Engineering Matters

What links draught excluders and nuclear reactors? Or carbon capture and methane monitoring? As we enter a generation of change, these and other ideas will be key to developing efficient, decarbonised energy, and to how we use this energy in our homes. This week, we introduce the shortlisted entries for the 2025 Engineering Matters Awards. The awards aim to celebrate the impact that engineers have...

We live in a world where data and connectivity are essential to almost everything we do. Cable and satellite connections add value to business through trade and collaboration, and enrich our personal lives with the ability to engage with friends and family around the world. Maintaining these connections is a central aim of engineers in the 21st century. Little has changed in a hundred years. In th...

For many of us, now is a season of giving. A well chosen gift can bring lasting joy. But it’s easy to get wrong. One of the finest gifts anyone can give, is the gift of engineering. But how can engineers and designers ensure that when they share their gifts, they really meet the needs of users?  This November, Engineers Without Borders UK brought together a diverse panel of experts to discuss...

This week, we are returning to Rothera, in the Antarctic, where, in 2021 the British Antarctic Survey had just completed work on a project it has called ‘the world’s most extreme construction site’. Pour yourself a warming drink, and enjoy the episode. We’ll be back with a new episode next week. Since the end of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, humanity has focused its activities in the so...

Nature-based solutions are emerging as vital tools to tackle the dual crises of climate change and biodiversity loss by leveraging nature’s inherent resilience to protect and restore ecosystems. This episode explores how innovative approaches can make these solutions mainstream and economically viable while addressing complex challenges like urban flooding, ecosystem restoration, and sustain...

During the last Ice Age, glaciers scored huge trenches through the land beneath the Irish Sea. Today, those valleys are filled with softer material and sit between tracts of hard rock, creating a diverse landscape that wind farm developer Codling Wind Park has had to research in painstaking detail before it can begin installing its turbine foundations into the seabed. This challenge is explained b...

Monitoring and maintaining an entire rail network can be costly, slow and, for those working on the track, very dangerous. Specialised trains were developed that could be mounted with sensors for collecting data on track gauging and track condition, however these couldn’t be mounted together. In this episode we look into the development of RILA or Rail Infrastructure Alignment Acquisition, which h...

From habitat destruction, to use of pesticides, the arrival of invasive species and the growing impact of climate change, life, in all shapes and sizes, is fighting to survive. To protect the world’s biodiversity, first we have a better understanding of what and where that biodiversity is. In this episode we delve into iNaturalist, the 2024 Engineering Matters Community Gold Champion. iNaturalist...

In the early 1900s Sydney was transformed by its first electric lighting system, which was so bright compared to gas lamps it was hailed as “turning night into day”. The network did much more than just light up the streets. It democratised power, electrifying communities, homes and businesses for the first time. The system, designed by London based engineering consultants Preece & Cardew, beca...

Governments and businesses around the world have made commitments to achieve Net Zero by the middle of the century. This will require engineering innovation, and changes to practices, standards and regulations, across the generation, transmission, storage and transport segments. In this episode we explore these challenges and how they intersect.  The IET’s Powering Net Zero week returns on De...

The Thames had been for thousands of years London’s main route to the sea. But it is also an obstacle. The last crossing east of London is the bridge and tunnel at Dartford, and this is often congested. But a new crossing has been proposed further down the river. Throughout its planning, the focus has been on the legacy that the new Lower Thames Crossing will deliver. As we saw in yesterday’s epis...

National Highways has adopted clear net zero targets: its own operations will be carbon free by 2030; those of contractors on its roads by 2040; and of road users by 2050. The challenge will be meeting those goals, while also fulfilling its mission of getting drivers where they need to go, safely and efficiently. The key to meeting this challenge is the carbon reduction hierarchy: avoid, switch, a...

In 2024, National Highways completely closed parts of the M25, London’s orbital motorway. This blockage in the arterial system of the UK economy wasn’t a mistake. Instead, it was an example of meticulously planned surgery, performed by experts. In the previous episode of this mini-series, recorded live at Highways UK, we saw how data is becoming key to the future of the UK’s road infrastructure. I...

As an engineer, it is easy to think of roads as a challenge to be solved. Many of the innovations we will discuss in this mini-series will have a real impact on the safety, efficiency, and environmental impact of roads. But roads should be thought of as a service, not as an end in themselves. Today, National Highways is committed to only build new roads where strictly necessary. The future focus f...

Why should we be thinking about roads as a service, not just an engineering challenge? What does it mean for a road to be a computer wrapped in asphalt? How can we use data from cars, highway assets, and even the road itself, to plan maintenance with minimal disruption to road users? How can roads become greener, more sustainable, and have less carbon impact? And what legacy do we leave when we bu...

We should all want to build workplaces where everyone feels safe and included. But how can we do that when we don’t know what everyone needs? How can we make sure that we understand our colleagues and potential recruits, and provide them with the tools they need to be welcomed, and to be successful? Engineering Matters Awards Diversity & Inclusion Gold Champion EKFB’s Victoria Hingley has been...

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...

The North Sea’s natural conditions, with shallow waters and strong winds, make it ideal for wind farms. But, these same factors pose challenges for construction. To meet ambitious Net Zero targets, improving the speed and efficiency of installing wind farm foundations is critical. At the same time, these works must be carried out safely, without risk to workers on decks. This episode introdu...

The first stable atom to form after the Big Bang was hydrogen. Transformed into other atoms through stellar nuclear fusion, it is the foundation of all matter. Bound with other elements in water and hydrocarbons, it is the basis for all life, and the fuel of the industrial revolution. But can it also be the foundation of a new, Net Zero, economy? And what should that new energy system look like? I...

On Coire Glas, in the remote Scottish Highlands, geologists and engineers are developing a vision of Scotland’s energy future. SSE Renewables plans the first pumped hydro storage facility in the UK for decades here, taking advantage of the unique and awe inspiring landscape. But first, they need to understand conditions on and in the ground. And to do that, they needed to trek to the mountaintop,...

For 70% of the world’s population, doing the laundry means hours of difficult manual washing. It was this fact that led Nav Sawhney to leave his job as a design engineer at Dyson and try to come up with a way to fix this problem. After six different design iterations, Nav and his team at the Washing Machine Project had come up with the Divya, a hand crank washing machine that uses no power, 50% le...

How should local and regional leaders encourage investment in their communities? Around the world, cities struggle with a legacy of industrial decline. In England, devolution of planning policy to mayoral combined authorities has allowed for regions like Greater Manchester to outpace national growth. But within regions, local areas can themselves fall behind, and require a joined up approach to pl...

Project managers have traditionally measured the viability of a project design or materials choice as a triangle, balancing cost, scope and performance. With the addition of carbon, this triangle becomes a three-sided pyramid, with four considerations each interacting with the others.  Materials suppliers and project designers now have a wealth of carbon cutting innovations available to them....

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. ...

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 ver...