Impulse To Innovation

Impulse To Innovation

News, Views and all things Engineering from the IMechE. Every first Monday of the Month. Contact us at Podcast@imeche.org

Episodes

March 6, 2024 39 mins

This week (6th and 7th March) sees the IMechE host its fourth hydrogen economy conference in London. The international event will focus on infrastructure challenges as well as the storage and management of hydrogen as part of a wider ‘green energy’ supply.

 

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Given the UK Government’s ambition for a decarbonised power sector by 2050, which will see the share of renewables in our generation mix increase significantl...

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The ever-present challenges of climate change, over-reliance on limited resources and a global demand for new technologies, is pushing the engineering community to find more innovative ways to design and manufacture products.

Image Source: UK Metamaterials Network https://metamaterials.network/what-are-metamaterials/

 

Engineers and scientists working in the materials science sector have been exploring the properties of everyday m...

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The implementation of net zero initiatives across the globe is at the forefront of most governments and leadership authorities' strategic policies, none-more-so than China and India; two of the world’s biggest carbon emitters.

 

South Asia has witnessed a growth in energy demand over the past two decades, increasing by over 50% since 2000. Rising demand has been driven by factors such as an increasing population and growth in the ...

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“Adapting industries to, and preparing them for, a warmer world will be essential for the future successful functioning of societies of all nations.” Said Dr Tim Fox, co author of the IMechE’s latest report on Climate adaption.

 

The report entitled 'Adapting Industry to Withstand Rising Temperatures and Future Heatwaves' was published in April 2023 and produced in conjunction with the IMechE’s Process Division and a plethora of le...

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During the first week of September the Institution hosted Volunteer Week.  A back-to-back week of committee meetings and networking, enabling members from all over the world to take part in a wide range of activities.

As a Chair of a Division of the IMechE, this was a great opportunity for Helen to meet up with not just her division members but members from across the Institution. Helen personally always find it a fulfilling and en...

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Impulse to Innovation was back at Formula Student this year to celebrate the competition's 25th Anniversary. The episode went out live on the 20th July and this podcast is an edited version of that live show.

It is great to be back in the race control building overlooking world-famous Silverstone Circuit, home of the British Grand Prix. From our studio we could see the National Pits straight and out across to the Silverstone UTC. ...

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The T-level was initially mooted back in 2017 by the British government as a new, unified technical qualification which would replace the BTEC and simplify vocational education routes.

After several years of development, The Department for Education (DfE) launched the t-level in 2020 with the aim of enabling students to directly enter employment on completion of a programme in further education or Sixth Form college.

The unique as...

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Leading and managing people, projects, or teams, requires more than a high degree of technical knowledge. Experience and education provide the foundation for success in an engineering manager's role, but it also requires a great deal of foresight and strategic thinking and just like any skill, becoming an effective manager and leader takes time and effort.

With businesses emerging from COVID-19 to a new and rapidly changing profess...

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The idea of 'a machine that thinks' dates back to ancient Greece times, but since the advent of electronic computing and the overwhelming amount of data generated by the human race in the last 50 years, the realisation of intelligent machines that can think like humans has been almost tangible.

In 1950 Alan Turing published his seminal work Computing Machinery and Intelligence. In the paper, Turing proposed to answer the question ...

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The UK’s first-ever Hydrogen Strategy was released in 2021 and was revised last year, as part of the Government’s commitment to a green industrial revolution.  The strategy lays the foundation for how Government will work with industry to meet its ambition for 10GW of low carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2030 – the equivalent of replacing natural gas in powering around 3 million UK homes each year, as well as powering transpo...

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Its safe to say that the engineering community has been under a great deal of strain over the last few years, with socio-economic and political upheaval across the global. None-more-so than the manufacturing industry.

Both here in the UK and worldwide, the manufacturing sector is facing a number of urgent challenges which are driving transformational change across the entire industry. The ambition to reach Net Zero, finding reliabl...

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Hello and welcome to the new season of Impulse to Innovation.

Believe it or not, as of the end of December 2022 we have produced 30 episodes of the podcast, reaching 98 countries with over 14 ½ thousand downloads. Thank you so much to you, our listeners for continuing to support our show, we really appreciate it.

Don’t forget you can subscribe to the show here on our main site or via any podcast services you use.  If you prefer, yo...

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Despite the all-consuming mission of the global healthcare sector to ‘do no harm’ and protect society from illness, disease, and death it is, according to NGO ‘Health Care Without Harm’, the fifth largest emitter of global emissions on the planet.

Indeed, healthcare’s climate footprint is estimated to be 4.4% of global net emissions; that’s equivalent to the output from 514 coal fired power stations, making it comparable in signifi...

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In the second part of this month’s episode Helen speaks with Ian Clark, managing director of Ian Clark Restoration and Engtech fellow of the institution.

Ian is unreservedly passionate about the restoration and preservation of our historical and technological achievements, and it has been a part of his life for over 40 years. He has worked with the likes of english heritage, the national trust and hundreds of national and internati...

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Our world is filled with structures, statues and artefacts that humankind has created. Throughout our history, we have utilised different materials, methodologies and technologies to help us innovate and construct ever-more complex objects. It is only in more recent decades that society has recognised the significance of these items and the responsibility it has, to conserve and protect them for posterity.

Across the world, many of...

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Throughout this year Helen has attended several of the Institution’s challenge events in which students from across the UK and internationally, come together to compete for some of engineering’s most converted prizes and titles.  This month she was able to travel to IMechE HQ and meet up with the teams, judges and sponsors at one of these competitions, the final of the Design Challenge.

 

The Design Challenge gives first and second...

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In this months episode Helen hosted a live show from the Apprentice Automation Challenge, held at the MTC, Coventry.

 

The Apprentice Automation Challenge provides a brilliant opportunity for talented apprentices to compete in an innovative design and manufacturing challenge to improve an everyday home or garden device.

Organised by the Institution's Manufacturing Industries Division’s Young Members Committee, it engages with team...

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With just five months to the official end of our 175th anniversary it seemed appropriate to take some time to speak with, not just one president, but three!

 

While the role of President is considered an honorary position as titular head of the Institution, it is the highest accolade any member can achieve. Each of the Institution's Past-Presidents has not only spent many years actively volunteering within the Institution on region...

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Ask most people what comes to mind when they think of mechanical engineering, and many will respond with railways and trains.

Our foundations as an institution are indeed firmly built on the traditions of railway engineering, with engineers who saw themselves no longer as civil engineers; building static infrastructure, but as innovators of moving machines, able to cross vast distances at speed, transporting limitless amounts of go...

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At the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, engineers devoted their efforts almost entirely to making devices that functioned reliably and profitably, but with little attention to safety. Yet frequent disasters, mainly as a result of the growing use of high-pressure steam, led engineers to question increasing numbers of deaths and to assess problems with the technologies they were developing.  Indeed, when Richard Trevithick began ex...

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