Engineering Matters
Episodes
#111 Machine Learning: Construction’s Future
10 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When people think of digital tools to help with engineering problems, they usually think of a 3D model or a computerised image, representing something...
#110 London: Boosting Biodiversity
03 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
London is the world’s first national park city, with about 50% green coverage of its surface area. This is a legacy of the public and Royal parks, V...
#109 Spiders Versus Plastic
27 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
For millions of years spiders have been spinning naturally occurring proteins into an incredibly strong and durable silk. By studying the anatomy of t...
#108 Antarctica: Building Rothera Wharf
20 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Since the end of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, humanity has focused its activities in the southern continent on science and research. To do...
#107 Africa: Connecting a Continent
13 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Preparation is currently underway for installation of one of the world’s longest fibre optic communications cables. Survey vessels are circumnav...
#106 A Beginner’s Guide to Social Value
06 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Why do we build? Why develop society? And who reaps the benefit? In this episode we look at the new interest the construction industry is taking in...
#105 Solar Grazing at Shaker Village
29 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In a field a few miles southwest of the city of Lexington in Kentucky, a sheep is quietly grazing in the shade. This is a very special sheep. It has b...
#104 Solving Rail’s Hidden Hazard
22 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In 2019/20 an estimated 693,000 workers in Great Britain sustained a non-fatal injury at work in Great Britain. The figure, which comes from the Offic...
#103 A Canadian Blueprint for Net Zero
15 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What is Net Zero? And how can we get there? Can we mitigate the damage of three centuries of fossil fuel-powered industrialisation, with three decades...
#102 Crushing Climate Change
08 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Every two years the Peak District hosts ‘Hillhead’ in a disused quarry. It is the largest event for the Quarrying, Construction and Recycling indu...
#101 Powering and Protecting Scottish Heritage
01 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Along the west coast of Scotland lies a chain of island communities where fishing and farming have been a way of life for thousands of years. ...
#100 Megaprojects (Part 3): Learning from Experience
30 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This is the third and final episode of our three-part special looking at the delivery of megaprojects. In this episode we examine the lessons learned ...
#100 Megaprojects (Part 2): How to Deliver?
30 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
For the 100th episode of Engineering Matters we bring you this three-part special looking at the delivery of a megaproject. In this second episode,...
#100 Megaprojects (Part 1): What Makes a Megaproject?
30 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Megaprojects are among the most complex and challenging of society’s undertakings. Each is grand is scope and due to the scale, none are ever built ...
#99 Urbanisation: Infrastructure for Growing Cities
25 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today the world holds 33 megacities, cities that are home to over 10 million people. As these sprawling urban centres become more crowded than ever b...
#98 The Construction Playground
18 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
As projects grow ever more complex, with tighter delivery demands placed on the entire supply chain, a baseline of digitalisation has been essential f...
#97 The Gateway to Indonesia
11 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
To alleviate the burden on its largest city Jakarta, Indonesia is going to move its capital more than 1,000km from the densely populated island of Jav...
#97 (Indonesian) Bandara Sultan Aji Muhammad Sulaiman Sepinggan
11 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Dalam episode ini kami bermitra dengan Shell untuk membahas pengaspalan ulang landasan pacu (atau runway) Bandara Balikpapan – Bandara Sultan Aji Mu...
#96 Fusion: Britain Builds a Star
04 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we are looking at a project being run by the UK Atomic Energy Authority which aims to build a prototype fusion power plant by the 2040...
#95 Saving Oceans with Science
25 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The world’s oceans are in crisis. Plastic pollution, rising sea levels, warmer waters and chemical changes are degrading ocean systems and the world...
#94 Barriers to Data Rich Design
18 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Construction has not always recognised the value of using data from past projects to deliver better results in the present. It often finds itself star...
#93 Tomatoes and the Road to Net Zero
11 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Something remarkable is happening in East Anglia. Waste heat from sewage treatment is being pumped into two enormous greenhouses creating low carbon h...
#92 The Most Flooded Town In England
04 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we partnered with WSP to tell the story of Looe, a fishing port in Cornwall. The small town has the dubious accolade of ‘most floode...
#91 Global Risks and Shapeshifting Infrastructure
28 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
With the weight of the built environment exceeding that of the total biomass for the first time, the human impact on the planet has passed a symbolic ...
#90 The New Way to Plan a City
21 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The data quality in the planning and development sector is appalling. Whether supplied in this form accidentally, negligently, or recklessly does not ...
#89 Blue Lanes in the Black Country
14 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A revolution is happening in the UK, and it is happening quietly. Inspired by the Copenhagen Bicycle Account, Bike Life is the biggest assessment of c...
#88 Engineering Trees
07 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
It is tree planting season in the UK. With their amazing carbon storage ability, flood alleviation capacity and biodiversity boosting potential, trees...
#87 So That Was 2020
29 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to the very last Engineering Matters of 2020! In this episode we go back to some of the biggest stories that we covered over the past...
#86 Enterprise Delivery: A Model for Recovery
22 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
With a £100bn capital spending plan, the biggest ever investment in new transport infrastructure and a ten-point plan for climate change, the UK is d...
#85 Concrete’s Role in the Climate War
17 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Contributing around 8% of global climate emissions, concrete is a major source of carbon. It is also essential, and no major project is feasible witho...
#84 Asphalt of the Future
15 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Have you ever walked past a newly surfaced road, perhaps around the corner from your house… and wondered when it will next be resurfaced? Side roads...
#83 Digitisation and the road to diversity
10 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we look at how the demands of the industry are becoming increasingly diverse, resulting in a similar change in the people carrying out...
#82 Securing the Shugborough Tunnel
08 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Set in the West Midlands county of Staffordshire is a former Royal Forest called Cannock Chase. It is part misty, secluded woodland and part undulatin...
#81 Zen and the Art of Programme Management
03 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The adoption of healthy or unhealthy behaviours at project reviews can have an enormous impact on the overall project and even the wider industry.&nbs...
#80 Covid 19: Construction Copes with the Pandemic
26 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
It is by now a topic that sadly needs little introduction. It has impacted everyone in the last year. Changed lives and livelihoods, overturned entire...
#79 Rebuilding Zandvoort’s Rollercoaster Racetrack
19 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we look at the Circuit Zandvoort, the iconic post-WW2 racetrack in the Netherlands. Beloved by fans of all flavours of motorsport, it ...
#78 Reinventing invention
12 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A revolution is approaching manufacturing, one that will see costs and time to market cut by as much as 50%. The digitalisation of engineering will re...
#77 Floating Turbines: Offshore Wind’s Game Changer
05 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Until a few years ago the offshore wind industry was constrained by the seabed characteristics of countries seeking to harness the generating capacity...
#76 Building with Biomaterials
29 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we have partnered with Autodesk Construction Solutions to look at a new approach to housing construction in Kenya. We take a ...
#75 Last Howl of the Vulcan
22 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The Vulcan is one of the most iconic aircraft ever flown by the Royal Air Force. Although not quite the household name that the Spitfire has been, it ...
#74 Weaving a New Data Fabric for Infrastructure
15 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Imagine a world where Alexa can tell you the latest, greenest, safest and most cost-effective way to design, deliver or operate something. Advice on d...
#73 How to Build a Digital Twin
08 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Anglian Water currently enjoys a daily surplus of 150 million litres of water, but this is forecast to become a 150 million litre deficit by 2045. To ...
#72 Seeing the Himalayas: Kickstarting Net Zero
01 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
On a bright morning in April, people in the city of Jalandhar in the state of Punjab stood out in the streets and saw something breath-taking… somet...
#71 Stewards of the Soil
24 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Historically civilisations have sprung up wherever the land was most fertile, soils that supported good crop productivity to meet the food requirement...
#70 On Track for a Rail Revolution
17 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The railway network in the UK is old and vast and home to the first public railway to use steam locomotives in the world. The Stockton and Darlington ...
#69 Artificial Intelligence in Infrastructure
10 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Maintaining a tunnel requires many hours of dedicated work by highly skilled engineers. And as our network of tunnels expands, so does the maintenance...
#68 The Future of Design
03 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Changes to the way we do design are coming; construction is languishing at the bottom of the productivity rankings, now below hunting and fishing.&nbs...
#67 The Future is Remote and Autonomous
27 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Remotely operated vehicles, uncrewed surface vessels and ever-increasing autonomy are removing personnel from dangerous work offshore in the North Sea...
#66 Fever Screening in Airports
20 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
As a small island trading nation, Britain risks killing its economy and losing millions of jobs, unless it can allow people to get back to work in as ...
#65 Every Little Helps
13 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
At the start of the Covid-19 lockdown, one of the few reasons people were allowed to leave their homes was to shop for the basic essentials. ...
#64 EDAROTH
06 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Manchester – the city has been on the cutting edge since the birth of the industrial revolution. From John Dalton’s Atomic Theory in 1803, to the ...
#63 Nine Days to Build a Hospital
30 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
When Dan Harmer received a call in March that told him to clear his schedule and prepare for a meeting, he knew it would be important, but had no idea...
#62 The Washing Machine Project
23 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Hundreds of millions of people in the most economically disadvantaged places in the world spend up to 20 hours per week washing clothes by hand. This ...
#61 Countdown to British launch
16 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
On 28 October 1971 the UK conducted its first and only successful orbital launch, firing the Prospero satellite into low earth orbit – LEO on a ...
#60 Covid 19: Creating safer spaces
02 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Britain is emerging from some of the toughest social restrictions placed in peacetime history. As people come out of their homes, they are eager to me...
#59 Empowering Ethical Engineering
25 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Engineers are in a uniquely powerful position. Able to shape our built environment and so influence the direction of civilisation, the impact that the...
#58 Construction declares climate emergency
11 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Since mid-2019, over 900 architectural practices in the UK have made a declaration of climate and biodiversity emergency, acknowledging the extreme se...
#57 Printing versus the pandemic: COVID 19
28 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The coronavirus pandemic that has torn through society has also seen supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE) depleted at an alarming rate. As ...
#56 The Biodiversity Emergency
14 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Biodiversity in the UK is facing an emergency with around 30 percent of native species becoming extinct since the 1970s. This loss of wildlife, which ...
#55 Saving Structures with Satellites
30 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How data from satellites can track structural movement, and give early warning of potential failure. New research shows that catastrophic bridge colla...
#54 Keith Bannerman: A life underground
17 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Carving out underground space for railways, roads, waterways, urban development and even fishing and farming is how some people spend their entire...
#53 Technology vs biology: fighting COVID 19
03 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
As cases of COVID 19 explode, the World Health Organisation is urging countries around the world to learn from South Korea. Before even recording its ...
#52 Tunnelling Podcast: Propping up Luton Airport’s new rail link
27 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How a new 2.5km cable pulled railway will connect Luton Airport’s terminal to the UK rail network boosting future growth. Today rail passengers arri...
#51 Covid 19: Disaster Resilient Infrastructure
20 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The rapid and exponential spread of the new coronavirus, COVID 19 is changing the way that we live and work. First detected in December 2019 in Wuhan ...
#50 Dealing with Nuclear Waste
13 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The UK has a legacy of 600,000 tonnes of nuclear waste being held in temporary storage facilities at 30 sites around the country. It is enough to fill...
#49 Uncharted waters: Flooding and drought
05 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This winter a series of weather bombs detonated across the UK, overwhelming river systems and overtopping flood defences. River levels were off the ch...
#48 Paving the way in pothole prevention
27 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How nematode worms, 3D printing and drones could revolutionise our approach to maintaining road surfaces. According to the RAC we are 1.5 times mo...
#47 Breathalysing Whales: Drones Revisited
20 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
An update on our Drones episode from January 2019 where we learn about new uses for unmanned aerial vehicles, and celebrate being shortlisted for thre...
#46 Metro stations: The gateway to the city
13 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A tremendous change occurred with the industrial revolution: whereas it had taken all of human history until around 1800 for world population to ...
#45 Offshore Wind, Part 2 : Foundations for the Future
06 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How new technology is supporting the UK’s offshore wind industry to bring down costs and accelerate construction. From new methods for drilling into...
#44 Offshore Wind, Part 1: Becoming a World Leader
30 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Over the past two decades the UK has become the world’s leading offshore wind energy producer. Not only is it responsible for 40% of all offshore wi...
#43 Virtual Reality: transforming design
23 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
From new immersive technologies to life saving applications, virtual reality is finally meeting up to expectations of the 1990s and transforming the w...
#42 Surviving a tunnel fire
16 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This week we are bringing you an episode of our newly launched Tunnelling Podcast, made in partnership with the British Tunnelling Society.In March 19...
#41 Crunch Time for Net Zero
09 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Last year the UK set a legally binding target to become carbon neutral by 2050, ahead of any other major global economy. In doing so it took the first...
#40 Becoming a Role Model: Ying Wan Loh
24 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Becoming a Role Model: Ying Wan Loh From rotary drilling on Mars to hybrid-electric aviation and the expansive global supply chains of the aeronaut...
#39 Heathrow: Leading the digital charge
19 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Heathrow has announced an ambitious expansion plan that will add a third runway and take the airport to cope with growing demand up until 2050. It cal...
#38 Temporary Heroes: Construction’s Unseen Infrastructure
12 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
What do the Great Pyramids of Giza, the Ipswich Barrier and Heathrow Airport have in common? None of them could have been realised without a complex n...
#37 Solving the Productivity Puzzle
28 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Historically, the nation’s productivity has improved with economic growth, but since the global financial crisis and despite the UK’s recovery, pr...
#36 The Calculator that Could Save the World
21 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
How a calculator is helping countries around the world to lower their greenhouse gas emissions and create more sustainable energy systems. When Pro...
#35 The Quantum Enabler: Professor Sir Peter Knight
07 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As Quantum computing becomes a 21st century reality, Professor Sir Peter Knight explains why controlling the register of quantum bits that make up a q...
#34 Crisis Shelter for Mass Displacement
31 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Noorullah Kuchai is a civil engineer, a humanitarian and a refugee twice over. He lived in a tent in a Pakistani refugee camp for a decade and is now ...
#33 Future Factories: Driving forward industry 4.0
17 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
World leading smart robotics, industry disrupting technologies and the next generation of augmented reality are just some of the advances in action at...
#32 The untold story of Eiffel and his Tower
03 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Had its use as a gigantic 300m high radio antenna not been recognised in the early 1900s the magnificent Eiffel Tower, would have been pulled down and...
#31 Creating a National Digital Twin
19 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Back in December 2017 the UK’s National Infrastructure Commission set the UK a huge challenge: to create a digital model of our national infrastruct...
#30 Interviewing Dad: Atkins President Philip Hoare
05 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Chloe is 16 and interested in an engineering career. She is also the daughter of Philip Hoare, President of engineering consultant Atkins. To find out...
#29 Innovations in Renewable Energy: Lorna Bennet
22 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Growing up in a tiny village in rural Scotland, regular power cuts would leave Lorna Bennet and her family without electricity for days on end. Determ...
#28 Building for Biodiversity
08 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Habitat for the UK’s Great Yellow Bumblebee has declined 80 percent over the last century thanks to the loss of the flower rich meadows that sustain...
#27 Recycling Plastic into Roads
26 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
After 844 trial tests, and setting his own street on fire, founder of Scottish start-up MacRebur Toby McCartney finally hit on a viable solution for r...
#26 Saving Rossington
16 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Placing the United Nations’ sustainable development goals at the heart of projects can regenerate UK communities. From a new 4km road link that ...
#25 Return of the Fatbergs
27 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Underneath cities all over the UK subterranean mountains of calcified fat are gathering in our sewers as fat, oil and grease stick to baby wipes and h...
#24 Unleash the Hydrogen Potential
13 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Could the lightest element in the periodic table be the answer to the world’s most weighty challenge of decarbonising energy? Hydrogen is the most a...
#23 Becoming an astronaut: Sophie Harker
30 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
It was a meeting with the first Briton in space, Dr Helen Sharman, that changed the course of Sophie Harker’s life forever. A maths student at The U...
#22 Electric Excavators: Cities cut carbon in construction
21 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Since 1913 the world’s most famous flower show has been held every Spring in Chelsea in London. This year among the electric blue Persian Slippers, ...
#21 Electric Aviation: Meeting demand for low emission flight
09 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Norwegian airline Widerøe needs a new fleet of planes to serve its regional passenger base. But it doesn’t want to buy conventional aircraft. It wa...
#20 Electric Vehicles: Lessons from world leading Norway
03 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
How did Norway become the world’s most successful electric vehicle market? Last month almost 80 percent of all new cars sold in Oslo were EVs and ac...
#19 Future of 3D Printing
18 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
From additive manufacturing in space, to 3D printing customised pharmaceuticals and non-planar electronics, the next revolution in 3D printing is alre...
#18 Cocoa Power
04 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Four thousand years after it was first used as a form of nutrition for the Olmec people of Mesoamerica, engineers are finding new ways to harness the ...
#17 Acting on climate change
21 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As young people all over the world protest over political inaction on climate change, we ask how engineers can prevent our planet’s temperature risi...
#16 Designing green buildings
08 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Rudi Scheuermann Do plants hold the key to making cities healthier? Could we design buildings that don’t take away green space, but create it...
#15 Engineering Elephants: Brittany Harris
22 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Providing water and sanitation after a destructive military revolution in Peru; engineering with elephants in Kenya; and plunging into enormous po...