Issues

Issue 87

June 2021

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A digital illustration of a plane.
  • Technology & robotics
  • Issue 87

Creating a virtual replica

Digital twins provide virtual replicas of a physical object or system, such as a bridge or an engine, that engineers use for simulations before something is created or to monitor its operation in real time. Mark Girolami from the Alan Turing Institute explains how digital twins are transforming engineering.

Quick read

Six blocks of varying height showing the various stages and consistency of product between seaweed and sustainable packaging.
  • Environment & sustainability
  • Food & agriculture
  • Innovation Watch
  • Issue 87

Edible packaging

Half of plastic packaging is used once and thrown away. Notpla has developed sustainably sourced seaweed packaging to hold liquids, which decomposes in less than six weeks.

Quick read

  • Health & medical
  • Design & manufacturing
  • How does that work?
  • Issue 87

Lateral flow tests

During the pandemic, millions of people took lateral flow tests every week to detect COVID-19, enabling them to get a result in just 15 minutes.
Five people from the neck down holding mobile phones.
  • Technology & robotics
  • Issue 87

How to make a mobile technology revolution

Professor Stephen Temple CBE FREng led the UK's part in launching GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications), which transformed mobile communications across the world. He looks at its impact on the journey from 1G to 5G in the way that mobile technology generations are created.
Fallen autumn leaves covering a rail track in a forest.
  • Civil & structural
  • Issue 87

Leaves on the line

Slippery layers of wet leaves on railway lines have been causing train delays for years, and numerous attempts have been made to solve the issue. Geoff Watts spoke to the engineers working on innovative solutions to the longstanding problem.
The design of an urban square in Shanghai that can serve to store storm water during flooding.
  • Civil & structural
  • Environment & sustainability
  • Opinion
  • Issue 87

Rethinking the future through design

Dr Mark Fletcher FREng, Global Water Business Leader at Arup, argues that engineers need to rethink design and embrace systems thinking now more than ever, to accelerate regenerative outcomes for people, places and the planet.
Dr Rajapillai (RV) Ahilan on a sunny beachside promenade in Italy.
  • Environment & sustainability
  • Maritime & naval
  • Profiles
  • Issue 87

Sound moorings for a renewable career

For Dr RV Ahilan FREng, a career that started in offshore oil and gas has turned him into a champion for renewable energy. He used his knowledge of fluid mechanics and marine experience to push the commercialisation of offshore renewables.

Quick read

Josh Oldham smiling and standing behind an open door of a red Aston Martin.
  • Mechanical
  • How I got here
  • Issue 87

Q&A: Josh Oldham

Josh Oldham, an Aston Martin apprentice and student at the University of Warwick, shares his experience in making a video shared by both Aston Martin’s COO and a Minister from the Department of Education and offers insights as to what it’s like to work on the Vantage F1 edition.

A digital rendering of a futuristic building in a green landscape.
  • Environment & sustainability
  • Issue 87

Nuclear designs on a low-carbon future

We must abandon fossil fuels as an energy source if we are to achieve the UK’s target of net zero by 2050. Low-carbon energy sources now provide less than 15% of the world’s energy. Paul Stein FREng and Sophie Macfarlane-Smith at Rolls-Royce explain how SMRs could help to achieve net zero.
Aerial shot of multiple rail tracks with the construction of a tunnel between them.
  • Mechanical
  • Issue 87

Tunnelling below trains

An innovative construction technique has been used to create a ‘dive-under’ tunnel beneath the East Coast Main Line railway, creating the world’s longest single underground jacked structure, and the first ever in the UK to be jacked round a curve.