Engineering news roundup #13
The impact of engineering is all around us. We’ve pulled together some of our favourite news stories, articles and thought pieces from the week to showcase some of the latest innovations and opinions across design engineering.
A smart school of robotic fish
Fish-inspired robots have been developed to carry out environmental monitoring in fragile environments like coral reefs. They move like a fish would and synthetically recreate their behaviour to better understand fish schools.
Laceless trainers
Engineering is everywhere – even down the shoes you wear. Nike have launched their new laceless Nike GO FlyEase trainers, which can be put on and taken off without using your hands. The shoe features a ‘bi-stable’ hinge within the sole that allows the shoe to be secure when in use.
the first ever 3d-printed school
The applications for 3D printing continue to astound, with a non-profit organization – Thinking Huts – joining forces with an architectural and 3D-technology firm to build the world’s first 3D-printed school in Madagascar. The aim is to significantly improve access to quality education for underserved communities, with the 3D technologies also minimising construction time and costs as well as carbon emissions.
civil construction applications of disposable PPE
The environmental impact of COVID-19 has seen a massive issue with disposing of PPE waste. A team of researchers at RMIT University in Melbourne have identified that three million disposable face masks could make just one kilometre of a two-lane road, in a move to develop a smart and and sustainable application for PPE waste in construction materials.
Engineering: it’s a superpower
“When you look at complex systems like planes, they look magical, impossible things. But as an engineer you learn to break them down into small tangible steps to understand how they work. It’s like a superpower” – says Katerina Spranger, a biomedical engineer and boss of Oxford Heartbeat. This article looks at the benefits of having engineers run successful businesses – with the likes of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos having an engineering background.
Feeling inspired? LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR GLOBAL DESIGN ENGINEERING DEGREE.
More Roundup articles
Nature’s remarkable engineers
