Impulse To Innovation

One of the many ways members benefit from being part of the IMechE is through its events and webinar programme. Conferences, lectures and webinars (often generated by the divisions and groups) help to deepen members’ understanding of the latest engineering trends, technical reports and thought leadership as well as providing excellent ways to network and build business relationships. As we draw to...

Virtual engineering is a process by which engineers can combine the world around them with a digitally-generated environment, allowing them to visualize an object or location from a totally new perspective. Credit Advanced VR Research Centre (AVRRC), Loughborough University   While the fundamentals of virtual technology and simulation have been around for some time, particularly in first-person co...

This episode features a conversation that explores the intersectionality of race, careers in engineering and joy. These are big topics on their own and become highly amplified and sometimes harmful, when one’s self-identities and protected characteristics intertwine.  Today, we’re going to approach them with care and mindful intention as these are themes that we don’t often get to share in this wa...

The idea of service robots is no longer science fiction, indeed if the launch of the Optimus bot on the 14th October is anything to go by, for a cool $20,000 you will soon be able to have a human-looking robot in your home. Or not! At least not in the way that tesla imagines it, just yet. But the reality of service robots isn’t totally out of our reach. Intelligent machines designed to perform use...

The world of quantum technology is not some science fiction flight of fantasy, it is an exciting field of science which is turning into a rapidly growing engineering sector. You might not know it but you can already buy quantum-dot TVs and mobile phones with quantum-enhanced encryption. Quantum technologies are poised to expand the realm of engineering in ways that were unthinkable until just a de...

As the Olympics gets underway, summertime temperatures will only continue to get hotter, giving athletes additional challenges as they seek to bring home medals.   With Paris 2024 taking place in the host city’s hottest months of the year, leading athletes are already warning that intense heat could lead to competitors collapsing and in worst case scenarios dying during the Games.   What role can...

Sunday – 23rd June – marks the 11th annual International Women in Engineering Day (INWED), and as always we are celebrating the amazing contribution women engineers make, not just to the profession as a whole, but to society. The 23rd June is significant as it marks the founding day in 1919 that a group of seven women from the National Council of Women met and signed a Memorandum of Agreement whic...

In 2023 EngineeringUK commissioned a report focusing on the demand for engineers and the skills they would need in the coming decade.  The report identified there were approximately 6.1 million engineering jobs (including tech roles) across all industries in 2021, representing around 19% of all jobs in the UK, 43% of those jobs were in ICT or software-related areas. At the same time the report fou...

With the recent acceleration of technologies such as IoT, cloud computing, and big data – people and services have become more connected than ever. In response to this increasing availability of data and digital services the transport sector is undergoing a sizable transformation as a result of the growing need for more sustainable and accessible travel solutions. This has stimulated a considerabl...

This week (6th and 7th March) sees the IMechE host its fourth hydrogen economy conference in London. The international event will focus on infrastructure challenges as well as the storage and management of hydrogen as part of a wider ‘green energy’ supply.   iStock Image   Given the UK Government’s ambition for a decarbonised power sector by 2050, which will see the share of renewables in our gene...

The ever-present challenges of climate change, over-reliance on limited resources and a global demand for new technologies, is pushing the engineering community to find more innovative ways to design and manufacture products. Image Source: UK Metamaterials Network https://metamaterials.network/what-are-metamaterials/   Engineers and scientists working in the materials science sector have been expl...

The implementation of net zero initiatives across the globe is at the forefront of most governments and leadership authorities' strategic policies, none-more-so than China and India; two of the world’s biggest carbon emitters.   South Asia has witnessed a growth in energy demand over the past two decades, increasing by over 50% since 2000. Rising demand has been driven by factors such as an increa...

“Adapting industries to, and preparing them for, a warmer world will be essential for the future successful functioning of societies of all nations.” Said Dr Tim Fox, co author of the IMechE’s latest report on Climate adaption.   The report entitled 'Adapting Industry to Withstand Rising Temperatures and Future Heatwaves' was published in April 2023 and produced in conjunction with the IMechE’s Pr...

During the first week of September the Institution hosted Volunteer Week.  A back-to-back week of committee meetings and networking, enabling members from all over the world to take part in a wide range of activities. As a Chair of a Division of the IMechE, this was a great opportunity for Helen to meet up with not just her division members but members from across the Institution. Helen personally...

Impulse to Innovation was back at Formula Student this year to celebrate the competition's 25th Anniversary. The episode went out live on the 20th July and this podcast is an edited version of that live show. It is great to be back in the race control building overlooking world-famous Silverstone Circuit, home of the British Grand Prix. From our studio we could see the National Pits straight and o...

The T-level was initially mooted back in 2017 by the British government as a new, unified technical qualification which would replace the BTEC and simplify vocational education routes. After several years of development, The Department for Education (DfE) launched the t-level in 2020 with the aim of enabling students to directly enter employment on completion of a programme in further education or...

Leading and managing people, projects, or teams, requires more than a high degree of technical knowledge. Experience and education provide the foundation for success in an engineering manager's role, but it also requires a great deal of foresight and strategic thinking and just like any skill, becoming an effective manager and leader takes time and effort. With businesses emerging from COVID-19 to...

The idea of 'a machine that thinks' dates back to ancient Greece times, but since the advent of electronic computing and the overwhelming amount of data generated by the human race in the last 50 years, the realisation of intelligent machines that can think like humans has been almost tangible. In 1950 Alan Turing published his seminal work Computing Machinery and Intelligence. In the paper, Turin...

The UK’s first-ever Hydrogen Strategy was released in 2021 and was revised last year, as part of the Government’s commitment to a green industrial revolution.  The strategy lays the foundation for how Government will work with industry to meet its ambition for 10GW of low carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2030 – the equivalent of replacing natural gas in powering around 3 million UK homes eac...

Its safe to say that the engineering community has been under a great deal of strain over the last few years, with socio-economic and political upheaval across the global. None-more-so than the manufacturing industry. Both here in the UK and worldwide, the manufacturing sector is facing a number of urgent challenges which are driving transformational change across the entire industry. The ambition...

Hello and welcome to the new season of Impulse to Innovation. Believe it or not, as of the end of December 2022 we have produced 30 episodes of the podcast, reaching 98 countries with over 14 ½ thousand downloads. Thank you so much to you, our listeners for continuing to support our show, we really appreciate it. Don’t forget you can subscribe to the show here on our main site or via any podcast s...

Despite the all-consuming mission of the global healthcare sector to ‘do no harm’ and protect society from illness, disease, and death it is, according to NGO ‘Health Care Without Harm’, the fifth largest emitter of global emissions on the planet. Indeed, healthcare’s climate footprint is estimated to be 4.4% of global net emissions; that’s equivalent to the output from 514 coal fired power statio...

In the second part of this month’s episode Helen speaks with Ian Clark, managing director of Ian Clark Restoration and Engtech fellow of the institution. Ian is unreservedly passionate about the restoration and preservation of our historical and technological achievements, and it has been a part of his life for over 40 years. He has worked with the likes of english heritage, the national trust and...

Our world is filled with structures, statues and artefacts that humankind has created. Throughout our history, we have utilised different materials, methodologies and technologies to help us innovate and construct ever-more complex objects. It is only in more recent decades that society has recognised the significance of these items and the responsibility it has, to conserve and protect them for p...

Throughout this year Helen has attended several of the Institution’s challenge events in which students from across the UK and internationally, come together to compete for some of engineering’s most converted prizes and titles.  This month she was able to travel to IMechE HQ and meet up with the teams, judges and sponsors at one of these competitions, the final of the Design Challenge.   The Desi...