The Engineers Collective

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...

In this episode of The Engineers Collective we speak to ICE president Anusha Shah about the importance of biodiversity net gain (BNG). This year has seen BNG of 10% become mandatory for new developments. Shah has committed her year in office to pushing the agenda of nature-based solutions in civil engineering. The two themes are intertwined and she explains how they are essential for driving forwa...

In this month’s episode of The Engineers Collective podcast from New Civil Engineer we mark one year since the publication of the 2023 update to the PAS 2080 standard for carbon management in infrastructure.   We’ve gathered representatives from Mott MacDonald, the Department for Transport and Anglian Water to gain insight a series of roundtables held by Mott MacDonald where industry stakeholders...

In this month’s episode of The Engineers Collective podcast from New Civil Engineer we speak to Julia Stevens, the chief executive of the Constructionarium, about how the facility is preparing budding construction workers and engineers for life on a work site. Stevens tells us about the Constructionarium, a 7.5ha site at Bircharm Newton in Norfolk, which features a range of work areas including sc...

This month’s episode of The Engineers Collective from New Civil Engineer focuses on the role that hydrogen could play in the global effort to transition to a zero-carbon world. International management consultancy Arthur D. Little recently put out a report entitled Hydrogen: The electroshock to the energy transition and in this episode NCE acting news editor Rob Hakimian is joined by three experts...