Institution news
Global Engineering Debate launch event brought together three young engineers who presented and discussed the merits of nuclear, fossil fuels and intermittent renewables in front of an audience at One Birdcage Walk.
Held on 9 April, the event was organised by the Young Members Board (YMB) and was chaired by YMB Chair, Ruth Shilston, and introduced by YMB Vice-Chair, Marcus Nicholls. YMP committee member Delali Dei, an applications engineer at Pyroban, in Shoreham-by-Sea, led the organising committee.
Delali said: “The three contributors are really passionate about their specialisms; they provided great insight and put forward impressive technical knowledge through their arguments.”
“I was really proud of the event. It took a lot of hard work to put this together, and the success of the grand launch was a great reward. We intend the GEDs to be innovative, stylish, international, inspiring and relevant. I would say that the launch was, in addition to those qualities, riveting.”
Marcus explained that the debate, entitled, ‘Which energy sources should the UK invest the majority of its resources, in order to meet its 2050 targets?’ stemmed from a desire to provide a platform for young engineers to discuss the topics important to them.
The intention is that, after two successful trial debates in Reading and Hong Kong and the official launch in London, the initiative will provide material for a report on the findings. Similar-styled energy debates are planned in a number of countries following the launch.
The audience was asked, at the outset, to vote on which source they believed should provide the UK’s energy in the future. A poll after the debate would reveal if any of the speakers had the power to persuade people to change their minds.
Three young engineers, passionate about their specialisms, spoke for a short time about the benefits, costs, environmental status, political attractiveness, distribution and efficiency of nuclear, fossil fuels and renewables.
They held a frank and detailed debate – which included technical questions from the audience in the auditorium as well as from many following the debate on twitter and via webinar.
The speakers were:
- Sam Lisney BEng MSc AMIMechE EngTech, a graduate mechanical engineer at Petrofac Engineering Ltd spoke about fossil fuels.
- Patrick Griffith BEng MSc MIMechE, a nuclear engineer with AMEC Foster Wheeler, spoke about nuclear power.
- Charles Briggs MEng MSc CEng MIMechE a senior consultant at K2 Management in Aberdeen, spoke about renewable sources of energy.
Delali said that he and his colleagues would like to see the Global Engineering Debate series embedded in the Institution’s calendar, alongside long-running events such as Speak Out for Engineering.
Its debating topic will change every year, to keep it relevant, and applicable to all specialisms in engineering.
According to organisers, it was fascinating to see that the debate had, had the power to change minds. Two votes were conducted, before and after the debate. After receiving the highest vote of the three energy sources at the start of the evening, support for nuclear more than halved, while fossil fuels doubled its vote.
However, it was intermittent renewables, which increased its standing by 9% that convinced nearly half of the audience that this energy source should be the one for the largest share of UK investment, in order to reach its 2050 targets.
Vote – pre-debate:
Nuclear 48%
Intermittent renewables 38%
Fossil Fuels 14%
Vote – post-debate:
Nuclear 22%
Intermittent renewables 47%
Fossil Fuels 31%
Find out more about the Global Engineering Debate.