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Issues

Issue 88

September 2021

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A black and white photograph of a six-year-old girl wearing glasses and a polka dot dress.
  • Electricals & electronics
  • Profiles
  • Issue 88

The outsider who changed the system

As a Jewish Holocaust survivor, political refugee and woman in engineering, Dr Agnes Kaposi FREng has every reason to call herself an outsider. But it didn’t stop her from becoming the third woman ever to be elected as a Royal Academy of Engineering Fellow.

  • Aerospace
  • Electricals & electronics
  • Issue 88

Why 1960s CCD technology is at the frontier of space exploration

In February 2021, NASA’s Perseverance rover landed on Mars, fitted with a suite of seven instruments designed to search for signs of past and present life. CCD technology was at the heart of two of these cutting-edge scientific devices.

Someone in a motion capture suit, who is controlling the motion of a woodland avatar on a digital animation in the background.
  • Arts & culture
  • Sports & leisure
  • Issue 88

Entertaining audiences of the future

In 2019, a UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Challenge Fund, Audience of the Future, was launched to explore how immersive technology could transform audience experiences. During COVID-19 they used their technology to bring these experiences into the home.

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  • Chemical
  • Environment & sustainability
  • How does that work?
  • Issue 88

Compostable plastics

Compostable plastics can be turned – alongside food and other organic waste – into compost. But how environmentally friendly are they really?

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  • Chemical
  • How I got here
  • Issue 88

Q&A: Michelle Watiki

From placements at Xerox and Rolls Royce, to becoming a board member for the Association for Black and Ethnic Minority Engineers, chemical engineering graduate Michelle Watiki hopes to apply her knowledge to sustainability and net zero, as well as helping future engineering students.

A photograph of a ploughed bare field.
  • Environment & sustainability
  • Issue 88

Keeping carbon grounded

Agriculture started by trial and error but today, the fields we see are the result of an engineering system approach to manage fertility, crop production and, increasingly importantly, the carbon emissions and sequestration that are an inevitable part of the biosystem.

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A male engineer standing behind a desk with scientific equipment, wearing goggles and gloves, working in a room that is lit up with bright bulbs on the ceiling.
  • Environment & sustainability
  • Opinion
  • Issue 88

Preparing future engineers for the net zero challenge

Engineers will face ever-growing and ever-changing challenges as they tackle climate change and build a sustainable future. There is now an urgent need to ensure they will be equipped with the knowledge and skills to do so, writes Professor Roger Kemp MBE FREng.

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  • Software & computer science
  • Technology & robotics
  • Innovation Watch
  • Issue 88

Remote and secure ID verification

Charlette N’Guessan is an Ivorian tech entrepreneur who is passionate about solving local challenges with technology. She used her software engineering background to launch BACE API, a digital identity verification system currently being used in financial services in West Africa.

The tall Triton Square building in the UK with trees in the foreground and people sitting on concrete slabs.
  • Issue 88

Sustainable second lives

Demolishing old buildings and replacing them with new ones is a major source of carbon emissions. However, with some imagination and engineering ingenuity it is often possible to transform and reuse buildings that have passed their useful life. At One Triton Square in London, this resulted in carbon savings of 55% compared with a conventional rebuild – while saving money for the client and without compromising quality.

A concept image of ZeroAvia's 19 seat plane in the sky.
  • Environment & sustainability
  • Aerospace
  • Issue 88

Towards zero carbon aviation

As with any energy-using industry, the aerospace industry shares the problem of eliminating carbon dioxide emissions by 2050, however they may find it the hardest of all. Val Miftakhov, Founder and CEO of California-based startup ZeroAvia discusses the first step on the road towards hydrogen-powered aircraft.