Engineering in the News: 2 November 2026

How to run it in 10 minutes

• Minutes 0 to 3: one slide per story (slides 2 to 4). Read the three lines, then ask the group to name the job on the card.
• Minutes 3 to 8: the five-minute debate (slide 5). Give each table one statement: two minutes to prepare, three to argue.
• Minutes 8 to 10: the two-minute challenge (slide 6). Let them estimate before you reveal the steps.

What happened

Duct tape beats sandbags in flood tests

Engineers at the University of Hull tested six common door types in floodwater raised in 5 cm steps to 60 cm. Duct tape on the outside of a door cut leakage by 97 to 98%, while a wall of 54 sandbags managed around 70%. Tape on the outside works because the water presses it against the door. Read the story.

The science: pressure in liquids, p = ρgh (GCSE Physics, forces). Jobs: civil and hydraulic engineers, laboratory technicians.

A hospital eye scanner shrunk onto a chip

Bristol start-up Siloton has won £8.4 million from Innovate UK to develop GiraffeOCT, a handheld retinal scanner. Its photonic chip, BlueJay, does the job of a desktop optical coherence tomography (OCT) machine, and trials will run at Sunderland Specialist Eye Hospital. Read the story.

The science: light reflects off each layer of the retina and the reflected waves interfere (A-level Physics, waves). Jobs: photonics engineers, biomedical engineers.

Wales electrifies its Valleys railway

Transport for Wales has finished electrifying 170 km of the Core Valley Lines. Rather than rebuild every low Victorian bridge, the Smart Electrification System leaves gaps in the wires and trains run on batteries there, recharging when they are back under the wires. The project won the Sir John Armitt Prize at the British Construction and Infrastructure Awards 2026. Read the story.

The science: batteries as energy stores, charged from the overhead supply (GCSE Physics, electricity and energy). Jobs: electrification engineers, track and signalling engineers.

Five-minute debate

1. Every home in a flood risk area should keep a roll of duct tape by the front door. For: it cut leakage by 97 to 98% in the tests, costs £10 or less and takes 10 to 20 minutes to apply. Against: the researchers say it is no substitute for proper flood doors, and water still gets in through floors, walls, airbricks and drains.
2. Health checks done at home will one day replace most hospital appointments. For: ophthalmology is the busiest NHS outpatient specialty, and portable scanners could catch eye disease earlier and nearer home. Against: someone still has to read the images, a badly taken scan can miss things, and some patients need treatment straight away.
3. Batteries are a smarter fix than rebuilding every low Victorian bridge. For: fewer road closures, less concrete and steel, and less disruption for the people who live nearby. Against: batteries add weight and cost to every train, and longer gaps may need bigger batteries than a train can carry.

Two-minute challenge: answer

Estimate how hard a 60 cm flood pushes on a front door 0.9 m wide.

1. Pressure at the bottom: p = 1,000 × 9.81 × 0.6 = 5,886 Pa, about 5.9 kPa.
2. Pressure is zero at the surface, so the average over the wet part of the door is half: 2,943 Pa. The wet area is 0.9 × 0.6 = 0.54 m².
3. Force = pressure × area = 2,943 × 0.54 ≈ 1,590 N.

Answer: about 1,600 N, the weight of a 162 kg mass. Extension: halve the depth to 30 cm. The average pressure and the wet area both halve, so the force drops to a quarter, about 400 N.

More stories at borntoengineer.com/stem-news.