Issues

Issue 100

September 2024

Download PDF version
An illustration of a rocket landing on a platform out at sea, next to a robot thinking about how to ballroom dance using generative AI
  • Issue 100

From 1999 to 2049: looking back and looking forward

We asked Ingenia contributors to share the engineering that’s impacted them since 1999 – and the engineering advances that could change the world in the next 25 years. Why not share your thoughts too using #IngeniaMag?

Quick read

An air fryer basket, pulled out, holding a cooked roast chicken and sliced lemons
  • Food & agriculture
  • Electricals & electronics
  • How does that work?
  • Issue 100

How do air fryers work?

Air fryers have become immensely popular in recent years, promising a healthier and more energy efficient method of cooking that can save you money. They have also inspired numerous dedicated cookbooks and even a few TV programmes.

Quick read

A woman in a colourful dress stands with her arms crossed opposite a man wearing a green t-shirt
  • Design & manufacturing
  • Environment & sustainability
  • Innovation Watch
  • Issue 100

The engineers turning surplus feathers into packaging

London-based startup Aeropowder is turning surplus feathers into a biodegradable thermal packaging material, designed to keep items such as medicines or vaccines insulated and cold during transport.

Quick read

A woman engineer seen through a window in a piece of experimental apparatus, setting up an experiment, holding a thin metal rail
  • Aerospace
  • How I got here
  • Issue 100

Q&A: Abigail Berhane, aerospace engineering researcher

Sci-fi films first got Abigail Berhane interested in STEM. Then, a visit to CERN cemented a future in engineering. About to hand in her PhD, she plans to continue her work in aerospace engineering to help increase diversity in the field and work towards a greener future.

Quick read

Two engineers wearing hi-vis jackets and hard hats standing talking on a solar panelled roof with a city skyline in the background
  • Civil & structural
  • Environment & sustainability
  • Opinion
  • Issue 100

How can we reimagine building performance?

The built environment – and what we need from it – plays a large role in everybody’s lives. But how do we measure its performance, especially in the face of pressing challenges such as the climate crisis? Here, Fiona Cousins, President of CIBSE (the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers), shares the key points from her presidential address looking at how we reframe the idea of building performance.
Two singers, a guitarist and a keyboard player play onstage to a large crowd, backlit by an LED lighting display that looks like a rainbow
  • Arts & culture
  • Civil & structural
  • Issue 100

How ABBA Voyage was made

ABBA said they’d never tour again. Bringing them back required a technological marvel, a fully demountable arena, and an array of engineering disciplines working in tandem to make it all come together. Leonie Mercedes goes on a voyage to explore the engineering behind the show.

A group of five men and one women stand chatting in a room with large windows.
  • Software & computer science
  • Electricals & electronics
  • Profiles
  • Issue 100

Raspberry Pi: the chip that floated a thousand ideas

For Dr Eben Upton CBE FREng, floating the Raspberry Pi business on the London Stock Exchange is another step in a career that has straddled engineering and business.

Quick read

A circular sample of a material containing blue glowing microalgae, with coral-like patterns
  • Environment & sustainability
  • Design & manufacturing
  • Opinion
  • Issue 100

The art and science of engineering with living things

Christopher Bellamy trained as an engineer at the University of Cambridge and worked for Jaguar Land Rover and Salomon. Now, he's a biodesigner working with living things to create materials that make us feel closer to nature.
Aman wearing glasses shines a torch through a cylindrical object, looking towards the camera
  • Energy
  • Innovation Watch
  • Issue 100

How a shrimp inspired nuclear fusion technology

First Light Fusion is setting records in its plans to commercialise nuclear power. It has taken inspiration from a shrimp to develop a process to compress pellets of fusion fuel to create thermonuclear fusion energy.

Quick read

A woman wearing a bright pink jumper standing in a workshop with tools hanging on the wall
  • Opinion
  • Issue 100

The imperative of social sustainability in engineering

As Ingenia's guest editor for its 100th issue, Dr Shini Somara sets out the need to grow our commitment to widening participation in engineering and ensure social sustainability.

Quick read

An illustration of a timeline, showing from 1999 to 2024, including: a Wifi symbol, an iPhone, the facebook logo, the millau viaduct, a camera phone, a map with a pin in it, the Shard, the Olympic Stadium, a four legged yellow robot holding a martini in its end effector, the TikTok logo, a sun shining on solar panels, a space telescope, the TfL roundel in purple, a burger in a petri dish, spiky virus particles next to a syringe, and a cut through of an optical cable undersea,
  • Issue 100

From 1999 to 2024: an engineering timeline

We selected some of the biggest milestones across the spectrum of engineering, looking back from when Ingenia was born in 1999, to 2024. What do you think? Tell us your thoughts via the hashtag #IngeniaMag...
In a greenhouse a camera attached to a white robotic arm makes its way along a tray of strawberry plants, where some of the strawberries are green and some red
  • Food & agriculture
  • Issue 100

How technology is reshaping farming

UK growing conditions for fruit and vegetables are changing all the time in the face of climate change. So, engineers are coming up with ideas to help farmers increase their crop yields in an ever more challenging environment – from robots to monitor and harvest crops, to automated vertical farms that reduce land use.

A person wearing a sensor on their residual limb, to calibrate their arm muscles' electrical signals for a myoelectric prosthesis
  • Health & medical
  • Software & computer science
  • Issue 100

Machine learning boosts medical devices

As AI becomes more widespread, medical devices are among the everyday technologies that could see real improvements. Stuart Nathan finds out how engineers are incorporating AI into hearing aids and prosthetic arms.

Someone's hands wearing blue washing up gloves, cleaning a plate with a sponge and washing up liquid in the sink
  • Design & manufacturing
  • Electricals & electronics
  • Issue 100

The smart sensors enhancing safety

Manufacturers are increasingly digitising their supply chains to improve efficiency and quality, streamline processes and generally enhance their operations. For production of items such as food, household goods and healthcare products, digitisation is also improving safety. Jasmine Wragg spoke to engineers at the University of York and consumer goods company P&G about how sensors are helping to monitor bacterial contamination.