Shows / Engineering Matters
Engineering Matters
Five times winner of the Publisher Podcast Awards, including Best Technology Podcast, Engineering Matters celebrates the work of engineers who use ingenuity, practicality, science, theory and determination to build a better world. In the UK alone 5.7million people work in engineering related enterprises from manufacturing and agriculture to construction and transportation. Their work ensures that the country has sustainable power supplies, better connectivity between cities, increasing…
Episodes
- Engineering Matters
#379 The Cost of Time: Modern British Manufacturing
Manufacturing accounts for 8% of UK GDP directly. Counting its supply chains and the spending of the people it employs, that figure rises to 23%, according to…
- Engineering Matters
#378 Revisited: Designing Dinorwig – Inside Electric Mountain
In late 1973 the UK’s Central Electricity Generating Board gained parliamentary approval to build the largest and most difficult pumped storage hydroelectric…
- Engineering Matters
#377 German Offshore Wind and the Mudflats of the Wadden Sea
Germany needs 70GW of offshore wind power connected to its grid by 2045, part of an estimated 300GW total capacity by 2050 for all of the nations bordering the…
- Engineering Matters
#376 Sandy’s Left Turn: Building a Resilient Manhattan
In October 2012, Hurricane Sandy turned sharply west and drove a storm surge into New York Harbor. Lower Manhattan flooded, a substation failed leaving more…
- Engineering Matters
#375 Innovation Champion – Engineering Matters Awards
In this episode, we celebrate Showerkap, winner of the Innovation Champion category in the Engineering Matters Awards 2026. The final award of the series…
- Engineering Matters
#374 Net Zero Champion – Engineering Matters Awards
In this Engineering Matters Awards episode, we celebrate the winner of the Net Zero Champion category, which recognises projects, processes, and tools that…
- Engineering Matters
#373 Lubricating the Lunar Frontier
Returning to the Moon is the next step, but staying there is the next leap. Abrasive and electrostatically-charged dust particles cling to every surface, and…
- Engineering Matters
#372 Sustainability Champion – Engineering Matters Awards
In this Engineering Matters Awards episode, we celebrate the winner of the Sustainability Champion category, which recognises organisations driving…
- Engineering Matters
#371 Revisited: Place is the Space for Growth
How should local and regional leaders encourage investment in their communities? Around the world, cities struggle with a legacy of industrial decline. In…
- Engineering Matters
#370 The Forgotten Arsenal of the Ocean: Clearing Dumped Munitions
At the end of the Second World War, millions of tonnes of unwanted explosives and weapons were disposed of at sea. For decades, these dumped munitions lay…
- Engineering Matters
#369 Health & Safety Champion – Engineering Matters Awards
In this Engineering Matters Awards episode, we celebrate the winners of the Health & Safety Champion category, which recognises engineers who are changing how…
- Engineering Matters
#368 Community Champion – Engineering Matters Awards
This episode is part of the Engineering Matters Awards series, recognising individuals and organisations making an outstanding contribution to the engineering…
- Engineering Matters
#367 Nature Based Solutions: The End of Grey Engineering
For decades, infrastructure design has relied on ‘grey’ engineering: concrete flood walls, steel structures and rigid systems designed to control the…
- Engineering Matters
#366 Diversity & Inclusion Champion – Engineering Matters Awards
In this special Engineering Matters Awards episode, we celebrate excellence across the industry, highlighting our Gold, Silver, and Bronze winners in the…
- Engineering Matters
#365 Making a Success in British Construction
Greg Wilkes has seen the highs and lows of running a small business in the UK construction sector. From being talked into staying with his apprenticeship by…
- Engineering Matters
#364b Environment Champion – Engineering Matters Awards gold winner
In this episode, we tell the story of MERMAID from the Wildlife Conservation Society, this year’s Engineering Matters Awards Environment Gold Champion. Emily…
- Engineering Matters
#364a Environment Champion – Engineering Matters Awards shortlist
Around the world, engineers are working to protect the environment. In this episode, we introduce eight companies who are taking steps to safeguard the natural…
- Engineering Matters
#363 Uncrewed Vessels and Unprecedented Data
In its seventh Allocation Round the UK executed the largest offshore wind auction in European history, putting pen to paper on 8.4GW of new capacity, enough to…
- Engineering Matters
#362 Revisited: Skyscrapers, Predicting The Future
The London skyline is undergoing perhaps its most significant transformation in decades as a new ‘vertical renaissance’ is sending tremors of excitement from…
- Engineering Matters
#361 Revisited: Space – The Robotic Age
Humanity’s furthest ever journey into space has been delayed. Again. An interruption to the flow of helium forced NASA to scrap the revised 6 March launch date…
- Engineering Matters
#360 Systems Change: Thinking in Patterns
Systems thinking allows engineers to understand complex systems and the second-, third-, and nth-order effects of their interventions. It avoids the accidental…
- Engineering Matters
#359k Transit-Oriented Communities in Toronto
Around the world, urban planners are seeking to deliver urban growth and increase access to city centres through the development of transit-oriented…
- Engineering Matters
#359j – Modern Vernacular in Saudi Arabia
In the 1970s, Saudi Arabia, buoyed by a surge in oil prices, embarked on an ambitious building programme. The country moved rapidly to develop its cities and…
- Engineering Matters
#359i Stone as Structure
For facade specialists, stone is highly prized for its performance and character. The right choice of stone can anchor a building in its local context, or make…
- Engineering Matters
#359h Sustainability in Paris
Sustainability experts often use a hierarchy to help their thinking about interventions. The best way to limit your impact is to do nothing at all. If that’s…
- Engineering Matters
#359g An Intergenerational Approach to Sustainability
Lifecycle carbon assessment – the process of monitoring the total carbon footprint of a structure from the first spade in the ground to demolition – sits at…
- Engineering Matters
#359f Sustainability and Adaptation in East London
Retrofitting is an instrumental step in reducing the carbon footprint of a city’s building stock. It also extends the life of a building and has a lower…
- Engineering Matters
#359e A Better View of Stadium Design
When you are designing a stadium for the World Cup, or any major sport, it’s vital to have a fan’s-eye view. For more than a century, the architects tasked…
- Engineering Matters
#359d A Digital Path to Nuclear’s New Generation
Nuclear power promises to provide energy when other sources can’t. But nuclear plants currently take a long time to build—often more than a decade. Anthony…
- Engineering Matters
#359c A Fusion of Minds at ITER
At ITER, in France, scientists and engineers from around the world are working together to develop nuclear fusion at power plant scale. The project could one…
- Engineering Matters
#359b Water, Energy and the Environment in the Middle East
There is a changing view of the environment among public sector clients in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia has ambitious goals like generating 50% of electricity…
- Engineering Matters
#359a Australia’s Most Flooded Town
Lismore sits at the confluence of two rivers in New South Wales. Covering more than 1,300 square kilometres, it is home to more than 44,000 people. In 2022, it…
- Engineering Matters
#359 Intro – A Sustainable and Resilient World
Society needs to consider the impact of climate change on our cities because it is no longer a future challenge; it is a present reality. Cities with their…
- Engineering Matters
#358 Experts in Risk
Residents of tall buildings can face significant risks in the event of fire or structural failure. At Grenfell Tower in the UK, a fire in a resident’s kitchen…
- Engineering Matters
#357c Well-Grounded Decisions: Construction and Operations
A wise asset owner builds on solid ground. Unless ground risks are clearly identified, projects can easily be delayed or delivered over budget. Some risks may…
- Engineering Matters
#357b Well-Grounded Decisions: Design Development
Without a clear understanding of ground conditions, unquantified risk can be transferred from project owner to lead contractors when a contract is signed. In…
- Engineering Matters
#357a Well-Grounded Decisions: Site Selection
On any project, uncertainty creates risk. Decisions that are made without a good understanding of site conditions can result in overengineering or threats to…
- Engineering Matters
#356 Making Space for Wastewater Treatment
Wastewater treatment is an overlooked lifesaver. While the medical advances of the last 100 years—penicillin, chemotherapy, and, more recently, mRNA…
- Engineering Matters
#355 The Real Value of Nature
Green-grey engineering combines nature-based solutions with traditional civil engineering. It can be used in flood protection, with mangroves acting as a first…
- Engineering Matters
#354 AI in Infrastructure: Adoption and Guardrails
The infrastructure sector is adopting AI with enthusiasm. A new whitepaper from Bentley Systems, Pinsent Masons, Turner & Townsend, and Mott MacDonald, The…
- Engineering Matters
#353 Carbon Assessment in a Time of Housebuilding
This week, the UK House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee, or EAC, released a report on environmental sustainability and housing growth. The UK…
- Engineering Matters
#352 Health Monitoring for Offshore Wind
From blood pressure monitors and smart watches, to MRIs and step counters, many of us make tracking health metrics part of our daily routine. Armed with data…
- Engineering Matters
#351 Rough Seas and Reliable Defence Partnerships
Around the world, climate change and shifting alliances are opening up new theatres of geopolitical competition. In the Arctic, Canada must be ready to patrol…
- Engineering Matters
#350 Living in Space: The Next Generation of Astronauts
Dr Meganne Christian is a scientist and adventurer. In her research, she has studied the performance of novel materials including the use of nanoscale metals…
- Engineering Matters
#349 Never Again: Embedding Safety in Engineering
The tragic fire at Grenfell Tower in west London demanded new ways of thinking about professionalism and ethics in the engineering sector. However, since that…
- Engineering Matters
#348 Modelling Distributed Energy Storage
In Europe, and around the world, renewable electricity generation is being built at pace. However, these sources of energy create a new challenge: they are…
- Engineering Matters
#347 Revisited: The Pipeline to Net Zero
Last week, at the end of September 2025, a study by Regen, commissioned by the MCS Foundation, found that biomethane had a limited capacity to replace natural…
- Engineering Matters
#346 Scaling Carbon-Free Cement
It’s a simple fact of chemistry that cement cannot be produced, without also producing carbon dioxide. But this does not mean that the sector—and its clients…
- Engineering Matters
#345 Pinpoint Precision in Space Positioning
When launching a satellite into orbit, getting the positioning right is of paramount importance. As humanity sends more satellites into space, the vast space…
- Engineering Matters
#344 Networks Under Water: Transport, Flooding and Resilience
When flooding happens, damage and disruption ripples out across assets and infrastructure. Private businesses and homeowners can insure themselves against…
- Engineering Matters
#343 Weaving Software into Automation
Joseph-Marie Jacquard invented the punch card as a means of inputting control data to one of the earliest automated technologies, the weavers’ loom. A…
- Engineering Matters
#342 Real Solutions and the Industrial Metaverse
The metaverse is often thought of as an alternative virtual space, a world separate from reality where we can hang out with avatars of our friends and…
- Engineering Matters
#341 Opening the Door to Engineering – Engineering Matters Awards winners
Alan Lusty founded adi Group, a multidisciplinary engineering business supporting major manufacturers. He is part of a group that offers engineering services…
- Engineering Matters
#340 Diving Deep into Electric Machinery
Electrification of construction equipment is an ongoing and necessary part of the global effort to reduce carbon emissions and restrict global warming. Sixty…
- Engineering Matters
#339 Integrated Contracts and Innovative Delivery
On two major road projects in the UK work was completed on time and under budget. But not every project can claim such success. Defects, delays and cost…
- Engineering Matters
#338 Bio-Inspired Innovation & Systemic Sustainability
Nature has long served as a blueprint for engineering breakthroughs from the kingfisher-inspired design of Japan’s Bullet Train to termite mounds that inform…
- Engineering Matters
#337 Breaking Barriers to STEM with Lightyear Foundation – Engineering Matters Awards winners
In this episode, we spotlight the remarkable work of the Lightyear Foundation, the winner of the Engineering Matters Awards 2025 Gold Champion for Diversity…
- Engineering Matters
#336 Gravity-Powered Heavy Haul – Engineering Matters Awards winners
At a quarry in Turkey, heavy haul trucks are carrying hundreds of tonnes of materials, with no external power. It’s not quite perpetual motion, but it is…
- Engineering Matters
#335 Monitoring Methane: The Tech Behind the Tech – Engineering Matters Awards winners
LongPath Technologies has taken Nobel-winning discoveries, and applied them to a key cause of climate change: methane leaks from oil and gas facilities. The…
- Engineering Matters
#334 Digital Construction’s Past, Present and Future
In 2016 management consultants McKinsey released a report that reverberated around the construction and engineering sectors. This sector, the report said, was…