Sports & leisure
Quick read
- Sports & leisure
- How I got here
Q&A: James Dornor, systems engineer and CEO of Driven By Us
James Dornor has built a wide‑ranging engineering career, including across top motorsport teams, while championing greater inclusion for underrepresented groups in engineering.
- Sports & leisure
- Issue 106
Perfecting the slopes for the 2026 Winter Olympics
Due to climate change, the Winter Olympic Games can no longer depend on natural snowfall. Behind the scenes, and thanks to many months of infrastructure preparation, ski racing courses at the 2026 Milano-Cortina Olympics have been highly engineered to ensure fairness for competitors, writes Chau-Jean Lin.
- Sports & leisure
- Issue 105
How engineering is unlocking the secrets of the deep, and keeping divers safe
Engineering has revolutionised our ability to access and study one of Earth’s most challenging environments – the ocean. Jasmine Wragg explores how engineers have developed innovative equipment and habitats, such as advanced diving systems and subsea living modules, to overcome the ocean’s challenging environment and also keep divers safe.
Quick read
- Sports & leisure
- Mechanical
- How I got here
Q&A: Chris Tagnon, Formula 1 Technology Transfer Engineering Associate
After completing a master’s in industrial systems manufacturing and management with a Royal Academy of Engineering and Mission 44 MSc Motorsports scholarship, Chris Tagnon is joining Aston Martin F1’s Performance Technologies division.
- Sports & leisure
- Technology & robotics
- Issue 104
Dark rides: how digital technologies are transforming theme parks
Theme parks often look for ways to test the limits of what is possible in their rides, relying on speed, height and numerous inversions to give riders the ultimate thrill. Now, advances in digital technologies are becoming just as essential to their daily operations and existence.
- Sports & leisure
- Software & computer science
- Issue 103
Wimbledon's technology is on point
Wimbledon may be the world’s oldest tennis championships, but it has its proverbial finger on the pulse when it comes to technology. Technologies from Hawk-Eye and body tracking to large language models are enhancing the championships for fans and players alike.
Quick read
- Sports & leisure
- How does that work?
- Issue 102
How does scuba gear work?
A specially engineered two-stage regulator system attached to a gas cylinder allows scuba divers to safely breathe underwater while moving about freely so they can explore the ocean.
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- Sports & leisure
- How I got here
Q&A: Amjad Saeed, master’s student in motorsport engineering
Amjad Saeed is studying for a master’s in motorsports engineering, after winning a Royal Academy of Engineering and Mission 44 MSc Motorsport Scholarship.
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- Sports & leisure
- Mechanical
- Opinion
The road to Silverstone: preparing for Formula Student 2024
Cara Fox, Team Principal at Queen Mary University of London’s Formula Student team, writes about the importance of building a diverse team and how she and her teammates are preparing for this year’s competition.
- Mechanical
- Sports & leisure
- Issue 66
What makes an exciting roller coaster?
Alton Towers has a new roller coaster, Galactica, that requires virtual reality headsets and participants experiencing a level of G-force acceleration greater than a rocket launch. Engineers, designers and enthusiasts describe elements of roller coasters and what makes some rides scarier than others.
- Sports & leisure
- Design & manufacturing
- Issue 98
An engineered adventure
Children's play areas can be interactive, multisensory experiences, designed by engineers, architects and designers to develop key skills. Neil Cumins spoke to Spencer Luckey, the creator of Climbit – an interactive obstacle course spanning four storeys at the heart of Belfast’s W5 science centre.
- Mechanical
- Sports & leisure
- Profiles
- Issue 98
On the fast track to green hydrogen
Dr Caroline Hargrove CBE FREng's career has taken her from pioneering research in computer modelling of particle interactions, into racing car simulators, and onto medical technology and the production of green hydrogen.
Quick read
- Health & medical
- Sports & leisure
- Innovation Watch
The headband reducing the risk of brain injury
Halos is a sports headband for concussion and sub-concussion protection, which will benefit people playing in sports where head impacts occur, such as football, rugby, and hockey.
Quick read
- Technology & robotics
- Sports & leisure
- Innovation Watch
- Issue 93
Bend it like a simulated avatar
The world's top free-kick-takers can curve a football in a way the goalkeeper can’t anticipate. Training to save these is no easy task. Now, Belfast startup INCISIV just might have a helping hand for goalies, with an ultra-programmable virtual reality technology.
Quick read
- Technology & robotics
- Software & computer science
- Sports & leisure
- How does that work?
- Issue 92
How do face filters work?
It started with face swaps, flower crowns and appended dog ears. Now, all manner of transformative sorcery is just a tap away. You can look older or younger, or more worryingly, even subtly distort your features to meet today’s ever-narrower beauty standards. So what's going on inside our smartphones?
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- Arts & culture
- Sports & leisure
- How I got here
- Issue 92
Q&A: Stan Jones
An opportune moment led to a career designing adventure playgrounds (and a soundsystem for Shambala Festival on the side) for Stan Jones.
Quick read
- Sports & leisure
- Mechanical
- Opinion
Winning Formula Student
In July 2022, the University of Glasgow’s UGRacing team was the overall winner of university motorsports championship, Formula Student. It was the first Scottish team to do so and only the third UK team ever to lift the crown since the competition started in 1998.
Quick read
- Sports & leisure
- Mechanical
- How I got here
Q&A: George Imafidon, electric racing performance engineer
George Imafidon wears many hats. He’s a performance engineer at X44, Sir Lewis Hamilton MBE HonFREng’s electric motorsports team; CEO and Co-Founder of Motivez, improving access to STEM careers; and is on the Hamilton Commission board, investigating the representation of Black people in motorsport.
- Sports & leisure
- Issue 89
Creating pitch perfect sports grounds
When it comes to management of turf in sports grounds, expertise generated in the UK is in demand. The UK grounds-management sector is valued at over £1 billion and has been driven by the large levels of employer and volunteering activity combined with engineering innovation.
- 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.
Quick read
- Design & manufacturing
- Sports & leisure
- How does that work?
- Issue 85
How does a hairdryer work?
Invented in the 1920s, the electric hairdryer is an everyday household object that has changed significantly over the past century – and is likely to continue developing as technology evolves.
- Civil & structural
- Sports & leisure
- Issue 77
Tottenham Hotspur Stadium: The football pitch in three pieces
Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is part of a regeneration project that has transformed the stadium and surrounding area. As well as being home to Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, the stadium will host NFL games in the UK and it boasts the world’s first dividing sliding pitch.
- Mechanical
- Sports & leisure
- Profiles
- Issue 74
A formula for success
Over the past 30 years, Paddy Lowe FREng has seen Formula One motor racing grow from small teams to a billion pound enterprise at the forefront of technology. He has introduced active suspension, hybrid engines and other key technologies that have changed the profile of motor racing.
- Sports & leisure
- Issue 70
The technology that helped Team GB's cyclists go for gold in Rio 2016
The success of Great Britain’s cycling team at the 2016 Rio Summer Olympic Games was celebrated, but what about the closely guarded technology that contributed to their success? The engineering approaches taken to shave as much time as possible off the clock are spoken about by Professor Tony Purnell.
- Sports & leisure
- Maritime & naval
- Issue 69
How to create the perfect wave
From small waves lapping at your feet and swells suitable for surfing to storm waves for testing structures and even tsunamis, waves of any shape and any size can now be engineered. What are the techniques and conditions needed to model waves and what makes some more powerful than others?
- Electricals & electronics
- Sports & leisure
- How does that work?
- Issue 66
Noise-cancelling headphones
Used by plane and train passengers wanting to listen to radio, music or film without hearing background noises, active noise-cancelling (ANC) headphones are able to prevent outside noise from leaking through to the inside of headphones.
- Sports & leisure
- Issue 48
Tattoo’s new grandstand: engineering a faster, bigger arena
During the summer of 2011, visitors to the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo enjoyed the spectacle from a brand new grandstand. The newly completed temporary structure can be erected in half the time of the previous stand and can hold over 8,800 spectators. Ian Lumsden, the Design Manager and Structural Engineer for the project, explains how the flexible stand was conceived, designed and built.
- Sports & leisure
- Issue 19
How technology enhances the Wimbledon tennis experience
The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (AELTC) and IBM worked closely together since 1990 to harness innovative technology to transform The Championships into one of the most popular and technically advanced events on the international sports calendar.