Episodes

This March, the industry will gather at the Cutty Sark in Greenwich, London, for the inaugural Engineering Matters Awards. Over two weeks of episodes, we’ll be introducing all of the shortlisted entries. The Awards will demonstrate why engineering matters. We’ll be sharing some exciting innovations. And we will be looking at a range of ways engineers and those in related fields can have a wider impact on the world. This episode is the second of two looking at the sustainability category. We’ll...

This March, the industry will gather at the Cutty Sark in Greenwich, London, for the inaugural Engineering Matters Awards. Over the next two weeks, we’ll be introducing all of the shortlisted entries. The Awards will demonstrate why engineering matters. We’ll be sharing some exciting innovations. And we will be looking at a range of ways engineers and those in related fields can have a wider impact on the world. This episode is the first of two looking at the sustainability category. We’ll fin...

This March, the industry will gather at the Cutty Sark in Greenwich, London, for the inaugural Engineering Matters Awards. Over the next two weeks, we’ll be introducing all of the shortlisted entries. The Awards will demonstrate why engineering matters. We’ll be sharing some exciting innovations. And we will be looking at a range of ways engineers and those in related fields can have a wider impact on the world. In this third episode, we are looking at the community category. We’ll find out ho...

This March, the industry will gather at the Cutty Sark in Greenwich, London, for the inaugural Engineering Matters Awards. Over the next two weeks, we’ll be introducing all of the shortlisted entries. The Awards will demonstrate why engineering matters. We’ll be sharing some exciting innovations. And we will be looking at a range of ways engineers and those in related fields can have a wider impact on the world. In this second episode, we are looking at the health and safety category. We’ll fi...

This March, the industry will gather at the Cutty Sark in Greenwich, London, for the inaugural Engineering Matters Awards. Over the next two weeks, we’ll be introducing all of the shortlisted entries. The Awards will demonstrate why engineering matters. We’ll be sharing some exciting innovations. And we will be looking at a range of ways engineers and those in related fields can have a wider impact on the world. In this first episode, we are looking at the diversity and inclusion category. We’...

The use of “The Observational Method” could be one of the best kept secrets of the engineering world. Time and time again it has been used to deliver world leading projects safely and cost effectively. In some cases it has been the only way forward when other methods have failed. The powerful methodology has been used for several decades to minimise risk and maximise efficiency on some of the world’s biggest projects including the Channel Tunnel, Boston’s Central Artery, Heathrow Airport, Wemble...

The modern world is bound together with cables. As our economy moves to the cloud, the vast majority of data traffic passes through subsea cables. As we transition to renewable energy, hundreds of kilometres of cabling are needed within each wind farm, and to connect wind farms to the shore. When the first cables were laid, in the 19th century, we learned that the seabed was not geologically and biologically featureless, but complex, dynamic, and full of life. Today, scientists are using cable-...

Are there really bodies buried in the Hoover Dam? Was the hard hat really invented here in 1931? And why was it originally called Boulder Dam? In this episode, first aired in 2019, we explore and uncover the secrets of one of the greatest engineering projects ever built. The unique and formidable Hoover Dam. Learn about the “Double Ugly”, “Hurry Up Crowe” and a cast of other characters that brought this formidable piece of engineering life. And find out why over 200 people were killed during its...

In this podcast we go back in time to the invention of cathodic protection 200 years ago by President of the Royal Society Sir Humphry Davy. Initially applied to ships and pipelines, Mott MacDonald has spent decades pioneering its use on civil infrastructure designing systems for bridges and buildings around the world. This innovative thinking is preserving and protecting structures saving asset owners millions of pounds in reconstruction costs and preventing additional carbon generation. Throu...

From tireless assembly lines in bustling factories to the delicate precision of diamond cutting, robots are transforming industries by becoming superhuman coworkers. But what if we shrunk these tireless partners down to the size of a grain of rice? Enter the realm of microrobots, where the boundaries of automation shrink to the scale of a pinhead, opening up a universe of possibilities. Starting with surveying and mapping disasters leading to possible unmanned search and rescue disposable squads...

What would it mean to be able to look at a bag of concrete, and see its embodied carbon? That’s the goal of the new benchmark rating scheme for concrete, developed by the UK Low Carbon Concrete Group. It will allow suppliers, contractors and developers to consider the carbon footprint of projects, alongside cost and performance. Novel material types—including ternary concretes and alkali-activated cementitious materials—promise to eliminate many, if not all, of the process emissions associated ...

Post the industrial revolution the UK’s waterways became very polluted, but the last 30 years have seen a massive turnaround in the UK’s water quality. Since the pandemic wild swimming has had a boom in popularity, with the UK’s beaches, lakes and rivers becoming popular destinations for being in nature and going for a dip. Today, the issue of water quality has become a very prominent issue, with campaigns and organisations protesting the releasing of untreated sewage into waterways. However wa...

Virtual Reality has been steadily growing in the gaming market over the past few years, but now it could be about to change not how people play but how they work. From the imaginative realms of science fiction to the cutting-edge developments of the 21st century, we explore the roots of VR, paying homage to pioneers like Stanley G. Weinbaum, who, in his 1935 short story ‘Pygmalion’s Spectacles,’ laid the conceptual groundwork for a reality-bending experience. Fast forward to today, where VR has...

It can seem, at times, as if we are drowning in a sea of waste, a great ocean of paper and tin, glass and plastic, all mixed together, and resistant to recycling and re-use. AMP Robotics build systems that cut through this complexity. Trained using millions upon millions of images, their robots can identify, pick, and sort individual waste items, splitting them into streams that can then be recycled. But while their work is helping reduce the world’s waste problems, they are creating their own ...

It is vital that we limit the impact of climate change, through decarbonisation. But communities around the world are already experiencing harm, through floods, wildfires, and other climate-related catastrophes. We must also address these harms, mitigating them through increased resilience. Building better resilience cannot be left just to the state, or private sector industries like engineering or insurance. Instead, we must build partnerships, bringing the public and private sector together w...

Across the ocean there is an intricate relationship between human activity and marine biodiversity. The energy transition means a huge increase in the number of offshore wind turbines. As our oceans become increasingly intertwined with human activities, marine life faces an evolving challenge. Extensive monitoring of biodiversity takes place during the pre-construction and construction phase, but during a wind farm’s decades long life, regular monitoring across a huge area of ocean becomes diff...

The West Kentish Town Estate provides more than 300 flats to social housing tenants. Built in the 1960s, using a panel building system, it has provided generations of Londoners an affordable home, close to the heart of one of the world’s biggest cities. But today, it is not meeting the needs of local families. Homes are too small, and problems with ventilation and insulation cause damp, unpleasant, living conditions. Local council Camden, trying to balance budgets after decades of central gover...

This week, we’re bringing you a guest episode from the Planet Beyond podcast. In this episode, Planet Beyond host Jon Baston-Pitt talks to Resilience Association vice chair Peter Power, about how organisations in the public and private sectors can develop a ‘resilience mindset’. We live in a world of unparalleled complexity and risk. The structure of our societies rests upon a stack of services—utilities, communications, banking, transport, among others—that themselves rely on a mix of public s...

For the last three summers, shire horses have been at work each Lammas Day, mowing the new wildflower meadow on the former lawn of King’s College, Cambridge. The meadow isn’t just a quaint call back to East Anglia’s past, but gives a glimpse of the future, as new regulations come into force that require measurable biodiversity net gain across all new projects in England. In this episode, we talk to Dr Cicely Marshall of King’s College, who has been tracking the impact of the meadow’s creation. ...

Katie Kelleher, is a trailblazer in the construction industry. Her incredible story, from a career in recruitment to becoming a crane operator, defies gender stereotypes and highlights the importance of determination in breaking new ground. In this episode we hear Katie’s experiences working on high-risk construction projects, including the Thames Tideway and Crossail. She shares her journey from the crane operator’s cab to a mentor and advocate, urging the construction industry to embrace chan...

The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) is a renowned professional organization at the forefront of advancing engineering and technology. The IET plays a pivotal role in fostering innovation, knowledge sharing, and networking within the engineering community, making it a cornerstone institution for professionals dedicated to shaping the future of technology. Becoming an IET fellow can take years of work to rise to the top of your field, but Junade Ali, an exceptional engineer and cy...

RAAC, or reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete, enabled a boom in public building in post-war Britain. It allowed schools, hospitals and other services to be built safely and efficiently, giving working Britons services they had long been excluded from. It, and other manufactured building materials, formed the basis of what are now known as Modern Methods of Construction. But today it is in the news for all the wrong reasons. In 2018, a RAAC roofing plank collapsed at a school in Kent, damagin...

Hidden in the mountainous peaks of Snowdonia’s National Park is a clean source of energy storage that has been supporting the UK’s electricity grid since it was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1963. Ffestiniog was the UK’s first ever pumped storage hydropower project and it remains a critical part of today’s energy system. Back in the 1950s engineers were tasked with ensuring that their designs protected the beauty of the landscape. They also had to solve a range of technical challen...

Around the world, engineers, project owners, and policymakers must make hard choices as they work to ensure our infrastructure is fit for the future. They must consider how climate change will impact those assets, and how those assets will help or hinder the energy transition. This week, with the UK’s political conference season in full swing and a general election due next year, infrastructure is on the front page of every newspaper. In this guest episode, from the Connected Places podcast, Pr...