Developing Engineers

As I’ve written a bit about in previous posts, over the past month I have been involved in a couple of STEM projects speaking to students. I took part in I’m An Engineer Get Me Out Of Here & also acted as a career networker at The Big Bang Fair (like Giles previously).

These events really brought it home to me how important it is for young people to be able to speak to engineers about their jobs, so that they realise there are different aspects to engineering, and that it isn’t all fixing washing machines and cars. Read more…

The Thameslink Programme, as you may well already know, is a £6 billion upgrade/expansion of the existing Thameslink rail network. Current trains are being replaced with newer and longer carriages; in addition to greater capacity, these trains will service a greater range of stations to the north and south of London. Passengers on these trains will no longer need to change trains in London to get to where they need.

At first glance, the Thameslink Programme sounds like a godsend, especially to regular commuters. We’ve all seen the legendary photos of overcrowded trains in Japan and shuddered to think how it felt to be there… Read more…

By-and-by, engineers tend to spend a fair amount of time sitting down. Whether that be through working at a desk, sitting in a meeting, or travelling, it can accumulate to a significant proportion of your week. (Not to mention time spent sat down in leisure hours). You may be surprised to hear that this is not a good thing; sitting down all day slows your metabolism, can be bad for your back, and is linked with earlier mortality. Put simply, the more proportion of your time spent sitting, the slower you will work and the earlier you will die. Many people assume that taking regular breaks and getting exercise outside of work hours negates the effects of sitting all day, but unfortunately that is not the case.

This stems from the simple fact that homo sapiens are not engineered (I’m not going to start a debate on creationism/evolution, so you can take that as meaning any one of the following: theological creationism, guided evolution, natural selection, aliens from the planet zorg, or any one of the proposed mechanisms that describe how we got to where we are…) to sit for prolonged periods of time. We are hunter gatherers, designed to be up and on the move. I.e. dynamic creatures not sedentary PowerPoint jockeys. When sitting, our structure (skeleton, muscles, tendons and ligaments), adopts an unnatural posture, placing stresses into our body that we were never designed for. Worse still, our muscles and ligaments become used to this posture, which in turn can lead to a whole series of knock on problems. To me, as a reliability engineer, this sounds like the classic tale of customers returning products with new, previously unforeseen failure modes, that can only be attributed to it being used for something it was never intended for… (not covered by many warranties!)

Over the last few years, there has been a surge in the number of people choosing to stand whilst working, but like all good ‘modern trends’, this is really nothing new. Standing desks were more popular in the 18th and 19th century. They could be found in homes, schools, & offices, until they disappeared almost overnight. Notable users include Thomas Jefferson, Charles Darwin, Winston Churchill and until this day, Donald Rumsfeld. Like many of the older workstations, many of the modern interpretations include the flexibility to change from sitting to standing (or even perching) to encourage variety. Like seemingly everything moderation is the key so I don’t mean to promote standing still in one spot all day!

I’m acutely aware of the downsides of sitting down as years of silly sports (apparently we are not engineered to be front row forwards either) have left me unable to sit comfortably for very long at a time, so I am in the process of getting a new standing desk in my workplace. I foresee the changeover to be ‘interesting’, and for some of my colleagues to be confused, but I’ll let you all know how I get on!

Many of you reading this may be feeling the after effects of over-indulging in chocolate over the weekend – in fact you may still be over-indulging as this goes to post!  But have you ever wondered how all of those billions of chocolate eggs are manufactured?  Here’s how… Read more…

This week the UK government announced a new initiative to promote the development of Carbon Capture & Storage (CCS) technology, after the total flop of the last scheme. The CCS roadmap can be split into three distinct parts: the first provides research and development funding, the second grants for the construction of plants and the third funds the running costs, which makes this an attractive scheme for industries looking to develop CCS.

Heralded by the government and fossil fuel companies as a panacea for CO₂ reduction; they say it’ll enable polluting fossil fuel plants to run with ‘zero’ carbon emissions (an 80-90% reduction), a view many will question. Now I will try and answer some key questions: what are the merits of CSS, will it actually work on an industrial scale and what part does it have to play in reducing global warming and aiding theUK in meeting its 2020 and 2050 targets?

As you may know, the idea behind CCS technology in power generation is to enable the stripping of CO₂ from the emissions from fossil fuel fired power plants (pre or post combustion) and to then store it , normally very deep underground or under the sea. The technology behind CCS is largely unproven on an industrial scale and the storage component is an unknown element. The injection of CO₂, and essentially the storage of CO₂, has been used to prolong the life of oil wells in enhanced oil recovery but if this method of storage is stable is unknown.

What has to be remembered is that with CCS we are still producing vast quantities of CO² by burning non-renewable fossil fuels, it doesn’t reduce emissions we’re just storing them away. We do not know how reliable the storage of CO₂ is, and whether or not it will escape or dissipate and rise to the surface adding to global warming in the future. Also, it’s virtually impossible to measure the success of the storage solution and/or any CO₂ escape from deep sea storage. This is also not to mention the problems that may be caused to the pH level of the sea and the effects that it may have on sub-sea ecosystems.

Ok, so if there are so many uncertainties surrounding CCS, and potential pitfalls, what place should it have as one possible solution to reach our 2020 and 2050 emission targets? Well while I do not under any circumstance see this as a long term solution to reducing emissions, especially as we will run out of fossil fuels before long, I do think in the short term it does have a key part to play if we want to have any hope of achieving the targets set for 2020 and 2050 as we are woefully behind with our development of low carbon and renewable energy.

While this new scheme will be welcomed by investors and will aid in meeting the UK’s targets in reducing CO₂ emissions we all have to remember that it still involves burning a fast depleting finite resource where security of supply is a significant concern. CCS isn’t the solution to climate change, or the energy gap, but it may have a supporting role.

This week I was impressed to watch a feature of a flying car on the BBC Technology website. Alright it doesn’t look much like your normal family car (I don’t know where you’d put the shopping) but I’m really impressed by the design and I’m sure that there will be use for it in military type situations at least. It’s impressive how the rotors etc all fold up, so it would be usable on everyday roads and you wouldn’t have to worry about decapitating people!

Have a look on the company PAL-V’s website to find out more about this heli-car.

Seeing the maiden flight of the PAL-V ONE got me thinking, had it have been unveiled on Sunday the 1st of April, I’d probably have thought it was a April Fools joke, but as it was released the day after, it’s a perfectly legit feature. But what other April fools jokes were played around the net?

Read more…

There has been some very significant developments for the Nuclear Industry in the UK, with E.ON and RWE (nPower) [Horizon Nuclear Power] pulling out of the UK Nuclear New Build Programme, and on Monday the largest decommissioning contract ever will being awarded to the Babcock Dounreay Partnership to decommission Dounreay, by the far the biggest blemish of the nuclear industry.

Now in regards to the decision by EDF and RWE, if you believe the Energy Minister, Charles Hardy, this move was not down to a lack of confidence in the UK Nuclear Industry but due to, “pressures elsewhere in their businesses”, though it may have more to do with the lack of confidence in Nuclear as a whole following the Fukushima disaster in 2011. Whatever the reason for this decision, the fact is that this leaves the Nuclear New Build Programme in a severely weakened position and presents a stark truth that the UK cannot rely on private and foreign investment for our core infrastructure.

The big players that are left, and that the government is relying on to plug the energy gap, are EDF/Centrica (or British Gas) and Nugen, with EDF/Centrica being by far the most serious players. However with cost of a new nuclear plant rising, partly after increased safety precautions have been implemented following on from the Fukushima disaster, and the slow progress and higher than expected cost of EDF’s flagship nuclear reactor, the European Pressurised Reactor, in Flamanville, the continued support by these big players should be viewed with extreme caution.

The governments existing policy of no subsidies for nuclear power will have to come under review in the not too distant future, else the risk of the new nuclear sector collapsing is very real. Now I don’t agree with subsidies for nuclear power, as I believe it has already cost the country enough over decades of poor management leading to heavy decommission costs and that we should focus on more sustainable power. But we have already invested heavily in proving New Nuclear Build Designs and paving the way for their installations so to abandon now would leave the country out of pocket and with a serious and fast approaching energy gap.

Finally I will briefly consider the blemish that is Dounreay and the ever protracted decommissioning process, which at last count was estimated to finish in 2032. Dounreay was, in my opinion, the most poorly managed nuclear facility that the country has ever ran and more a experimental play house for the development of nuclear power and fuel than ever a well run facility. There have been stories of rooms that were out of bounds for decades due to radiation, which have only recently been decommissioned, and nuclear waste leakage into the waterways. The decommissioning process is incredibly complicated and to trust that it will be more cost effective to hand this over to a private firm is incredible at the least.

I have no worries on the ability of Babcock to perform the decommission and I am sure that the people involved will not actually change much due to the limited suitably qualified resource that this country has; though to presume that this will reduce costs is in my opinion a foolish one. It should also be noted that Babcock has an ever expanding portfolio of highly sensitive and very significant operations in this country. Private companies exist for one purpose, to make money, which any sensible person cannot disagree with; however to put them in charge of public infrastructure and services and expect them to act altruistically is incredibly naive.

For more of my opinions on nuclear and energy as a whole, please visit my blog!

The first thing I’d like to say is that it would be great to see a lot of discussion using the blog’s comment system on these articles. I’m not expert on these topics and most articles tend to be drastically biased depending on who wrote them, so let’s hear from you guys. The real experts! Leave a comment!

James Cameron wins the race to the bottom of the Mariana Trench

If you’d been following the race between the three competing teams to be the first to bottom and back, James Cameron has won, taking the first footage from the deep!

I’m all for these feats of engineering, it’s a great way we can push our technology and showcase engineering to all on a global scale.

Tomorrows world: The Tacocopter and Human Bird Wings

2 weeks ago I was incredibly taken in by a series of 14 amazing videos where Jarno Smeets, a Dutch engineer, designed and built his own flapping bird wings. The next day I wasn’t so sure anymore and today I’ve found articles confirming he’s admitted to the hoax. In my defence Jamie from Mythbusters was convinced too! 

As an Engineer I thought I was immune to these types of hoax by being able dismiss them on technical grounds but Jarno suckered me in with some amazing CAD models and test videos of his invention. He claimed to have used 2 high power brushless motors to power-assist his flapping motion and for awhile I truely believed we’d achieved the required energy density to make such a mode of flight possible…

Maybe again in 25 years?

What’s next a drone helicopter that delivers Tacos right to your door? Link, I’m almost certain this is another fake, but the concept made me smile. In terms of tomorrows world technology, quadrocopters are definitely worth following:  complex formation flying, or playing their own music.

The War on Photovoltaics

It’s hotting up in Germany and soon it could all get a bit messy! Big, Traditional Energy Companies don’t like consumer level feed in Photovoltaics. For energy providers shackled by government regulation and tariffs they’re not profitable. Here’s why: Peak Power

Recently I heard that part of the backlash consisted of claims that new PV technology is so widely adopted in countries like Germany that it will destroy their grid. Residential switch gear can’t cope with the power at such a low level in the network. Is this really true though? Or are they just dragging their heels trying to cling onto safe, profitable fossil fuels.

We all know solar isn’t THE single answer to our problems but it was never going to be easy was it? Unless big energy companies get on board with the new market requirements of a green, non-fossil fuel based power network, they shouldn’t be able to make any money anymore. Companies will never be responsible unless it is profitable, so unfortunately they’re going to need a bit of consumer and governmental squeezing along the way.  I guess the trick is not squeezing so hard the bubble bursts.

Some amazing pictures and expedition write ups from Polar Discovery

I would thoroughly recommend reading the accounts of these expeditions, starting from here you’ll be told just what it takes to get a team of scientists to the poles, for them to actually carry out their experiments and then get them back again. Trust me, its hardcore!

What caught my eye was this picture of a fluorescent dye being used to track glacial melt water. When I first saw it I thought it was the beginning of the second coming or something. The Journal diaries with regards to this particular experiment start here

If you want more there are plenty of journal diaries of their expeditions available from the site’s index.

Welcome to our first official guest blog, written by Dr. Anna Coppel, IMechE Greater London Region SET for Sport Chair.

How often have you heard “isn’t that someone who wears overalls and fixes cars” as the response to the question “what does an engineer do?” When I hear this (and I can tell you it has been more often than I would care to share) it makes me a touch angry but determined nonetheless to tackle this common misconception. I’m not talking about challenging people who are our contemporaries, as frankly they should know better, I am talking about opening the minds of young people to the possibilities of becoming an engineer.

As I am not a politician (or a policy maker of any sort), but an engineer, the options are limited. However, with the help of organisations like the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, STEMNET and wonderful NGOs such as Portia people like you and I can go into schools and both inspire and educate young people about becoming engineers.

I have been lucky enough to be involved in a number of schools events. One event in particular seems to have caught young peoples’ imaginations and it might be something to do with the upcoming London 2012 Olympics. The event is called SET for Sport (SET is Science Engineering and Technology) and it aims to showcase the many and varied ways in which science and technology can interact with sport and how it has completely revolutionised both sports equipment and performance over the years in which London has hosted the Olympics (1908, 1948 and 2012).

Could you imagine Usain Bolt running sub 9.6 seconds without a set of spikes, starting blocks or access to top sports nutritionists, bio-mechanists and psychologists? Would Chris Hoy, Victoria Pendleton and the other GB cyclists be at the top of their sport without the assistance of aerodynamics specialists and materials engineers? Would Oscar Pistorius be able to walk, never mind compete with able-bodied athletes on the world stage, without biomedical engineers?

Bicycle technology has moved on immensely in the past 100 years.  Modern sporting competitions are as much about the technology as they are about the athletes.

The SET for Sport schools event is a full day of off-curriculum activities aimed at year 9s (13 and 14 year olds). The tasks set range from designing a tug of war shoe and a sport of the future; to debating the ethics of whether there should be a limit to the role of engineering in sport. Each year we have also had a former Olympian as a guest speaker to talk about how engineering and science has helped them in their careers.

The event is in its fourth year and in this, its concluding year, we hope to run it across as many regions in the UK as we can. To use the momentum and interest in sport that the 2012 Olympic games have generated to try and get more young people taking STEM subjects at A-level and beyond.

The demand for STEM qualified school leavers and graduates is expected to continue to increase in the UK. So it is important that when it comes to picking their A-Levels and degrees young people are aware of the massive variety of careers which are open to them in the field of science, engineering, technology and mathematics. It’s not about fixing cars in oil stained overalls, but instead it could be designing the next generation of running shoe or prosthetic limb.

If you would like more information, or would like to be involved in the next event please contact Dr. Anna Coppel (IMechE Young Members Panel London Region SET for Sport Chair and Arup).

In the roundup of stories from the internet that I posted last week, I mentioned an engagement event called I’m an engineer, get me out of here!

The idea is students ask engineers questions, in live chats and through the website. The engineers and students are split up into different zones, based around the areas that the engineers work in.

Read more…