in a Pakistani refugee camp for a decade and is now dedicating his life to helping people who have been displaced by war like he was. And the challenge is enormous. More people are being displaced by conflict and disaster than ever before. Today 71 million people around the world are in need of shelter, either as refugees having crossed borders to get to safety, or by becoming homeless inside their own countries. And in most cases these people will not get to go home for years, sometimes even decades. New approaches are therefore needed to ensure that shelter is sustainable, durable and socially beneficial for displaced people and the communities that host them. To enable this, collaboration is needed between humanitarians, local governments, academia and technical professionals to bring together those that manage disaster on the ground, and people who are developing better shelter. We head to the UK Shelter Forum in London to find out more about how this knowledge gap is closing.

Partner

Mott MacDonald

Guests

Dima Albadra, Research Associate, University of Bath

Tom Corsellis, Executive Director, Shelter Centre

Jamie Johnston, Head of Global Systems, Bryden Wood

Anne Kerr, Global Head of Cities, Mott Macdonald

Nooroola Kuchai, PhD Candidate, University of Bath

Dr Francis Moran, Research Associate, University of Bath

Brett Moore, Head of Shelter and Settlements, UNHCR

Ana Ruiton, Façade Engineer, Mott MacDonald

Jake Zarins, Associate Director Disaster Risk Reduction, Habitat for Humanity

Resources

UK Shelter Forum website 

Healthy Housing for the Displaced project 

Engineering Hope 

The post #203 Revisited: Crisis Shelter for Mass Displacement first appeared on Engineering Matters.

We delve into the critical role of the built environment in addressing the climate emergency, and how our Engineering Matters Awards Net Zero champion the Built Environment Carbon Database (BECD) is helping decarbonise the industry. Created by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and the Building Cost Information Service (BCIS), the BECD is a comprehensive initiative to collect and share data on carbon emissions from construction projects. With contributions from various professional bodies and industry experts like James Fiske of BCIS and Fabrizio Varriale from RICS, the episode explores the database’s development, purpose, and the importance of transparent carbon data sharing.

The BECD consists of two key databases: the asset level database and the material database. The asset database helps developers benchmark carbon emissions of projects like buildings and bridges throughout their lifecycle, from construction to operation and maintenance. The material database aims to provide comprehensive coverage of materials used in construction, facilitating more accurate whole life carbon assessments. Experts Orlando Gibbons from Arup and James Fiske highlight the significance of consistent and transparent carbon reporting in driving the industry towards lower emissions and better practices.

Despite the BECD’s potential, the episode underscores the need for government support and regulation to maximize its impact. Initiatives like the proposed Part Z regulation, which would mandate carbon calculations for construction projects, are crucial for creating a competitive and accountable landscape. The collaborative efforts of industry bodies and the development of standards like the UK net zero carbon building standard are pivotal in achieving decarbonization goals. The BECD was a gold winner at the Engineering Matters 2024 awards. Entry for next year’s awards is now open.

Guests

James Fiske, CEO, BCIS

Orlando Gibbons, Embodied Carbon Specialist, Arup

Fabrizio Varriale, Place and Space analyst, RICS

The post #280 Measuring carbon in materials and projects: Engineering Matters Awards 2024 Net Zero Champion — BCIS Built Environment Carbon Database first appeared on Engineering Matters.

What do we do after a structure fails? Often, we go to court. Courts cannot make bereaved families, or those injured, whole. They cannot repair damaged structures. But they can go some way to making right some of the harms suffered.

Forensic engineers, or building pathologists, are often called on to offer expert witness testimony in these cases. James Cohen has studied many building failures. With Arup, he wrote a report that analysed the complex causes of a multiple fatality tower crane collapse in New York.

Reports like this can help engineers, policymakers, and regulators, understand and learn from failures. But, Cohen says, building pathologist’s insights are often hidden, rather than shared.  He calls on forensic engineers to act as truth tellers, not just advocates for their client’s interests. He says we should share insights not just from failures, but on near misses. And, he thinks more contracts should be structured so that parties share an interest in a project’s success or failure.

Guest

James Cohen

The post #202 After the Collapse first appeared on Engineering Matters.

In 2019 Tarmac announced their Innovation Challenge, for companies to propose new technologies to help Tarmac decarbonise. Over the next three years in partnership with Renault Trucks and TVS Interfleet they developed the first electric concrete mixer to be used in the UK.

Through the process of designing and building a first of its kind mixer, they discovered massive inefficiencies in existing diesel mixers and made a cleaner and far more efficient mixer than any diesel mixers that came before.

Guests

Graham Waters, Director of Logistics, Tarmac

Ben Garner, Senior Logistics Manager, Tarmac

Andrew Scott, Head of Electric Mobility and Product Development, Renault Trucks

Vito Ronzano, Industrial Design Director, TVS Interfleet

Resources

For more on Tarmac’s eMixer, click here 

The post #201 Creating the UK’s First eMixer first appeared on Engineering Matters.

Robots are increasingly able to take on any repeatable task in industry, and are used in many dull, dirty or dangerous tasks. But their deployment for highly variable tasks remains limited. They are now being used in nuclear decommissioning, to sort, cut, and repack waste storage skips. And this could serve as a testing ground for their use to handle other complex and variable streams of materials.

At Sellafield, one of the most complex nuclear decommissioning sites in the world, Atkins have helped develop systems that can identify the best way to cut contaminated storage skips, which have been stored in pools over decades of nuclear power generation and fuel reprocessing.

The company is also developing robotic systems that can allow staff to perform work in laboratory glove boxes—or isolators—without being exposed to risk. These developments come as the sector faces a growing labour shortage, explored in the recent Atkins/SNC-Lavalin report Digital in Nuclear: Our vision for 2035, and will help ease these pressures, while speeding up the decommissioning process.

Guests

Christian Pilon, head of robotics, SNC-Lavalin

Robert Marwood, technical director, robotics and technology, Atkins

The post #200 Nuclear Robots on the Cutting Edge first appeared on Engineering Matters.

How can we maintain reliable power through the energy transition, while still making significant cuts to energy emissions? Carbon capture and storage promises an answer, but much groundwork must be done to bring this potential to life.

SSE recently received approval to build a new gas power plant at Keadby, in Lincolnshire, which could be the UK’s first power station equipped with carbon capture technology. The power plant will help maintain reliability for the UK National Grid, even when renewable energy is not available, while cutting carbon emissions by as much as 95%.

The Keadby plant is one of many industrial and power emitters of carbon in the UK that will pump gas to the East Coast Cluster, a system of carbon transport and storage under development in disused oil and gas wells in the North Sea.

But first, the project team needed to understand the ground that the power station site sits on and assess geo-hazards and any risks they may cause to the development, working collaboratively with Fugro to develop a geotechnical ground model that will inform the design.

Guests

Katy Burke, Lead Engineer, Keadby Carbon Capture Project, SSE

Mark Birley, Keadby CC Project Director,  SSE

Nick Armstrong, Lead Consultant, LSC Fugro

Rob Hawkins, Regional Commercial Excellence Manager, Fugro

The post #199 Pioneering Carbon Capture for Thermal Power first appeared on Engineering Matters.

Getting to net zero emissions requires a paradigm shift in the way that we think and in the way that we do business says Dr Kim Yates from Mott MacDonald. In this episode we explore how collaboration between climate resilience, decarbonisation and improving biodiversity along with systems thinking could deepen efforts to reduce global carbon emissions, improve our natural environment and protect society from the impacts of climate change.

This is critical as the UN Environment Programme reports that progress is not happening fast enough to keep global warming between 1.5 and 2 degrees centigrade. It finds that infrastructure will absorb 88 percent of the investment needed to prevent climate catastrophe. We have to do things differently.

Guests

Julia Baker, Head of Nature Services, Mott MacDonald

Maria Manidaki, Technical Director, Decarbonisation, Mott MacDonald

Nikki Van Dijk, Technical Director Climate Resilience, Mott MacDonald

Dr Kim Yates, Climate Change Operational Lead, Mott MacDonald

Resources

Good progress but not fast enough: Decarbonising infrastructure

Nature Based Solutions: An interactive map

Partner

Mott MacDonald is a global engineering, management and development consultancy. Its purpose is to improve society by considering social outcomes in everything it does, relentlessly focusing on excellence and digital innovation, transforming its clients’ businesses, our communities and employee opportunities.

The post #198 Collaboration: The Net Zero Trilogy first appeared on Engineering Matters.

In 1992 rolls Royce helped to fund a new technology centre at the University of Birmingham which began a long relationship between the manufacturer and the university. Over the last 30 years research into material sciences for aviation have led to important safety and efficiency gains in plane performance.

In 2022 the University of Birmingham and Rolls Royce were given the Bhattacharyya Award which recognises excellent achievement in work between industry and academia.

The future of aviation, whether sustainable fuels or electrification is having a big impact on the materials research taking place and the close relationship between Rolls Royce and the University of Birmingham is on the forefront of the research.

Guests

Neil Glover, Head of Materials Research at Rolls Royce

Paul Bowen, Research Director at the University of Birmingham Technology Research Centre.

Resources

For more on Rolls Royce’s University Technology Centre’s, click here

For more on the University of Birmingham Technology Centre, click here

The post #197 On the Cutting Edge of Aviation first appeared on Engineering Matters.

The US National Ignition Facility recently announced that it had achieved a milestone in the development of fusion technology, producing more energy from a fusion process than that put into the reactor directly by the lasers that control the process. While the NIF is not designed to research power generation—it has its roots in the 1960s nuclear test ban treaty, and aims to allow maintenance and design of nuclear weapons without explosive tests—this is still a breakthrough.

For this episode, we go back to March 2021 to look at another important step in the decades long development of fusion power.

In the episode, we looked at a project being run by the UK Atomic Energy Authority which aims to build a prototype fusion power plant by the 2040s. To do that they have been working on a concept design, choosing from a menu of international technologies. Their work needs to be complete by spring 2024 to then work on and complete a detailed design by about 2030.

Called ‘STEP’, its success will be measured in one way, whether it can sustainably put electricity into the grid.

This is a challenge that will push the limits of robotics, plasma science, materials science, nuclear science. But if we get it right, if all of the technologies fall into place, we have the potential to generate carbon neutral energy for millions of years. 

Guests

Jenny Cane, Product Area Lead for In-Vessel Components at STEP, UK Atomic Energy Authority

Nick Walkden, Head of Executive Office, UK Atomic Energy Authority

Resources

The UK Atomic Energy Authority’s webpage on STEP can be found here. The website for the project in the south of France ITER can be found here.

The post #196 Back to the Future of Fusion first appeared on Engineering Matters.

Every December in London a magnificent Christmas tree is unveiled in Trafalgar Square. It is an annual gift from the people of Norway to the people of Britain that began 75 years ago.

The origins of this tradition lie in the darkest days of the Second World War, and a British naval hero who undertook a mission for Norway’s government-in-exile.

Today, the crossing of the tree from Norway to Britain is a more peaceful affair than the story that started it all. But growing such an enormous tree, and transporting it to London, is not without challenges. 

In this episode, we tell both of those stories…

Guest

Eivind Johan Birkeland, Forest Manager – Municipality of Oslo, Agency for the Urban Environment

Resources

For a video showing the unveiling of the first Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree, click here

For more information on the daring escape of the Norwegian Royal Family, click here

Listeners interested in the exploits of WW2 torpedo boats should read ‘Dog Boats of War’ by Leonard C Reynolds, click here

The post #195 The Journey of the Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree first appeared on Engineering Matters.

The UK government recently confirmed its support for Sizewell C. Getting to this point, and planning how thousands of construction crew and millions of tonnes of materials and plant will get to the site, has taken a decade of work. 

Nuclear power plants like Sizewell C are almost always built in rural locations, by the sea. Their neighbours are often used to a quiet pace of life, and transport links have limited capacity. To gain permission to build the plant, EDF, helped by WSP, had to carefully consider a mix of road, rail, and sea transport options.

Their proposals were eventually considered by five examiners during a tightly scheduled six month process. This took place under an approach to planning of nationally significant projects in the UK, called a Development Consent Order, or DCO. 

The DCO system was adopted shortly before work on planning Sizewell C began, in 2008. While it promises to streamline planning approvals, with one consent given for an entire project, it requires companies to prepare thousands of pages of documents, and detailed simulations of transport impacts for dozens of miles around the plant.

Guests

Richard Bull – Head of DCO delivery Sizewell C

John Hicks – Technical director, WSP

Nick Cottman – Technical director, WSP

The post #194 Nuclear Power Connections first appeared on Engineering Matters.

This year saw infrastructure resilience included in the Carbon Crunch programme for the first time. It is recognition that our infrastructure is being exposed to greater environmental risks than before, and so the impacts on people and communities will be even more profound.

If construction does not properly consider the growing risks of rising floods and extreme heat events, any low carbon infrastructure we build could become prematurely obsolete.

But as with the realisation 10 years ago that a low carbon approach also reduces costs, the data suggests that resilience offers a similar business case, when the whole lifecycle of an asset is considered.

This is part two of a two-part Engineering Matters special on Carbon Crunch 2022. This episode focuses on infrastructure resilience.

Guests

Emma Howard Boyd CBE, Chair, Green Finance Institute

Denise Bower, External Engagement Director, Mott MacDonald

Alexandre Chavarot, Strategic Adviser, Coalition for Climate Resilient Investment

Lisa Constable, Strategic Lead for Weather Resilience and Climate Change Adaptation, Great British Railways Transition Team

Sarah Hayes, Strategic Engagement Lead – Credo, Connected Places Catapult

Iliana Lazarova, Head of Environmental, Social, Resilience and Governance, UK Infrastructure Bank

Richard Thorp, Engineering Director, High Speed 1

Resources

For more information on Carbon Crunch, click here

For more information on PCRAM, click here

To read the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail, click here

To listen to part one of this two-part special, click here

Partner

Mott MacDonald is a global engineering, management and development consultancy. Its purpose is to improve society by considering social outcomes in everything they do, relentlessly focusing on excellence and digital innovation, transforming their clients’ businesses, our communities and employee opportunities.

The post #193 Carbon Crunch (Part 2): Resilience in a Changing World first appeared on Engineering Matters.

The concept of intersection has given society a new way to understand identity. It has profound implications for how we understand ourselves and others in our workplaces. For engineers, it can inform how projects are designed, and how they meet the needs of diverse users.

The concept was developed by Kimberlé Crenshaw, and draws on her analysis of a 1970s discrimination claim brought by Emma DeGraffenreid. DeGraffenreid’s potential employer had successfully defended the claim, by pointing out that it was not racist—it employed Black men in production—and was not sexist—it employed white women in administration. But as a Black woman, DeGraffenreid was discriminated against due to the intersection of these two aspects of her identity.

Crenshaw’s work seeks to inform the justice system. But her insight that discrimination can be shaped by multiple facets of our complex identities, has much wider implications. In this episode, we consider what this view of identity means for engineering workplaces, and the work engineers deliver.

Guests

Claire Sarafilovic, director, project and programme services, AtkinsRéalis

Rebecca Crowther, ED&I lead for the UK and Ireland, AtkinsRéalis

Adam Lawrence, associate acoustician, AtkinsRéalis; chair, HSP Support Group

References

Kimberlé Crenshaw TED talk on The urgency of intersectionality

Partner

AtkinsRéalis is a world-leading professional services and project management company dedicated to engineering a better future for our planet and its people. Employing over 37,000 people across Canada, the US and Latin America, the UK and Ireland, and Asia, the Middle East, and Australia, AtkinsRéalis creates sustainable solutions that connect people, data and technology to transform the world’s infrastructure and energy systems.

The post #279 Intersection, Identity, and Engineering first appeared on Engineering Matters.

It has been nearly 10 years since the world first recorded atmospheric carbon above 400 parts per million. That year, 2013, also marked the first edition of the Carbon Crunch event which brought together infrastructure professionals to discuss the issue of decarbonisation.

A decade on and much has changed for the better; we have near-universal recognition of the climate emergency, and numerous countries have committed to transition their economies to net zero carbon in the coming decades.

Following a decade of action, the delegates that gathered for the 10th Carbon Crunch represented a far more mature industry than the first.

This is part one of a two-part Engineering Matters special on Carbon Crunch 2022. This episode focuses on infrastructure decarbonisation.

Guests

Adam Crossley, Director of Environment, Skanska

Simon Dawes, Head of Sustainable Business Strategy, Environment Agency

Mark Enzer, Strategic Advisor, Mott MacDonald

Christine Glew, Sustainability Manager, National Grid Gas Transmission & Metering

Maria Manidaki, Technical Director, Mott MacDonald

Heleni Pantelidou, Technical Director – Infrastructure, Arup

David Riley, Head of Carbon Neutrality, Anglian Water

Cathy Travers, Group Managing Director, Mott MacDonald

Tim Young, Manager for Net Zero Finance, The Science Based Targets Initiative

Resources

For more information on Carbon Crunch, click here

For more information on PAS 2080, click here

For a copy of the Infrastructure Carbon Review, click here

For the 2015 report from Mott MacDonald and Anglia Ruskin University, click here

For a report on the Earth passing the 400 parts per million threshold, click here

To listen to part two of this two-part special, click here

Partner

Mott MacDonald is a global engineering, management and development consultancy. Its purpose is to improve society by considering social outcomes in everything they do, relentlessly focusing on excellence and digital innovation, transforming their clients’ businesses, our communities and employee opportunities.

The post #193 Carbon Crunch (Part 1): The Decarbonisation Debate first appeared on Engineering Matters.

The deepest hole ever drilled drives 12.2km down below the border of Russia and Finland. The Kola Superdeep Borehole was an experiment to penetrate as deeply as possible into the Earth’s crust, but since 1995 it has been abandoned.

Now a company believes that new technology will be able to drill to depths of 20km. By doing so it could unlock terawatts of clean, geothermal energy for countries around the world.

Most geothermal energy is accessed just metres beneath the Earth’s surface and so is only viable in areas with a thin crust where temperatures are high at a low depth. However, by drilling deep enough, any country on Earth could be able to benefit from geothermal energy. This may be possible within a decade.

Guests

Matt Houde, co-founder, Quaise Energy

Paul Woskov, senior research engineer, MIT

Resources

For more information on Quaise Energy, click here

To watch the gyrotron melt rock, click here

The post #192 Drilling Deep for Geothermal first appeared on Engineering Matters.

In 1985 diver Henri Cosquer discovered a submerged cave entrance in the Mediterranean near Marseilles. Exploring over the next six years he discovered a chamber filled with prehistoric art.

Conditions in the caves and the submerged passages leading to it are extremely dangerous: three divers lost their lives exploring the caves.

Efforts to map the cave structure using traditional techniques proved impossible, but with modern 3D scanning and photogrammetry tools, replicas of key works from the cave have been created on land, spreading knowledge of the caves to future generations.

Guests

Luc Vanrell: professional diver and independent underwater archaeologist. Former Scientific Manager of the Cosquer cave for the French Ministry of Culture

Alain Dalis: prehistorian and visual artist, responsible for the reproduction of the painted and engraved walls of the Cosquer cave replica in Marseille

Bertrand Chazaly: land surveying engineer, digital and 3D expert at Fugro

Resources

The original paper describing the discovery of the caves.

Luc Vanrell, Jean Clottes, and Jean Courtin’s description of the caves.

A study of handprints in caves around the Mediterranean, arguing that most may have been made by women.

Academic papers on Cosquer, and other subjects, can be accessed with a free independent researcher account on JSTOR.

The post #191 A Deep Dive Into the Past first appeared on Engineering Matters.

For 200 years, towns and cities across the British regions developed specialised roles in the economy of empire. Mining towns and ports, potteries and steelmakers all made their own contribution to a global trade network, and local communities enjoyed jobs for life, with clear paths to entry.

With the changing global order of the late 20th century, and a new approach to trade, many of these communities faced new competition from other countries. Specialised industries declined, and often collapsed, leaving a hole in the hearts of these communities, and a lack of local career options. Highly trained local residents would often take their skills elsewhere: overseas, or south to London. A lack of investment in transport in the regions compounded the challenges these communities faced.

Today, England faces a level of disparity between regions on a similar scale to that faced by Germany as the country reunified at the end of the Cold War. In this episode, we look at the contributions that central and local government can make to the decades-long process of regional rebalancing. We learn about the priorities of local leaders, and discuss the results of a survey of regional leaders.

We take a close look at the development of Teesworks. The project is being developed in Redcar, where 90 steel foundries once stood on a 10 mile stretch of river. Today, this site is being developed as a new centre for smart and sustainable industry, with a focus on building the skills and businesses needed for the UK’s transition to a Net Zero economy.

We learn how projects like this will need new investment in East-West rail links across the country. Two concurrent rail projects, the Transpennine Route Upgrade and HS2, are expected to face a significant skills gap. Many young people miss out on opportunities in the sector. STEM fairs and similar events can attract some to engineering at 16 or 18, as they make choices about their educational path.

But many people are deflected from a career in engineering, either because they do not see a way into the industry, or because they lack the basic skills needed to start on that educational journey. Atkins is working with Governors For Schools to enable its staff to contribute to the development of young people’s interest in engineering, and the skills needed for a career in the sector.

Guests

John Rayson is managing director for the North at Faithful and Gould. Over a three decade career in engineering, he’s had a first hand view of how countries have fought to reduce regional disparities. He talks to us about the priorities of local leaders in the regions.

James Rose has been working on the development of Teesworks, near Redcar, in the North East of England. It is Europe’s largest brownfield development and promises to bring new careers in the Net Zero economy, to replace those lost with the collapse of the area’s once flourishing steel industry.

Jess Bates is Network Rail Client Account Director at Atkins, and the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion lead for the Transpennine Route Upgrade alliance. She is working with Governors for Schools to enable engineers from diverse backgrounds to help promote careers in engineering, and to advise schools on the skills children will need to build rewarding lives working in the sector.

Partner

Atkins, part of the SNC-Lavalin Group, is one of the world’s most respected design, engineering and project management consultancies. Employing over 18,000 people across the UK, North America, Middle East and Africa, Asia Pacific and Europe, Atkins utilities the latest technology to deliver major capital projects, and provide expert consultancy for clients across the energy, transportation and infrastructure sectors.

The post #190 Regional Re-balancing first appeared on Engineering Matters.

How do we assess the environmental impact of construction materials? Some materials may enjoy a reputation as natural and sustainable. Timber, quite literally, grows on trees It is abundant, it captures carbon from the atmosphere, and at the end of its life can decompose naturally, leaving no harmful waste.

But some of the highest value timber comes from ancient forests. Demand for this timber can lead to the destruction of forests that will take generations to regrow… And planting forests to cost-effectively grow construction grade timber may devastate biodiversity.

Plastic has an increasingly malign reputation, and is almost always made from fossil hydrocarbons. There is increasing concern about the spread of microplastics through our environment, and into our bodies.

But how would we have delivered billions of doses of COVID vaccines around the world, and clean syringes to administer them, without plastic? How many millions of people would have lost their lives, or suffered life limiting illness, without it? How much extra land would need to be dedicated to industrial agriculture, if food stuffs could not be transported in shelf life-extending plastic packs?

In this episode, we look at how engineers can consider the life-cycle carbon costs of material choices. We learn how intervention at each stage in a material’s life, from extraction through to a structure’s end-of-use, can boost returns on carbon investments. And we find out how large engineering and construction organisations can work with suppliers, large and small, to improve sustainability across the supply chain.

Guests

Alex Wright is national commercial director at Tarmac. He is responsible for setting commercial strategy. But a key part of that role is identifying how Tarmac can make its offering more sustainable.

Emma Hines is senior construction manager at Tarmac and part of the company’s sustainability team. Her role is to support stakeholders to ensure that they can consider the right solutions to create a sustainable built environment. 

Phil Greenin is a Tarmac frameworks director, responsible for the M25. He works closely with National Highways and other stakeholders to analyse and trial the most sustainable ways of laying and maintaining the UK’s road network.

Jonathan Harry is procurement director for CRH. He works with the supply chain to make CRH a ‘customer of choice’ supporting the development of more sustainable ways of working.

Resources

Tarmac’s Innovation Challenge helps identify sustainable innovations, and promotes their development and commercialisation.

Tarmac recently purchased the first battery electric concrete mixer in the UK. allowing them to move materials from quarry to job site, by rail and road, with no use of fossil fuels.

Panshanger Park is managed by Tarmac and has been used as a quarry. Exhausted quarry areas have been returned to the community as a green space. 

BREEAM standards can be used to validate and certify a sustainable built environment.

BSI and other stakeholders have developed PAS 2080, the world’s first standard for managing infrastructure carbon. It has been pivotal in helping companies to reduce carbon use and costs.

The RIBA Plan of Work organises the process of briefing, designing, constructing and operating building projects into eight stages and explains the stage outcomes, core tasks and information exchanges required at each stage. It can be used with RIBA’s Sustainable Outcomes Guide to provide design principles to achieve a series of measurable sustainable outcomes, and describes approaches that can be used to verify performance

The post #189 Life Cycle Analysis of Construction Materials first appeared on Engineering Matters.

UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction estimates that over the past 20 years, 1.2 million people have been killed by more than 7,000 disasters. It estimates the economic damage at just under $3 trillion. It also found that when compared to the 1980s and 1990s, this impact has almost doubled.

Countries are working to become more resilient, but even that term may mean different things in different conditions and environments. Resilience needs to be better understood.

In this episode we explore the role of data and its analysis when it comes to protecting people, infrastructure and homes from climate related events.

Guests

Stephen Bourne, project director – resilience, Atkins

Masjood Jafri, resiliency market director, Atkins

Kate Vincent, associate director – ecology, Atkins

Resources

For the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction report, click here

Partner

Atkins, part of the SNC-Lavalin Group, is one of the world’s most respected design, engineering and project management consultancies. Employing over 18,000 people across the UK, North America, Middle East and Africa, Asia Pacific and Europe, Atkins utilities the latest technology to deliver major capital projects, and provide expert consultancy for clients across the energy, transportation and infrastructure sectors.

The post #188 Data Analysis for Climate Resilience first appeared on Engineering Matters.

In Los Angeles only 3% of the population say they take public transit regularly, compared to 84% of residents who commute to work in their car every day. This results in huge amounts of traffic and air quality so bad that under public health requirements it’s illegal.

LA Metro is making major investments to improve the public transit options in LA including totally revamping the bus system. By 2030 the entire LA bus network will be running electric buses. This means all new buses, changing all the routes and retrofitting all the cities depots to have charging capabilities.

This is the first time out of China and major cities entire bus fleet will be electric and there are many challenges to overcome including changing LA’s car culture.

Guests

Cliff Henke, WSP’s global chair of zero emissions buses & programme manager for LA bus electrification project

Chris Chavez, deputy policy director for the Coalition for Clean Air

Resources

To learn more about WSP’s work on zero emissions vehicles, click here

To learn more about LA Metro’s 2028 Vision Plan, click here

The post #187 Electrifying the Los Angeles Bus Fleet first appeared on Engineering Matters.

On 20 September 2006 Richard Hammond raced down the Elvington airfield in Vampire, the jet-powered dragster that still holds the British land speed record. Hammond was travelling at 288mph (464km/h) when one of the car’s tyres unexpectedly blew, flipping the vehicle onto its back.

Although seriously injured, Hammond escaped with his life. The Vampire itself was a wreck, dominating the front pages of newspapers around the world.

But behind all of this is an incredible engineering story that goes back to the origins of modern motorsport. In this episode we will trace the origins of the car, and follow a new team’s effort to resurrect the Vampire.

Guests

John Clayton, co-owner, Vampire Syndicate

Phil Davies, co-owner, Vampire Syndicate

Joy Hoyle, co-owner and accountant, Vampire Syndicate

Andrew Hurdle, original developer and racer

The post #186 Vampire: Resurrecting Britain’s Fastest Car first appeared on Engineering Matters.

The Canada Line is North America’s most efficient commuter rail. Since it opened in 2009, they have operated with a system availability of 99.9% and a punctuality record of 99.8%. But now they have reached a crucial stage in the line’s lifespan. After 13 years, major maintenance and replacement operations will need to take place which threaten the line’s ability to remain as efficient as it has been.

However, the Canada Line team has spent the last few years working on creating a digital twin that will prove critical to retaining this efficiency. Using dozens of types of sensors and collecting data points on everything from the trains to the tracks to the key assets, they can now predict the optimal time to replace important assets and help train staff in VR and AR to improve their efficiency while making repairs.

Guests

Ron Powell, General Manager of The Canada Line

Johan Germishuys, Director of Digital Solutions, SNC Lavalin

Resources

To learn more about building a digital twin, click here

The post #185 Building Canada Line’s Digital Twin first appeared on Engineering Matters.

Net Zero is our 2050 ambition for society, but to make this a reality city must be held to a far higher standard. Our urban environments will need to become ‘carbon negative’ if we intend to mount a robust response to the climate emergency. New technologies and techniques are part of the solution. But there is another challenge.

Most of our major cities have already been built and are old. Embodied carbon means we should refrain from knocking down old buildings, but how can inefficient, dated structures play a part in the city of the future? Everything is in tension and there are very few easy wins. To make this all happen will take careful planning.

Guests

Rupert Green, Market Lead – Net Zero Energy Infrastructure, Atkins

Clare Hebbes, Director of Development, London Legacy Development Corporation

Matthew Tribe, Managing Director – Planning, Design and Engineering, SNC Lavalin

Resources

For more information on The Sustainable City in Dubai, click here and here

For more information on decarbonising buildings, click here

For some of the projects that guests in this episode have worked on, click here

And specific to the Net Zero ambitions of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Matthew Tribe co-authored this report 

Partner

Atkins, part of the SNC-Lavalin Group is one of the world’s most respected design, engineering, and project management consultancies. Employing over 18,000 people across the UK, North America, Middle East and Africa, Asia Pacific and Europe, Atkins utilities the latest technology to deliver major capital projects, and provide expert consultancy for clients across the energy, transportation and infrastructure sectors.

The post #184 The Future of Old Cities first appeared on Engineering Matters.

Around the world, 8% of CO2 emissions come from the production of concrete, and 90% of those emissions come from the production of cement. This episode highlights the groundbreaking work of Engineering Matters Awards Gold Champion Seratech, a company pioneering the use of carbon capture technology in concrete production. 

Their innovative process uses the abundant mineral olivine to capture CO2 during cement production, resulting in byproducts such as silica and magnesium carbonate. These byproducts not only reduce the carbon emissions of concrete but also serve as valuable materials for construction, making this approach a potential game-changer for the industry.

Seratech materials are still in the early stage of development, however the future potential of Seratech’s technology and its impact on the construction industry’s carbon emissions could revolutionise the construction industry.

Seratech received the Gold Innovation Champion Awards at the 2024 Engineering Matters Awards, and Silver Champion in the Net Zero category. Entries for next year’s awards are now open.

Links

Engineering Matters Awards

Guests

Michael Cook, Chairman, Seratech

Tanya De Hoog, President, the Institution of Structural Engineers

David Watson, Technical Director, AKT ll

The post #278 Capturing carbon with concrete: Engineering Matters Awards 2024 Innovation Gold Champion Seratech first appeared on Engineering Matters.

At the end of 2019 the Coronavirus pandemic began its global take-over, the world had to react fast to try and stop the spread. A project sprung up overnight, to create a megalab large enough to cope with never before seen testing requirements. 

The project would be complex, intricate, and require a quick delivery. It relied on successful placement of a series of moving parts, each of which was vital to the completion of every level of the project. 

A game of Tetris, with lives at stake.

Guests

Steve Cundall, Project Director, Mace

Steve Blake, Project Director, UKHSA

Gary Clark, Head of Science Technology, HOK

Helen Buckingham, Senior Project Manager, WSP 

Partner

The partner for this episode is WSP. As one of the world’s leading engineering professional services consultancies, WSP brings clarity and vision to complex challenges. Its team of global technical specialists and strategic advisers ensure innovative solutions solve complex problems for clients and the communities it serves, meeting both the needs of today and addressing the challenges of the future.

The post #183 Testing Times: Building a Megalab first appeared on Engineering Matters.

As electricity grids around the world transition to using renewable energy resources, investment will need to be made in energy storage. When the sun doesn’t shine or the wind doesn’t blow there needs to be a way for the grid to be supplied with electricity.

Currently pumped hydro storage is the main form of energy storage, although that requires specific geographical layout. Another form of storage getting significant investment is battery storage, batteries are becoming more efficient but still can store significantly less power than other storage forms and degrade over time.

Another potential storage solution is gravity storage. One company pursuing this idea is Energy Vault, whose CEO Robert Piconi believes that their idea of lifting 35-tonne blocks to store energy before dropping it back down to convert it back to electricity could be a form of energy storage that has high storage capacity and strong efficiency.

Guests

Robert Piconi, CEO of Energy Vault

Resources 

For more information on Energy Vault, click here

For more information on the 2022 Energy Storage Outlook Report, click here

The post #182 Using Gravity to Store Energy first appeared on Engineering Matters.

When picturing the Arctic, people from warmer latitudes are likely to imagine frozen tundra and lonely steppe. Add global warming to this and the vision shifts to melting ice caps and desperate fauna.

But the Arctic is much more than that. It is a region of community and a land of opportunity. With immense fisheries forming the backbone of its blue economy, and renewable resources in abundance, it is one of the truly under-utilised regions of the planet.

But today this opportunity may finally be realised. Armed with a new appreciation for the traditional knowledge of native Arctic populations, as well as modern tools and data analysis, a new infrastructure will traverse the Far North.

But to make this happen, industry needs data. It needs to understand the ground risks, and the resources available. It needs to understand the foundations of the arctic.

Guests

Mads Qvist Frederikson, Executive Director, Arctic Economic Council

Pooja Mahapatra, Geospatial Solution Owner, Fugro

Rada Khadjinova, Manager – Alaska, Fugro

Partner

Fugro is the world’s leading Geo-data specialist, collecting and analysing comprehensive information about the Earth and the structures built upon it. Through integrated data acquisition, analysis and advice, Fugro unlocks insights from Geo-data to help clients design, build and operate their assets in a safe, sustainable and efficient manner.

The post #181 The Foundations of a New Arctic first appeared on Engineering Matters.

For industries across the world to reach net zero they are going to rely on mining critical minerals to allow for the electrification of their vehicles and machines. This has caused a huge leap in demand for minerals like lithium, nickel and cobalt.

Added to this, the mining industry itself is already a major polluter itself, so as the industry prepares for a massive rise in production it must also focus on its own decarbonisation efforts. Investment in new technology and the electrification of existing equipment will go a long way to helping mining decarbonise.

Mining has spent the last 20 years improving the industries safety record and now the same focus needs to be taken to solve the industries carbon problem.

Guests

Mark Adams, Vice President of Technology at SNC-Lavalin Mining and Metallurgy 

Jean-Luc Allard, Manager for acoustics, air quality and climate change for SNC-Lavalin 

Trevor Sparks, Vice President for Tailings and water management at SNC-Lavalin

Resources

For more information on the Minerals Security Partnership, click here

For more information on the UK’s Critical Mineral Strategy, click here

Partner

The SNC-Lavalin Group is one of the world’s most respected design, engineering and project management consultancies.

Employing over 18,000 people across the UK, North America, Middle East and Africa, Asia Pacific and Europe, Atkins utilities the latest technology to deliver major capital projects, and provide expert consultancy for clients across the energy, transportation and infrastructure sectors.

The post #180 Mining in a Net Zero World first appeared on Engineering Matters.

In July 2022 the UK burned as temperatures broke 40°C for the first time in recorded history. As each of us tried different approaches to dealing with the heat, trees offered respite for some astute Brits.

In the immediate aftermath the UK Government announced £44 million in reforestation funding for this year. In appreciation of the shade in this hot summer, we bring you this episode we produced last year on the benefits of tree planting.

Guests

Rob Gazzard, Adviser, Contingency Planning, Technical Guidance and Wildfire, The Forestry Commission

Peter Leeson, Woodland Creation Advisor, The Woodland Trust

Maria Manidaki, Water Investment Planning Advisor, Mott MacDonald

Duncan McLaren, Professor in Practice and Research Fellow, Lancaster University

Helen Neave, Founder, Make it Wild

Resources

Emergency Tree Plan for the UK, The Woodland Trust

England Tree Strategy Consultation

Towards a UK Fire Danger Rating System, Manchester University

Forestry Commission Statistics 2020

The Secret Life of Trees, Colin Tudge

The post #179 Trees: Escaping the Heat first appeared on Engineering Matters.

Antarctica New Zealand runs a critical research hub on the volcanic Ross Island. Originally built in 1957, it consists of 12 buildings connected by walkways – none of which have been upgraded since the 1980s.

To keep the important science going for the next 50 years a redevelopment was launched in 2017. However, building in Earth’s most inhospitable environment, with the coldest temperatures ever recorded, and months of complete darkness, means that the most advanced and efficient engineering methods must be employed.

Antarctica New Zealand is planning a radical modular design that will be built fully in Port Timaru in New Zealand before being transported over on giant ships to be set up on the Scott Base site. And when it comes to working on the Southern Continent, every precaution must be taken.

Guests

Will Parker, Technical Director, WSP

Simon Shelton, Senior Project Manager Scott Base Redevelopment, Antarctica New Zealand

Karissa Hyde, Construction Manager, Antarctica New Zealand

Hugh Broughton, Architect, Hugh Broughton Architects

Resources

For more information on the Scott Base Redevelopment, click here

For more on the scientific research conducted at Scott Base, click here

Partner

The partner for this episode is WSP. As one of the world’s leading engineering professional services consultancies, WSP brings clarity and vision to complex challenges. Its team of global technical specialists and strategic advisers ensure innovative solutions solve complex problems for clients and the communities it serves, meeting both the needs of today and addressing the challenges of the future.

Photo credit: 7t.co.uk

The post #178 A Vision for a Modular Antarctica first appeared on Engineering Matters.

An era of tunnelling megaprojects has dawned as governments have invested in the underground the world over. Skills shortages are nothing new to the engineering world, but in some sectors, it is beginning to bite. One such area is surveying.

In these situations, technology and collaborative ways of working can take the strain off an overheating market. With the work ahead of it, the tunnelling industry will need all of its collective expertise and modern technologies to cope with growing demand.

Guest

Philippe Matter, Sales Manager, Amberg Group

Resources

To learn more about the Hagerbach testing gallery, check out Episode #112 Hagerbach: The Bat Cave of Tunnelling. To listen, click here

Partner

The Amberg Group is a unique knowledge, engineering and technology provider of logistics and infrastructures for smart cities, hubs and networks through innovative combinations of above and underground space usage. Its products and services cover in a digitalized manner the entire life cycle of the infrastructures and all engineering and technology aspects.

The post SHORT: Tunnelling on Target first appeared on Engineering Matters.

Founded in the late 1800s to supply coal to the Union Pacific Railroad, the town of Hanna, Wyoming has a proud place in the industrial story of the United States. It also has another legacy to contend with – Abandoned Mine Lands.

Historical mining activities have left the region with voided geology and subsidence issues. Fortunately, a well-funded state AML division has been working diligently for decades to mitigate the worst risks and incidents.

Now, with more funding available to other states with historical mining activities, all eyes are on Wyoming to understand best practice.

Guests

Dave Hibbard, Subsidence Mitigation Team Leader, Brierley Associates

Don Newton, AML Division Administrator, Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality

Resources

To learn more about the good work done by Abandoned Mine Land programmes around the US, click here

For more information on the Federal Abandoned Mine Land Reclamation Program, click here

For more on the history of the town of Hanna, Wyoming, click here

To find the case study on the Hanna Elementary School football field, click here

Partner

Brierley Associates’ nationwide underground design and construction experience offers a different perspective of ground characterisation and behaviour. They combine robust subsurface investigations, historic mine workings information and GIS-based spatial analysis to develop evidence-based land subsidence mitigation solutions.

The post #177 The Abandoned Mine Lands of Wyoming first appeared on Engineering Matters.

In Bangalore, the high-tech heart of India, sits a centre of technology. A state-of-the-art engineering facility working on projects across the globe.

In its time, the centre has transitioned from an offshore project design centre to the forefront of technological innovation in the company. Becoming a centre of excellence and pioneering digital innovation, this hub, and its employees, dream big.

Guests

Bharat Gala, Senior Vice-president, Atkins

Haima Haldar, Director of Digital, Atkins

Philip Hoare, President of Engineering Services, Atkins

Partner

Atkins, a member of the SNC-Lavalin Group, is one of the world’s most respected design, engineering and project management consultancies. Founded in 1911, SNC-Lavalin is a fully integrated professional services and project management company with offices around the world dedicated to engineering a better future for our planet and its people. 

The post #176 Bangalore and the Digital Transformation first appeared on Engineering Matters.

The UK’s roads are in increasing need of repair and local councils are facing a nine year long backlog of overdue road maintenance. However, with new technologies entering the road construction industry, future road maintenance and construction projects could be safer, greener and result in longer lasting roads.

Tarmac is bringing together all the industry’s most cutting-edge technology into their Pave Technology Solutions programme. The suite of technologies can be selected depending on the projects desired outcomes, that could be to produce smoother, longer lasting roads or to reduce a projects carbon emissions or even making the construction site safer for workers.

Ben Howard and Phil Greening from Tarmac explain how some of these technologies were developed and how their introduction could impact the UK road construction industry.

Guests

Phil Greenin, Framework manager, Tarmac

Ben Howard, Contract manager, Tarmac

Resources

For more information on Tarmac’s sustainability goals, click here

To listen to Episode 84: Asphalt of the Future, click here

Partner

Tarmac is the UK’s leading sustainable construction materials, road contracting and building products business. It leads in the supply of construction material comprising aggregates, asphalt, cement, lime, concrete, road contracting, building products and recycling services.

The post #175 Tarmac on the Future of Road Technology first appeared on Engineering Matters.

The race to hit Net Zero targets will require an unprecedented surge in innovation. As Dame Laura Sandys, CBE, explains, energy systems will be reshaped, with a few hundred players in the market replaced by millions of actions and assets in a distributed system. These will necessitate not just physical changes to how we generate, use, store and distribute energy, but a new digitalisation that allows for an effective market to function.

But this is just one aspect of the complex web of innovation that will be needed. In this episode, we learn about the challenges of decarbonising at pace from exhibitors and speakers at the Innovation Zero conference in London. 

There is no shortage of ideas for tools that will help us reach Net Zero. The challenge for innovators is to fund the rapid scaling up of these ideas, and to understand the needs of potential customers. And those customers—governments, asset owners, engineering firms—must find ways to spot the best ideas, and to direct their investment wisely.

Guests

Dame Laura Sandys, CBE, chair, UK government Energy Digitalisation Taskforce, non-executive director SGN, SSE Transmission, Highview Power, Energy Systems Catapult. 

Jonathan Holyoak, Global Net Zero Programme Director, AtkinsRéalis

Stuart McLaren, Global Net Zero Business Development Director, AtkinsRéalis

Exhibition interviewees

Hermione Crease, co-founder, Purrmetrix

Manuel Sanabria, project manager, SatVu

Benjamin Todd, PR liaison, UnDo

Partner

AtkinsRéalis is one of the world’s most respected design, engineering and project management consultancies. Employing over 18,000 people across the UK, North America, Middle East and Africa, Asia Pacific and Europe, AtkinsRéalis uses the latest technology to deliver major capital projects, and provide expert consultancy for clients across the energy, transportation and infrastructure sectors.

The post #277 The Race to Net Zero – Innovation at Pace first appeared on Engineering Matters.

Buildings can use around three times as much energy as design models anticipate. This is an incredible figure and becomes a real problem when considered in context: real estate accounts for 39% of the UK’s total carbon. Around ¾ of that also comes from the operation phase.

Part of the problem lies in the way construction works. Façade managers and mechanical & electrical engineers typically work in silos, while building users might have totally different ideas to even the greatest design visionaries. 

Solving these problems is tricky, so we found an m&e expert, a facades expert and a property developer, and recorded this Think Tank in front of a live audience at the Footprint+ event earlier this year.

Host

Ayo Abbas

Guests

Justin Brand, Asset Management Director, Sellar

Michele Sachelli, Technical Director – Facades Support, WSP

Michael Trousdell, Sustainability and Smart Buildings Lead, WSP

Resources

For more information on Footprint+, click here

For a case study on the Paddington Square development, click here 

For WSP’s guide to the office of the future, click here

Partner

As one of the world’s leading engineering professional services consultancies, WSP brings clarity and vision to complex challenges. Its team of global technical specialists and strategic advisers ensure innovative solutions solve complex problems for clients and the communities it serves, meeting both the needs of today and addressing the challenges of the future.

The post #174 Closing the Building Performance Gap first appeared on Engineering Matters.

Denmark is embarking on the largest construction project in its history with the assembly of the first energy island in the North Sea. The 120,000sq.m site could serve as a hub for as many as 200 wind turbines, storing and supplying electricity to Denmark and its neighbours.

The impact of greenhouse gases on our planet is a problem too large to ignore. Denmark alone has committed to a 70% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. Striving to turn the tide, engineers and scientists across the globe are fighting time to find a solution to our energy needs. One that is renewable, whilst supplying the huge amount of power required. 

The completion of this megaproject is a way off yet. How to get there in the first place starts all the way down at the seabed.

Resources

To learn more about the North Sea Energy Island project, click here

Guests

Hanne Storm Edlefsen, Vice-President of Energy Islands, Energinet

Padwalker, Project Manager, Fugro

Kasper Speth, Project Manager, Fugro

Partner

Fugro is the world’s leading Geo-data specialist, collecting and analysing comprehensive information about the Earth and the structures built upon it. Through integrated data acquisition, analysis and advice, Fugro unlocks insights from Geo-data to help clients design, build and operate their assets in a safe, sustainable and efficient manner.

The post #173 Europe’s First Energy Island first appeared on Engineering Matters.

Norah Magero, the co-founder of Drop Access talks about her invention the Vaccibox. In Kenya a large majority of the population live in remote rural areas with often limited energy access. The Vaccibox is a solar powered vaccine fridge that allows for the safe transportation and storage of vaccines to remote areas.

In this episode she explains how she got the idea for the Vaccibox, the challenges her and her team went through as they tried to manufacture the Vaccibox locally in Kenya during the pandemic, and the results they have seen since distributing the Vaccibox the rural healthcare facilities in Kenya.

Norah and the Vaccibox went on to win the 2022 Africa Prize from the Royal Academy of Engineering making her only the second woman and first Kenyan to win the prize. 

Guests

Norah Magero, Co-founder and CEO, Drop Access

Resources

For more information on the Vaccibox, click here

For more information on the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Africa Prize, click here 

The post #172 Vaccibox: Revolutionising Kenya’s Vaccine Storage first appeared on Engineering Matters.