Engineering Society
We are here today to promote the profession that is a means for enhancing and improving the lives of everybody on this Earth through a vast number of mediums, and that is of course - engineering. The bus you took this morning is the brainchild of mechanical and automotive engineering, the building you’re currently situated in, is the work of civil engineers, our presentation up on the screen wouldn’t be possible without electrical engineering, or the tech team for that matter. In short, anything in this world that has been manufactured is due to some form of engineering application. Now try to picture a world without the fruits that engineering has produced, and you should see yourself back in the dark ages, primitive Neanderthals, and this hopefully helps you to comprehend the ineffable importance of engineers.
We could bore you with tales of the good old days and how Robert Stephenson won the Liverpool-Manchester race in his Rocket train but to be perfectly honest who cares how they did it in 1829? What you really want to know is what cool stuff has been built recently, what’s happening in the future and where it’s all gone wrong.
Transport has come a long way from its origin and it is hard to think of a world without cars, trains and aeroplanes. It is even harder to think about what direction transport will take in the future however this is the job that many engineers have. For instance, a new up and coming form of transport is the maglev train, maglev standing for magnetic levitation. The train has a series of magnets on its underside which repel against the electromagnets in the track. In essence this causes the train to float meaning that there is very little friction in the system. The electromagnets turn on and off in a sequence that propels the train forwards. Due to the minimal friction, the trains can reach speeds of over 310 miles per hour compared to the standard 125 miles per hour that our trains operate on.
As you all should be aware, the BurjKhalifa is the tallest building in the world, with a whopping 160 stories and 830m from tip to ground, to give you some perspective, it’s almost 3x taller than the Shard, 190x taller than your average double decker bus, and 467x taller than the average English male. The design of the skyscraper was based on the Hymenocallis flower, particularly inspired by the hexagonal core of the flower, replicated in the actual structure. To create such an astonishing piece of architectural and engineering genius, an incredible amount of materials and time was put into the project, with 330 000m3 of concrete, 39 000 tonnes of steel rebar, and 22 million man hours invested. Inside the BurjKhalifa, the world’s fastest elevators can hit 40 mph when taking guests to one of the observation decks. Other lifts deposit residents at the 800 apartments between the 17th and 108th floors. Offices occupy the higher floors, while a club spans three levels in the 140s. One may question the purpose of such a structure, is it just the £1bn toy of rich Arab Sheiks? And if this is the case, what’s the point of all the cutting edge engineering developed? The BurjKhalifa is iconic throughout the world, and is a testament of how far humans have developed and evolved scientifically and technologically. It is a vertical city, surrounded by purpose built structures that form a novel picture of urbanisation. In my view, you’d be mad to not be in awe of such engineering prowess.
It is my opinion that it is the work of engineers that keeps society moving forwards. At every stage of human development engineers have been at the forefront of progress. They built the first houses, castles, cars, planes, computers and well now they’re just showing off. The question is: what is the future of engineering? With the world’s resources rapidly running out I believe that the key role of future engineers is creating not only the best solution to a problem but a solution that is sustainable as well. One of the key projects of the future will be making renewable energy a viable option.
And because we don’t really do the topic justice, here is a video that shows what we were really trying to say.
So what was the point of this assembly? Well, you’ve heard of medical society, you’ve heard of debating society, some of you may even have heard of film society but there’s a new sheriff in town - that’s right, Engineering society!
Engineering society starts next Thursday in the Meeting Room at the start of lunch. Anybody is welcome from year 7 to year 13 and it is a great chance to learn more about what engineering has to offer. We will have speakers from leading engineering companies and will have discussions and debates on controversial engineering topics such as High Speed 2. Next week Paul Scapens from Innovative Railway Safety is giving a talk on what life as an engineer is really like.
Feel free to come along if you’re interested,
Thanks for listening