History Archives - Being Brunel
More Engineering Etymology
June 9, 2016
After pointing you all in the direction of 99% Invisible, I was reminded of another Radiotopia show that I regularly listen to- The Allusionist, whose musings on language inspired me to do a second etymological…Read More
Engineering Etymology
May 20, 2016 1
Engineers are not known for having a good relationship with the written word. But it is the words of engineers that this post focuses on. Today we’ll be taking a look at the origin of…Read More
Engineers Aren’t Entrepreneurs
June 1, 2015 2
Engineers are no longer entrepreneurs; and that’s why nobody cares about us. I went to the IABSE Annual Lecture yesterday. It was, of course, inspiring, as you would expect both from the IABSE and the…Read More
Infamous Engineering Structures
October 7, 2013 8
It seems apt this week, therefore, to discuss some engineering structures that live in infamy; noteworthy in their failure rather than their success. Ronan Point (1968) Younger engineers may not…Read More
6/115: The NCE Graduate Awards
November 1, 2012 9
I’ve done some hasty research into the last five winners of the award instead. The first question is: who is this NCE Graduate of the Year? It turns out the average winner is a 60% male (the statistics are silent about…Read More
Engineering in 40 Years
September 20, 2012 9
Here is my response to the debate topic for this year. I suspect my inability to resist the urge to play with the stanza of ‘debate,’ especially given the speculative nature of the question, might not go down so well- but I…Read More
But Why Tom, Why?
August 16, 2012 3
A question that I get asked, with depressing frequency, is why I became a Civil Engineer. In a strange way, it’s a bit of a veiled insult; normally the question is ‘how’, not ‘why’. It suggests that the reasons for wanting to…Read More
