INGENIA CONTENTS

SOCIETY UP FRONT LESSONS FROM THE FIELD 22 EDITORIAL 3 Engineers discuss the impact that working in other The future has begun countries has had on their career paths and outlooks. Scott Steedman CBE FREng Abigail Beall

IN BRIEF 4 SUSTAINABILITY LED lighting creators win 2021 Queen Elizabeth Prize 27 for Engineering LIFE AFTER LANDFILLS Movie-inspired drones help Network Rail Around 45% of UK waste is recycled. The waste that can’t Third of UK spinouts from four universities be recycled or reused goes to landfill, where it is starting to Education resources for remote learning contribute to the circular economy. Get involved in engineering Dominic Joyeux HOW I GOT HERE 8 SOCIETY Felicity Milton, mechanical engineer and Senior Manager, ALL HANDS TO THE PUMPS 32 Strategy and Innovation at adidas, talks about the future The UK’s engineering industry collaborated to rapidly of trainers. create over 13,000 ventilators for the NHS in just 12 weeks. OPINION 10 Michael Kenward OBE Engineering skills to better meet society’s needs Dawn Bonfield MBE and Professor Bashir Al-Hashimi CBE FREng PROFILE Facing engineering’s ultimate challenge 38 Dr Luisa Freitas dos Santos FREng is Vice President, FEATURES R&D Global Clinical Supply Chain, at GSK. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic she has maintained a steady INNOVATION supply of medicines while pursuing new therapies. THE MAYFLOWER SAILS AGAIN 12 Michael Kenward OBE A fully autonomous vessel is sailing from Plymouth to the US, gathering data about plastic pollution, global warming and INNOVATION WATCH 43 marine life. From food waste to fashion Neil Cumins Chip[s] Board is creating biodegradable plastic from potato waste. SUSTAINABILITY HOW DOES THAT WORK? 44 17 HELPING THE GREEN REVOLUTION Chatbots Hornsea One is the world’s largest offshore windfarm, Chatbots use machine learning to answer queries generating enough electricity to supply over one million UK from humans. homes, while Hornsea Two is under construction. David Williams and Muhammad Imran Khan

@RAEngNews #IngeniaMag

INGENIA ISSUE 86 MARCH 2021 1 SHAPING THE FUTURE

From cleaner, safer transport to future healthcare solutions. We research.

From Degree Apprenticeships to Master’s programmes. We educate.

From small local businesses to global multinational corporations. We collaborate.

Our world-class research and links with industry ensure our education programmes remain innovative and relevant, and our collaborations with leading organisations help our students, staff and partners make a difference in the world, together.

Create a better tomorrow with WMG.

warwick.ac.uk/wmg

@wmgwarwick wmgwarwick WMG, University of Warwick 2 INGENIA EDITORIAL SHAPING EDITORIAL THE FUTURE THE FUTURE HAS BEGUN From cleaner, safer transport to climate change and the pursuit of net zero, Engineers are increasingly called upon to future healthcare solutions. and to exploit the digital age’s unlimited work with policymakers, industry leaders opportunities. and wider society to agree on the desired We research. One of the main lessons for engineering outcome and are no longer just expected to from the national response to COVID- ‘make it work’. 19 has been that coordination of effort Time is too short to tackle national From Degree Apprenticeships combined with strong government policy imperatives one random step at a time. For to Master’s programmes. is more effective than innovation driven by every national challenge or opportunity, individual corporate motivation or simple engineers must step forward and work with We educate. return on investment arguments. Input government, industry, academia, and all from engineers is essential if we are to forge stakeholders to shape, as well as deliver, the Scott Steedman CBE FREng From small local businesses to global a national strategy that unlocks the full vision and strategy the nation needs. They For UK engineering, 2021 started as no other potential for national renewal. need to do this individually, through their multinational corporations. year in recent history. Engineering has never Strong commitment from government organisations, through the Royal Academy been more visible in the media and in the as the pandemic struck enabled rapid of Engineering and the professional We collaborate. national psyche. progress in the ventilator challenge, vaccine engineering institutions, working in unison Chemical engineers continue to work development, regulatory approvals, and wherever possible, for example through the Our world-class research and links with at extraordinary pace to scale up the manufacture. The Department for Culture, National Engineering Policy Centre. There manufacture and delivery of novel vaccines. Media and Sport, with support from industry, has never been a more exciting time for industry ensure our education programmes Telecommunications engineers are removing academia and other institutions, is leading engineering or for engineers. It is a whole remain innovative and relevant, and our ‘high-risk vendors’ from 5G mobile networks, a coordinated approach to the challenge new world. The future has begun. collaborations with leading organisations while software engineers are striving for of telecoms diversification to improve the Throughout my time as Editor-in- alternative approaches that will pave the way security and resilience of the 5G network. Chief, Ingenia’s Editorial Board has worked help our students, staff and partners for 6G communications networks. Innovate UK, the non-departmental tirelessly to showcase the achievements make a difference in the world, together. The media is full of articles about the public body responsible for funding business of UK engineering. I took up the role in potential for digital trade, digital services and and research collaboration, has made 2004 and after 66 issues, I am delighted to digital transformation. Urgent changes in great efforts to embrace the whole eco- be handing over the role of Chair to Faith the building sector, to address the Grenfell system in its soon-to-be-published five-year Wainwright MBE FREng, who will lead the tragedy, are underpinned by new building strategy for business innovation, working magazine’s development for the next few regulations that will transform the industry. with industry and academia but also with years. What the Editorial Board and the The HS2 rail link is under construction: national intellectual property, standards and Academy have achieved over the decades, the new phase will connect the high- metrology organisations. Supported by the since the first issue of the magazine in speed service into the existing railway Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local 1999, has only been possible because network, reaching Liverpool, Manchester Government, the Industry Safety Steering of the Board members, several of whom Create a better and Glasgow. Advanced manufacturing Group chaired by Dame Judith Hackitt DBE served even longer terms than I have, each technologies are replacing historic practices. FREng is challenging the construction sector, making their own remarkable contribution tomorrow with WMG. Engineers of all disciplines are working on clients, owners, and financiers to transform to the promotion of the UK’s engineers and large-scale renewable energy projects in their approach to building safety through- engineering. I thank them and the excellent wind, hydrogen and electricity storage. life, from design and build to operation and editorial team at the Academy, who have warwick.ac.uk/wmg It is essential to accelerate innovation maintenance, putting people first. shown an enduring commitment to the in engineering as we seek strategies for These are encouraging signs that we are success of this magazine. success in a post-Brexit UK, to deliver goods starting to come together as a nation more and services in a new, pandemic-dominated frequently and more effectively to tackle the Scott Steedman CBE FREng world, respond to the urgent risks of great challenges and opportunities ahead. Editor-in-Chief @wmgwarwick wmgwarwick WMG, University of Warwick INGENIA ISSUE 86 MARCH 2021 3 IN BRIEF

IN BRIEF LED LIGHTING CREATORS WIN 2021 QUEEN ELIZABETH PRIZE FOR ENGINEERING

LED lighting is 75% more energy efficient that traditional bulbs On 2 February, the 2021 Queen of LED lighting, which forms the screens to handheld laser Visible LEDs are now a Elizabeth Prize for Engineering basis of all solid-state lighting pointers, car headlights and global industry predicted to (QEPrize) was awarded to the technology and is 75% more traffic lights. Today’s high- be worth over $108 billion creators of LED lighting in a energy efficient than traditional performance LEDs are used by 2025 through low-cost, livestreamed announcement. bulbs. in efficient solid-state lighting high-efficiency lighting. LED The prize was awarded to Solid-state lighting products across the world lighting is playing a crucial role Isamu Akasaki, Shuji Nakamura, technology has changed how and are contributing to the in reducing carbon dioxide Nick Holonyak Jr, M. George we illuminate our world. It can sustainable development of emissions. LED bulbs last 25 Craford and Russell Dupuis for be found everywhere from world economies by reducing times longer than incandescent the creation and development digital displays and computer energy consumption. bulbs and their large-scale use

4 INGENIA IN BRIEF

reduces the energy demand much engineering is done. It will required to cool buildings. For be 3D printed and presented to this, they are often referred to the winners later this year. as the ‘green revolution’ within As an indication of the lighting. incredibly high standard of this On the same day, it was year’s entries, for the first time also announced that 20-year- the judges also made a Highly old Hannah Goldsmith from Commended award, recognising the UK had won the QEPrize’s the work of 18-year-old Indian Create the Trophy competition. student Atharva Gai. Atharva’s Open to those aged between design impressed the judges 14 and 24 around the world, with its careful and considered competitors enter innovative eye for detail and traditional trophy designs to be presented manufacturing techniques. to the winners of the QEPrize. To listen to a podcast Hannah’s winning design discussion with the winners of combines elegance and this year’s QEPrize, or for more complexity and draws inspiration information, visit from the circuit boards on which www.qeprize.org Hannah’s winning trophy design

MOVIE-INSPIRED DRONES HELP NETWORK RAIL Network Rail is hoping to that could travel down a realised it was a similar concept The ‘Project Prometheus’ drone explore the many underground 15-centimetre borehole, enter to a scene in Prometheus, must fit through small tunnels, caves and mines in its network an underground cave and where a set of small drones so the team created a folding with a folded-up drone inspired map its interior for some time. fly through an underground design where the drone’s arms by Ridley Scott’s 2012 film, It turned to researchers from tunnel system, carry out 3D raise up into the flight position Prometheus. the University of Manchester’s scans of an alien structure once the device has been The company has been Department of Electrical and and send a map back to the pushed through the borehole. searching for a device Electronic Engineering, who operator. The drone then detaches and explores the underground space. Due to the darkness and lack of wireless signal, the drone will explore spaces autonomously. The drone will carry a camera that uses lasers and infrared imaging to make 3D maps of its environment. The project involves a consortium including the University of Manchester, University of Bristol, Royal Holloway, University of London, and Headlight AI, an artificial intelligence (AI) software company. The drone will have its The drones in Prometheus that inspired the drones to be used by Network Rail © Alamy Stock Photo first test flight this spring.

INGENIA ISSUE 86 MARCH 2021 5 IN BRIEF THIRD OF UK SPINOUTS FROM FOUR UNIVERSITIES In January, a report published The report gathers evidence by the Royal Academy of in one place for the first Engineering’s Enterprise Hub time on the current state of and Beauhurst showed that the UK spinout landscape. It four universities – Oxford, identifies a potential trend Cambridge, Imperial College towards spinouts attracting London, and University College less new investment but more London – account for a third of follow-on funding. The data all UK spinout companies. includes which universities Spotlight on spinouts: UK are successfully generating academic spinout trends spinouts; their geographic examines where and how spread; top sectors; investments effectively innovations and who is making them; developed in universities survival and growth rates and are being turned into real- exits; Innovate UK grants; and The report examined trends in spinouts, such as award-winning University of world products, processes gender and nationality of Cambridge spinout H2GO Power and commercial successes. leadership. growth and social benefits. I’m maximise the commercial Pharmaceuticals, research tools Science Minister Amanda delighted that this report will opportunities presented by and medtech are some of the Solloway MP said: “Accelerating help shine a light on what is the UK’s exceptional academic UK’s largest spinout sectors, the time between concept required to build successful institutions.” and the data also highlights a and commercial application is university spinouts, including To read the full report, visit rapidly developing AI sector. critical to the UK’s productivity, how we increase diversity and www.raeng.org.uk/spinouts EDUCATION RESOURCES FOR REMOTE LEARNING to enhance and add context to The latest Engineering dimension, to creating light the curriculum, now come in in a pandemic resource displays and producing a scene individual packs that teachers demonstrates how the in a horror film. can send out to students. engineering community worked You can find out more about The resources have been together to quickly respond to the Connecting STEM Teachers developed in partnership with COVID-19. Challenges include programme and download schoolteachers and engineers modelling viruses, exploring resources at stemresources. primarily to engage Key Stage what happens in an outbreak, raeng.org.uk/programmes/ The Royal Academy of 3 students and enrich the STEM investigating lateral flow tests, connecting-stem-teachers. Engineering’s education curriculum through hands- designing and developing social Learn more about STEM at resources have been updated on activities and stimulating distancing tools, and testing home at www.raeng.org.uk/ to cater for teachers and engineering contexts. and trialling different types of stem-at-home. students who are remote As well as the resource boxes, surgical masks. Teachers and STEM learning throughout the the Academy’s STEM at home The This is Engineering: Ambassadors can join a regional COVID-19 pandemic. portal includes a selection of its Entertainment resource explores network and receive free termly The Academy’s resource science, technology, engineering, the essential role that engineers engineering resource packs and boxes, which provide learning and maths education activities play in the entertainment training by visiting the website activities for use in a STEM club, that can be easily adapted for the industry, from tracking sports and contacting their local teacher for a STEM challenge day or home setting. data and exploring the fourth coordinator.

6 INGENIA IN BRIEF GET INVOLVED IN ENGINEERING

THE ENGINEERING EDGE PODCAST Professor Lucy Rogers FREng, inventor and former Robot Wars judge, presents a new series of her engineering podcast. The podcast explores how everyday tech can be used in extraordinary ways, and covers topics including how haptic motors are being used to give humans a sixth sense, biohackers, the innovative feelSpace Navibelt that can transform the life of visually impaired people and how to build your own Navibelt using off the shelf components. https://theengineeringedge.podbean.com/

CREATE THE FUTURE PODCAST Engineering is everywhere. From nanotechnology and the Internet of Things to autonomous vehicles, healthcare, and even your morning cup of coffee – engineering shapes the world around us. Engineers launched us forward from our first use of tools to an era of space exploration, and they will play a central role in solving the challenges of our future. Create the Future explores the wonderful world of skill, creativity and innovation that is engineering, and highlights how engineers impact our lives each and every day. Hosted by science writer and broadcaster Sue Nelson, each episode looks at a different area of engineering and brings together the knowledge, experiences and ideas of both industry experts and young professionals. Available on all podcast streaming sites.

CREATIVE EARTH COMPETITION Creative Earth is an art competition for people aged 16 and BRADFORD SCIENCE FESTIVAL under from across the UK, run by the UN COP26 Climate Change Bradford Science Festival’s online resources are available online Conference in collaboration with WWF. until 31 March 2021. There are lots of fun things to enjoy at As part of the Together for Our Planet campaign, young home, including videos, activity sheets, games, and radio people are invited to get creative and show global leaders the shows. The Brad Lab has lots of videos to watch and exciting world they want to live in. Whether it’s green forests and garden experiments to try out at home, while STEM City gives an cities, clear skies and wind turbines or oceans teeming with life, overview of careers in STEM and how to get into them. Talks and paint, draw or design a piece of art that shows how you’d like our presentations from the festival include: Black Panther: diversity planet to look in the future. in cinema, arts and engineering; and 50 Million Tonnes, which The UK is hosting COP26 in Glasgow in November 2021, looks at how electronic waste can be hacked and used for new bringing together world leaders to tackle climate change and inventions. ensure a better future for us all. www.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/whats-on/bradford- together-for-our-planet.ukcop26.org/creative-earth/ science-festival

INGENIA ISSUE 86 MARCH 2021 7 HOW I GOT HERE

HOW I GOT HERE QA& FELICITY MILTON SENIOR MANAGER, STRATEGY AND INNOVATION AT ADIDAS Felicity Milton

Felicity Milton is a WHY DID YOU FIRST BECOME and biomechanical engineering. While INTERESTED IN SCIENCE/ at university, I also started competing as mechanical engineer and ENGINEERING? a runner, which led to me getting offers Senior Manager, Strategy Design, sport, maths, and physics were my from US universities to study and train favourite subjects at school. They also had out there. I applied to the Royal Academy and Innovation at adidas, the added benefit of giving me more time of Engineering’s Engineering Leaders where she is responsible in a workshop or on the sports pitch rather Scholarships scheme, which helped fund a than at a desk in a classroom, which was trip to a sports engineering conference in for digital strategy and always a big plus for me! I was intrigued Biarritz, where I met adidas’s senior director business model innovation. by the engineering in sports equipment of engineering. too – how can you tune the material in After Durham, I studied an the midsole of a running shoe to provide entrepreneurial degree in the US while maximum energy return for a certain running for Oklahoma State. As part of that, cadance and force pattern? Then, you I founded a business and was suddenly look at the human body, which gets even going in a different direction. The product I more interesting! Biomedical engineering developed was related to sports engineering is amazing, for example prosthetics that – an electro-conductive, graduated are connected to nerve endings and are an compression sock for the Achilles tendon, extension of the human body. I always saw intended as a rehabilitation product that engineering as less about jet engines and could be used on the go. I came back to the turbines and more as a way of improving UK and took a master’s in biomechanical human health and performance. engineering at Loughborough University to take advantage of the university’s business HOW DID YOU GET TO WHERE YOU incubator. The product is still patented and ARE NOW? I secured some funding for it but the next I didn’t choose a sports engineering or step is clinical trials, which I found quite specific medical course but decided to daunting and expensive at the time. Instead, keep my options open with a general I began an internship at adidas, using my mechanical engineering course at Durham engineering background to work through University. I picked a degree where I could the whole development pipeline, from 3D specialise in the final two years, which design and development to factories and is when I took modules in biomedical marketing.

8 INGENIA HOW I GOT HERE

intern at a startup or smaller platform business model. Bigger corporations and the more traditional route have lots of benefits too, for example being able to make The world’s first performance shoe made from Biosteel Fibre®. The adidas Futurecraft Biofabric is 100% mistakes in a more protected environment. biodegradable through a fully natural process, moving beyond sustainability into a new territory of bionic innovation © adidas Group But if you’re really passionate and know what you want, be careful not to listen WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR BIGGEST WHAT DOES A TYPICAL DAY AT WORK to too much advice! If you’re enjoying ACHIEVEMENT TO DATE? INVOLVE FOR YOU? something, it doesn’t really feel like a job It’s a difficult question – I’ve found that The pandemic has had a big impact on and by nature you’ll excel at it. sometimes when you’re focused on what my role. At the moment, it’s a lot of Zoom you’re passionate about, things happen meetings and screen time! Before COVID- WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOU? easily and it’s not about accolades or awards. 19, I was really focused on business model More of the same would be fun! I think I’m most pleased about everything I’ve innovation and we were experimenting at some point in the future, I’ll go back learned along the way. with democratising creativity; using robotic to the startup world. I’ve really enjoyed technology and the wealth of design, being able to have an entrepreneurial role WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE THING development, legal, production, digital, within adidas, which is great. Walking that ABOUT BEING AN ENGINEER? and distribution competencies that adidas line between the startup world and the I don’t do much engineering at the moment, has to enable creative consumers to corporate world is really what I love. but I do work very closely with lots of co-create our products with us, connecting Health has been at the forefront of all our engineers. What I enjoy now is that not them to their consumers in the process. minds this year, and the work that startups every opportunity has to come from a new Unfortunately, that’s all on hold at the have been doing in this area, especially in the technology, instead an old technology might moment and now my main focus is US, has been so valuable. One day I hope to be perfect for filling a gap in a specific market. e-commerce – our number one, always on make the transition from sport to health tech. I also think it’s important that engineers store – pivoting our strategy and operating are driving new technology from a model so that we are able to respond and QUICK-FIRE FACTS consumer or environmental need: adidas’s react to what consumers want and need Age: 34 focus is on the environment now. We want when other stores or outlets are closed. Qualifications: MEng in mechanical to achieve a circular economy by creating We wanted to continue to reflect culture engineering and MSc in a shoe made from one material that can be and celebrate sporting moments during a entrepreneurship. continuously recycled. People could rent very difficult year for consumers and our Biggest engineering inspiration: Real- a shoe for the duration of its life, then it’s company. time health markets with biomedical taken back, recycled and a new one comes solutions to match, and the work out for the owner. Eventually, the aim is WHAT WOULD BE YOUR ADVICE TO evolving from biomimicry to help to not even need the recycling process YOUNG PEOPLE LOOKING TO PURSUE reverse the impact of climate change. because that uses water and energy, so A CAREER IN ENGINEERING? Most-used technology: My Macbook, maybe using biodegradable products that The landscape now is so different, with iPhone and Apple Watch. can perform to a high standard instead. This so many opportunities. The routes into Three words that describe you: kind of materials science and engineering is engineering are really exciting, so think Passion, persistence and resilience. fascinating. about where you want to learn and maybe

INGENIA ISSUE 86 MARCH 2021 9 OPINION

OPINION ENGINEERING SKILLS TO BETTER MEET SOCIETY’S NEEDS

From climate change to the COVID-19 pandemic, the UK – and indeed the world – is dealing with some of the most complex challenges it has ever faced. Engineers have a major role in addressing these challenges, so are needed now more than ever. While the numbers of young people choosing to study engineering and technology subjects are promising, Dawn Bonfield MBE and Professor Bashir Al-Hashimi CBE FREng believe that a change in the engineering education curriculum will help build the skills for a sustainable and inclusive future.

There is good news in the rise in the computer science fared less well, with the number of young people seeking to study gap falling from 6.2 to 1 in 2011, to 5.7 to engineering. Those working in engineering, 1 in 2020. and in engineering higher education in In this positive context, the skills that particular, will have been buoyed by the engineers and technologists acquire recent data on admissions and acceptances to shape the future have never been from the University and Colleges Admissions more important. The UN’s Sustainable Service (UCAS). This showed a significant Development Goals, global aims to achieve increase over the past decade in students a better and more sustainable future for all, Dawn Bonfield MBE Professor Bashir Al-Hashimi CBE FREng applying for technology-based degrees. The are now well and truly established as key intake in engineering subjects rose from drivers for future development. The race to 20,000 to 30,000, and from 26,000 to 31,500 achieve the UK government’s target of net- in computer science courses*. Acceptances zero carbon emissions by 2050 is another to artificial intelligence (AI) courses have great way of focusing minds and actions. increased by 400%, although actual numbers This outcomes-driven narrative may still only stand at 355 in total in 2020. And be what is required to attract even more there is evidence too that the gender gap young people into careers in engineering is closing. The ratio of UK male to female and technology. Shifting the attention acceptances in engineering fell from 8.2 from ‘becoming an engineer’ to addressing to 1 in 2011 to 5.0 to 1 in 2020, although climate change or global poverty, for

10 INGENIA OPINION

Building a world that is fairer, more just, and will help us better meet the Sustainable Development Goals is something that we need a diverse engineering workforce to take on board

example, is more likely to have the desired such as the apparently uncontroversial engineers who are increasingly setting the result. Tackling the climate emergency, specification of a ducting material in a new agendas for a different and more sustainable accessible healthcare and the environment building, a decision usually made without way of living, as well as reimagining a world are big motivations for young people, any knowledge or reference to how this that pays equal attention to economic, especially when the challenge is to increase choice of material might negatively and social and environmental impact to create diversity and attract students from groups disproportionately affect those who bear the solutions with social value, and who are able that are under-represented in engineering. brunt of toxic chemical production. to communicate these ideas effectively. So, it’s to our advantage to present Many of us are becoming more aware Engineering and technology courses engineering as a ‘caring’ or ‘social good’ of how the outcomes of our engineering require more industrial input, more profession, one directly associated with endeavours have implications for social knowledge of social science, and real solving problems and making people’s lives justice. Building a world that is fairer, project examples from around the world for better. more just, and will help us better meet students to address. Government funding The outcomes-based argument is equally the Sustainable Development Goals akin to that announced in June 2020 for AI valid for encouraging working engineers is something that we need a diverse and data science courses would facilitate to understand the need for diversity in our engineering workforce to take on board. this transition. Changes to accreditation, profession. Looking more closely at what To support this, and to make the most of through the ambitious Graduate Attributes we produce as engineers, and whether young people’s motivation, our engineering and Professional Competency Framework it is truly accessible and equitable for all education must change. We need university being developed by the International people and all parts of our society, forces courses that inspire thinking and creativity, Engineering Alliance for example, are us to realise that in the past we have not translating ideas through engineering already taking us in this direction. It is paid enough attention to the needs of design to innovation that benefits heartening to see that some of the UK’s others when producing our engineering humankind and the planet. And it will not be own accreditation frameworks are also solutions. This has been shown all too clearly sufficient to simply tweak existing curricula making the necessary changes to ensure with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic to focus on engineering solutions to address that our future engineers can fulfil their and the Grenfell fire, for example, where an environmental crisis. To address the role as creators of a more sustainable and poorer communities have been made more 21st century’s biggest challenges, we need inclusive economy. vulnerable by inadequacies in our built environment. BIOGRAPHIES There are many other examples of Dawn Bonfield MBE is the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Chapter author of the how our approach to engineering and UNESCO Engineering Report, published in March 2021. She is a Royal Academy of technology builds bias into our work. It has Engineering Visiting Professor at Aston University and a Royal Society Entrepreneur never been more important to address this in Residence at King’s College London. She is a UK representative of the World challenge as we develop new disruptive Federation of Engineering Organisations, and Past President of the Women’s digital systems based on the use of data, AI Engineering Society. and machine learning where built in, and in Professor Bashir Al-Hashimi CBE FREng is Executive Dean of the Faculty of Natural, many cases undetectable, biases will persist Mathematical & Engineering Sciences at King’s College London. He has worked for years. However, these are the more globally on research innovation into energy-efficient and reliable computing systems. obvious examples that show the unintended consequences of some of our engineering He has received numerous awards for his research including the IET Faraday Medal solutions. The impacts of our decisions in 2020. are harder to spot in other examples, *www.ucas.com/corporate/news-and-key-documents/news/students-turn-technology-university-choices

INGENIA ISSUE 86 MARCH 2021 11 THE MAYFLOWER SAILS AGAIN

The Mayflower Autonomous Ship is preparing to make an unmanned journey across the Atlantic in spring 2021 © IBM THE MAYFLOWER SAILS AGAIN

12 INGENIA INNOVATION

A fully autonomous vessel is preparing to retrace the 1620 route of the Mayflower ship from Plymouth to New England. Neil Cumins spoke to Andy Stanford-Clark, IBM’s UK and Ireland Chief Technology Officer, about the pioneering technology behind this 21st century mission.

In 1620, the Mayflower ship a fully autonomous ship ship capable of travelling over embarked on a voyage to capable of traversing oceans 3,100 miles without any crew, discover the New World of independently, gathering charting its own two-week America. In the US, the arrival data about critical issues such course across an ocean? and endurance of the ship’s as plastic pollution, global English settlers are remembered warming and marine mammal every Thanksgiving and part of conservation. THE VESSEL the country’s history, while in The autonomous ship was The Mayflower Autonomous the UK it is rarely acknowledged. originally scheduled to set Ship (MAS) project was For 10 gruelling weeks, sail in September 2020 from conceived by Brett Phaneuf, the square-rigged Mayflower Plymouth Harbour in the UK the Co-Founder of American ship ploughed across one of to Plymouth, Massachusetts, non-profit marine research the world’s most inhospitable on the 400th anniversary of the organisation ProMare. The oceans, battling howling original Mayflower’s departure. design and construction westerly winds and massive However, this latest voyage contract was awarded to swell waves. This is a perilous has been delayed because of Plymouth-based uncrewed journey even by today’s the coronavirus pandemic and underwater vehicle standards, and the name of will now take place in spring manufacturer MSubs, whose the 1620 ship has been given 2021. But what does it take spinout company Marine AI to a new mission: to create to construct a 15-metre-long was tasked with building the

Autonomous tech enables a new era of marine exploration

Journey map Plymouth, England

Mid-Atlantic Ridge

Isles of Scilly

Cape Cod

Plymouth, MA Titanic site

Source: IBM

The route of the 3,100-mile journey that the autonomous vessel will take © IBM

INGENIA ISSUE 86 MARCH 2021 13 THE MAYFLOWER SAILS AGAIN

core software for the artificial intelligence (AI) captain. Following a chance encounter between MAS’s designer and an IBM engineer at a conference in Switzerland, IBM executives were introduced to ProMare as the latter sought a technology partner. Having watched IBM’s Watson AI technology win the Jeopardy! game show in the US, ProMare knew it needed a ‘Captain Watson’ for its ship; IBM’s array of edge computing and AI-training servers enabled Visualisation of the Mayflower’s digital twin data showing data sources and the AI captain’s decision-making © IBM ProMare to appoint a single lead MAS is more than simply an a building block of the ship’s sailing. “There’s an awful lot IT partner. empty vessel – it’s a floating AI captain. The AI captain can we can do with a digital twin Professor Andy Stanford-Clark science experiment, which will view its surroundings and make simulator,” says Andy. “These is IBM’s Chief Technology Officer be conducting detailed oceanic decisions about how to react environments have been for the UK and Ireland, and he’s analysis of everything from according to rules-based logic: putting the AI captain through been involved with the MAS microplastics levels to whale “You might have an iceberg on its paces for months, and it’s project for the last 18 months. song throughout its journey. one side and an oil tanker on the been a key part of the training He points out that although other side, a container floating in system. We can put anything we MSubs has extensive experience the water and a storm coming, want into the virtual cameras of automated systems, these are CHARTING A COURSE and the AI has to decide what – we can add in a ship and an very different from autonomous Ensuring an uncrewed but fully to do.” iceberg, a buoy and a seagull, ones: “Automated systems loaded research vessel can The team also carried out and see what it would do follow pre-programmed actions, navigate its way across one extensive tests to characterise next.” This machine learning and they wouldn’t really know of the world’s largest oceans how the vessel turns. Andy simulation has helped to what to do if they got into represents an enormous explains: “If you turn the rudder prepare the vessel for a crossing uncharted waters. By contrast, an undertaking. Simply being a certain number of degrees, that is likely to be significantly autonomous system has learned able to identify objects around how many metres does it takes impacted by changes in the how to react in a completely it requires huge amounts of to start turning, what’s the weather and ocean. These unforeseen situation and will raw data, as Andy explains: turning circle of the ship and challenges (and others) will hopefully follow the right course “We’ve uploaded two and a half its capability for accelerating be monitored by real-time of action.” million images from yachts to and decelerating? That way, sensory inputs including The distinction between icebergs, all labelled. ProMare when we put the AI captain on radar with a 2.5 nautical mile automated and autonomous has had cameras installed at its board we can programme these range, GPS navigation and a is significant, since there have R&D stations in the Plymouth parameters, and it will have vehicle management system already been uncrewed Atlantic Sound for two years, giving some prior understanding of reminiscent of the ones found in crossings of remote-control us a ship’s eye view with lots how the ship will behave.” electric cars. vessels piloted from a command of photos of similar things in To predict likely scenarios Numerous nautical rules centre. An autonomous vessel very different weather and MAS might encounter during its have been fed into the ship’s less than two metres long sea conditions.” This image journey, Marine AI constructed automated decision system, also travelled from Canada to library has been fed into IBM’s a digital twin and conducted but a simpler philosophy Ireland in 2018. However, the visual recognition software as thousands of hours of simulated underpinned MAS’s instructions

14 INGENIA INNOVATION

Computer systems Diesel generator Research pods

Forward battery Aft battery Electric motor

A cross-section of the Mayflower shows its different components and systems. In a ship designed to have no crew on board, all available space can be dedicated to the systems and scientific apparatus for experiments © IBM when encountering obstacles generator to help out if the solar Another automated process but that isn’t the case. Ships and climatic challenges. “At sea panels aren’t able to generate will be the distribution of have a local area network (LAN) you have longer to react, and sufficient power.” automatic identification system and Wi-Fi, and any number of you can track the speed and While the original Mayflower (AIS) messages between MAS computer systems, IP addresses direction of potential obstacles,” sailed with enough space to and vessels in its vicinity. AIS and satellite communications, says Andy. “As a last resort, MAS store 180 tonnes of cargo for allows ships and boats to safely which all make them a hacking can just stop in the water, assess its 140 crew and passengers, pass each other, but MAS’s target.” As a result, MAS uses the situation and take its time MAS is packed with scientific instructions will be customised edge computing technology to to decide what to do next. In equipment intended to to inform other craft that it has secure its hardware, permitting almost all situations, a crash examine oceanic wellbeing, no crew. This complements secure connections through is avoidable.” Providing MAS pollution and marine life. The visual signage and a lighting firewalls: “You have to design it remains facing into the waves, central hull contains a dozen regime designed to highlight like a company intranet, with all it’s very unlikely to capsize. different research pods whose its lack of crew. To further the security and firewalls and experiments were suggested minimise the chances of a VPNs you’d normally need to and devised by academics and collision, the AI system has been secure an enterprise system.” EFFICIENT DESIGN oceanographers. Andy explains programmed with numerous The onboard edge devices To minimise any risk of how a robotic water sampling nautical regulation guides like are essential because there capsizing, MAS has been honed system will record the density of the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) may be lengthy periods where to ensure optimal performance microplastics across the ocean: treaty, and the Convention on MAS is unable to communicate and maximum stability. A “It’s going to collect bottled the International Regulations with the teams on land. Indeed, trimaran is an inherently stable water samples throughout for Preventing Collisions at Sea IBM is assuming it has no design, while the absence of the journey by opening a little (COLREGs). communications potential at any human personnel on board tap inside the boat, filling up point in the crossing. “Any data allows incredible space- a bottle, putting a cap on, and we do receive back is a bonus,” efficiency. Andy points out: placing it in the fridge before CYBERSAFETY says Andy. “It will be constantly “You don’t need a galley, food waiting for a few hours to do the While maritime traffic poses trying to provide operational storage or toilets. An uncrewed next one.” This fully automated one potential hazard, another data from both the ship and the vessel sets different design process will be conducted threat lies in potential attempts science experiments. We’ll be parameters, and sitting lower at sea and analysed later in a by hackers to commandeer learning from the feedback from in the water becomes much laboratory along with reams of the vessel and use it for either the AI systems about how it’s easier because you don’t need recorded data on tidal patterns, piracy or weaponisation. “Marine doing and how confident the AI headroom. The vessel’s heaviest the depth of the ocean and cybersecurity is a really big area,” vision system is about what the contents are the batteries that even the nuances of whalesong Andy says, “because people cameras are seeing, with tonnes will support night-time travel, as detected by an underwater tend to assume once a ship sets of data being collected and and the onboard biodiesel hydrophone. sail it’s safe and self-contained, some of it offboarded during

INGENIA ISSUE 86 MARCH 2021 15 THE MAYFLOWER SAILS AGAIN

the journey.” If data can’t be transmitted en route across the satellite link, it will be stored on an SD card and offloaded after the vessel’s safe return. BRIGHT FUTURES Although MAS’s forthcoming journey represents an epic challenge, the ProMare and IBM The technology might be used to operate ferries, such as the floating bridges crossing Norwegian fjords. Personal water taxis could make efficient use of under-utilised urban waterways and simultaneously alleviate congestion on team is already looking at how land. Meanwhile, autonomous vessels could transform the exploration of our oceans, increasing our knowledge and this pioneering technology could understanding of remote bodies of water by conducting real-time analysis under AI stewardship be advanced further. “Future © Tom Barnes for IBM and ProMare versions of the AI software will on board before they’ll insure a journeys without needing and edge computing. We see have the ability for experiments ship. There are really interesting human oversight. a great future in AI captain to investigate interesting developments in augmented As well as crossing the software for the autonomous situations that arise. A boat intelligence rather than AI, Atlantic independently, MAS’s operation of vessels of many might deviate from its existing which will have quite a profound greatest legacy may be the sizes, from container ships mission and go somewhere impact on the industry.” Andy cutting-edge technology. “It’s down to personal water taxis. else, after weighing up the describes a nautical version of a wonderful showcase of a We’ve already had a lot of conflicting requirements of the the autopilot systems on an whole range of technologies, conversations with people in opportunity that’s presented aeroplane, leaving the complex all working together to solve the military and research sectors itself, the mission objectives take-off and landing to humans really gnarly problems,” Andy who are interested in using and its remaining power. but automating everything concludes. “It’s a chance to this technology in the future, There might even be fleets of in between. Historic maritime demonstrate different pieces wanting to know how it works autonomous vessels going out rules mean only manned craft of software working together and how they can get hold of and collecting research data. can currently sail into or out of – the cloud and AI vision it. It’s getting really busy really There are really interesting ‘hive harbours; the only exception systems, the Internet of Things quickly.” mind’ experiments with swarms is for vessels with ‘eyes on’ of autonomous ships working – someone in attendance BIOGRAPHY together to achieve an overall watching. MAS will be escorted Professor Andy Stanford-Clark is the Chief Technology objective.” into harbour by a manned vessel Officer for IBM in UK and Ireland. He is an IBM Distinguished MAS could also spearhead with a short-range radio-control Engineer, a Master Inventor with more than 40 patents, the introduction of AI serving link. However, autonomous and IBM’s Quantum Leader for the UK. Andy is a Visiting as a second pair of eyes to a port operations are being Professor at Newcastle University, an Honorary Professor human captain: “From talking tested at the Port of Rotterdam, at the University of East Anglia, an Adjunct Professor at to insurers, you can imagine which may ultimately enable the University of Southampton, and a Fellow of the British a future where they actually autonomous vessels to Computer Society. require that kind of system to be complete the final leg of their

16 INGENIA SUSTAINABILITY HELPING THE GREEN REVOLUTION

Hornsea One’s 174 offshore wind turbines generate enough power for one million UK homes © Ørsted

Hornsea One, the world’s largest offshore wind farm, has 174 wind turbines that generate enough electricity to supply over one million UK homes. Completed in 2019, the next phase, Hornsea Two, is under construction and is due to be completed in 2022. David Williams, Senior Export Cable Project Engineer, and Muhammad Imran Khan, Wind Farm Commissioning Project Manager, both at Ørsted, explain some of the challenges involved in creating this record-breaking offshore wind farm.

INGENIA ISSUE 86 MARCH 2021 17 HELPING THE GREEN REVOLUTION

The UK government has a target UK government approved the of net-zero carbon emissions by wind farm in 2014. At the time, 2050. Cutting emissions from Ørsted’s largest offshore wind energy generation could play farm was the London Array, a significant role in meeting about 20 km from the Kent and this goal. There is already a shift Essex coasts in waters up to away from using fossil fuels 25 m deep, which generates to provide energy: according 619 MW of energy to power to the Green Energy Trust, in around 500,000 homes. Hornsea The Hornsea wind farms are located some 120 kilometres off the UK’s east 2018 33% of the UK’s electricity One was much more ambitious. coast, close to Hull © Ørsted came from low-carbon sources where offshore wind farms are where the local environment is and in 2019, renewable sources located. Wind farm developers protected. generated more electricity than CHOOSING THE SITE must consider parameters Hornsea One is situated fossil fuels for the first time since Choosing the perfect location such as water depth, cable just off the UK’s east coast, the Industrial Revolution. for a giant offshore wind farm landfall options and onshore where the seabed is shallow Offshore wind is on track to was the first challenge that grid facilities, as well as but stable and wind speeds are become the UK’s biggest green Ørsted’s engineers faced. The environmental factors such as consistently high. To choose energy source. The Committee Crown Estate owns the seabed designated conservation sites, an ideal location, the team on Climate Change expects that 75 GW (gigawatts) of offshore wind capacity will be needed by 2050, and in October 2020, Prime Minister Boris Johnson claimed that the UK would generate enough offshore wind power to supply every home by 2030. By 2020, 10.5 GW was installed with capacity set to rise to 27.5 GW in 2026. One gigawatt of this energy is enough to power around 600,000 homes. A major player in green energy generation is the Hornsea One wind farm. Located 120 km (kilometres) off the Yorkshire coast, it is the first offshore wind farm to generate over 1.2 GW of clean electricity, almost double the world’s previous largest windfarm. Built by Danish renewable The Edda Mistral, the service operations vessel that the crew live on. During the construction process, 8,000 people energy company Ørsted, the worked offshore on the project © Ørsted

18 INGENIA SUSTAINABILITY

Wind

Generator Converter Grid

conducted meteorological assessments across potential spots to measure wind speed and weather, ensuring that the site did not interfere with marine conservation areas. Hornsea One is further from the shore than any other wind farm Wind turbine blades capture kinetic energy by rotating when the wind blows past them and covers just over 400 square The Hornsea One wind turbines pressure, geography and wind speeds. After installation, kilometres, which is three times were secured in the seabed season. The optimal wind speed turbines require regular the size of Manchester. with monopile foundations, a for Hornsea One’s turbines is maintenance. Around 40 wind Because of the site’s size thick steel cylinder buried in the around 14 metres per second turbine technicians look after and distance from the shore, seabed, which then supports (mps), considered a strong the wind farm and run annual the crew – including around the turbine tower. Monopile breeze on the Beaufort scale, checks on each turbine as well 100 people who were involved foundations are suitable for the kind of wind that would as conducting ad-hoc repairs in site management – lived on water depths of up to around make it difficult to use an and maintenance. an offshore platform during 30 metres and are currently the umbrella. Ultrasonic sensors on Much like the shift pattern construction. most commonly used foundation the turbines constantly measure on offshore oil rigs, for two The distance also meant for offshore wind farms. wind speed and direction while weeks at a time, technicians live that detailed plans to move the automatically rotating the blades onboard a service operations huge and heavy components to capture as much energy as vessel. Built to cruise liner to the site had to be drawn THE TURBINES possible. To prevent structural standards, technicians have up. A total of 522 blades, each Each of Hornsea One’s 7 MW damage to the turbines, a a comfortable stay offshore. measuring 75 metres long, wind turbines towers 190 metres control system automatically An innovative motion- were transported from the above sea level, with a blade switches off the turbines when compensated gangway allows Siemens Gamesa Renewable diameter of 154 metres. A single the wind speed exceeds 24 mps technicians to walk to work Energy blade factory in rotation of the turbine’s huge (a severe gale). The turbine to the bright yellow transition Hull, Yorkshire. The carefully 75-metre-long blades generates blades also angle themselves piece platform, fixed on top of manufactured balsa wood enough energy to power a 90 degrees towards the wind the monopile in the seabed, and fiberglass blades were home for over a day. The rotation during periods of extreme creating the foundation (see lifted on to a jack-up barge, a of blades turns an internal weather to reduce the likelihood image on page 20). vessel on legs that sails as a shaft connected to a gearbox of damage. Technicians work alongside normal ship until it is needed or directly to the generator The Hornsea One turbines a support network based in for construction. The barge depending on the design of the use a direct drive, which means Grimsby’s East Coast Hub, was also loaded with the rest wind turbine. The spinning of the they do not have a gearbox and the world’s largest operations of the turbines’ components generator produces electricity, the rotor is connected directly and maintenance facility for before setting sail to the site which is exported to the grid via to the generator. With fewer offshore wind, which had a location. Once at the site, the subsea cables, and then on to moving parts than gearbox recent £10 million investment jack-up barge’s ‘legs’ were homes. turbines, they are quieter and upgrade. The offshore lowered and stabilised on the The wind speed on the and have lower maintenance co-ordination centre is staffed seabed to secure it so that the east coast of the UK is among costs for the wind farm as 24/7 to give an extra layer components could be moved the fastest in the world, and the teeth and cogs in a heavy of safety for those working around safely. depends on atmospheric gearbox wear out in variable offshore. By constantly

INGENIA ISSUE 86 MARCH 2021 19 HELPING THE GREEN REVOLUTION

A jack-up barge that has sailed from Hull port with the components on board places its legs on the seabed to secure and lift the vessel so that it can install the blades and components © DEME group reviewing the weather and and allowances were made for point midway between land and to bring the power generated assessing the likelihood additional manufacturing time. the offshore stations (see image back to shore. of lightning, the offshore Array cables connect each on next page). At the RCS the As they are out of co-ordination staff can also turbine to the next one, buried voltage remains at 220 kV and is sight, cables are often an manually control turbines. beneath the seabed until they transmitted back to the onshore unappreciated necessity reach an offshore substation. substation by three export that have taken months Three offshore substations are cables. to manufacture and test. NEW ENGINEERING positioned near each other at At the onshore substation, However, they are one of the Bringing the power ashore is sea. The power from each wind a final step-up of the voltage most important components. one of the biggest engineering turbine is stepped up from 690 V from 220 kV to 400 kV allows Essentially the project’s veins, challenges, and for this project to 34 kV and then transmitted the power to be connected to they carry electricity from source it meant developing new via a series of ‘strings’ (cables). the National Grid transmission to consumers. The time it takes approaches. On Hornsea There are 36 strings in total, split system. The gradual stepping to manufacture the cables is One, engineers achieved a across all three offshore stations. up of the voltage along the astounding; production for longest manufacturing run of Each string connects four or five way from the wind turbine to Hornsea One took over a year 200 km of cable, doubling the wind turbines. As the power the onshore substation helps and was across two factories. previous maximum AC cable reaches the offshore station mitigate system losses. When length. They would usually from the turbine, it is stepped the voltage is stepped up, the allocate 10% spare cable to up again from 34 kV to 220 kV current reduces relative to the HORNSEA TWO cover contingencies and and is then transmitted via the voltage and the power remains Hornsea One began supplying repairs. This meant that a larger export cables to the reactive constant. This also helps reduce power to the National Grid in storage space was needed compensation system (RCS), a the size of the cables required February 2019, with the project

20 INGENIA SUSTAINABILITY

and protecting consumers from paying increased support costs when electricity prices are high. With a CfD strike price of £57.50, it means that green energy is now officially cheaper than gas, coal and nuclear. When Hornsea Two becomes operational in 2022, the two projects will together generate electricity for almost 2.5 million homes, bolstering Ørsted’s vision of creating a world that runs entirely on green energy. The cost of offshore wind power has In a first for offshore wind, a reactive compensation station (RCS), weighing a total of 4,000 tonnes, was installed continued to come down and halfway between the landfall site at Horseshoe Point in Lincolnshire and the three offshore substations to act as a midway point. It removes the reactive power (the difference between the electricity supplied and the electricity today offshore wind energy is converted into useful power) and sends the active power (useable energy) through cables that connect to the onshore cheaper than new generation substation. The station is installed on the seabed but sits on legs above sea level © Ørsted capacity based on fossil fuels. completed in early 2020. This offshore wind to date. “Large renewable energy with the The Hornsea One and Two year, turbine installation will infrastructure projects like these Contracts for Difference (CfD) projects mark an important step begin on Hornsea Two, which have their challenges, but with scheme, providing developers of towards achieving the UK’s net- is next to its predecessor and each project we have built we projects with high upfront costs zero aims. 89 km from the coast. are able to improve efficiencies,” The new wind farm will be says Duncan Clark, Project BIOGRAPHIES larger than Hornsea One and Director. David Williams, Senior Export Cable Project Engineer will generate 200 MW more The wind farm still requires at Ørsted, is a chartered engineer and studied at Cardiff power with fewer turbines. Its the energy-boosting RCS. University and the University of Loughborough. He worked 165 8 MW Siemens Gamesa However, where Hornsea One on the Hornsea One project for over six years, including on turbines will generate 1.4 GW of has three offshore substations, the initial technical design concept and engineering technical clean electricity to power more Hornsea Two will have one. support for supply and installation of export cables. than 1.3 million homes. Despite This gigantic structure for Muhammad Imran Khan, Wind Farm Commissioning having fewer turbines, it will Hornsea Two will be floated Project Manager at Ørsted, studied electrical and electronic deliver 20% more output than across from Indonesia using a engineering at the University of Manchester. Imran works on Hornsea One. semi-submersible crane vessel the Hornsea Two project and has done for 13 months. His The project will use the that will lift the substation into remit on includes coordinating stage one commissioning world’s largest offshore position. and responsibility for stage two commissioning of the whole substation and will deliver the The UK government windfarm. most affordable electricity from incentivises investment in

INGENIA ISSUE 86 MARCH 2021 21 LESSONS FROM THE FIELD LESSONS FROM THE FIELD Many young engineers spend time working with communities and engineers in other countries to help develop their skills at the start of their careers. Abigail Beall talked to three engineers about the impact working abroad has had on their career paths and outlooks, gaining valuable experience that they couldn’t have gained in the UK.

Aakeen Parikh worked with local people to develop an off-grid washing machine during her trip to Minazi, Rwanda

22 INGENIA SOCIETY

Student engineers collaborate with local people to develop sustainable solutions Minazi, a remote village in of 17 targets aims to create a work like this might sound trying to improve the water the Gakenke district in the better world by ending poverty, like a selfless thing to do, the supply to the village. She also Northern Province of Rwanda, stopping inequality and fighting engineers are coming home helped develop an off-grid rural has a water scarcity problem. climate change. Many of these with skills and experiences that washing machine, a project that Being on top of a hill makes it problems can be solved partly, if stay with them for life and shape is still in development now. hard for those living there to not fully, by engineering. their careers. find water, especially in winter This is why water and In 2019, Aakeen Parikh was when the small streams that sanitation, along with another part of a group of students WATER AND are usually available start to dry SDG – industry, innovation and from Imperial College London SANITATION up. This means it’s not unusual infrastructure – is becoming a who went to Minazi for three Running and managing projects for people who live in Minazi to mainstream focus for engineers weeks. This was her third trip as overseas gives young engineers walk for between one and two everywhere. In the past few part of e.quinox, the university’s valuable project management hours every day to collect water. years, an increasing number non-profit organisation that and engineering experience. Access to water is one of the of young engineers have been aims to develop sustainable “On your courses, you’re often UN’s Sustainable Development working in a voluntary capacity technological solutions in taught about the physics and Goals (SDGs), which were in the Global South to help in collaboration with rural design process, but you have published in 2015, to be the worldwide effort to achieve communities. During this trip, very little opportunity to test achieved by 2030. This set the goals. While voluntary Parikh worked as part of a team your knowledge,” Parikh says. “If

INGENIA ISSUE 86 MARCH 2021 23 LESSONS FROM THE FIELD

Professor Guy Howard, Global Research Chair in Environmental and Infrastructure Resilience at the University of Bristol, says volunteering was beneficial for his career because it taught him that a lot of engineering is not really about maths. “A lot of engineering is really the art of the doable,” he says. There is a lot of social science involved in engineering that is not necessarily taught in university courses

you’re in the field, and suddenly centred design approach is key,” preventing the spread of anthropologists, they’re need to develop the truss for a she says. disease. “I think for many young community workers, they’re water tank you want to install, Professor Guy Howard, Global engineers, going out into the architects. They were all of you are putting a lot of learning Research Chair in Environmental field brings home to them, these things. PREDES is a into action.” and Infrastructure Resilience ‘actually this is what you need multidisciplinary organisation These challenges might at the University of Bristol, says to understand’,” Professor that understood that it takes include the procurement of volunteering was beneficial for Howard adds. more than technical engineers parts and materials, for example, his career because it taught The idea that engineers to make a successful piece of calculating material stresses or him that a lot of engineering is need to understand much more work.” working out bending moments not really about maths. “A lot than the physics and maths to ensure nothing is going to of engineering is really the art involved does not just apply to collapse. Another application of the doable,” he says. There is water and sanitation. It is also EARTHQUAKE might be calculating the power a lot of social science involved what Dr Sakthy Selvakumaran RESILIENCE it takes to pump water to a in engineering that is not learnt when she visited Peru In the UK, construction does certain height. Whatever it is, necessarily taught in university for three months during her not often need to consider seeing the theory you have courses. undergraduate degree to do seismic activity. “Peru has learnt in action is undoubtedly “Another reason it’s very work experience with the Centre a long, interesting history, a great way to help understand useful, particularly around water for Studies and Prevention of and it includes traditional and remember it. and sanitation, is that it can Disasters, PREDES, a local non- construction methods designed But the benefits of spending overcome a little bit of what I governmental organisation for seismic resistance” says Dr time on projects like this far would see as a deficit in a lot (NGO). Following an earthquake Selvakumaran. This includes local exceed just practical application of engineering teaching at the that had happened a couple building techniques to make of engineering theory. “You moment in the UK,” he says. of years previously, in some houses from wooden frames learn a lot about the country,” Apart from one or two notable rural areas three hours south of by putting an extra piece of says Parikh, “the rules, examples, Professor Howard says Lima, people were still living in material, such as cane or reed, regulations and procedures the UK has moved away from tarpaulin shelters. in between the frame to make that are in place that you are the concept of public health Although it was a it flexible. This is so that when required to follow for your engineering. At the University programme to rebuild houses, an earthquake hits, the whole projects.” The experience also of Leeds, for example, there is a the engineers with the NGO structure will bend. Then, local teaches volunteers about Public Health Engineering MSc worked closely with local tradespeople semi-render the the local people and their course run by Professor Barbara people and local government outside and paint it. In central lifestyles, challenges and daily Evans that has been going for to understand ambitions and Lima, there are buildings experiences. “Engineering 25 years. build local capacity, training several storeys high that have projects for development are However, many other courses and resilience. “What I liked been built in this way and multidisciplinary and the focus miss out on information about about the way PREDES was withstood hundreds of years of should always be on the needs disease dynamics, transmission, structured was that they were earthquakes. of the community that you are basic microbiology and how not just engineers,” she says. Without straying from working with, taking a human- engineering plays a part in “They’re engineers, they’re the traditional methods, the

24 INGENIA SOCIETY

Traditional building methods are used to construct houses in Peru, using flexible material to ensure houses can withstand seismic activity engineers at PREDES developed the value of the work being how she has thought about the of infrastructure to the people a way of improving upon them. carried out. “The hard thing world ever since. Now, she is a living in the wake of a disaster “They made slight modifications about volunteering, especially research fellow at the University like war or an earthquake. “I with tie wires to make it a when you’re an undergraduate, of Cambridge, where she became a lot more passionate little bit more robust,” says Dr is to acknowledge you’re going specialises in risk and resilience about engineering education, Selvakumaran. They also built to volunteer but that you may of urban environments. She the idea that everyone should it in a modular way so that one not be that useful, and that the is the Founder of BKwai, a have a right to be educated module would be the start local engineers are making time software platform that provides as an engineer,” she says. of a home, giving owners the to teach you.” She says that it’s visualisations and data insights “That actually is a great way flexibility to add modules to important to treat it as a learning to make construction safer, more to drive progress and support extend their homes over time. experience, just like any other productive and more efficient. communities in a much stronger Dr Selvakumaran’s time in work experience. Dr Selvakumaran studied way than sending people here Peru was just before the final engineering because she liked and there for a few months at year of her undergraduate the idea of helping people. Her a time.” degree because she wanted THE IMPACT OF family left Sri Lanka during the Dr Selvakumaran also to go with enough of a basic YOUNG VOLUNTEERS civil war, and she grew up in the supports the University of understanding to be helpful Dr Selvakumaran says her UK and Canada. After going back Jaffna, Sri Lanka, which opened while she was there, and be able experience in Peru shaped a lot to Sri Lanka, and visiting Peru, an engineering school a few to apply this to understanding of her beliefs as an engineer and she realised the importance years ago. Local engineering

INGENIA ISSUE 86 MARCH 2021 25 LESSONS FROM THE FIELD

academics set up the school from scratch, with a mission of creating competent engineers with social, economic and ethical values, who contribute to sustainable development. The value of young volunteer engineers in host countries has changed in the past few years, compared to what it was decades ago. “Back at the beginning of my career, in the 1980s and 1990s, it probably was still the case that there were fewer than needed engineering experts in low- and middle- income countries,” says Professor Howard. “So, having young UK engineers going out and working on things actually did make up for a genuine deficit.” Volunteers in Peru also worked on landslide defences in the lower Rimac valley, south of Lima Dr Selvakumaran emphasises For Parikh, her experiences in Mumbai, where economic clean water and education the need for engineers to be working abroad have helped disparity is as clear as day, is a basic human right that considerate and careful when shape her career choices. “I Parikh realised that STEM everyone should have.” Now, working abroad: “engineers need always knew that I wanted students have the skills to she is working on a PhD, but she to remember that have just as to work in international address the biggest challenges knows she wants to continue much ability to accidentally development as an engineer,” the world is currently facing. working towards international cause harm as they do good.” says Parikh. Having grown up “Participating in these development, particularly in student volunteering projects sustainable humanitarian action FEMENG through e.quinox provided for rural communities under the Students at the University of Glasgow’s School of Engineering me with the opportunity poverty line. have created a network aiming to empower women studying to actually make an impact Now, it seems there is great the discipline. Its work includes school outreach, networking, with my degree,” she says. value in these experiences for workshops, and international collaborations. For example, in “And it reinforced my feelings young engineers. But it also 2019 the group collaborated with the University of Rwanda on towards my goal because the inspires within them a direction ‘FemEng in Rwanda’. As part of the initiative, female students experiences and perspective and skills and perspectives that from both universities worked together to encourage female that you gain is invaluable, they couldn’t gain in the UK, Rwandan high school students to study science and engineering reminding you that some which means they will continue subjects in further education. After a successful project, the group people still do not have basic to have a lasting impact for their started planning for a similar initiative in Malawi, which was human rights, and access to whole careers. launched in 2020. BIOGRAPHY SAFAD Professor Guy Howard is the Global Research Chair in For over 50 years, students from Cranfield University have Infrastructure and Environmental Resilience and Associate volunteered in the global south around the world, as part of the Director (International) of the Cabot Institute of the Environment charity Silsoe Aid for Appropriate Development (SAFAD). More at the University of Bristol. than 340 graduate and postgraduate volunteers have travelled Aakeen Parikh is currently pursuing her PhD at Imperial College to almost 40 different countries, working with local organisations. London. She is an advisory board member for e.quinox and The group specialises in six fields: water and sanitation; part-time humanitarian design and engineering consultant. agroforestry; agriculture and soil conservation; education; small businesses; and intermediate technologies. Because of Dr Sakthy Selvakumaran is currently the Isaac Newton Trust / this, students from a variety of disciplines, from environmental Newnham College Fellow in Engineering and Director of Studies sciences to engineering, have participated in the charity’s work. in Engineering at the University of Cambridge.

26 INGENIA SUSTAINABILITY LIFE AFTER LANDFILLS UK households produce over 25 million tonnes of waste a year, around 400 kilograms per person (roughly equivalent to four giant pandas). Around 45% of this is recycled, but what happens to the waste that can neither be recycled nor reused? Dominic Joyeux discovered how waste going to landfill is contributing to the circular economy.

The number of landfill sites in household waste has been a recycling rate of 50% for The 1999 EU Landfill Directive the UK is declining and there is sorted into recyclable and its household waste. The UK came with financial penalties a marked reluctance to create recoverable, the rest is sent to currently achieves 45% and has and the UK government had more. Ideally, everything that is be buried. made substantial progress since been placing an escalating tax manufactured could be broken It had been a long-held 2000, when it only managed (currently just under £100 per down and reused after use. European Union (EU) target for 13% a year and consigned huge tonne) on non-inert refuse put However, at the moment, after all member states to achieve amounts to landfill. into the ground. As a result,

The amount of waste that the UK produces per person each year is roughly equivalent to the weight of four giant pandas © © SUEZ Recycling and Recovery UK Ltd

INGENIA ISSUE 86 MARCH 2021 27 LIFE AFTER LANDFILLS

Flare/LFG Gas header pipe Intermediate/ energy plant final cover Leachate plant

local councils have been forced to look for alternative ways of The leachate sumps (wells) are disposing and reusing their connected to the surface of residents’ refuse. a filled landfill cell by vertical For the rubbish that can’t Liner pipes or pipes laid on the side- system Waste cells slopes. Leachate is pumped to a currently be recycled, councils Gas extraction have overwhelmingly turned wells treatment/disposal plant being to combustion to stop non- Monitoring probes treated onsite and discharged recyclable material being buried to a connected external sewage in the ground. In 2019, the UK’s Landfill schematic showing gas and leachate collection systems network or removed from site © Wikimedia Commons 53 energy-from-waste plants using road tankers to a sewage generated 6,700 GWh (gigawatt Dr Adam Read, working for has perforated collection pipes treatment plant. hours), roughly 2% of the SUEZ Recycling and Recovery that take the liquid to collection When cells are full they nation’s electricity generation, UK, has studied the evolution sumps. On top of this is a final are capped with compacted plus 1,400 GWh of heat. of landfill. “In essence, the old layer of geotextile material that clay and a geomembrane. A In addition to more than pre-1974 sites were tips using a provides a separation of solid protective cover soil is laid on 500 active landfill sites, there dispersion model that runs like material from liquid. top of these, then a top soil are more than 20,000 historic this: If you bury rubbish in a big Then cells are built up with and finally cover vegetation. landfills that pre-date the enough area it’ll leach, and with waste from lorry loads of refuse. The aftercare for landfill sites millennium in the UK. Now, rainwater saturating such a large As layers of rubbish are built up includes checking the external researchers and companies area then it won’t be a pollutant. they are covered with inert soils gas monitoring boreholes, are looking at the feasibility of That’s before people worked out or matting that help prevent and managing gas flares, gas mining such sites in order to that water runs downhill and odours and keep vermin away. boosters and gas clean-up retrieve useful materials and ends up in your watercourse. While these layers are built equipment, such as activated make the land safe to reuse. Add to that the degrading of up, horizontally presented carbon systems. Monitoring different materials at different perforated gas collectors are laid the leachate wells, maintaining rates, the varying moisture in. These are generally ‘sacrificial’ leachate-treatment plants, and MANAGING MODERN levels below ground, slippages in nature providing a short-term checking external groundwater LANDFILLS in stacked rubbish, the pockets solution until more permanent wells and surface water The reduction in the amount of methane gas collecting and retro-drilled gas wells are discharge points are necessary sent to be buried in the sometimes exploding, then it installed in a completed, or and continuous processes for UK has coincided with a became clear that things had to near completed, landfill cell decades after the landfill site marked improvement in the change.” – these will be made from low- is filled. maintenance and safety of Today, most new landfills density polyethylene measuring One landmark landfill site landfill sites. This has been in follow a similar pattern in their between 125 mm (millimetres) near Birmingham closed in 2015, large part due to the Control creation and maintenance. The to 160 mm in diameter. after taking in over 21 million of Pollution Act 1974. The act, overall site will be split into cells Both sets of pipes are tonnes of waste in its lifetime. and its review in 1978, helped that measure around 10,000 m² connected to a site-wide gas Packington landfill was the bring an end to the notion (square metres) to 20,000 m². At collection system that leads to first site in the UK to produce of sites as tips and regulated the base of each will be a 60 cm an onsite turbine house where electricity from landfill gas, their maintenance. Now, they (centimetre) layer of compacted the gas is converted to energy. starting in 1990. It is estimated are highly engineered, have clay soil topped with 6 cm-thick In 2019, 3.6 TWh (terawatt hours) that it will continue generating an active life of 20 years or high-density polyethylene of electricity were generated electricity for a further 20 more, and can expect to be liner that also lines the sides. A from landfill gas. This was years from the near-20 miles maintained for a further 50 years gravel/stone leachate collection either used locally or fed to the of pipework at more than 300 after they are decommissioned. layer is placed over the liner that National Grid. extraction points.

28 INGENIA SUSTAINABILITY

the rubbish and converts it to a transportable form of energy such as electricity or heat. The process involves feeding the waste down a chute onto a moving grate and into a furnace where it combusts and releases its energy. The residual gases and by-products are held at temperatures over 850°C to ensure complete combustion before being passed into the boiler for energy recovery. Packington landfill site is an example of landraising, rather than landfilling. It is 80 m tall, covers 380 acres and has In the boiler, superheated taken rubbish from Birmingham and Warwickshire. In the foreground is the leachate tank farm. It is maintained by steam is generated to achieve SUEZ Recycling and Recovery 400°C and around 45 bars the UK that burn waste and of pressure. The heat energy produce electricity. If the EfW becomes mechanical energy is a combined heat and power when the steam is used to drive plant, then it can produce heat a high-pressure turbine, the gear to supply local homes and box turning a generator that businesses as well. produces between 20 to 35 MW Viridor’s 10 EfW plants (megawatts) of electricity. process the most tonnage and, The flue gases formed during along with Veolia and SUEZ, the combustion process have take over half the UK’s residual an emissions clean up to ensure waste. David Field, Director that the final released gases of Engineering – Energy at are safe. They are treated with Viridor, says that: “France began hydrated lime and activated developing EfW plants in the carbon to remove the acid 1970s and 1980s on relatively gases and absorb heavy metals, small municipal sites that dioxins, furans, and volatile processed between 100 and organic compounds. These Management of local authority collected waste and recycling rates for 150,000 tonnes of waste a year. contaminants are removed as England, 2000/01 to 2018/19 © Defra tinyurl.com/kmonhaz In the UK, a new plant will be solid ash for further treatment. tonnes processed by EfW plants much larger and usually have What is finally let out of an EfW ENERGY-FROM- in the UK represents 45% of the a baseline capacity of around stack will mainly be CO2 and WASTE nation’s ‘residual waste’. 300,000 tonnes a year, with most water vapour. One of the major factors in the Residual waste is the non- using moving grate technology.” Incinerator bottom ash (IBA) is dramatic reduction of refuse hazardous refuse left over once EfW plants follow the same the name given to what is left on sent to landfill over the last the recycled and reusable basic steps. There will be a the floor after the combustion. decade has been the increased materials have been taken out reception area to receive the Its weight is around 30% of the use of energy-from-waste (EfW) of the rubbish collected from waste and get it ready for original waste and 10% of the plants – also known as energy homes. This waste is taken to combustion, a thermal treatment original volume. When the IBA recovery facilities. The 12 million one of the 53 EfW plants in that releases the energy from leaves the active part of the

INGENIA ISSUE 86 MARCH 2021 29 LIFE AFTER LANDFILLS

boiler it passes an overband (or drum) electromagnet that lifts out ferrous metals such as steel and iron. The remaining IBA is passed by an eddy current separator that picks out the non-ferrous metals such as aluminium, copper and zinc alloys. Nearly 250,000 tonnes of IBA metal are recovered each year in the UK, amounting to nearly 1% of all recycled waste. The remaining IBA consists of various elements including inert brick, rubble, glass, and ceramics. To clean up an old landfill site, VertaseFLI, specialists in contaminated land remediation, will sort through the buried When this has been treated rubbish to retrieve materials that can be recycled or recovered © VertaseFLI the majority is used for block environmentally safe, there premium on the reclaimed land Up until now, few of the nearly making and aggregate. Nearly will often be a trawl to recover or the need to render the land 100 documented projects all IBA produced by EfWs is now material that can be recovered environmentally safe. launched worldwide have made recycled. and reused, as well as ensuring Now, there are several it past a feasibility demonstration, that gas and run-off water is projects across Europe pilot or lab-scale venture. LANDFILL MINING controlled. establishing the possibilities However, the biggest ELFM There are more than 20,000 Around 10% of municipal and viability of enhanced project in the world has begun closed and listed historic landfill sites consist of inorganics landfill mining (ELFM). One of in earnest at Remo, a recently sites in the UK with several like concrete, stones, glass, the leading figures researching closed modern landfill site 60 hundred thousand more spread and metal. The metals can be this area in the UK is Dr Stuart miles east of Brussels. Group across Europe. Most can’t be seen recycled and the rest used Wagland, Senior Lecturer in Machiels, a specialist landfill and have been largely forgotten. for construction materials. An Energy and Environmental contractor, has already worked Others are remembered when onsite trommel, a perforated Chemistry, School of Water, on the 50 metre-deep site there is a need to repurpose the rotating drum, allows soil-type Energy and Environment at containing 18 million tonnes of land – to construct new roads, material (around 50 to 60% Cranfield University. He says: household and industrial waste build houses or schools. of landfill by weight) to fall “We have been working with to stabilise the environment and Usually, when specialist out. It captures the inorganic colleagues in Europe on ELFM, avoid gas emissions. companies take on the material and the combustibles which considers landfill sites as a The company estimates reclamation of landfills, the focus like plastic, paper and wood, resource, banks of material that that half of the waste can be is on reducing the volume of which can be used to generate we will one day tap into. The recovered using onsite recycling waste and eliminating possible energy. ELFM model is not just about plants to separate out metals, pollution. Typically they will be In the past, landfill mining reclaiming land – ‘traditional’ paper, card, and plastics. There working on ‘dilute and disperse’ has been limited because landfill mining – it is about is special potential in electronic landfill sites, 3 or 4 metres of the economic challenges recovering materials and energy goods such as old TVs or deep, where no engineering involved. To excavate, sort, and ensuring that there is computers that typically have was undertaken to manage the make safe, and rebury usually no long-term environmental higher concentrations of gold leachate and ground gas. outweighs the potential damage. Now we need to make and rare earth elements per To make the works financially income – it only works sure that the economics add up tonne than are found naturally viable and render the area financially when the there is a via cost-benefit analysis.” in ore.

30 INGENIA SUSTAINABILITY

Prevention

Preparing for re-use

The remaining waste would be Another option explored by Recycling turned into a refuse-derived Cranfield University is to convert fuel suitable for thermal excavated plastic into liquid (Energy) recovery conversion into energy. One fuels and chemicals through such idea has been to use a pyrolysis process (thermal gasification with plasma gas decomposition). Disposal cleaning to produce energy- This is a long-term project. rich synthetic gas (syngas) Group Machiels thinks it could and a vitrified residue. The provide power for 200,000 syngas will be used to produce homes over the next 20 years methane or hydrogen, while before turning the site into a This waste hierarchy pyramid shows where preventing waste arising in the the vitrified residue can be nature park. first place is the ideal, and landfill is the last resort for managing waste used for producing cement Proponents of ELFM would energy to mine more virgin pyramid where prevention is the and construction materials. rather mine landfills than use materials. Dr Wagland would preferred option for waste, and like to have a Remo-type disposal (landfill) is the worst. In CIRCULAR ECONOMY project to work on in the UK. an ideal closed-loop economy Due to the significant number of landfill sites across the UK, His Cranfield University team model, goods would be ELFM is a key component of critical material security and will has identified 850 old landfill shared, leased, reused, repaired, contribute to the circular economy. Enhanced landfill mining sites that have high energy refurbished, or recycled. recovers valuable raw materials and reintroduces them into the and materials possibilities in In practice, a circular manufacturing chain. the UK. The university has economy means keeping At an EU level, the Interreg REGENERATIS project aims to assembled a network of landfill waste to a minimum. That is recover valuable metals from former metallurgy sites and managers, engineers and what many of today’s waste closed landfills. Previous work carried out by Cranfield University developers to make ELFM a practitioners and researchers are analysed several samples collected from four different closed UK reality in the UK (see www. aiming for. They want to ensure landfill sites. The samples were prepared to separate the soil-like elfm-network.co.uk). that when a product reaches element, which comprises at least 60% of the material within a the end of its life, its materials closed landfill site, from the rest of the waste. The study observed are kept within the economy significant value in the metals it contained, highlighting the CLOSED-LOOP wherever possible so that they potential for closed landfills to contribute to the circular economy ECONOMY can be productively used again through ELFM projects. From just the four sites studied, there was All the big recycling and and again, thereby protecting around £104 million in platinum group metals; £280 million in waste providers in the UK the environment and creating aluminium and copper; £10 million in lithium; and £6.4 million in refer to the waste hierarchy further value. neodymium. The recovery of these elements is critical for the sustainability BIOGRAPHIES of several industries. The global demand for lithium is expected Dr Adam Read is External Affairs Director at SUEZ Recycling to double between now and 2024 because of its important and Recovery UK. role in energy storage, particularly in electric vehicles. The UK is Gerry Cavanagh is Regional Manager South – Landfill Energy committed to banning the sales of new petrol and diesel cars at SUEZ Recycling and Recovery UK. by 2030, which is likely to boost the demand even further. Other critical metals include arsenic, which is predicted to run out David Field is Director of Engineering – Energy at Viridor. sometime in the next five to 50 years, nickel and platinum group Dr Stuart Wagland is Senior Lecturer in Energy and metals. Evidently, ELFM has a role to play in the UK’s resilience for Environmental Chemistry and Deputy Director of Research, critical resources and reclamation of critical raw materials from School of Water, Energy and Environment, at Cranfield closed landfill sites. University.

INGENIA ISSUE 86 MARCH 2021 31 ALL HANDS TO THE PUMPS

Guru Krishnamoorthy (left), CEO of Penlon, and Dick Elsy CBE FREng (right), Chairman of the Ventilator Challenge UK Consortium and CEO of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult with the Penlon ESO 2 ventilator. The consortium of more than 33 UK engineering and technology businesses from the aerospace, motorsport, automotive, and medical sectors produced more than 13,000 ventilators in 12 weeks in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and received a President’s Special Award for Pandemic Service from the Royal Academy of Engineering © thisisjude.uk ALL HANDS TO THE PUMPS

32 INGENIA SOCIETY

When COVID-19 filled hospitals with patients with breathing difficulties, the UK’s engineering community rose to the challenge. In record time, engineers from disparate industries created production lines to make ventilators for intensive care units, redesigning equipment, negotiating unfamiliar certification processes, and building new supply chains almost overnight. Michael Kenward OBE discovered how engineering teams achieved this in weeks.

running out of the respirators at the top of the country’s and ventilators that could VENTILATOR engineering companies and, provide oxygen to patients. CHALLENGE almost overnight, created the The NHS entered the On 16 March, the government consortium that came to be pandemic with 7,000 put out a call to UK industry to known as VentilatorChallengeUK ventilators. The government rapidly produce up to 15,000 (VCUK). predicted early on that the NHS ventilators for the NHS in just a This was no simple task. would quickly run out, with couple of months. Companies As Elsy put it: “ventilators are little chance of a rapid increase such as Ford, more famous intricate and highly complex in production. Two established for mass producing cars, and pieces of medical equipment”. medical device companies, Rolls-Royce, better known for The consortium had to balance Penlon and Smiths, produced making expensive jet engines, the need for speedy delivery ventilators for different stages were quick to react. The motor with adherence to regulatory of the patient journey. Smiths racing industry also stepped standards. On 18 March, the produced portable ventilators, in with McLaren, Williams and government asked industry to often used to move patients in other Formula 1 teams offering throw itself into the production ambulances, between wards the services of engineers who of what it called rapidly and in areas where connection suddenly saw their racing season manufactured ventilator systems to mains power is difficult. stranded in the pits. (RMVS). The Medicines and When COVID-19 patients began These work complementary to Industry was keen to help Healthcare products Regulatory to arrive in hospitals in early a Penlon unit, which is for use but, as Dick Elsy CBE FREng Agency (MHRA) published 2020, doctors did not know in ICUs. recalled at an online Q&A event a document with a general how the virus would affect The combined production organised by the Royal Academy specification for ventilators. them. With flu-like symptoms, capacity of the two companies of Engineering*, there was a It was then up to industry early sufferers struggled for was 100 ventilators each deafening silence as companies to decide how to meet the breath as the virus attacked month. The government’s thought: “what do we do next?”. specifications. their respiratory systems and forecasts suggested that the UK Elsy, CEO of the High Value The VCUK consortium hospitals faced a surge of would need many thousands Manufacturing (HVM) Catapult, a concluded that there wasn’t patients experiencing breathing more. Gearing up to meet the group of manufacturing research time to design a new ventilator, problems. Intensive care units anticipated demand became a centres in the UK, decided to which would take time to get (ICUs) were concerned about priority. step in. He called his contacts regulatory approval, a task that

INGENIA ISSUE 86 MARCH 2021 33 ALL HANDS TO THE PUMPS

“We needed to get to something closer to 3,000 units a week,” says Hoare. “A massive scale up was required. It wasn’t about a single machine being manufactured by a single individual over maybe 20 hours over a week. We had to break it down into about 250 different activities in what became one of industry’s most interesting production lines.”

can take six to eight months set up new parallel supply chains two to three years to develop Even something as seemingly in normal times. The quickest and acquire the required 42 and launch. As industry started basic as trolleys to move response would be to work with million parts at peak lockdown; work to meet the challenge, ventilators required rapid existing design. On 19 March, and recruit and train a frontline Team Penlon brought in action to manufacture by the VCUK put its weight behind an assembly team in a new age of a group of heavyweight thousands. McLaren Group existing design made by Smiths social distancing. signatories from industry, took on the task, a technology Group. The ParaPAC Plus is including Ford, Siemens, business with expertise in essentially a mechanical, mobile Airbus, and McLaren, with the simulation, engineering, device that has been used in PRODUCTION HVM Catapult as a focus for electronic systems, and high- ambulances and hospitals in the By the end of March, 5,000 the collaboration between performance design. As Elsy UK and overseas for more than companies offered support for the companies. Bringing in described it, the Formula 1 a decade. This device would this venture. VCUK split into engineers from Formula 1 team was grounded and there meet the needs of patients in two distinct work streams for injected a sense of urgency and was “an enormous amount transit and less severe cases in the Penlon and Smiths devices. pace into proceedings while the of engineering talent sitting hospitals. ‘Team Penlon’ was led by Dr bigger companies contributed there and waiting to get its Following a request from Graham Hoare OBE FREng, their larger scale processes. teeth into something”. McLaren the Cabinet Office, VCUK then Executive Director of Business The larger medical industry threw its weight into the rapid looked at an idea from Penlon, Transformation and Chairman players, including Siemens manufacture of components for which had concluded that it of Ford in Britain. The pre- Healthineers, brought their ventilators, as well as the trolleys. could meet the specifications for pandemic production rate at own special skills and rigour to McLaren Group set up a the RVMS if it took key modules Penlon was between six and ten the process. Siemens was not production line that turned from its original anaesthetics ventilators a week. “We needed active in the ventilator market, 45 kilometres of aluminium system and built a smaller and to get to something closer but has been a key player in extrusion into 250 trolleys a day. less expensive unit. Penlon’s ESO to 3,000 units a week,” says medical engineering since the On the broader manufacturing 2 was designed to increase the Hoare. “A massive scale up was 19th century. front, in just 10 weeks McLaren supply of ventilators to ICUs. required. It wasn’t about a single Each player in Team Penlon manufactured more than Within 24 hours, a small team of machine being manufactured by brought specialist engineering 100,000 individual components. engineers from the consortium a single individual over maybe expertise to the challenge of As Piers Thynne, Production looked at Penlon’s technology 20 hours over a week. We had creating a mass production line. Director of McLaren Racing, and decided to scale up the to break it down into about The goal was to make, in less said: “not a single McLaren- production of that device. 250 different activities in what than three months, as many manufactured part reached the As the virus took hold and became one of industry’s most devices as Penlon would, in production line with a deviation wards filled up, the businesses interesting production lines.” normal times, deliver in 20 years. from the design or specification.” worked against the clock to The manufacture of medical The production work involved McLaren also played a key establish, from scratch, seven devices is highly regulated. making everything from simple role in the team that worked on new large-scale manufacturing According to Penlon, a new hardware to complex electronic producing more of the Smiths sites; conduct vital clinical trials; medical device typically takes control systems. ventilators to market. Smiths had

34 INGENIA SOCIETY

11k–11,683k (2 days)

10k–11k (3 days)

9k–10k (3 days)

10k 8k–9k (4 days)

7k–8k (3 days)

8k 6k–7k (6 days) Cumulative units

5k–6k (4 days)

6k 4k–5k (5 days)

3k–4k (5 days)

4k

2k–3k (6 days)

1k–2k (9 days)

2k 101–1000 (11 days)

0–100 (29 days)

0 13 Apr 14 Apr 15 Apr 16 Apr 17 Apr 18 Apr 19 Apr 20 Apr 21 Apr 22 Apr 23 Apr 24 Apr 25 Apr 26 Apr 27 Apr 28 Apr 29 Apr 30 Apr 01 May 02 May 03 May 04 May 05 May 06 May 07 May 08 May 09 May 10 May 11 May 12 May 13 May 14 May 15 May 16 May 17 May 18 May 19 May 20 May 21 May 22 May 23 May 24 May 25 May 26 May 27 May 28 May 29 May 30 May 31 May 01 Jun 02 Jun 03 Jun 04 Jun 05 Jun 06 Jun 07 Jun 08 Jun 09 Jun 10 Jun 11 Jun 12 Jun 13 Jun 14 Jun 15 Jun 16 Jun 17 Jun 18 Jun 19 Jun 20 Jun 21 Jun 22 Jun 23 Jun 24 Jun 25 Jun 26 Jun 27 Jun 28 Jun 29 Jun 30 Jun 01 Jul 02 Jul 03 Jul 04 Jul 05 Jul

WK3 WK4 WK5 WK6 WK7 WK8 WK9 WK10 WK11 WK12 WK13 WK14

This graph shows the rate of the scale up of the Penlon ESO 2. The first unit of the new model was produced four weeks after the Cabinet Office set the challenge; 12 weeks later there were over 11,000. The acceleration of production was exponential as teams gained knowledge and solved issues. At the peak, the consortium was building 200 times quicker than previously achieved in Penlon. The second 50% of volume was produced in just 23 days, averaging 260 units per day supplied ParaPAC units for over parts from around the world Working with Airbus UK, AMRC In normal circumstances, it can a decade, but in relatively small and, by working over 12,000 quickly stripped out new take a year to create a new numbers. hours in April alone, the team equipment intended for work on factory to assemble something When it came to mass was able to get production back wings and transformed it into a as complex as the Penlon production, VCUK needed on track. ventilator production line. Within ventilator, with its 700 parts. to ensure that there were a week, 500 Airbus operatives The first lockdown was far enough test boxes at each new were preparing to work four from normal circumstances: production site to run final ASSEMBLY shifts making sub-assemblies the ventilator makers had to testing on the Smiths ventilators It takes substantial to be incorporated with other move more quickly and set up coming off the production line. manufacturing effort to units into the manufactured factories where workers could Mark Mathieson, McLaren’s assemble the hundreds of ventilators. By 26 March, they operate within the constraints Director of Innovation, explained: components that go into a knew that their role would be of social distancing. Siemens “the Smiths device has a very ventilator. Airbus offered the to make two sub-assemblies Digital Industries drew on 100 complex production process. Advanced Manufacturing for Penlon’s device on eight people from its operations in It’s incredibly rigorous and Research Centre (AMRC) Cymru assembly lines with 88 operators Manchester and Congleton, employs 18 different scientific in Broughton in North Wales as per shift for each sub-assembly. including apprentices and young test boxes to validate all the a candidate assembly line. AMRC AMRC Cymru was one of engineers at the start of their different components inside Cymru had opened its doors in seven manufacturing facilities careers. Within just 48 hours that device.” With only outdated November 2019, with a focus on set up from scratch as a part they had created a computer design specifications available, manufacturing sectors including of VCUK to complement the model of the AMRC Cymru this was a major hurdle that aerospace, automotive, nuclear, production at Smiths and plant, using Siemens’s plant threatened to halt production and food. Airbus, the first major Penlon. There were also ‘pop up’ simulation software to optimise of the devices. Instead, McLaren tenant at AMRC Cymru, had factories at Ford in Dagenham, the factory’s layout. Ben Apps, dedicated a team to reverse barely started work on next- GKN Aerospace in Luton and a plant layout and virtualisation engineer, design, procure, test, generation wing technologies Cowes, McLaren in Woking, engineer at Siemens Congleton, and build 144 new test boxes. when the call went out to the Rolls-Royce in Filton, and Surface described the process: “By It used its extensive Formula 1 UK’s engineering sector to make Technology International in creating a digital twin of the network to source over 35,000 ventilators. Hook, Hampshire. AMRC, mapping every inch of

INGENIA ISSUE 86 MARCH 2021 35 ALL HANDS TO THE PUMPS

a logistics organisation to approval for the Penlon ensure that everything came Prima ESO 2 device, in just together when much of the UK under three weeks, and could was in lockdown. To handle 3.2 accelerate production at the million parts, DHL Supply Chain Penlon site in Oxfordshire and created a distribution network the new VCUK production Augmented reality headsets stepped in when it came to assembling from scratch. It collected parts lines in Broughton, Dagenham, ventilators. The Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) at the University of Sheffield rushed Microsoft HoloLens headsets to the AMRC’s from new sets of suppliers Woking, and Hook. R&D facility in North Wales. HoloLens played a key part in training the and ensured that they ended As the number of assembly workers, while allowing them to keep a safe distance from one another. The headsets provided guided instructions and mixed reality to up at the right manufacturing participants shows, VCUK support the assembly of ventilator parts, and connected new factories around locations to be turned into was a complex exercise in the country with skilled ventilator engineers at Penlon, Oxfordshire ventilators. At the same time, engineering management. the available space, and using “The parts side of the activity DHL also increased its support Alongside creating production 3D design tools, we were able to was phenomenally complicated,” for the NHS with deliveries of lines that could assemble maximise production massively. says Hoare. Simply ensuring personal protective equipment thousands of machines, each What was also remarkable the supply of the 700 or so (PPE) and supplying Nightingale made up of 700 parts in the was that digital tools enabled parts that came from all over hospitals. case of the Penlon device, us to design the production the world was a key challenge. Manufacturing a medical participants in VCUK had line virtually in six days, saving When production was in small ventilator is a part of a complex to put their heads together thousands of pounds and hours numbers, if parts were no longer chain of events. Before they can to consider numerous in the real world.” being made Penlon could draw be used on patients in the UK, seemingly smaller issues where The digital tools also played on its existing stock. That was new medical devices must be manufacturing meets medicine their part in training the no good for the anticipated approved by the MHRA. Penlon at the bench level. operators who would run the production rates. They even and Siemens Healthineers guided production lines. Siemens took had to reinstate production the consortium through the 3D CAD data and converted it so lines in Israel to produce printed intricacies of manufacturing COLLABORATION that it could be presented in a circuit boards. Hoare praises devices according to the MHRA How did it all work out? While standard web browser to make McLaren’s supply chain efforts. guidelines. It also advised the the rest of the country was it easier to train 550 volunteer “They managed it as you would coalition on assembly and in lockdown, some of the operators from Airbus. hope a Formula 1 team would testing and helped to ensure UK’s leading engineers were The complete production manage their supply chain – that, from the outset, the venture navigating what was for them line of Penlon machines ran very timely, very precisely.” The took on board the MHRA’s unfamiliar territory. Hoare from AMRC Cymru to Ford in team sourced parts from over strict regulation requirements, summed up the effort that the Dagenham where the ventilator 22 countries, with the furthest ensuring that no time was lost UK’s engineering companies system was built, to Hook where distance travelled by a single in the accelerated production put into the work when he the components came back part being 5,226 miles. process. As it leaves the said: “It was a wild ride for the together, and finally back to production lines, each ventilator leaders of these companies. Penlon for the final test, which requires 30 pages of test and The companies provided is critical for certification. Team LOGISTICS inspection documentation. everything that could be asked Penlon ended up with around Inevitably, the massive increase By 16 April, Elsy announced for and more, including teams 2,200 people making machines. in production meant creating that VCUK had secured MHRA of exceptionally talented

36 INGENIA SOCIETY

The socially distanced assembly lines at Airbus, AMRC Cymru (left) and Ford in Dagenham (right volunteer engineers and start of the programme, the It was the speed of execution worked, sometimes away from technicians to turn these ideas consortium had to move quickly: that impressed Hoare, families, often from home under and concepts into reality in the 50% of problems were sorted something that he plans to take lockdown but the team remained blink of an eye.” within two days and all critical back into Ford. “The biggest focused and passionate knowing “We have all personally issues were resolved within 22 thing,” he adds, “is the ability to that every ventilator produced learned a huge amount. Our hours, seven days per week, 24 bring a diverse team together, can save a life.” companies have too,” says hours a day. “We created cloud- even though many of us hadn’t Unlike much of the response Hoare. When the project got based systems,” Hoare adds, met personally, and to be able to the pandemic, the ventilator under way, there were none of which has led to an invaluable to rapidly trust.” Choose the challenge grabbed few the usual systems in place for database. “All of that is mineable right people, he advises, and headlines during its lifetime. problem-solving, accounting and harvestable.” Ford is just then miracles are possible. To a certain extent this was and other tasks. With problems one business that plans to mine Brian Holliday, Managing a deliberate policy. As Elsy turning up at a rate of about this repository for lessons for its Director of Digital Industries, explains, they wanted to be left one every 14 minutes at the wider operations. Siemens UK and Ireland, has his to get on with the job. After the own take on the success of Team event, he says, they were much VCUK IN NUMBERS Penlon. “VCUK has been a project happier to talk, partly because • 13,437 ventilators, enough to meet the normal demand for 20 of extreme collaboration. This of the story that it tells about years, were delivered to the NHS in 12 weeks was achieved with ownership the engineers’ response to the • Production reached a peak of over 400 devices a day culture and leadership without crisis. “It is a great story. It is a ego. Internal divisions and celebration for engineering • Parallel supply chains acquired around 42 million parts and competitor norms were carefully and engineers. We have got a electronic components from over 22 countries set aside for the greater good real determination to play that • The Penlon ESO 2 contains 365 unique items from 88 suppliers for society. Long hours were out fully.” • The Penlon ESO 2 device achieved full MHRA approval in just three weeks *Information and quotes attributed to Dick Elsy CBE FREng, Chief • The consortium recruited and trained a frontline assembly Executive of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, were taken from team of 3,500 workers an online Q&A event, organised by the Royal Academy of Engineering, • Production involved seven large-scale manufacturing facilities with him and Dr Graham Hoare OBE FREng, Executive Director (Business at Ford, Airbus, Surface Technology International, McLaren, Transformation) & Chairman, Ford of Britain, on 29 May 2020. Rolls-Royce and GKN Aerospace in Cowes and Luton With thanks to Dr Graham Hoare OBE FREng and John Gardiner • The McLaren Racing machine shop alone manufactured from Ford, and Maeve Harte and Rosa Wilkinson from the High Value 113,506 individual components Manufacturing Catapult for their contributions to this article.

INGENIA ISSUE 86 MARCH 2021 37 Dr Luisa Freitas dos Santos FREng FACING ENGINEERING’S ULTIMATE CHALLENGE

The past year has been a juggling act for Dr Luisa Freitas dos Santos FREng, Vice President, R&D Global Clinical Supply Chain, at GSK. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic she has maintained a steady supply of medicines for clinical trials while also being a part of the pharmaceuticals company’s pursuit of new therapies for this novel disease. She talked to Michael Kenward OBE about the challenges of managing engineers and scientists in lockdown.

Dr Luisa Freitas dos Santos FREng’s first encounter with COVID-19 was back in February 2020. While it may not have directly impacted on her personally a year ago, it certainly affected the work of her team of engineers and chemists in Singapore. They were among the first wave of R&D teams who had to devise new COVID-safe ways of working in response to local lockdown measures and prevent the virus’s spread. As Vice President of R&D Global Clinical Supply Chain at GSK’s pharmaceuticals business, Dr Freitas dos Santos manages teams that make and supply medicines Dr Luisa Freitas dos Santos FREng – with teams to manage in Singapore, the UK and the US – was one of for GSK’s clinical studies, which can mean the first people in the UK to experience how the pandemic would affect engineering operations supplying hundreds of clinical studies taking

38 INGENIA PROFILE

place around the world. The country, and thread in my career that I still absolutely that got everywhere. That was quite a good her Singapore-based team, went into strict love is innovation,” she says. “It just appeals experience that made me ‘very popular’ with lockdown early on. “Almost overnight, we to me – translating something that can the rest of the pilot-plant technicians and had to introduce measures such as shift start quite theoretical into something engineers, as you can imagine,” she laughs. working, virtual audits and Gembas, COVID- that you develop and put into practice.” “That was one of my first-hand examples of secure lab and plant operations,” she says. It all goes back to engineering, she insists. the need to do more work, and predictive This proved to be a trial run for the rest of “Engineers like to build things, to find modelling on a small scale before you go to her groups a few weeks later. a solution, to solve a big problem, to a large scale.” The need to plan and prepare for that translate something that works on a very Dr Freitas dos Santos says that, far from scale of unprecedented global disruption and small scale into something that could be putting her off, she enjoyed the experience. personal impact isn’t a normal part of most available to everyone. The translation of “I loved it. I said, ‘oh my gosh, there is engineers’ training. If anything, it is nearer research into development and eventually something that I need to solve’. It is not to Dr Freitas dos Santos’s parents’ expertise. something that people can hold, like a going to be so easy.” The experience taught Her mother is a sociologist while her father is medicine, that starts from brilliant ideas her the importance of talking to more an economist. At school she was interested in the lab.” Dr Freitas dos Santos picks experienced engineers, and the need to in science, maths and physics. She enjoyed an example to explain what she means. learn about scale up before trying things out biology and biochemistry, which prompted “When you see someone with a GSK on the plant. She has followed this guidance her to study for a five-year bioprocess asthma inhaler in their hands, it makes me throughout her career. engineering degree at the Catholic University very proud to have been one of the many of Portugal in Porto. One reason Dr Freitas people in the extensive team that made dos Santos picked her course was that there that medicine a reality. It has always been a AN APPETITE FOR TRAVEL was an option to spend a year in industry or very large, multidisciplinary team,” she adds Foreign travel remained on the cards doing applied research. quickly. after Dr Freitas dos Santos graduated. She Her introduction to engineering in won a scholarship from the Portuguese action was in a very different domain government that allowed her to travel INTRODUCTION TO from the pharmaceuticals that she has abroad to choose a research programme ENGINEERING worked on for more than two decades. At that interested her. Her university tutor in For her year off campus, Dr Freitas dos Unilever, she worked in food engineering Portugal was keen for Dr Freitas dos Santos Santos worked with Unilever near Rotterdam and rheology. The challenge was to to go to the US, instead she chose the UK. in The Netherlands. This convinced her that develop shelf-stable desserts for regions She was drawn to London as a city and to she liked travelling. “It was very exciting, where refrigeration was a problem, such its cultural attractions. “I love modern art,” travelling and meeting people from as in some more remote areas of South she says enthusiastically. After checking out different backgrounds, listening to different America. So, she set out to study what sort Cambridge and UCL, she settled on Imperial languages.” She admits that Dutch wasn’t of formulation could withstand inconsistent College London. an easy language to learn, but Unilever was refrigeration. Her PhD in bioreactor design involved a multinational business, “an R&D setting The project started on a small scale in looking at volatile organic compounds with a lot of collaboration programmes with the lab, backed up by theoretical analysis – gases emitted from some chemical other countries.” Her supervisor was a British and simple mathematical models. That processes that may have adverse health chemical engineer, and everyone spoke looked promising, so it was time to try effects – and using a biological approach English. “You get comfortable not using your things out on a larger scale. “I remember in the control of pollution. Her research own first language,” she says. “It opened my transforming the floor of the pilot plant took her into waste minimisation and eyes, not just to feel confident to move to a into a giant sticky foamy layer because I did remediation. “I had a real interest, which I still new country, but actually seeing R&D within not quite get the right formulation in my hold, in sustainability. The idea of developing industry.” experiments and mixing modelling. Instead processes and products in a sustainable It was always the application of research of a very nice clear liquid in the reactor, I manner was always of interest to me.” Dr that appealed to Dr Freitas dos Santos. “A had this massive amount of foamy gelatine Freitas dos Santos continued to support this

INGENIA ISSUE 86 MARCH 2021 39 Dr Luisa Freitas dos Santos FREng

activity at GSK. To her, sustainability is also important when making pharmaceuticals. At Imperial College London she had begun to develop an interest in using biochemical processes to make medicines. There were plenty of researchers in the university working on different cell cultures, mammalian cultures and so on. “There was a lot of excitement at the time in terms of using bioprocessing to produce novel molecules such as monoclonal antibodies. It really captured my interest in pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical processes.” Although this was not her direct research area, Dr Freitas dos Santos confesses to hanging about in different laboratories and departments and checking out what everyone else was up to. “That is still the case. I am still curious and interested in what is happening in the lab next door.”

A START IN PHARMA For Dr Freitas dos Santos, the move into pharmaceuticals happened a while after. Her first plan was to translate her lab research at Imperial College London into a usable technology. Her doctorate, on using bioreactors to treat wastewaters from chemical processing, was the basis for a spinout business, Membrane Extraction Technology (MET) Ltd set up in 1995, which used separation technologies aimed at treating complex halogenated chemical compounds – tricky materials to deal with and render safe for final disposal. This was at a time when it was becoming Dr Freitas dos Santos in Alentejo last summer. Her two favourite regions in Portugal are Alentejo and more frequent for academics to turn their Porto and the Douro Valley, the latter her home region, “the most beautiful part of course. I am not research into potentially profitable spinout biased at all.” businesses. As part of a small startup challenges, setting up a new facility next With MET’s business up and running, team, Dr Freitas dos Santos and her fellow door to a large phosgene plant. “You can Dr Freitas dos Santos faced a very different founders could tap into government grants imagine the safety measures required, challenge. She had acquired a fiancée who and matching funds from industry, as well as and the rigour in terms of risk assessment, also happened to be a chemical engineer securing venture capital. engineering controls and process safety. working in the same business in addition MET’s first big project was with chemical I learned an absolutely huge amount. to his academic role. “To be honest, it was company ICI at Hillhouse near Blackpool. It The people I worked with were incredibly better not to work together,” she explains. was an opportunity to design and install a generous in teaching me,” she adds. That plan worked out. “We are still happily pilot plant in a polyurethanes production “They could have said ‘Who is this female together,” she adds. “We have been together unit at ICI, then still a key player in the UK’s engineer turning up from London?’.” On for over 26 years.” chemical processing industry. “It was a top of that, Dr Freitas dos Santos was still As a result, she left MET to join what fantastic opportunity. It gave me a huge under 30, originally from Portugal, and the was, at the time, SmithKline Beecham, and amount of responsibility early in my career.” only woman on a site with hundreds of now GSK. Her husband stayed on with the It meant managing safety and containment engineers, technicians and operators. startup. Evonik Industries, a world-leading

40 INGENIA PROFILE

specialty chemicals business based in Germany, eventually bought MET in 2010. “It was fantastic to see it grow and then be acquired,” says Dr Freitas dos Santos. ‘’It is a very nice story.” Two decades after the origins of the business, it is still cited as an example of successful technology transfer at Imperial College London. Moving into the pharmaceuticals industry took Dr Freitas dos Santos into new areas of chemical engineering. She joined the business working in R&D chemical development, where researchers take a synthetic chemistry route for a candidate active pharmaceutical molecule capable of producing a few grams. They then translate that chemistry into a robust process that can produce kilograms needed to supply clinical studies, and then eventually tons when it becomes a commercial process for an approved medicine. Dr Freitas dos Santos joined SmithKline Beecham as a part of the chemical and engineering teams that developed that process. “I am very lucky to have worked on a number of medicines that have gone all the way from research to file Dr Freitas dos Santos at the UK Drug Product R&D Pilot Plant and launch, and are now taken by millions of development and the commercial were very well-prepared in terms of having patients across the globe,” she says. “It takes manufacturing parts of the business to clear business contingency plans,” says Dr a long time. A medicine stays with us during develop the processes needed to make Freitas dos Santos. The pandemic put GSK’s development – six, eight, ten years.” new drugs in commercial quantities and plans into overdrive. “The reality of this collect all the necessary data to support pandemic was that we had to trigger every regulatory files. This is not the sort of activity single business contingency plan we had for ADAPT AND THRIVE that is easily put on hold while a business every site, for every group, I never thought Dr Freitas dos Santos heads the global grapples with new ways of working during a that I would be doing this simultaneously clinical supply chain at GSK R&D. Her pandemic. Starting in Singapore, the whole across the globe.’’ group supplies pharmaceuticals for the clinical supply chain operation had to adapt. Dr Freitas dos Santos still sounds amazed company’s clinical studies, which means “We didn’t lose a single day,” she said. “When and proud that, after a year, her teams planning, making and supplying enough the virus started moving towards Europe in continue to operate across all the countries medicines to sustain more than 200 clinical March, it became very apparent to us that and support all those clinical studies. In all, studies taking place across all continents. we would have to implement measures her team of around 400 people operate She also manages labelling, packaging and in response to lockdowns, first in our UK at a site in Singapore, three in the UK, distribution of clinical supplies for thousands groups, followed very quickly by the US and three more in the US. “We quickly of patients, across all the company’s groups. The absolute focus was the safety established a COVID-safe environment, and therapeutic areas. “We have a lot of strength of our people across all our facilities, then once implemented about half of my group in respiratory and anti-infectives at GSK. In our continuity of supply to patients. People’s remained working on site in our labs, pilot the last two to three years, the oncology part flexibility, creativity and commitment plants, packaging, and distribution lines. We of the business has grown enormously and has been amazing. We had to introduce are passionate about helping others and we given new challenges to our clinical supply rotas, including in many cases working at knew that we needed to keep delivering chain and our engineering teams, which is weekends, to ensure continued delivery medicines for critical clinical studies. COVID fantastic.” while maintaining required social distancing has made it very clear what we do and the As work progresses on a new in the labs and in the pilot plants.” impact we have on people and society.” The pharmaceutical, Dr Freitas dos Santos’s Businesses always have contingency other half of the group does clinical supply group works with both the clinical plans to deal with unexpected events. “We chain management, planning, data and

INGENIA ISSUE 86 MARCH 2021 41 Dr Luisa Freitas dos Santos FREng

she is passionate about, is in GSK’s pursuit engineering wasn’t the only factor that of diversity in its workforce. She sees this struck her young audience. For one teenage as being far more than attracting and girl at least, it was another of Dr Freitas dos promoting female talent and is part of a Santos’s passions. “I like shoes, a lot! I can’t group in the company that champions remember if I had very bright pink, suede scientific career development and the wider high-heel shoes or one of my leopard-print diversity agenda. “You can’t just say ‘okay, pairs on,” she explains, “but she didn’t look gender balance is much better now’ and at me. She just looked at the shoes and the work is done,” she explains. “I’ve been said, ‘I never thought an engineer looked able to grow and lead at GSK and I also like you’.” understand how I’m a role model to many. Dr Freitas dos Santos says that visiting But of course, it’s about more than gender. schools and talking to young people about As a company, we are also looking at a much the life of an engineer is just one activity she more comprehensive view of inclusion and has missed during lockdown, in addition diversity.” Dr Freitas dos Santos talks of ‘full to seeing her team members across the Dr Freitas dos Santos promoting International diversity of background’. For that to happen, globe. You can do a lot of things in virtual Women in Engineering Day in 2020 we must think about engaging people events she says, but adds: “I like the informal system support, patient randomisation – all who don’t even apply for jobs because, conversations. I like talking to people.” those colleagues are working still from home as she puts it, they don’t see themselves After more than a year working with all a year on and doing a brilliant job.” in those roles. She insists that ‘’if we really those business contingency plans in place, It wasn’t just a case of feeding the want to transform inclusion and diversity, Dr Freitas dos Santos is keen to see some existing medicine pipeline at GSK; and not just have one or two people as sort of return to normality. “I am looking developing better medicines to treat token examples, organisations need to look forward to having everyone vaccinated patients with COVID-19 is also a key focus at how they attract, recruit and develop and going back to normal, perhaps a new for the industry. So, in addition to the day talent; how we advertise jobs; who we have normal,” she says. She misses the social job, Dr Freitas dos Santos was a part of in recruitment panels. And once in the interactions, internally related to engineering the company’s COVID solutions team. “I organisation, we need to use our network of and work, and the family interaction. With had the privilege to join our enterprise mentors to support career progression, for her family in Portugal and her husband’s effort that assessed the molecules already example this is something we do as part of family in New Zealand, home schooling their in the portfolio that could support COVID the GSK Fellows Programme.” two children has been a priority. “We always treatments.” The company set out to quickly Dr Freitas dos Santos believes that it relied on travelling for family reasons and assess them to see if there was something is important to start early if you want to having that interaction.” At least her teenage that could potentially work to treat people encourage people to enter the profession. children, along with family and friends, have suffering from COVID-19 symptoms. They For some time, she has worked with a clearer idea of what she gets up to for a went on to progress one molecule into a school students, especially girls, to improve living. She laughs, “suddenly there was a lot clinical study as well as establishing a key their understanding of engineering and of interest in what I do”. collaboration with Vir biotech on another what engineers get up to. “It is not an candidate currently in late-stage studies. obligation, but something that I really BIOGRAPHY enjoy,” she stresses. Such visits can reveal Michael Kenward OBE has been a how seemingly simple things can influence freelance writer since 1990 and is a DIVERSE WORKFORCE youngsters. “I remember once when I arrived member of the Ingenia Editorial Board. Another important role that Dr Freitas dos at a school, I talked about what an engineer He is Editor-at-Large of Science|Business. Santos cannot put on hold, and one that does in pharma R&D.” Her enthusiasm for

CAREER TIMELINE AND DISTINCTIONS Studied bioprocess engineering at the Catholic University of Portugal, 1986–1991. PhD in chemical engineering at Imperial College London, 1991–1994. Technical Director, MET, 1995–1997. Joined GSK, 1997. Fellow, Institution of Chemical Engineers, 2014. Attended the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, 2010. GSK Senior Scientific Fellow, 2017. Fellow, Royal Academy of Engineering, 2019. Vice-President, Global Clinical Supply Chain, GSK, 2015 to present day.

42 INGENIA INNOVATION WATCH FROM FOOD WASTE TO FASHION

Chip[s] Board is turning potato peel into sustainable bioplastics for the fashion and interior design industries to simultaneously tackle the problems of food waste and plastic pollution.

In his previous role as a chef, Chip[s] Board Co-Founder Rowan Minkley noticed the abundance of food waste in the industry. He had studied design at university and so began developing prototypes made from food waste with a housemate, hoping to create sustainable materials for use in design. Knowing that one-third of all food produced becomes waste, Rowan and Co-Founder Rob Nicoll aimed to find value in it and create a true circular economy bioplastic. They discovered that they could make materials from food waste that were easily disposable as well as more durable. Initially, the pair began by making an MDF substitute from potato waste, but soon discovered that they could make bioplastic materials from industrial food waste. They A pair of glasses made Parblex: bioplastic from potato waste decided that this route would make more which is complex biochemistry involving and chemically recyclable, so can be reused impact as a lot more can be achieved fermentation, purification and then as plastic, as well as broken down into with a small amount of plastic compared polymerisation. Ensuring that all these organic matter in industrial composting. to the large quantities needed for MDF. stages work together and are balanced Chip[s] Board won the Royal Academy Chip[s] Board has developed a process that to optimise each part of the process took of Engineering Enterprise Hub’s Launchpad transforms potato waste, supplied by McCain, some fine-tuning. However, building a Competition in 2018, and Rowan Minkley is into Parblex: plastic from potato waste. The lab allowed the team to make sure that an Enterprise Fellow. While some projects bioplastic is made from the raw materials each part of the process had a minimal have been put on hold because of COVID- before fibre fillers, such as walnut shells and environmental impact: reducing energy 19, the team is hoping to expand into bio- wood flour, are added to strengthen the consumption, removing chemicals, based plasticisers, which will allow it to make plastic and give it qualities such as colour and recycling heat, energy or water between the material more flexible. Now a team of texture. In its simplest form, Chip[s] Board is the processes. The team is hoping to move eight, Chip[s] Board is currently producing converting sugars and starches from food to a larger pilot facility in 2021, where these samples and setting up a pilot production waste into a biopolymer without the use of values will continue to play a key role. facility in Yorkshire in the next few months, solvents or any toxic by products. Once manufactured, the bioplastic is sold aiming to start selling directly to the fashion One of the key challenges that as pellets, which can be injection moulded, industry later this year. the team faced was creating its own heat formed into sheets, or spun into fibres For more information, visit laboratory facility for the entire process, for textiles. The bioplastics are mechanically www.chipsboard.com

INGENIA ISSUE 86 MARCH 2021 43 HOW DOES THAT WORK?

HOW DOES THAT WORK? CHATBOTS As human interaction online gradually gives way to automated responses, chatbots must impersonate us without attempting to replicate human empathy or enthusiasm.

When visiting a website or online resource, involves two processes – converting input it’s increasingly common for a sound effect strings into the aforementioned structured to herald the appearance of a pop-up data, before transforming that data into a window, containing a question like “Can I written or verbal response. It also involves help?” or “What are you looking for?”. It’s distinguishing intents (required actions or often accompanied by a thumbnail photo requested information) from entities such as of a person, yet you’re actually being booking references or account numbers. greeted by a chatbot – reducing the need Two related branches of software for customer-facing staff by delegating basic underpin modern chatbots like IBM’s services to an algorithm. Watson and Microsoft’s Language The word ‘bot’ describes a piece of Understanding: software that performs a single repetitive • Machine learning allows the bot to task, and chatbots are designed to simulate learn from available information and human conversation. They provide make judgements about how to The twin end goals of chatbots are (a) full programmed responses to user inputs, automation with no staffing input required and respond, based on identifying tags. attempting to resolve common queries. (b) consumer convenience. Saying “Uber, get Machine learning bots evolve and me a cab to the cinema” will one day summon The challenge for any chatbot involves a vehicle to your current location (regardless of mature through use. interpreting those inputs and questions, where you are right now), with a destination of • Artificial intelligence (AI) powered your favourite or closest cinema pre-selected. before interrogating a database of pre- There’s no further input required from you, and bots are able to evaluate context and prepared responses. Having matched no humans needed at Uber’s end to complete the refer back to previous statements in a the input string to the most appropriate transaction © Pixabay/mohamed_hassan conversation – such as not requiring response, the latter is then presented as an reaches a defined (if limited) conclusion. someone to input their account details answer. More sophisticated bots support pattern more than once. Like many online services, chatbots matching for open-ended inputs, with smart Cutting-edge bots combine machine evolved from rudimentary beginnings. Early feedback loops seeking clarification – “did learning, AL and NLP to accurately replicate examples were notorious for displaying you mean X?”, for instance. Certain words the forms of interaction you might expect irrelevant responses, while struggling to or phrases act as identifying tags, which if a person was responding to enquiries. understand abbreviations or colloquialisms. are linked to pre-programmed responses, A cognitive behavioural therapy chatbot The introduction of machine learning helped and the bot selects what it evaluates to developed by Stanford University has expand the database of predefined scripts be the most pertinent option. Rules can successfully been used during the pandemic chatbots can interrogate. For instance, also help here too; enquiries containing to improve the mental health of young modern chatbots are programmed to the word ‘complain’ might lead the bot to people, while WHO’s Health Alert bot redirect unknown queries to a human, automatically defer to a human operator. on WhatsApp offers everything from while simultaneously recording this failed Modern chatbots use natural language international travel advice to fake news myth-

interaction. Conversation logs are fed back processing (NLP) to break a statement busting. Tech giants like eBay and Lyft have Written by Neil Cumins into the databases powering the bots, so into structured data pieces – identifying developed industry-leading chatbots that they can see how a transferred query was potential spelling mistakes or separating work across multiple platforms and minimise eventually handled by a human. This helps verbs from nouns. They can often the time required to complete an action. It’s them to replicate a similar approach in future. distinguish tenses (“I had a booking” versus thanks to the combined power of machine Basic rule-based chatbots allow users to “I want to make a booking”), or recognise learning, AI and NLP that these conversations choose from predefined options, following sentiments like frustration, which may can now successfully be outsourced to a hierarchical path to ensure every journey benefit from human intervention. NLP computers, rather than to people.

44 INGENIA