Articles
This month the Institution of Mechanical Engineers gained its 100,000th member. This is an historic milestone – the first time that the institution has reached six figures in our 164-year history. It not only cements the IMechE’s position as the UK’s fastest-growing engineering institution but also gives us the perfect opportunity to take stock of where the great profession we represent stands today.
Mechanical engineering has always been difficult to define. When George Stephenson, father of the railways, founded the institution in 1847, the only qualification for membership was that applicants had to be “managing heads of establishments where engines or machinery were made or employed” – a label that could now account for many businesses in Britain.
Yet even this loose definition immediately proved insufficient, with technicians and even a stockbroker among the first institution members.
Today the task of defining a mechanical engineer is infinitely harder. The span of technologies and products that thousands of engineers design and produce would have seemed incomprehensible in Stephenson’s time.
Take the humble Mars bar. Once the raw materials are brought to the factory using shipping, rail and road networks – all of which are designed, built and maintained by mechanical engineers – engineers lead every part of the manufacturing operation, from processing the chocolate, nougat and caramel to packaging the finished products. Mechanical engineering then plays a vital role in the stock control, distribution and transport needed to put the sweets on our shelves.
Engineering also played a role in the fields on which the Mars bar began its life. Christine Tacon, one of the institution’s newest fellows, is managing director of Co-operative Farms, where she used engineering principles to revolutionise irrigation methods and radically improve the company’s environmental sustainability and productivity.
If farmers are to feed a rising population with ever diminishing resources, engineers like Tacon will play an increasingly important role.
Finally, for those who overdo the Mars bars, mechanical engineers are also developing the pharmaceuticals and biotechnology needed to keep Britain healthy. As the emerging fields of nanotechnology and bionics become more advanced, it may well be that the average hospital will rely more than ever on engineers as well as surgeons in years to come.
Looking ahead, engineering will broaden in scope at an even greater pace. The emergence of additive manufacturing, for example, opens up the possibility of a 3D printer in every home, meaning everything from furniture to dishwasher replacement parts could be “grown” quickly and cheaply.
This will give engineers unparalleled freedom to alter the mechanical behaviour of things and design them from the inside out, attracting a new generation of designers and artisans into the industry. In 100 years’ time, the greatest engineers could be more Leonardo Da Vinci than George Stephenson.
Mechanical engineers play a role in almost every industry, come from all walks of life, and can’t be defined solely by education or job title. What is clear is that every one of us, from every section of society, relies on engineering to an extent that most of us don’t realise.
And the profession will continue to underpin our lives throughout this century.
That’s why I’m so proud to help lead this venerable institution, and why I’d like to thank every volunteer for their hard work in helping us to reach this important milestone.