Engineering Matters

At a quarry in Turkey, heavy haul trucks are carrying hundreds of tonnes of materials, with no external power. It’s not quite perpetual motion, but it is removing the need for diesel or cables on a hard working site.

NUH Cement commissioned ABB to repower a 30-year-old Euclid haul truck. The truck collects loads from a hill top quarry, carries them downhill, and then returns uphill empty. That gave the team at ABB an idea: rather than losing the gravity energy of the load to braking, why not capture it and use it to power the tr...

LongPath Technologies has taken Nobel-winning discoveries, and applied them to a key cause of climate change: methane leaks from oil and gas facilities. The sector now turns to LongPath to establish monitoring across facilities. But as LongPath sought to scale from innovation to commercialization, it turned to Red Pitaya for a vital component.

In this episode we tell the story of LongPath, and how their laser-based methane monitoring has been developed over the past decade. We learn how this work was enabled by a cheap and highly configurable processing board from Red Pitaya. And we discover why...

In 2016 management consultants McKinsey released a report that reverberated around the construction and engineering sectors. This sector, the report said, was consistently delivering projects late—often 20% longer to finish than expected—and over budget: by as much as 80%. The report’s authors pointed out that the tools that could resolve these delays and cost overruns, quite simply weren’t being picked up. Now, nearly a decade on, has the sector made progress?

In this episode, we speak to three AtkinsRéalis experts about the sector’s progress. Sam Stephens describes the origins of digital construction, explaining how offshore in...

Generative AI has swept across our society. In every app, up it pops, eager to offer a helping hand. The opportunity to talk to computer systems as if they are human, or to create memes at unprecedented speed, has great appeal for many. But is it ready to do the hard work at the heart of our economy?

Not yet, perhaps, but soon, AI systems will be working alongside humans in industrial engineering offices and on the shop floor. They will present design choices for engineers, guided by a deep understanding of the sector they work in...

Airports are at the forefront of a global transformation, rethinking their role not just as transport hubs but as sustainable, connected cities of the future. In this episode we explore how airports around the world are responding to environmental pressures, technological advancements, and increasing passenger demands. From Hong Kong’s ambitious runway reclamation to Heathrow’s efforts to expand sustainably, we unpack the complex challenges and exciting innovations shaping the future of air travel infrastructure.

Our guests George Davies, Meghan Sheehan, and Jeremy Lee, each bring unique perspectives from the UK, US, and Asia, offering a global over...

In the second half of the 20th Century, the world was transformed through infrastructure construction. New roads and railways, levees and power lines, delivered unprecedented comfort and convenience, and laid the foundation for an economy driven by easy transport and trade. But today, as many governments struggle with budgetary constraints and the need to balance decarbonisation with growth, that infrastructure is reaching the end of its design life.

Design life does not set a limit on an assets’ safe and productive use. But it does mark the target the original architects and engineers aimed for when they de...

Helping the next generation achieve their full potential doesn’t just take commitment from their parents or carers, or from professionals like teachers. It takes, as the saying goes, a village. In Derby, nuclear engineer Katie Jarman has assembled the equivalent of a village full of volunteer maths tutors, all recruited from her employer Rolls-Royce, to help local school children achieve their academic and career goals.

Working with local schools, Katie and more than a hundred Rolls-Royce volunteers dedicate an hour a week of their time, over six weeks, to support and encourage children as they prepare fo...

Ben Gibbons and his colleagues at Circular11 are developing ways to add value to hard-to-recycle light plastics. They take packaging, and turn it into a lumber-equivalent, suitable for long term use as post and rail fencing. But to maintain tight loops of circularity, they needed to understand the supply chain they were targeting.

National Highways designed a programme to help innovators like Circular11 scale their ideas. The sustainable plastic re-use business, alongside three other start-ups, went all the way through to the final phase—live trials on the UK’s strategic roads network—of this Acceleration Low Carbon...

Worldwide, water is in short supply and high demand, with very real consequences for human health and security. Many countries struggle to maintain aging networks, meaning that more than 20% of clean water is lost before it reaches the customer. New industries, like data centres, are adding to demand, as they use water for cooling.

In this episode, we look at the work of FIDO Tech, which is using AI and acoustics to identify leaks. The idea of listening for leaks is not new. Traditionally, water company engineers would use a steel rod with an ear cup to...

On the coast of rural Cumbria, in England’s northeast, a once-secretive nuclear site is transforming its legacy by investing in the engineers of tomorrow. Sellafield, known historically for producing weapons-grade plutonium and nuclear energy, has now begun the 100 year process of decommissioning. At the Sellafield Engineering & Maintenance Centre of Excellence, engineers research and develop new technologies for the nuclear industry and engage with the local community. 

As the 2025 Community Gold winners at the Engineering Matters Awards, the team at Sellafield has been recognised for their exceptional outreach to local schools, students, and SEND communities, using engineering to...

The past months have seen a shift in international trade, of a scale not seen for decades. New US tariffs have created uncertainty for investors, and promise to spark a global trade war. While these new challenges to cross-border trade are unique, recent years have seen another shift in industrial policy, particularly in the UK,...

The post #326 Revisited: The Green, Green, Shores of Home first appeared on Engineering Matters.

The rise of AI and machine learning promises a revolution in how we live and work. Expert reasoning and mundane tasks will be completed for us in the cloud. But the cloud is not ethereal or abstract. It is a globe spanning mass of physical infrastructure. Enabling this transformation will demand a huge expansion in...

The post #325 Real world sustainability and the digital revolution first appeared on Engineering Matters.

This February, with the flick of a switch, there was a vast shift of power on Europe’s borders. The Baltic states’ electrical grids, built in the 1960s while these countries were forcibly incorporated into the Soviet Union, had been under the control of Moscow. In one weekend, the transmission system operators in Latvia, Lithuania, and...

The post #324 A Shift of Power on Europe’s Borders first appeared on Engineering Matters.

Engineers from around the world gathered at the Postal Museum in London for the Engineering Matters Awards 2025, presented in partnership with the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, IMechE, and Engineers Without Borders UK, EWB UK. In this episode, we introduce the award gold champions. In episodes to come, we will look in more detail at...

The post #323 Engineers Deliver Impact: The Engineering Matters Awards 2025 first appeared on Engineering Matters.

Seagrass meadows are the engineers of the marine ecosystem. They provide habitats, support biodiversity, prevent coastal erosion and sequester carbon dioxide. For this reason Italy has embarked upon a world leading project to map these coastal ecosystems at a national scale, enabling it to plan protection and restoration measures that will improve ocean health and...

The post #322 Engineering Ecosystems: Italy’s Seagrass Meadows first appeared on Engineering Matters.

We can reuse and retrofit buildings to extend their lifespans, and reduce their embodied carbon impact. But some structures may not be suitable for full reuse: some will have reached the end of their safe life; others will have no viable reuse; and some retrofit projects may require partial dismantling to reduce loadings on the...

The post #321 Circular Construction – Designing for Disassembly first appeared on Engineering Matters.

Quantum mechanics has transformed our understanding of reality, but how did we get here? In this episode, we celebrate the International Year of Quantum, marking 100 years since the birth of this groundbreaking field. From the fierce debates between Einstein and Bohr to the mind-bending implications of superposition and entanglement, we explore how quantum mechanics...

The post #320 International Year of Quantum: 100 Years of Quantum Mechanics first appeared on Engineering Matters.

Britain’s biodiversity has been declining sharply over the last 50 years. The country is now one of the most nature-depleted nations in the world. Despite legislation and efforts to stem the tide of wildlife population decline, little has helped. In February 2025, the UK government announced a new approach to reintroductions of beavers in England....

The post #319 Revisited: Green Engineering, with Bison first appeared on Engineering Matters.

At a unique hackathon in Manchester, a diverse group of hackers, coders, and gamers gathered to design digital solutions for the nuclear industry, blending innovation, teamwork, and pressure-driven problem-solving.  The event, called HackAFuture, served as a groundbreaking careers initiative, offering the winning team not just bragging rights, but jobs with AtkinsRéalis developing their solution.  This...

The post #318 Gaming Out a Career in Nuclear first appeared on Engineering Matters.

When we search for causes of accidents, we often assume a binary: either mechanical failure, or human error, were to blame, and we must pick between them. But labelling an accident as caused by human error doesn’t teach us anything. It makes no effort to understand what caused people to make the decisions they did....

The post #317 Human Factors, Human Error, and Safety by Design first appeared on Engineering Matters.

AI is evolving so fast it eludes definition. The potential impact of the field is barely understood, even by those working in it. ‘Move-fast-and-break-things’ practitioners are deploying AI systems in autonomous vehicles, in courts, in medical diagnosis, and now even at the heart of the US federal government.  Few of the constraints that govern individual...

The post #316 What Can AI Engineers Learn From Medical Professionals? first appeared on Engineering Matters.

How should engineers think about their duty to design safe structures? For IStructE’s head of climate action Will Arnold, this duty extends beyond the structure, to the safety of everyone on the planet. With renewable energy cutting operational carbon emissions, the majority of the engineering sector’s impact on climate change now comes from embodied carbon....

The post #315 Renewing the World, Without Costing the Planet first appeared on Engineering Matters.

Ten years ago, Fugro set out on an ambitious mission: to bring expert staff off of vessels, and into a purpose built remote operations centre, or ROC. The first of these ROCs, in Houston, now allows specialist staff to work on multiple projects at once, giving customers the real time data and analysis they need...

The post #314 Remote Operations, To the Moon and Back first appeared on Engineering Matters.

The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) has a 100 year history of mapping the world’s oceans. John Nyberg, technical director, explains how the organisation’s role in understanding our oceans is evolving. Now, rather than just recording ocean depths for mariners, the organisation is setting standards for how we record environmental data. In Italy, this approach is...

The post #313 Introducing: Mapping Italy’s Seagrass for Biodiversity Gain, from Planet Beyond first appeared on Engineering Matters.

What do engineers build? Often, the answer will be bridges and dams, apartment blocks and factories. But in everything they do, engineers are also helping to build communities. They are contributing to building people’s careers, and it is those jobs that are central to building a better world. In this episode, the last of four...

The post #312 Lifting Each Other Up — Engineering Matters Awards 2025 shortlist, People first appeared on Engineering Matters.

At the core of engineering and manufacturing, is the transformation of materials.  A tree becomes a book. A stone is transformed into a concrete bridge, rocks into steel and glass skyscrapers. Each of these transformations are inefficient. Raw materials are lost to waste. Mechanical energy is converted into lost heat. In this inefficiency, we gradually...

The post #311 Transforming the World, and the Economy — Engineering Matters Awards 2025 shortlist, Planet, Part 3 first appeared on Engineering Matters.

Across every sector, from manufacturing to transportation, energy to construction, the race toward a net zero future is reshaping how we work, produce, and consume. These industries have powered global growth for decades, but now, they must also lead the way in securing a sustainable future.

The scale of the challenge is immense. Achieving a greener future will require more than incremental changes—it demands bold, transformative ideas. In this second episode of four looking at shortlisted entries to the Engineering Matters Awards, we’re looking at ways to make industry cleaner and more efficient. Whether that’s in c...

Across every sector, from manufacturing to transportation, energy to construction, the race toward a net zero future is reshaping how we work, produce, and consume. These industries have powered global growth for decades, but now, they must also lead the way in securing a sustainable future. The scale of the challenge is immense. Achieving a...

The post #310 Manufacturing a Brighter Future – Engineering Matters Awards 2025 shortlist, Planet, Part 2 first appeared on 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 post #309 A Generation of Change – Engineering Matters Awards 2025 shortlist, Planet, Part 1 first appeared on Engineering Matters.

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 post #308 Building Bandwidth in the 1920s first appeared on Engineering Matters.

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...

The post #307 Giving the Gift of Engineering first appeared on Engineering Matters.

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 post #306 Revisited: Building Rothera Wharf first appeared on Engineering Matters.

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 sustainable investment opportunities....

The post #305 Making the Case for Nature-Based Solutions first appeared on Engineering Matters.

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...

The post #304 Grounded in Knowledge – Ireland’s Biggest Offshore Wind Farm first appeared on Engineering Matters.

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...

The post #303 Gathering data at the speed of a train: Engineering Matters Awards 2024 Health & Safety Gold Champion – Fugro RILA first appeared on Engineering Matters.

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...

The post #302 Conservation, Community and AI: Engineering Matters Awards 2024 Community Gold Champion — iNaturalist first appeared on Engineering Matters.

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...

The post #301 Electrifying Sydney: Transformational Energy Systems  first appeared on Engineering Matters.

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...

The post #300 Bonus: Powering Net Zero first appeared on Engineering Matters.

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...

The post #299e Highways UK Live – A Legacy of Excellence first appeared on Engineering Matters.

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...

The post #299d Highways UK Live – The Journey to Net Zero and Resilience first appeared on Engineering Matters.