How Can Engineering Improve People’s Lives?

Over the next month, as part of our support for the ‘Year Of Engineering’^[1], we will be taking a look at how Engineering is improving peoples lives.

Often the work of engineers is invisible or taken for granted. Sometimes we look at huge Engineering projects and are unable to picture ourselves working on a project on such a large scale.

Professor Eleanor Stride’s work with bubbles is revolutionising cancer treatment^[2]

Yet most of the breakthroughs we feature are not huge corporations but individuals or small teams working towards simple Engineering problems.

These are real-world problems being solved by real-people.

Breakthroughs in robotics are transforming everything from decommissioning nuclear power plants to health; Exoskeletons are allowing people with lower limb disabilities to walk again.

Renewable energy is booming. Breakthroughs in renewable tech are driving down the price of the technology. Wind is now the cheapest form of energy in the UK which has contributed to record low emissions this year.

Bio-engineering has been transformed by developments from CRISPR technology (potentially allowing us to rewrite our DNA to escape genetic disease) to 3D printing prosthetic limbs.

Ben is proof that modern Engineering technology can allow anyone to become an Engineer and change lives for the better.

In the last decade brand new fields of Engineering have been created. VR technology has gone from a gimmick into the mainstream; transforming how we game and producing spin-out technology in health and entertainment.

As our culture becomes more technology-driven the demand for engineers will only grow.

STEAM subjects (that combine math, technology, engineering, science and art) already offer those that choose to study them a wide range of transferable skills.

Students studying STEAM subjects at school now can branch out in the various Engineering disciplines such as.

• Aeronautical
• Automotive
• Biomedical
• Chemical
• Civil
• Computer (Software and Hardware)
• Electrical
• Environmental
• Mechanical engineering

Alongside these there are a huge range of inter-disciplines that combine these core engineering areas (for instance; mechatronics (combining electronics, mechanics and systems control).

While Engineering is pitched to young engineers as a solid career choice we often overlook the good the industry does. Engineering is so ubiquitous it is easy to forget that at its core Engineering exists to solve a real-world problems.

Aeronautical Engineering doesn’t just create planes; it solves the problem of transport. Civil Engineering doesn’t just create infrastructure; it solves problem of how we live and connect our world together.

We should never lose sight of the fact that Engineering solves human problems and in a very real way improves lives.

Explore some of our recent news about how Engineering is improving lives.

• STEM Book Club April-The Invisible Engineering All Around Us
• Bring your doodles to life
• What do you get when you cross a drone with a HoloLens-XRay Vision.
• STEM Book Club August-In Search of the Perfect Engineering Summer Read
• String Theory-Stanford Bioengineers develop the "Paperfuge", a 20-cent hand-powered blood centrifuge
• Infographic - Electrical Engineers & Climate Change
• Engineering History-The heartbreaking story of the flying mathematicians of World War I
• Water filtration system wins Africa Prize for Engineering
• The Engineer's Role in World Toilet Day
• Latest grants from the UK's Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund announced