Engineering Matters

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

This is only possible thanks to recent advances in coastal mapping technology and the sophisticated integration of state of the art data collected by a range of sources from satellite sensors, lidar and multibeam echosounders to hyperspectral cameras on autonomous underwater vessels.

Guests

Dr Hannah Brocke, co-founder and chief strategy officer, PlanBlue

Benoit Cajelot, regional manager climate and nature, Europe and Africa, Fugro

Professor Francesco Cinelli, Professor of Marine Ecology at University of Pisa 

Dr Knut Hartmann, chief operating officer EOMAP, a Fugro company.

Featuring

Giordano Giorgi, project director, Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA)

Resources

Mapping Italy’s seagrass for biodiversity gain by Planet Beyond

Partner

Fugro is the world’s leading geo-data specialist, collecting and analysing comprehensive information about the Earth and the structures built upon it. Through integrated data acquisition, analysis and advice, Fugro unlocks insights from geo-data to help clients design, build and operate their assets in a safe, sustainable and efficient manner.

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

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

But demolition or disassembly does not need to mark the end of the life of building materials. With care and planning, these can be dismantled and used anew. Around the UK, we see centuries old pubs and homes built using recovered timbers, from ships and structures. But this is just a starting point for materials reuse.

In this episode, a follow-up to episode 315 Renewing the world, without costing the planet, we learn why architects and engineers should plan for materials reuse, from design through to demolition or disassembly. We examine how different materials can be reused. And we look at the development of trading platforms that enable the use of reclaimed materials at scale.

Guests

Will Arnold, head of climate action, IStructE

Prof. Katherine Cashell, Department of Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering (CEGE), University College London

Mike Davies, co-founder/director, SD Engineers

Image credit

Installing a Re:Crete bridge in Wallis, Switzerland, courtesy of EPFL, under CC-BY

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

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

Dr. Paul Cadden-Zimansky, Associate Professor of Physics at Bard College, a physicist and science communicator, untangles the complicated history and science behind quantum mechanics. With years of experience bridging complex scientific ideas and public understanding, Paul takes us on a journey through the milestones and debates that defined quantum theory in the early years of its development.

The episode explores how quantum mechanics emerged from early 20th-century experiments, the heated philosophical battles that shaped its interpretation, and why its implications continue to challenge our understanding of reality. Paul explains how quantum mechanics has shaped groundbreaking technologies throughout the 20th and early 21st century. We learn how quantum theory is fuelling today’s cutting-edge technologies, from quantum computing to secure communications. 

Guests

Paul Cadden-Zimansky

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

Britain’s biodiversity has been declining sharply over the last 50 years. The country is now one of the most nature-depleted nations in the world. Despite legislation and efforts to stem the tide of wildlife population decline, little has helped.

In February 2025, the UK government announced a new approach to reintroductions of beavers in England. The animals’ dam-building helps maintain wetlands and dissipate floods. But they are not nature’s only green engineers. Looming above the charming rodents are bison, whose grazing can help maintain biodiverse woodlands. In this episode, originally aired in 2023, we look at a project to make use of this behaviour.

Some Wildlife Trusts and organisations now support a more nature based approach to wildlife and land management. Rewilding is the process of helping nature return to its natural state and one of the best ways of doing that is by letting big animals do the job of wildlife managers.

In Kent, in the Summer of 2022, a family of European Bison, the first to roam wildly in the UK for thousands of years, were released into the Blean Woods. The hope is as they move through the woods, they will interact with the environment around them creating better, more livable habitats for the entire ecosystem.

It’s also not just Bison, across the UK species that once lived here are being returned to see if they can play a role in managing and improving this island’s depleted wildlife.

Guests

Paul Hadaway. Kent Wildlife Trust

Sara King, Rewilding Manager, Rewilding Britain

Resources

For more on the Bison reintroduction project, click here

For more on Rewilding Britain, click here 

2025 Defra Guidance on wild release and management of beavers in England

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

At a unique hackathon in Manchester, a diverse group of hackers, coders, and gamers gathered to design digital solutions for the nuclear industry, blending innovation, teamwork, and pressure-driven problem-solving. 

The event, called HackAFuture, served as a groundbreaking careers initiative, offering the winning team not just bragging rights, but jobs with AtkinsRéalis developing their solution.  This was the brainchild of Darren Grears, Director, Head of Digital, Nuclear & Power EMEA at AtkinsRéalis and Sam Stephens, Head of Digital, Nuclear, at AtkinsRéalis. They share insights into what made them want to set up the HackAFuture event and why digital and gaming skills are required in the nuclear industry.

This episode travels through the 24 hours of the hack, from the kick off, to the winner being announced. With insights from judges, organisers and competitors on the HackAFuture event, it gives a glimpse of the future of the nuclear industry. 

Guests

Darren Grears, Director, Head of Digital, Nuclear & Power EMEA, AtkinsRéalis

Sam Stephens, Head of Digital, Nuclear, AtkinsRéalis

Candice Long, Digital Solutions Wngineer, AtkinsRéalis

Alexandra Hussenot, Chief Revenue Officer, Igloo Vision 

Partner

AtkinsRéalis is a world-leading professional services and project management company dedicated to engineering a better future for our planet and its people. Employing over 37,000 people across Canada, the US and Latin America, the UK and Ireland, and Asia, the Middle East, and Australia, AtkinsRéalis creates sustainable solutions that connect people, data and technology to transform the world’s infrastructure and energy systems.

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

When we search for causes of accidents, we often assume a binary: either mechanical failure, or human error, were to blame, and we must pick between them. But labelling an accident as caused by human error doesn’t teach us anything. It makes no effort to understand what caused people to make the decisions they did. From aviation and healthcare to energy and defense, understanding how people interact with complex systems is key to improving safety, efficiency, and decision-making.

At the most recent annual Thomas Hawksley lecture, organised by The Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Professor Sarah Sharples, the chief scientific advisor to the Department for Transport, opened a discussion titled Humans and Automations – Safety by Design. In this episode, we hear her advice on how to consider the science of human factors in engineered systems.

Mark Young, Professor of Human Factors in Transport, was part of the discussion, and joins the episode to explain how cognitive factors like workload, stress, and situational factors all contribute to humans abilities to make decisions, particularly when under pressure. 

As we move into an ever more autonomous world, humans in many sectors are becoming overseers of complex systems. This creates a new paradigm for human factors, not just asking how to get the best performance out of humans in a system, but how to empower people to intervene when a system goes wrong.

Guests

Sarah Sharples, chief scientific advisor, Department for Transport 

Mark Young, professor of human factors in transport, University of Southampton, President of Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors

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

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

Few of the constraints that govern individual and corporate behaviour are being applied to the field. Large corporations are shaping the sector faster than governments can act. In a society where few have a useful understanding of the technology, neither market signals or social norms can steer how good AI systems are produced, and harms prevented. But experts and institutions are proposing systems that might professionalise the sector, establishing best practices and avoiding harms. 

In this episode, Fordham Law School’s Chinmayi Sharma shares her proposal for a ‘Hippocratic Oath for AI’, that could bring the same professional duties to AI developers as are followed by surgeons. Peter Bannister, whose business Romilly Life Sciences supports the development of cutting edge medical devices, explains how his institution, the IET, is already shaping a professional approach to this technology. And Humboldt Prize-winning pharmacologist David Colquhoun shares a story from early in his career that illustrates the importance of ongoing monitoring of adverse effects of innovative products.

Guests

Chinmayi Sharma, Associate Professor, Fordham School of Law

Peter Bannister, MD, Romilly Life Sciences

David Colquhoun, Fellow of the Royal Society, Honorary Fellow, UCL

References

AI’s Hippocratic Oath, Chinmayi Sharma

Code, Lawrence Lessig

We Need a Building Code for Building Code, Carl Landwehr

Digital Empires, Anu Bradford

The Application of Artificial Intelligence in Functional Safety, The IET

Responsible Handover of AI, Sense about Science

DC’s Improbable Science, David Colquhoun

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

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

Today, the World Health Organisation estimates that 150,000 excess deaths each year are caused by climate change. Embodied carbon from construction accounts for 10% of climate changing emissions. Around 15,000 deaths each year could be attributed to poor design that does not consider these costs.

In this episode, we learn how engineers have extended the lifespan of structures around the world, minimising or entirely avoiding new impacts on the planet. As UCL’s Katherine Cashell explains, structural engineers now have a wealth of techniques and technologies that they can use to renew, retrofit, and preserve existing structures. With these tools in hand, they can meet client and public demands, while cutting financial and carbon costs.

Resources

PAS 2080: Carbon Management in Infrastructure and Built Environment

The Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard

Part Z – A proposed amendment to the UK building regulations

IStructE Climate Action Report 2024

Guests

Will Arnold, head of climate action, IStructE

Prof. Katherine Cashell, Department of Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering (CEGE), University College London

Mike Davies, co-founder/director, SD Engineers

Balduino Del Principe, associate, Arup

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

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

In the decade since, Fugro has established ROCs around the world. In this episode, we learn how staff in Houston, Aberdeen, Dubai and Perth are enjoying a better work-life balance, without the need to spend weeks away from home, working offshore. The move will allow Fugro to diversify the workforce and recruit staff skilled in other areas, such as IT and software. And it means employees  can devote more of their working time to where it will have the most impact and value for customers.

As the global network of ROCs has been rolled out, Fugro has been developing not just remote analysis, but remote command and control, of vessels and survey vehicles, with autonomy playing an increasingly important role. This allows Fugro not only to compete for individual projects, but to offer remote operations as a service.

At sea, these developments can now shrink the climate and financial costs of performing surveys. But the concept has gone much further, with the Australian Space Automation, Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Control (SpAARC) facility now working with Intuitive Machines to bring remote operation to the moon. And this work is laying the foundation for increased use of remote operations in more mundane, earthly, applications.

Guests

Ryan Trahan, Remote Operations Surveyor, Houston, Fugro

Fionnuala Richard, Regional Manager Americas Remote Operations Centers

Vitto César, Remote Operations Centre Senior Geophysicist, Aberdeen, Fugro

Jeff Richardson, Regional Manager Europe and Africa Remote Operations Centres, Fugro

Ross Macfarlane, Manager, Middle East and India Remote and Autonomous Operations Resource Centre, Fugro

Samuel Forbes, Director, The Australian Space Automation and AI Robotics Control Complex (SpAARC), Fugro

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

The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) has a 100 year history of mapping the world’s oceans. John Nyberg, technical director, explains how the organisation’s role in understanding our oceans is evolving. Now, rather than just recording ocean depths for mariners, the organisation is setting standards for how we record environmental data. In Italy, this approach is being put into effect with an ambitious coastline mapping project. Planet Beyond explored this work in a recent episode.

In a bid to reverse a decline in biodiversity, Italy aims to map 7500 kilometres of coastline to a depth of 50 metres. Marco Filippone, global solution director for ocean science and hydrography at Fugro, explains how new technologies ranging from satellite sensors to remote underwater mapping are all playing a crucial role in collecting data for this initiative.

One of the first undertakings of the Italian coastline mapping initiatives was to get a better understanding of the seagrass meadows and the role they can play in maintaining ocean biodiversity. Giordano Giorgi, the project director for Italy’s marine initiative explains how the project has furthered our understanding of seagrass’ role in carbon capture and with this knowledge, how the protection of the seagrass meadows can be ensured.

Host
Jon Baston-Pitt

Guests

John Nyberg, technical director, the International Hydrographic Organisation

Giordano Giorgi, project director, Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA)

Marco Filippone, global solution director for ocean science and hydrography, Fugro

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