I applaud Lewis Mowatt, BEng MIEE for encouraging young engineers to explore opportunities available. It is true to say that British engineering is evolving and that people have the potential to keep it at the forefront of global design; despite the fact that traditional industries are in decline.
Andy Joslin (left) of Delta Tau discusses a
nanoscale engineering project with a
post-graduate engineer at Leeds
Metropolitan University
We lead the way in design and innovation. The future of industry rests in the hands of young UK engineers, together with “A” and “HS” level students as they prepare for careers. Innovation is fuelled by the challenges that confront these young people.
The field of nanotechnology is a prime example of how British scientists and engineers have demonstrated both thought leadership and practical implementation. If the UK has the will, it has the way to dominate the global industry in this sector. Invisible engineering is big and we hold, in short, what can truly be regarded as the global leading edge in micro and nanotechnologies impacting on everything from medicine to telecommunications.
‘it was our nation’s lack of investment and incentive that allowed that competition to prosper.’
While Britain’s engineers and scientists would decry the dearth of our manufacturing industry, there has in fact been a gradual but continuous decline that effectively started after the second world war. The aggressive competition from first the Far East and more latterly other developing countries is not to blame for the overall UK manufacturing demise. Of course wage bills are lower in developing countries, but with judicious investment in automation, the labour content of many goods has reduced impact on the final selling price. Rather, it was our nation’s lack of investment and incentive that allowed that competition to prosper.
We will never recover the lost volume-manufacturing industries, nor will be see a return of smaller, but strategically important, sectors such as machine tools, textile machinery or woodworking equipment.
"Our industrial future lies in the planned exploitation of our biggest exportable asset - knowledge."
Andy Joslin
Delta Tau UK Limited
Our industrial future lies in the planned exploitation of our biggest exportable asset – knowledge. Whether it is creating machines capable or writing the bible on a grain of sand or building one of the biggest and most powerful synchrotron microscopes; inventing organic machines for medical purposes or designing robots capable of accuracy in nanometers. For anyone tempted to take this statement with a grain of salt, let me remind them that you can fit about 1000 nanometers onto that grain!
Manufacturing in Britain still makes up about 18% of the gross national product. If this is to remain such a significant contributor, the Government and its bodies of authority, academia and private enterprise must incentivise and nurture our outstandingly talented people or others will do so.
The career engineer website is certainly helping to make this a reality, by publicising the market, and by introducing qualified engineers to suitable employers.
‘Unconventional ideas can rebuild dying industries’
Companies seeking to fill vacancies in engineering sectors desire innovation as much as the individuals that work for them. In my role as Managing Director of Delta Tau UK Limited, a motion control company with an unconventional approach to nanotechnology, I am keen to accept new ideas and ways of working, particularly as this industry is evolving. Unconventional ideas can rebuild dying industries, place companies way ahead of their time, and in the case of Delta Tau they have helped to grind the lenses of the Hubble telescope, to sink the ship in the movie Titanic and to control the most advanced light synchrotron ring in the world.
