Engineering leadership needed!?

[Jammin]

Hi all, I'm a newbie so this is my first post. However, I've been following PO for a long time now, so hopefully I won't be wasting your time with pointless questions.

However, I come here requesting ideas. I am a final-year engineering student in Bristol and a few years ago was granted an Engineering Leadership Award from the Royal Academy of Engineering. In short, this amounts to a fund of ?6,000 to put towards "activities which contribute towards my professional development".

Now although I got this award a while back, I was supposed to accompany it with a "Personal Development Plan" against which I could claim expenditure from the fund (having proven how it would help me in my chosen direction). I have delayed making my PDP because until now I've not cared enough about anything to want to commit this much time, money and energy (sic) into.

However, I have recently come to the conclusion that (in a nutshell) I want to use my engineering career to help move humankind towards a more sustainable way of living and to channel the ingenuity that we currently enjoy (and is so tragically misappliedin this Oil Age) into something that will endure PO and grow in a post-carbon context. In the long term, I don't yet know where I want to spend my career. However, with regard to making the most use of this money for useful causes, I am looking for ideas. I hope to be able to undertake whatever idea I come up with this summer after I graduate.

So: has anyone got any thoughts about what I could do - and how to "sell it" to the Royal Academy in a way that pursuades them that this is for my "professional development"?

Comments please!

[Blue Peter]

How about a biofuel Combined Heat and Power unit suitable for domestic houses?


Peter.

[GD]

Have a look at the Renewable Energy M.Sc. course for a starters.

www.streem.org

Or browse these websites for inspiration
The CAT centre in Wales: www.cat.org.uk
http://www.cat.org.uk/education/educati ... ction=init

Engineers Against Poverty (one of these is a forum member here)
http://www.engineersagainstpoverty.org/ ... ectionID=9

EAP technical support
EAP offers advice, support and resources in topics related to the interface of engineering and construction companies and poverty including the following areas

? Analysis and management of risk
? Environmental and social impact assessment
? Multi-sector partnerships and partnership brokering
? Promotion of transparency and accountability
? Reporting and auditing social performance
? Sustainability and corporate responsibility programmes
? Tools and approaches to enhance social performance

I hope this is the type of thing you meant... ?

[Joe]

hopefully I won't be wasting your time with pointless questions.

No such thing on here! Especially if you gain something from the answers

[clv101]

I am a final-year engineering student in Bristol...

Great first post, welcome to Power Switch. Do you know Greg Nixon who I believe is also at Bristol in the final year studying Engineering? He posted here in the past as GregNixon and attended a Bristol Peak Oil meeting a few months ago (time for another btw).

Regarding engineering, did you listen to In Business on Radio 4 this evening? Listen Again here:

Engineering Success
Once they were at the heart of social and economic progress. As people try to find a way to fix today's problems, engineers are going to turn into our heroes of tomorrow.
Peter Day talks to some people in the profession who are already leading the way.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news/inbusiness/index.shtml

Good programme, highlighted some of the worlds major problems and talked up engineering?s part in solving them.

[isenhand]

So: has anyone got any thoughts about what I could do - and how to "sell it" to the Royal Academy in a way that pursuades them that this is for my "professional development"?

Won?t that depend on what sort of engineering you are doing? Civil? Mechanical? Electrical? Software?

[Jammin]

Hey guys,

Thanks for all your helpful suggestions and comments. I look forward to listening to that program too!

Yes, I do know Greg - he and I are great friends. (We study on the same degree programme and he was also my Best Man at my wedding in September!) I got Greg into PO after hearing about it from another friend and then Greg got me into PowerSwitch!

A few weeks ago we teamed up together to prepare a 2-part presentation about "The Global Peak of Oil Production" to our fellow coursemates as part of an "Engineers in Society" unit - last week I presented an introduction to the concept and in about an hour's time Greg is going to present the second part which will address the possible outcomes and what we engineers can do about it. Am looking forward to it...

My hope is that this will spark some interest that will escalate within the University - where we have a massively under-used resource of engineering experience and innovation. I plan, for example, to organise a screening of "The End of Suburbia" if I can establish enough interest.

My main challenge in this whole endeavour is the lack of available time - I am attempting to gain a First at uni, just got married and have a few other commitments on the side. However, my 3 main objectives for the immediate future are:
1) I want to get the PO awareness ball rolling within the uni before I graduate in June.
2) I want to undertake a project with my RAE funding (see above) which will simultaneously start to address a PO-related issue
3) I ultimately want to apply my engineering skills to global sustainable development - am thinking hard about careers at the moment!

I look forward to getting to know you all better...

www.altwasser.org

[newmac]

Is that all I think you can try a little harder...

[DamianB]

Hi Jammin

You haven't said what type of engineering you're studying; if it's electrical, can I sugeest you look into electricity storage, particularly on a domestic scale?

[Jammin]

We study Engineering Design at the University of Bristol - a new degree programme with a multidisciplinary foundation. Greg and I specialise in computer science, but in practice that doesn't mean much. Neither of us really fancy a future in computers, and fortunately we aren't restricted by our course. We both have a lot of industrial experience (with BT, Renishaw, Motorola) which will end up being of more use to us than programming theory!

I've just listened to that R4 programme - thanks for the tip-off; I am very encouraged and am looking at Solar Century and Climate Change Capital in more detail now.

Do any of you guys have solar panels?

[Andy Hunt]

I have a solar panel for hot water. Just a flat-plate collector:-

www.zeneagasolar.com

[Max]

hi Jammin,

I know exactly what you mean about wanting to apply your engineering skills to solving the problems of PO. I discovered PO about this time last year and spend 10months looking for work and ideas on how I could go forward and use my skills to help solve the problem whilst still making a living.

I graduated in Chemical Engineering and have recently finished a PhD (not in anything useful to PO - unfortunately). I was in 2 minds whether to carry on in academia and try to research something that would solve the problem, but ultimately I decided that research is very hit and miss - there is no guarantee that a solution to a problem can be found - let alone that a solution ACTUALLY exists.....

My solution has been to try and gather knowledge and like minded people who can come up with solutions, from first principles that will mitigate the effects of PO on industry and the resulting loss of "essential" things we take for granted.

I don't want to piss on your fire, but my experience was that most businesses that don't know about PO don't want to know about it - and those that are currently working in fields which are similar are not interested in the "greater good" and not for profit way of thinking (don't get me wrong I still want to make a living).

I thought I had found a company that was prepared to take me on to work as a project engineer and solve their general problems as well as letting me have the time to continue investigating PO and looking at ways that the company should be preparing for the worst - unfortunately I appear to have been mistaken and will probably be joining you in again looking for ideas of how to use my skills effectively.

Whoa - I need to learn how to write short posts.

[isenhand]

Well, being yet another engineer I would say that using problem solving skills in engineering and learning to investigate problems in a PhD are skills for the future. There are probably many way to ?solve? PO and related problems but the way I like is the community solution and networks of communities. I seen my engineering skills and PhD coming it to use there

[Bandidoz]

Jammin, what sort of engineering are you looking to get into? Power systems (generation/transmission - HV stuff), domestic systems, or gadgets? What sort of companies or research departments do you have your eye on (or are you looking to start your own)? Are you a member of an Engineering Council institution such as the IEE?