Issues

Issue 85

December 2020

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  • Environment & sustainability
  • Electricals & electronics
  • Issue 85

Charging into the future

The all-electric Jaguar I-PACE has collected many awards since it first left car showrooms in 2018, including its engineering team being recognised as MacRobert Award finalists. Find out about the challenges of developing the company's fist electric vehicle.

Green liquid bubbling around brightly lit transparent cylinders that are going into the water at an algae wastewater treatment plant.
  • Environment & sustainability
  • Issue 85

Cleaning wastewater with algae

When a toilet is flushed, bath emptied or washing machine finishes, that wastewater needs to be treated and discharged safely into the environment. Industrial Phycology have developed a technique to use algae for purification.

A photo of a needle going into a small sealed vial containing liquid.
  • Health & medical
  • Issue 85

Delivering fast-track COVID-19 vaccines

The COVID-19 pandemic has compressed timelines as groups around the world race to come up with a vaccine. Typically it can take up to a decade to develop, so what were the engineering challenges of manufacturing and supplying a COVID-19 vaccine?

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A person with blow-dried blue and pink hair
  • Design & manufacturing
  • Sports & leisure
  • How does that work?
  • Issue 85

Electric hairdryers

Invented in the 1920s, the electric hairdryer is an everyday household object that has changed significantly over the past century – and is likely to continue developing as technology evolves.

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A digital rendering of the design for intensive care unit wards, with five beds spaced apart from each other.
  • Civil & structural
  • How I got here
  • Issue 85

Q&A: Eoin O'Loughlin & Philip Turner

Eoin O’Loughlin is a fire safety engineer at Arup. Philip Turner is a mechanical building services engineer at Arup. Together they have been working on CareBox, a series of design guidelines for scalable, modular and rapid solutions to provide additional intensive care and ward beds for COVID-19 patients.
A brightly lit office in San Francisco with one person pointing at a whiteboard and another sitting in a high chair at a table in the same room.
  • Issue 85

How to keep a social distance

As COVID-19 continues to have impacts across the world, Arup has adapted its established MassMotion software to help clients reconfigure their buildings for a cautious return to work, including appropriate social distancing.

Quick read

The HICI box that is lit up with green and placed on the dashboard of a car, with a blurry countryside road in the background.
  • Maritime & naval
  • Innovation Watch
  • Issue 85

Traffic lights for the tide

The Holy Island Causeway Indicator is a small gadget that lights up to show visitors whether the causeway is safe at a glance, helping prevent people getting stranded due to flooding.
A tractor in a field of linearly planted crops, attached to a Garford Robocrop automatic hoe system, which is aligned with the spacing of the crops.
  • Food & agriculture
  • Issue 85

Intelligent weed control

Weeds can compete for light, nutrients, moisture, and space, and can often reduce crop yield and plant quality. Dr Nick Tillett, Director of Tillett and Hague Technology, discusses the advances that are allowing farmers to control weeds using less chemicals.
Three engineers in a lab, wearing lab coats and glasses, standing behind a desk full of science equipment, reagents and wires.
  • Energy
  • Opinion
  • Issue 85

How can the UK solve its carbon problem?

Dieter Helm CBE, Professor of Economic Policy at the University of Oxford, sets out how Britain can lead the way on climate change action and use the opportunity of the COVID-19 pandemic to meet its net-zero target by 2050.