Episodes

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 stat...

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 ...

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 pr...

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 vision...

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 t...

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...

For most environments, disinfection has barely changed since the 1918 influenza outbreak; many of the same companies offer similar chemical products with which to douse surfaces. At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic a startup decided to explore the use of ultraviolet light to disinfect surfaces, not just in high-end laboratories, but classrooms, bars, shops and anywhere people gather. This episode covers the journey to the first disinfection robot, working with UV-C light to deactivate viruse...

Although ‘pet food’ and ‘engineering’ may not immediately align in the mind, one supplier wanted to ensure its products were both sustainable and ethical; from certification to packaging, and from farm to bowl. To do this required a keen understanding of its supply chain and the impact its decisions would have on its carbon footprint. This meant calling in the engineers, and a special calculator that would guide them. This is the story of a pet food company that sought to touch the world light...

This week we are bringing you a guest episode from the Planet Beyond podcast. This is another podcast we produce, and is brought to you by Fugro. For much of history the seas have loomed impossibly large and untouchable. This perception is at odds with the vulnerability of ocean environments. Now, following decades of abuse by a growing human society, a realisation has been reached. The degradation of the world’s oceans has led to several looming crises: plastic pollution, warmer waters and ch...

Supply chain disruptions that initially left companies entirely without critical materials have given way to inflation of shipping and production costs, shortages of skilled labour, and volatile prices for everything from plaster to electronics. Unpredictable and unreliable supply chains are a headache for anyone involved in project cost or schedule management, but for a property developer, which depends on getting its premises built and leased to tenants on the tightest deadlines, this headach...

In the 1970’s Dr Armand Feigenbaum coined the term ‘Hidden Factories’ to talk about the hidden part of organisations where as much 40% of production capability was lost through inefficiency. Finding these weak spots proved difficult until very recently. An exponential increase in data processing power has led to a fourth industrial revolution, or industry 4.0 where more information about processing and operations is available than ever before. This means that manufacturing companies are now able...

At its core, being an ally is about support, a willingness to learn about the struggles of others, take them on board and be an advocate for those people’s rights. This is an important part of a healthy business culture. Given the current engineering skills gap, opening business to a wider pool of candidates through allyship is important. By building an inclusive culture of support & encouragement, employees are happier, work harder, and are more willing to speak up for others. In this episode...

As access to space has become less expensive, companies are moving to create an in-orbit servicing and manufacturing industry. In-orbit servicing, repairing existing spacecraft and satellites, has been taking place for many years but as we move beyond low earth orbit advanced robotics will be used to carry out these tasks rather than astronauts. Space offers certain conditions that make it more favourable to manufacturing than Earth. Near zero gravity, extreme cold temperatures and a complete v...

In 2020 National Highways released their 2030/2040/2050 Net Zero plan. The plan laid out three main targets for reaching net zero, first cutting all their direct carbon emissions which includes lighting the network and all forms of corporate office emissions by 2030. Second is cutting all emissions from the network’s construction and maintenance by 2040, and last is their goal of reducing all road user emissions by 2050. National Highways bought in WSP to consult on the writing of the plan and ...

In the last century, the tides of conflict swirled around Europe as the world’s largest powers fought for dominance over air, land and sea. The North Sea was a critical theatre that could have determined the future direction of the planet in two World Wars. Since the guns fell silent in 1945, the North Sea was transformed into one of the economic hubs of the world and a key asset in the move to renewable green energy, as offshore wind generation has proliferated in recent years. But as we look...

For more than 40 years, The IET’s Young Woman Engineer of the Year Awards have been celebrating the incredible women engineers working to improve our world and shape our future to help change the outdated perception that it’s an industry just for men. These awards are all about showcasing the best women engineering talent in this country, hopefully encouraging the next generation to get excited about the possibilities of an engineering career. Recognising and showcasing outstanding women engin...

Our world is becoming increasingly more virtual, promising new ways of relating to each other and of doing business. The benefits of this, however, are unclear. Virtual and augmented realities could amount to no more than Pokémon Go or Second Life, but they could accentuate the harms we already see online in ways no-one can yet imagine. With regards to engineering, the possibility for the creation of a digital twin could lead to project planning becoming more safe and efficient. This approach h...

On concrete paved roads, cracks can be reflected up from the joints between paving sections, into the surface layer. These cracks can lead to further damage to the road structure, and require maintenance from road owners. But the latest road surfacing technology has been proven effective on Formula 1 tracks and airport runways around the world. And now it is finding its way to our roads, helping councils do more with ever smaller budgets. Guests David Markham, Senior Manager Aggregate & Asphal...

You have just arrived in a Biosafety Level 4 Containment Lab. These are the most secure laboratories built by human hands, and they are where scientists study the most dangerous pathogens. Containment is an absolute requirement and they are often in isolated locations. They are also extraordinarily intricate, complicated and expensive structures, that often require a large amount of energy, water and chemicals to function. Designing such a building to be Net Zero is very different from making ...

When an engineer has an idea that could change the world, the world might not immediately be ready for it. That is what Omer Keilaf realised in 2012 when he thought he could revolutionise LiDAR technology while watching an advert for the Xbox Kinect. At that time the world was interested in mobile phone technology, which had little use for bulky LiDAR. Fast forward five years, the buzz had shifted to driverless cars, and Omer knew his time had come. Guest Omer Keilaf, CEO, Innoviz Resources Fo...

Once infrastructure projects pass a certain value, around 200 to 300 million dollars, data becomes a major challenge. There is no shortage of data in engineering and the complexity goes up exponentially. Data science is becoming increasingly important in an ever more complicated sector. Guests Tom Goldsmith, Product Manager – Lighthouse, Atkins Marianna Imprialou, Principal Data Scientist, Atkins Gyan Mahatme, Operations Lead – Lighthouse, Atkins Richard Robinson, CEO, Atkins Will Squires, ...

Potager Farm CEO Mario Gatineau grew up in the French countryside as the son of a beekeeper and botanist. When pesticides used in local farming killed around 80 percent of his father’s bees he dedicated himself to finding new environmentally sustainable ways to produce food. Today he is launching a vertical farm in the heart of Berlin. This controlled environment farming in vertical towers is gaining popularity as the agricultural sector looks for new ways to farm food sustainably. Guests Mario...

The engineering industry is only as good as the talent it can attract and retain. In this Engineering Matters Short we follow the journey of a talented young engineer, who found herself unable to connect with an industry dominated by older white men. Now she is set to host the upcoming E&T Innovation Awards in November, an event that she hopes can celebrate the work of engineers to inspire future generations. She particularly hopes to lift up people who feel they lack a voice. Resources To vie...

Standing on the cliffs of Ireland’s west coast you can feel the reason that Ireland generates more than 35% of its electricity from wind power. But what happens when the wind passes on its way east towards Great Britain? When conditions are poor for renewables, a high penetration in the electricity mix becomes a liability. In this episode we look at how nations can, through cooperation and engineering, support a greater capacity of renewables than would otherwise be possible. The solution is H...