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.