• BEIS returns £1.6bn allocated to Horizon Europe

    The Treasury has taken back £1.6bn that it had allocated for the UK's involvement in the European Union's research programme, Horizon Europe, or domestic alternatives.  The move was revealed on page 300 of the Central Government supply estimates 2022/23, as reported by the Campaign for Science and Engineering (CaSE) . However, the decision has not been communicated to the research community or media in any other medium. The UK’s associate membership of the €95bn (£81bn) Horizon Europe programme was foreseen in the 2020 Brexit agreement. However, the EU has been delaying the UK’s membership due to the dispute over the Northern Ireland Protocol. During his election campaign the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, vowed  to develop a £15bn UK research funding programme to rival Horizon, pledging…

  • Sponsored: Greening our Heritage properties, a holistic approach to energy efficiency

    In its sixth Carbon Budget, the Committee for Climate Change stated that buildings, including homes, are the 3rd largest carbon emissions producers in the UK - accounting for 13% of all the UK’s carbon emissions . We can’t drastically modify these heritage structures, and for more modern buildings it is neither feasible nor environmentally desirable to conduct a mass demolition and rebuilding programme, so we need to find practical ways to decarbonise our existing and historic building stock. The National Trust has already assessed its carbon outputs and has set ambitious targets to decarbonise by 2030 - but how can engineers balance issues of sustainability and energy efficiency against the need to preserve original structural features and fabrics? It cannot be assumed that modern or ‘standard…

  • Bentley to cease production of ‘iconic’ W12 engine as part of EV transition

    By the time production ends, more than 100,000 W12 engines will have been manufactured at the company’s Dream Factory in Crewe. Bentley is planning to electrify its entire line by the start of the next decade as part of sustainability efforts. It has already started producing the hybrid models Bentayga and Flying Spur which “exceeding the company’s expectations” demand-wise.  Bentley was founded in 1919 and has been producing cars in the UK since its inception – delivering 15,174 cars in 2022. Since 1998, it has been owned by the Volkswagen Group which is also ramping up investment in electric vehicle manufacturing. Once the W12 stops being made, Bentley’s entire line-up will be available with the option of a hybrid powertrain. Despite this, development work has only recently concluded…

  • ‘E-CPR’ service could help hospital save more lives

    London's Harefield Hospital is currently treating some inpatients with a new type of “advanced” CPR which involves hooking up patients to an artificial lung machine.  Now the hospital is looking to make the technology accessible to many more people.  In a new service, pe ople who suffer a cardiac arrest could be offered E-CPR if they do not respond to traditional CPR.  The service, the first of its kind in the UK, will see patients taken to Harefield Hospital - a specialist heart and lung hospital in Hillingdon - by Thames Valley Air Ambulance. Once there, the patients will be hooked up to an ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) machine.  The ECMO machine is able to pump blood through an artificial lung outside the body when a person's own circulatory system does not function properly…

  • ‘Criminal’ use of plastic by police at crime scenes under investigation

    Veteran crime scene investigator Becci Henderson is carrying out the study as part of her PhD at the University of Portsmouth in a bid to reduce the amount of plastic waste used by police when cordoning off and investigating serious crimes. Henderson, who worked as a crime scene investigator (CSI) for 22 years, said that each evidence exhibit generated an average of 55g of plastic waste, with one crime scene creating more than 2kg of waste. She said she had witnessed an “enormous” growth in the amount of plastics used and explained that the purpose of her study was to find a more sustainable approach, including compostable materials. Henderson said: “At just one job I generated more than 2kg of waste, which all went in the bin and a lot of it was unused. We often can’t recycle or reuse…

  • Government launches energy efficiency taskforce with 2030 target

    The taskforce will create a plan on how the UK can reduce total energy demand from buildings and industry by 15 per cent by 2030 when compared to 2021 levels. According to the Odyssee-Mure Project, which monitors efficiency trends in Europe, energy efficiency for UK consumers improved by around 30 per cent between 2000 and 2018 - around 1.6 per cent per year. NatWest chief executive Dame Alison Rose will be the co-chair of the new body just weeks after her bank said it would reduce lending to oil and gas firms as part of a new climate change initiative. “Addressing the climate crisis is a team sport and building vital partnerships between the public and private sector is the key to tackling this challenge at pace,” she said. “Improving energy efficiency will not only drive a lower carbon…

  • Sponsored: Electricity 4.0, how you can capitalise on digital design and emerging trends

    Discover how Electricity 4.0 impacts the decarbonisation strategy in MEP Design, and how it links to electrical and digital technology. Register for this webinar to learn about: The importance of electrification and digitisation, and how manufacturers can support How to build iSLDs, including the tools required, as well as software and legal compliance The impact of technology on future simulations, operational carbon and overall resilience Emerging trends within DC Systems and how they support upcoming standards and the future-proofing of buildings and designs Presented with live Q&A on 23rd March 2023 at 1pm GMT - or watch afterwards on demand. This free webinar is available for IET members and non-members. Register for this free webinar

  • Thousands of new EV chargepoints to be installed across England

    UK drivers will benefit from an additional £56m in public and industry funding for increasing electric vehicle (EV) charging points across the country. A total of 2,400 new chargepoints will be installed in locations such as Cumbria, Norfolk, Oxfordshire and West Sussex, the DfT has announced, as part of the 'Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure' (LEVI) pilot scheme. The scheme will help local authorities work in tandem with private businesses and chargepoint operators to drive the sustainable growth of local networks and increase the number of chargepoints available in each area.  In addition to the expansion of the scheme, 16 new pilot scheme areas will benefit from the funding.  “The government is giving local authorities across England additional help today to energise their chargepoint…

  • Jaguar Land Rover to open three autonomous cars tech hubs in Europe

    Jaguar Land Rover's (JLR) new European hubs are expected to create nearly 100 engineer jobs, focused on developing driver assistance systems and artificial intelligence (AI) for the self-driving cars of the future.  The hubs are part of JLR's “multi-year strategic partnership” with Silicon Valley artificial intelligence company Nvidia, announced last year.  The two companies are currently working together to develop the computer brains and nervous systems for Jaguars and Land Rovers. "We are harnessing talent in autonomous technologies around the world to develop new autonomous technologies for our future products, which will deliver a truly modern luxury experience for our clients," said Thomas Müller, product engineering director at Jaguar Land Rover.  “Software is essential for us…

  • Fossil fuel sector methane emissions ‘far too high and not falling fast enough’

    The International Energy Agency (IEA) tracks global methane emissions and found that the energy industry was responsible for 135 million tonnes of methane released into the atmosphere in 2022, only slightly below the record highs seen in 2019. Today, the energy sector accounts for around 40 per cent of total methane emissions attributable to human activity, second only to agriculture. Methane is responsible for around 30 per cent of the rise in global temperatures since the Industrial Revolution and has more than 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide in the first 20 years after it reaches the atmosphere. But it also dissipates at a much faster than carbon dioxide, only lasting an average of 12 years in the atmosphere compared to carbon dioxide, which can linger for centuries. …

  • View from Washington: Chip War

    There have been surprisingly few comprehensive histories of the semiconductor industry, so the arrival of Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology by American academic Chris Miller is welcome. With the US and China at loggerheads over silicon, it is also timely. But while Miller, a professor of international history at Tufts University, addresses that rivalry directly at the end of his excellent book, he originally came to the topic when he discovered how the importance of chips has long tended to be buried away within the things they enable. “The book was going to be about the history of missiles in the Cold War. And the more I dug into missile technology, the more I realised that the interesting part was the guidance computers. And the more I learned about them, the…

  • Book review: ‘The Big Con’ by Mariana Mazzucato and Rosie Collington

    At last, the consulting industry is in the headlines. It is finally coming to public attention just how much money is being thrown at big consultancies, and – especially in the case of Covid-19 contracts – with little to show for it. ‘The Big Con: How the Consulting Industry Weakens our Businesses, Infantilizes our Governments and Warps our Economies’ (Allen Lane, £25, ISBN 9780241573082) argues exactly that. The authors are Dr Mariana Mazzucato, professor in the economics of innovation and public value at the UCL Institute for Innovation & Public Purpose, and Rosie Collington, a PhD candidate at that institute. They recount how, through the 1980s and 1990s, the consulting industry crept in from the sidelines and began to render governments and businesses reliant upon its services. Organisations…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • ‘Superalloy’ made with 3D printer could cut emissions from power plants

    A group of scientists from Sandia National Laboratories, Ames National Laboratory, Iowa State University and Bruker Corp., all in the USA, used a 3D printer to create a high-performance metal alloy, or superalloy, with an unusual composition that makes it stronger and lighter than state-of-the-art materials currently used in gas turbine machinery. The findings could have broad impacts across the energy sector as well as the aerospace and automotive industries, and point towards a new class of similar alloys that have yet to be discovered. “We’re showing that this material can access previously unobtainable combinations of high strength, low weight and high-temperature resiliency,” Sandia scientist Andrew Kustas said. “We think part of the reason we achieved this is because of the additive…

  • UK risks missing out in renewables race, trade bodies warn

    The report, published by Energy UK, highlighted that the investment climate for low-carbon generation has deteriorated significantly in recent months and could even undermine the nation's net-zero ambitions.  Renewable UK and Energy UK have both separately called on the government to make the country a more attractive place for investors looking to build wind and solar farms. “The UK is in increasing danger of undermining its own ambitions and failing to deliver on its commitments," said Emma Pinchbeck, chief executive at Energy UK.  “In many ways, the UK has led the way in the transition to clean energy – witness our world leading offshore wind industry – but we risk squandering this position and driving the investment that we need elsewhere.” The new report, in particular, warns about…

  • Chinese provinces top list of areas most vulnerable to climate change

    A ranking of the physical climate risk of every state, province and territory in the world has been calculated by XDI, which assesses the physical risks posed by the changing climate. The study is based on a 3°C increase in temperatures by the end of the century, under a scenario drawn up by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “This is the first time there has been a physical climate risk analysis focused exclusively on the built environment, comparing every state, province and territory in the world,” said XDI CEO Rohan Hamden. “Since extensive built infrastructure generally overlaps with high levels of economic activity and capital value, it is imperative that the physical risk of climate change is appropriately understood and priced.” The research found that two of China…

  • Remote driving of vehicles from abroad should be banned, says government review

    The remote driving of vehicles from overseas, such as for the delivery of rental cars, could be banned following a government-commissioned review. The Law Commission of England and Wales has made public a set of recommendations regarding  how to regulate vehicles being controlled by individuals in remote locations. The commission concluded that “difficulties in enforcement” mean remote driving from abroad should be prohibited “until appropriate international agreements are in place”. Overall, it recommended that remote driving in public should only be allowed if companies obtain special permissions. This technology is already used in controlled environments such as warehouses and farms, but potential future applications include the delivery of rental cars to customers. At the moment…

  • Water firms told to set out plans for ending sewage spills

    The UK government has announced a consultation to introduce measures that would make it easier to inflict fines upon sewage and water companies that continue to dump excessive waste into swimming, shellfish and nature sites. Less than a year after it was found that many water firms released “potentially illegal” sewage discharges across the UK, the government has taken steps to rein in the sector.  Thérèse Coffey, the environment secretary, has said England’s ten wastewater companies must issue an improvement plan for every storm outflow, showing the amount of waste that will be spilt and efforts to reduce it.  Currently, there are 15,000 storm overflows in England. These are used to dump sewage in rivers and the sea when treatment works’ capacity is overwhelmed by rainfall. However…

  • Low-income Londoners face shortage of ULEZ-compliant used cars

    According to AutoTrader, only 5,150 affordable ULEZ-compliant cars below £5,000 are on sale in London despite 200,000 vehicles set to be impacted by the expansion. The average cost of used diesel cars that follow ULEZ rules was calculated at £19,991, while petrol cars cost £15,000. Typically, only petrol vehicles registered after 2005 and diesels registered after 2015 comply with the rules. Mayor of London Sadiq Khan introduced a £110m scrappage scheme last month to help those on lower incomes, disabled people, charities, sole traders and small business to replace or retrofit their old, polluting vehicles. But Erin Baker, Auto Trader’s editorial director, said the scheme was a “drop in the ocean” for lower-income households. As well as modern petrol and diesel cars, electric vehicles…

  • Industrial drone course launched to train new pilots

    Given the safety benefits and increased efficiency for workers that drones can provide, as well as cost savings and a reduction in asset downtime for inspections, the use of drones across industry has grown rapidly in recent years.   However, until now, no consistent training programme has existed for operators using drones within an industrial setting. The new ECITB Foundation UAS training course, created in close collaboration with the UK Drone Association, ARPAS-UK, is now officially available to training providers across the country.  The course will support both industry and people who would like to develop their knowledge and skills to operate drones in industrial environments. The official launch follows the success of a pilot programme in 2022. Drones are especially useful in…

  • Investing with confidence in digital manufacturing

    “A week is a long time in politics.” That remark, attributed to former UK Prime Minister Harold Wilson during the sterling crisis of 1964, applies almost as well to the economic policymaking witnessed in the UK in late 2022. Just three weeks after the then Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng announced his Emergency Mini Budget on 23 September, his successor Jeremy Hunt delivered an Emergency Statement on 17 October in which many of Kwarteng’s proposed tax reforms were unceremoniously dumped. One policy that remains, however, is a permanent increase of the Annual Investment Allowance (AIA) to £1 million from April 2023 onwards. This means that businesses can deduct 100 per cent of the costs of qualifying plant and machinery up to £1 million in the first year. For UK manufacturers, it’s a bit of…

  • Students relying on text generated by ChatGPT risk plagiarism, scientists say

    “Plagiarism comes in different flavours,” said Dongwon Lee, professor of information sciences at Penn State University. “We wanted to see if language models not only copy and paste but resort to more sophisticated forms of plagiarism without realising it.” The researchers identified three forms of plagiarism: verbatim, or directly copying and pasting content; paraphrase, or rewording and restructuring content without citing the original source; and idea, or using the main idea from a text without proper attribution. They constructed a pipeline for automated plagiarism detection and tested it against OpenAI’s GPT-2 because the language model’s training data is available online, allowing the researchers to compare generated texts to the eight million documents used to pre-train GPT-2. The…

  • Japan aborts H3 rocket launch after technical fault

    Japan’s space agency has aborted for the second time the launch of its new flagship H3 rocket. The H3 rocket was carrying an observation satellite fitted with an experimental infrared sensor that could detect missile launches. Concerns about the launch began after the countdown had started; when the Jaxa live stream began to show white smoke filling the site, located at the Tanegashima Space Centre in southern Japan.  The launch was meant to showcase Japan's first new rocket in more than 20 years. However, the agency was forced to abort the mission  after its auxiliary booster rockets failed to ignite. It marks the second failed launch in Japan's space programme in just four months. “I know many people were waiting for and looking forward to this day. I’m so sorry and I feel extremely…

  • I am AI and I made this cover image for E&T's art special

    Art and engineering seem worlds apart, but are they? When does an artist turn engineer or vice versa? Two of this month’s features each take on one of these questions. Christine Evans-Pughe looks at some famous artists who blurred the lines, from Alexander Calder to Rachel Whiteread. Conversely, Nick Smith picks out seven great works of engineering and technology, from the Clifton suspension bridge to the Mini, that are also great art or design. That crossover continues today. Origami is inspiring engineering with fascinating breakthroughs from fuel cells to folding proteins. Technology brings museum exhibits alive and helps us to see gallery artworks in new ways. Now technology is going much further. Will it take over art? This month’s cover is our first illustrated by AI, using the…

  • Contactless payments up nearly 50 per cent in 2022, Barclays says

    In new figures, the bank found that users spent around £3,327 per person, while a record 91.2 per cent of all eligible transactions were made using the technology. In 2021, the spending limit for contactless payments in the UK rose to £100 from £45 as consumers were encouraged to use contactless in the wake of the Covid pandemic. Contactless payments have been soaring in popularity in recent years to the detriment of cash, but figures released last year showed that the number of cash payments plummeted even faster in 2021 . Barclays said that Northern Ireland and Scotland are the fastest growing regions for contactless usage. While all sectors saw an increase in the total value of contactless transactions, spending more than doubled in the hotels, resorts & accommodation category. There…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

Community Rules & Guidelines