Engineering Matters

This episode is part of the Engineering Matters Awards series, recognising individuals and organisations making an outstanding contribution to the engineering profession and wider society. Engineering is often judged by technical achievements: better products, more efficient processes, and breakthrough innovations. But some of the industry’s most meaningful contributions happen beyond the core aims of the work itself.

The role of engineers in society is to solve problems and create a more liveable world. Through the development of a project or a product an engineer may have the opportunity to bring about a wider community benefit, beyond solving the primary problem. It is those choices that this award recognises.

In this Engineering Matters Awards episode, we celebrate two Bronze-level winners in the Community Champion category: Dremere Woods of Honda Development and Manufacturing of America, and Gaurav Mittal of Thermo Fisher Scientific. Join us as we explore why engineering excellence is not only about solving problems, but also about improving lives.

Guests:

Gaurav Mittal, Data Science Manager, Thermo Fisher Scientific

Dremere Woods, Supplier Quality Engineer, Honda Development and Manufacturing
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For decades, infrastructure design has relied on ‘grey’ engineering: concrete flood walls, steel structures and rigid systems designed to control the environment. But with climate pressures intensifying, engineers are increasingly looking to work with nature rather than against it.

This episode looks at the growing role of nature-based solutions in building climate-resilient infrastructure that can help manage flood risk, restore ecosystems, improve biodiversity and create more resilient communities.

Nature itself should be considered critical infrastructure and an entire generation educated to undertake work differently to that which has been done before.

Guests

Hannah Joyce, Senior Fluvial Geomorphologist, AtkinsRéalis

Laura Liddaman, Associate Director of Nature Based Solutions, AtkinsRéalis

Resources

To access the paper discussed in this episode, a forward-looking vision for the role of nature-based solutions in future-resilient infrastructure, click here

Partner

AtkinsRéalis is a world-leading professional services and project management company dedicated to engineering a better future for our planet and its people. Employing over 37,000 people across Canada, the US and Latin America, the UK and Ireland, and Asia, the Middle East, and Australia, AtkinsRéalis creates sustainable solutions that connect people, data and technology to transform the world’s infrastructure and energy systems
The post #367 Nature Based Solutions: The End of Grey Engineering first appeared on Engineering Matters.

In this special Engineering Matters Awards episode, we celebrate excellence across the industry, highlighting our Gold, Silver, and Bronze winners in the Diversity & Inclusion Champion category.

Engineering suffers from a ‘leaky pipe’ problem, where a great many potential professionals count themselves out of a career long before university. It is a problem that has been clearly identified, but that the industry has long struggled to correct.

Our featured guest and Gold Winner is Stuart Naismith, primary teacher, STEM communicator, and Gold Award winner, and the creator behind STEM with Mr N, a platform bringing accessible science and real-world STEM stories to young audiences worldwide. Click the link below to find out more about Stuart’s great work.

Special thanks to our judges from Engineers Without Borders UK, and from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

Guest

Stuart Naismith, STEM with Mr N
The post #366 Diversity & Inclusion Champion – Engineering Matters Awards first appeared on Engineering Matters.

Greg Wilkes has seen the highs and lows of running a small business in the UK construction sector. From being talked into staying with his apprenticeship by his father as a young carpenter, to success, failed partnerships, and success again, he began to make it a point to note down everything he did that worked, and everything that did not.

Now with a seven-step program, that in keeping with the best traditions of the sector he has decided to streamline to five, Greg is training builders and other trades to scale their businesses, swim in the same waters as contract sharks without getting eaten, and make a success in a sector that can demand so much from entrepreneurs. This episode tells his story, and his method.

Guest

Greg Wilkes, Develop Coaching

Resources

To download Greg’s book, ‘Building your Future’, click here
The post #365 Making a Success in British Construction first appeared on Engineering Matters.

In this episode, we tell the story of MERMAID from the Wildlife Conservation Society, this year’s Engineering Matters Awards Environment Gold Champion. Emily Darling, director for coral reef conservation at WCS, describes why scientists need better ways of sharing coral data, and how MERMAID helps them do so.

Rita Bento, a researcher at NYU Abu Dhabi joins the episode, in an interview recorded in January 2026, to describe the work the university has been doing with regional partners to map coral reefs in the Persian-Arabian Gulf. And Angie Braithwaite, co-founder of Blue Alliance, describes how the nonprofit organization is using MERMAID to understand the effectiveness of marine protected areas.

MERMAID allows the scientists to more easily map and understand the world’s coral reefs, helping identify those that are more resilient to climate change. Its latest update adds more, using AI to speed up the slow work of identifying species in reefs.

Guests

Emily Darling, director for coral reef conservation, WCS

Rita Bento, researcher, NYU Abu Dhabi

Angie Braithwaite, co-founder, Blue Alliance

Category sponsor
Support for this episode and the Environment Champion Category comes from FuturePlus. FuturePlus helps businesses measure, manage and improve their environmental and social impact – with a live ESG platform and a named expert to guide you through it. Three hundred businesses are already Impact Certified, from hospitality to engineering. Find out more at future-plus.co.uk
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