An Explanation

So I know what you’re thinking: it’s been seven hours and ten damn months since you left without saying anything. Where were you when the budget was decided? When they put the M6 Toll up for sale? When the Force … Read More

AEC Hackathon: Engineers Wanted

Something fun is happening this July. The ACE Hackathon is making a return trip to London! Having somehow missed the last visit of this international event, I’m determined to go…Read More

The Parable of the Leader and the Manager

A few weeks ago I was listening with half an ear to someone talking about their career as a contractor (lit. freelancer, rather than the “actually getting things built” kind). Counting off the different jobs he’s done for various firms, he paused at his time as a manager. Looking thoughtful he announced “and the funnyRead More

Art and Approximation: A Review

“It’s better to be roughly right than precisely wrong”

Attributed to John Maynard Keynes (an economist), few quotes so accurately reflect my experience in design. Throughout my career I’ve become increasingly technical- I even…Read More

IABSE Future of Design London 2015

What is there to say about the Future of Design conferences that hasn’t been said before? Tom has reviewed previous conferences with aplomb and we (as the organising committee for FoD London 2015) are…Read More

An Evening With BaseStone

We’ve all been there; it’s practically a rite of passage for a growing engineer- that arch needs inspecting, that detail needs checking, the designer has (as usual) asked you to do something impossible…Read More

Being Brunel For Three Years

I’ve been Being Brunel for three years, today. This is the 157th unwarranted opinion I’ve sent out into the virtual wilderness about my chosen profession. There’s something oddly disconcerting about the coincidences…Read More

Engineering Is Art: 300 – 349

It seems apt that the official Being Brunel mad-rush season comes to an with this post- as the last-push of daily doubles to get #EngineeringIsArt back on target reaches its head. After today we return to regular, weekly…Read More

Engaging the Next Generation? Talk.

I was lucky enough to be invited by Alison Watson of Class of Your Own to give a presentation with a different audience than my usual. I’d be talking to a room full of teachers and industry leaders rather than my…Read More

#IStillLoveCivilEngineering

I won* the #ILoveCivilEngineering competition! I’m a bit late reporting on this, but in my defence I had been waiting for a go-ahead that never came. (*) I also didn’t win precisely, my python-esq entry got the creativity accolade, which … Read More