Articles
Inspiration can come from lots of different sources. Engineers are constantly seeking ideas in order to improve the world around us.
At PE we hear about a lot of ideas. We have a regular feature about them in the Engineering Extras section near the end of the magazine, which showcases the ones that interest us the most. This month’s Bright Idea on p48 is an automated farming solution based on a CNC machine – you assemble, plug and plumb it in and return months later to harvest your crop. The FarmBot, essentially a robotic farm, is just one of several examples of how agriculture is rapidly changing thanks to engineers attempting to meet the challenge of feeding a growing global population.
Cross-fertilisation is always an important way of developing ideas – what if I take that and use it for that? This approach is apparent in several of our features this month. Our look at humanitarian applications for unmanned aerial vehicles on p30 shows not only the broader potential for UAVs in society, but also how it takes engineers to develop that potential. The same is true of the feature about sports engineering. Team GB’s performance in this year’s Olympics is historically impressive. Engineers at companies such as Pace Insights, who we talk to, can take some of the credit. They are taking technology and concepts from engineering and Formula One and applying them to sports such as cycling, boxing and sailing to help athletes achieve greater goals. Readers discuss the ethical dimension to this in Soundbites.
Elsewhere we can see how inspiration can come from the world around us. The interview with artist-turned-inventor Philip Norman shows how observing children playing with Lego inspired him to create his company’s modular robotics platform, which is now in use at Cern. Ee talk to some of the UK’s leading consultancies about how they approach product development and solve problems for their clients.
JCB’s engineers and designers also reveal some of their inspiration points for innovation as part of our cover feature. The company is surprisingly outward looking. Perhaps the most salient comment comes from the company’s chief innovation engineer, who says that what matters most is putting those ideas into practice. It’s a simple mantra, but very powerful, and one that strikes a chord with engineers, who are often required to devise ideas and implement them.
Equipping engineers to be able to do this is one of the highest priorities for the profession. The magazine covers two very different approaches to training this month – the proposed New Model in Technology and Engineering University in Hereford, featured in News, wants to reshape the way engineering is taught. Whereas the Vulcan Experience on the Back Page seeks to train the next generation by using the achievements of the past. Two very different educational routes, but both seek inspiration from real-world problem solving.
Contact: Ben Sampson, PE Editor, at Unit G4, Harbour Yard, London SW10 0XD.
ben.sampson@caspianmedia.com