Engineering Matters

We can only efficiently reduce those things that we can measure. The Whole Life Carbon Assessment standard, produced by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), established a method for assessing the carbon impact of buildings. Its updated version, which came into effect in July, expanded its scope to include infrastructure, and was designed to be used around the world, not just in the...

The Engineers Without Borders UK People Design Challenge is a year long challenge that is part of many UK engineering students’ degrees. For this episode we went to Stoller Hall in Manchester to cover the Design Challenge final. The design challenge each year focuses on a new community, and puts them at the centre of the project. For 23/24 the community was Pu Ngaol in Cambodia. Students rec...

With the launch of robot taxis, we are already seeing autonomously controlled devices operating alongside humans in the public realm. As AI improves it will become embedded in our physical environment, in factories and construction sites, and in our streets and homes. In episode 267 , we talked to Darren Martin about the importance of considering human needs when developing and deploying technolog...

What does it take to win at the Olympics? For Pierre Engel, chief engineer at ArcelorMittal, victory took years of experience, precision, and collaboration. He was aided by kit made entirely of a novel material—low carbon recycled steel. Pierre’s challenge shared much with those faced by Olympians. But he wasn’t skipping rope to keep himself within his weight class—he was shaving kilos from three...

The UK is a global leader when it comes to the development of offshore wind energy. Despite past government bans on onshore wind development, the UK was able to continue developing its wind energy portfolio by going out to sea. The UK now generates over a quarter of its electricity from wind, with a significant portfolio of offshore wind projects amounting to 80+ gigawatts.  Despite this succ...

When the Queensway Tunnel opened on 18 th July 1934 King George V declared it a miracle. At 3.4km long and with a 13.4m internal diameter it was the world’s longest subaqueous tunnel and the largest municipal engineering project that had ever been undertaken in the UK. The project pushed the boundaries of engineering design and construction from its use of advanced grouting techniques to developme...

In every home, ancient technologies lurk, threatening fire and ruin. While many devices—lights, TVs, and hard drives, for example—have adopted solid state technologies, power bricks still use ageing electromechanical systems. AmberSemi’s AC Direct DC Enabler is a fabless semiconductor system that replaces these bricks. At home, that means smaller, safer ways of connecting DC devices to AC main pow...

Can an ancient technology help spin up the renewables revolution? Dumarey—formerly Punch—Flybrid is doing just that, with its flywheel-based technology. In this episode, one of a series this summer, we look at their winning entries to the Engineering Matters Awards. On construction sites, power supply must be shaped around the peak demands of heavy equipment. Waiting times for high power connectio...

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 Awar...

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 sh...

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 DeGra...

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 C...

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 allo...

Cone Penetration Testing is a conceptually simple technology first developed in the Netherlands almost a century ago, but is still a critical component in the geotechnical toolkit. Now far more accurate and capable than early cones, modern equivalents are being deployed to solve some of the most pressing challenges, within the Dutch lowlands and far overseas. In recent years a surge in research an...

For any military operation the objectives of the mission are absolutely paramount. Failure is not an option. The team is motivated to achieve a common goal, often working under extreme pressure, pulling together to overcome challenges, paying attention to detail and always prioritising the objectives of the mission. In this way veterans have a lot to offer construction and infrastructure projects....

Dar es Salaam is one of the world’s fastest growing cities. In the 1970s, it was home to less than one million people. Today, it has a population of more than five million people, and by 2035 it is projected to have more than 13 million residents. The city sits on a natural harbour, the Zanzibar channel, and is crossed by a series of short rivers and tributaries. These supported the population, an...

In this episode, we delve into the dynamic world of Power Electronics, Machines, and Drives (PEMD), exploring its pivotal role in shaping the future of energy systems and sustainability efforts.  PEMD technology plays a critical role in advancing electrification and decarbonisation efforts worldwide. With PEMD technology enabling the integration of renewable energy sources, improving energy c...

In late 1973 the UK’s Central Electricity Generating Board gained parliamentary approval to build the largest and most difficult pumped storage hydroelectric power station in its history. It was the largest civil engineering contract ever awarded by the government and became the biggest construction project in Europe. Engineering teams had to burrow 750m deep into the Cambrian slate of Elidir Fawr...

On the receiving end of among of the worst natural disasters in modern history, while being blessed with some of the most abundant natural resource reserves, and a developed economy, Australia sits in a unique position with regards to climate change. Many eyes are on the country as it looks to maintain the grid resilience of its traditional coal-fuelled economy, while undertaking one of the most d...

In the UK, over a quarter of a million kilometers of road have been laid. From motorways and A-roads to small country lanes, every kilometer of construction comes with a big carbon cost, emitting up to 2,600 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per kilometer. Over the last decade investment into new material technology and machinery has produced an array of tools for the road construction industry to use whic...

It will be just as important to upgrade pipeline networks for the energy transition, as it is the electric grid. These will carry carbon dioxide and hydrogen, along with ammonia and biogas. They will enable carbon capture, local hydrogen for fuel intensive industry and transport, and for export. Governments around the world have struggled to develop these networks. The UK’s strategy is to create c...

HS2 is one of the most complex and challenging railway scheme the UK has ever undertaken. As such, it has been generating vast amounts of data across the board. Every geological survey, every design, every site, every environmental survey, all generating more and more data. So with all this data, what do you do with it? The final episode of the Learning Legacy Podcast looks at how HS2 has been usi...

HS2 is focused not only on safety, but on overall health and wellbeing on all employees and contractors. Identifying long term risks to wellbeing is a challenge within any industry. It’s a particular problem on construction sites, where people often move between projects and sites. Episode 4 dives into some of the innovations and technology being implemented across the project. From monitoring sit...

HS2’s place within the current climate and environment has always been its top priority. Once operational, the British-built bullet trains will provide zero-carbon journeys between the UK’s two largest cities, Birmingham and London. Episode 3 explores how HS2’s railway assets have been designed from the start with climate change resilience in mind, as well as utilising waste clay from tunnelling,...

Design not only encapsulates the creativity and innovation of new products, but is the main source of information for construction to take place.  Episode 2 of the Learning Legacy Podcast takes a look at the design stages of stations and tunnel portals and encapsulating the importance of finding new methods of work and finding the opportunity to answer questions when there isn’t much existing...