The Engineers Collective

This month’s guest is Will Arnold. He is a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, head of sustainable materials at Useful Simple Trust and author of Future Build: How Construction Can Heal Our Planet.   He told NCE news editor Lee Kenny how a secondment to Rwanda in 2018 changed his understanding of sustainable construction, why the environmental impact of building materials needs greater att...

The latest episode of the Engineers Collective is out now. This month’s guest is Ayming associate director Ben Craig. He told New Civil Engineer news editor Lee Kenny how geopolitical and economic uncertainty has increased businesses’ commitment to innovation across the construction and engineering sectors. His comments followed the publication of Ayming’s International Innovation Barometer 2027,...

This month’s guest is Steve Denton, managing director, civils at WSP. He is vice president of the Royal Academy of Engineering and a fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers and the Institution of Structural Engineers. He told New Civil Engineer news editor Lee Kenny about the challenges facing the UK’s ageing infrastructure, the impact of climate change on existing assets and why the way the...

The latest episode of the Engineers Collective is out now: listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, your usual platform or via the player below. This month’s guest is Cliff Smith, executive director of the Get It Right Initiative (Giri). He told New Civil Engineer news editor Lee Kenny about Giri’s work to reduce avoidable error across the construction industry and why he believes changing culture, impr...

The latest episode of the Engineers Collective is out now: listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, your usual platform or via the player below. This month’s guest is Ben Brittain, director of public affairs at the Association for Consultancy and Engineering (ACE). He told NCE news editor Lee Kenny about his role and how, when he was transportation adviser to Andy Street, the former Mayor of the West Mi...

This month’s guest is Billy Thursfield, Bam sub-agent for the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), who joined us from Rothera Research Station in Antarctica. He has spent seven seasons living and working on infrastructure projects on the southernmost continent. He told NCE news editor Lee Kenny about the aims of the wider Antarctic Infrastructure Modernisation Programme (AIMP), the partnerships involve...

The latest episode of the Engineers Collective is out now: listen in on  Spotify ,  Apple Podcasts , your usual platform or the player below.   This month’s guests are WTW head of flood and water risk research Neil Gunn and WTW climate practice associate director Dulce Perez Romero.   They join rob to discuss where they sit in the civil engineering ecosystem when it comes to dam maintenance; worki...

The latest episode of the Engineers Collective is out now: listen in on  Spotify ,  Apple Podcasts , your usual platform or the player below.   Joining host Rob Hakimian this month is ICE Fellow and member of the Panel for Historic Engineering William Day, who provides a fascinating history lesson on the Menai Suspension Bridge.   The iconic bridge, which crosses the Menai strait between mainland...

This month we welcome Anglian Water’s delivery director for water Paul Lonsdale to discuss the pioneering work of the @one Alliance. Formed of eight partner organisations – Anglian Water, Balfour Beatty, Barhale, Binnies, Mott MacDonald Bentley, MWH Treatment, Skanska and Sweco – the alliance has been running for 20 years and has set a template for collaboration and efficiency in major project del...

In this month’s episode we welcome the CEO of Projectworks, Mark Orttung, to discuss how his company’s software is facilitating growth among the construction and engineering sector’s vital small and medium enterprises (SMEs). We start by learning from Mark about why Projectworks’ offerings are particularly suited to SMEs and how it can help to provide them with insights and analysis that can help...

The latest episode of the Engineers Collective is out now: listen in on  Spotify ,  Apple Podcasts , your usual platform or the player below. In this month’s episode we discuss the UK’s long-term plan for a vast underground storage facility for nuclear waste – known as a geological disposal facility (GDF) – with Nuclear Waste Services (NWS). NWS chief scientific adviser Neil Hyatt and NWS head of...

Joining host Rob Hakimian this month is Mind Foundry director of civil infrastructure Tom Bartley to discuss how the business is working on the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into our infrastructure maintenance and management processes. Tom discusses the issues with current structural maintenance regimes and how AI can help to empower the workforce to overcome these constraints. He ex...

The latest episode of the Engineers Collective is out now: listen in on  Spotify ,  Apple Podcasts , your usual platform or the player below. After a busy month of infrastructure commitments from the UK government, host Rob Hakimian welcomes Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) director of policy and external affairs Sam Gould to the podcast to discuss it all. They touch on spending settlements fo...

The latest episode of the Engineers Collective is out now: listen in on  Spotify ,  Apple Podcasts , your usual platform or the player below. This month’s guest is WSP associate structural engineer Sally Walsh, who joins the podcast to discuss steel reuse in construction, specifically on the Elephant & Castle Town Centre scheme. The Elephant & Castle Town Centre scheme is regenerating a li...

The latest episode of the Engineers Collective is out now: listen in on  Spotify ,  Apple Podcasts , your usual platform or the player below. This month’s guest is Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) President Jim Hall, who joins host Rob Hakimian to discuss the work of the ICE in representing and supporting civil engineers in the modern construction and economic landscape. After getting to know...

This month’s guest is Civic Engineers associate director Sam Harland who talks to host Rob Hakimian about the Building Safety Act 2022 and how it is changing the way that engineers are working. They talk about how it has introduced new processes, particularly for structural engineers like Harland, with the tightening of design competency requirements, the introduction of the gateway process and th...

This month we’re discussing the Ofwat Innovation Fund and we’re joined by Ofwat director for environment and innovation Jo Jolly alongside representatives of two companies who have been part of innovations that have been boosted by the fund: Royal HaskoningDHV UK water sector director Paul Lavender and Changemaker 3D CEO and cofounder Natalie Wadley. The chat starts with a focus on how the Innovat...

This month’s guest is Ronan O’Driscoll, an engineer who has worked in a variety of sectors in his storied career – often in temporary works, which is what he is doing in his current role working on the construction of Hinkley Point C. Having amassed a wealth of knowledge over his time in the sector, O’Driscoll has put together a free-to-download guide called Construction Engineering – A Guide to T...

Our innovation experts Samuel Stephens, director, head of digital, nuclear at AtkinsRéalis and Angela MacOscar, director of innovation at Northumbrian Water, grill two innovators about their technology.  In this launch episode, recorded live at Techfest, they speak with FC Laboratories’ Matthew Norbury about their AI-powered wearable neurotech to support brain fitness, and Matt Barney, chief hydro...

This month’s guest is Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) trustee for policy and external affairs Jonathan Spruce, who joins host Rob Hakimian to discuss the trials of the UK’s megaproject High Speed 2 (HS2). The ICE recently put out a report about what went wrong with the project and lessons that can be taken forward to other projects, compiled through interviews with people at all levels in the...

In the latest episode of The Engineers Collective from New Civil Engineer, host Rob Hakimian welcomes Professor John Orr from the Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE) and Cambridge University Department of Engineering. They discuss the IStructE’s upcoming 2024 Structural Awards, which seeks to honour the outstanding structures from all over the globe that have been completed in the last...

The latest episode of the Engineers Collective is out now: listen in on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or your usual platform. This month we’re joined by the International Hydropower Association (IHA) to discuss the “grandfather” of renewable energy. IHA senior energy policy manager Rebecca Ellis chats to NCE news editor Rob Hakimian about the history and importance of pumped storage hydro, covering how...

The latest episode of The Engineers Collective from New Civil Engineer is all about the development and construction of East West Rail (EWR), the brand new railway being built between Oxford and Cambridge. Our interviewee is former East West Rail Company innovation manager Daisy Chapman-Chamberlain, who was involved with all the future-facing elements of this exciting project. It should be noted t...

In the new episode the we meet the authors of new book The Regenerative Structural Engineer, Oliver Broadbent and James Norman. The book, published by the Institution of Structural Engineers, draws on the two authors’ years of experience of civil and structural engineering. Today, Oliver is founder and co-leader of regenerative engineering training Constructivist and James is professor of sustaina...

This month’s episode is dedicated to celebrating 40 years since Queen Elizabeth II officially opened the Thames Barrier in London, the engineering marvel that protects London from disastrous flooding. We speak to two engineers who worked on its construction, which commenced nearly half a century ago. Rory O’Grady was a section engineer for Costain on the project between 1975 and 1980 and has just...