Whether it’s Christmas or an upcoming birthday, gifts are a fantastic way to show another person you care.

Most buildings around the world – residential, commercial or industrial – use a lot of energy during their lifetime, whether for lighting, heating, ventilation systems or plugged-in devices. In fact, buildings use about 40% of global energy, 25% of global water, 40% of global resources, and they emit approximately one third of greenhouse gases.

A major competition designed to get more young people involved in manufacturing has recognised the talented engineers of the future.

Flammable gases, including natural gases like methane, pure substances such as hydrogen, and vapors from volatile liquids like acetone, require careful handling. Understanding their working limits is crucial for safety. Always consult Safety Data Sheets for information on risks associated with these substances. This article covers the properties of various flammable gases: Ammonia, Acetylene, Butane, Carbon Monoxide, Hydrogen, Methane, Propane, Ethane, Ethylene, Silane, and Chlorine Trifluoride.  

Electrical devices often produce sparks and heat through normal operation, which can pose a risk in hazardous environments. To mitigate this, techniques such as intrinsic safety are implemented to prevent these devices from becoming a source of ignition.  This article will clarify the concept of intrinsic safety, providing a clear definition and comparing it with alternative safety measures like flameproofing, to give a comprehensive understanding of how safety is maintained in potentially dangerous settings.

The world of engineering is at the gates of a technological revolution that will very much change our lives in every way, from our work and education, to our entertainment and relationships.

Staying up-to-date on the most recent underground storage tank (UST) regulations is essential when you operate a business that stores hazardous materials. Not only can ignorance of these rules put your facility's safety and health at risk, but failure to comply can lead to hefty fines and other costly penalties. Here we will explore some important steps you need to take to ensure that your UST complies with all applicable regulations.

Engineers have a knack for making everyday household items unique creations. Be it a catapult, a trebuchet, or something else entirely, the possibilities are truly endless. With the right tools, a bit of imagination, and some knowledge of physics, engineering enthusiasts can make something extraordinary with just items found around the house. You don't need much money or fancy materials to start creating, so why not get creative and put your engineering skills to the test? Here are some great projects that you can do with household items.

3D volumetric construction is one of the most modern building construction techniques in civil engineering today. It is a form of off-site construction in which units are manufactured in a factory and then transported to site for assembly. The method of constructing within a factory setting ensures that the necessary building materials are brought in just in time and the modules can be constructed irrespective of the weather outside.  The products can be transported to site in various states of finish (modules, basic structural blocks or semi finished) ready for assembly in-situ. The basic idea is that as much of the building is constructed off site (in a factory assembly line) and only brought to site for completion.

Based on all the available evidence, climate change is real and it is happening – the planet is experiencing rising temperatures, melting snow-caps, and increased numbers of floods, droughts, and wildfires. 2019 was the second warmest year ever and 2010-2019 was the warmest decade on the planet – ever. Limiting the global temperature rise to well below 2°C this century is one of the defining challenges from the Paris Agreement.

The modern world is a product of human endeavour, our species’ ability to envisage, design, and to construct. Engineers have always been at the forefront of this process, and today, more than any other time in history, we are living in a world of outstanding innovators. These figures have provided humanity with some invaluable advancements, and are now beacons of success, inspiring the minds of tomorrow. Let’s take a look at some of the biggest names.

The world is beset by intertwined crises: the climate, pandemic, and, increasingly, a crisis in the global food supply. It’s prosaic to say, but as the world’s population increases, more food is needed to sustain it. And regardless of the population size, humanity will only ever have the same amount of land on which to produce its food. This, as one may expect, is a growing tension. Luckily, engineers of all stripes are busy using their expertise, conjuring up innovative solutions to address the issue. Here we take a look at some of the most impressive.

At first glance, engineering and music may seem worlds apart. But when we look closer, the impact of engineering on the music industry cannot be underestimated. In the second part of a series on “Engineering in Pop Culture”, we look at how engineering has influenced music and what happens when their paths cross. Over the years, engineers have altered how music is created, performed, recorded, stored, transmitted, and heard.

1. The Great Pyramid of Giza While there are several pyramids on the Giza Plateau near Cairo, Egypt, the largest is the Great Pyramid of Giza. This pyramid, built circa 2600 BCE, is 146 metres tall with a base of 230 metres. It is made of two million blocks of stone with an average weight of 2.3 metric tonnes. One of the greatest engineering mysteries is how such heavy blocks were built into a pyramid shape thousands of years ago. Cranes as we know them today were certainly not around.

Global water scarcity is a huge problem and one that is not going away soon. In fact, as noted by the United Nations World Water Development Report in 2018, it is an issue that is only going to get bigger, the report stating that nearly 6 billion people will suffer from clean water scarcity by 2050. This shortage is caused by a combination of rising global population (leading to economic development) and a reduction of available water (due to global warming).

Long gone are the days when women were believed to have no place in the workforce. In the United States today, women make up 49% of the college-educated workforce. However, despite this encouraging number, careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) remain severely lacking when it comes to females in the field. Let’s break down why that is, and how it can change.

Although electric vehicles hold just 2.8% of the global market share of vehicle sales, they have the potential to change the world. As people are becoming more conscious of the global climate and how their action affects it, they are starting to scramble to do what they can to minimize their own impact. One way of doing so is to drive an electric vehicle, which produces far fewer emissions than a gasoline-powered vehicle.

As the world belatedly becomes more concerned with climate change and the impact that humans have on the environment, many new career opportunities are popping up. Environmental standards are getting stricter, resource extraction sites are nearing the end of their life cycles and must be cleaned up, the list goes on. Environmental engineers are needed to take these career opportunities to ensure that the human impact on the environment is sustainable. But what exactly is environmental engineering?

It is amazing how often engineering concepts (or engineered products) have been incorporated into popular culture. In this blog, we consider the impact of engineering on popular films and vice-versa.

1. Three Mile Island nuclear accident The Three Mile Island nuclear plant is located near Middletown, Pennsylvania. On March 28, 1979, the Unit 2 reactor partially melted down. Although the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island did not result in death, it remains one of the worst engineering failures in American history. Despite the substantial consequences of the accident, it could have been much worse.

For many years, around the world, it has been recognised that there is a skills shortage in engineering; that there simply aren’t enough engineers required to complete large-scale investments of local, national and international importance.

The world’s population is growing – and ageing. This means that more people are getting sick, and new ailments are constantly popping up. The pressure, thus, to keep developing and manufacturing the pharmaceuticals that people need to stay healthy is constantly building. And who exactly is shouldering that burden? Pharmaceutical engineers.

Smart or intelligent materials are described as materials that can achieve a controlled, predictable, variation in one or more of their properties as a direct response to an external stimuli and/or a change in their environment. The external changes can be fluctuations in temperature, light, pressure, magnetic or electrical fields, surrounding moisture, or chemicals. Not all smart materials are the same. Some can change their properties due to more than one of the external stimuli at the same time, and some materials offer greater adaptability due to certain external changes than others.

Whether it be moving documents between departments, stocking shelves, or even making sandwiches, many businesses have processes that can be refined. These processes are often inefficient, can produce waste, and use up valuable time and resources – particularly in the case of bad sandwich making. So, what’s the solution? Consult a process engineer. Unfortunately, many businesses do not consult a process engineer because they don’t even know that they should.