Sign up for this free webinar series
SIGN UP TODAY
How do we as engineers harness digital tools, AI, and other emerging technologies to design smarter systems, improve efficiency, and enable innovation across the engineering sector? The UK Government has identified that persistent shortages in digital and data skills are limiting the adoption of advanced technologies across technical sectors, highlighting the importance of strengthening digital capability for the future of engineering. This webinar series will look to explore digital tools, modelling, automation, software reliability, and the wider transformation shaping engineering roles and practice. It will provide insight into the tools and technologies that are redefining modern engineering.
Digital engineering, machine learning and AI tools are transforming how engineers design, test and validate new products and processes across many industries, including early adopters like aerospace and defence, nuclear energy and additive manufacturing. Physics-based simulation plays a central role in this transformation, enabling engineers to evaluate complex designs faster, reduce physical testing and make more informed design decisions. Emerging generative design tools also enable engineers to think "outside the box”, providing novel designs often beyond the scope of human thinking. Simulation apps and digital twins extend the use of physics-based simulation beyond simulation specialists to allow engineers and decision-makers to use simulation without specialist expertise in computational modelling. Through real-world examples, we will show how organisations are using these technologies to accelerate innovation, improve collaboration and deploy simulation-driven tools that empower teams to make faster, more confident engineering decisions.
Details 12.00 - 13.00 BST Monday, 12 October 2026
Speaker Simon Derry, Applications Engineer, COMSOL UK
Moderator Amit Katwala, Editor, Professional Engineering Magazine
Digital modelling and simulation are increasingly relied upon to support engineering design, qualification and life-extension decisions where full-scale testing is impractical or prohibitively expensive. This is particularly true in safety-critical sectors such as nuclear, aerospace and offshore engineering, where confidence in simulation results is essential. A major challenge is ensuring that simulation models remain reliable when applied outside the conditions for which they were originally validated. Reduced-order models, data-driven approaches and conventional scaling techniques often struggle to predict behaviour across different operating regimes or structural scales, leading to increased uncertainty and the adoption of conservative assumptions. This webinar explores how physics-based modelling and scaling approaches can improve confidence in predictive simulation by enabling the reliable transfer of information between reduced-scale models and full-scale systems. Through practical examples drawn from high-consequence engineering applications, including nuclear systems, the session demonstrates how these approaches can support engineering assessment, asset integrity management, life prediction and continued safe operation while reducing reliance on large-scale testing programmes. The webinar will also discuss how advances in simulation capability can help reduce unnecessary conservatism without compromising safety, enabling more efficient and informed engineering decision-making. Topics to be discussed:
Details 15.00 - 16.00 BST Monday, 12 October 2026
Speaker Peter Akhigbe-Midu, Structural Analysis Technical Lead, Rolls-Royce SMR
Moderator Markian Petkov
Most engineering organisations know AI could help, with documentation, requirements engineering, defect analysis and even design support. However, few have moved past the pilot stage. In fact, McKinsey's 2025 survey found only around one-third of organisations have scaled AI past the pilot stage and S&P Global found 42% abandoned most of their AI initiatives in 2025. To date, most operational engineering data still go unused. This session looks at the gap between what generative and agentic AI can genuinely do in engineering environments today and what's actually being deployed on the ground across rail, manufacturing, aerospace and energy. Drawing on direct experience building AI systems in safety-critical settings, Ali will cover where AI is delivering measurable results, where governance and data boundaries are still the blocker, and what separates organisations that get past the pilot stage from those that don’t.
Details 12.00 - 13.00 BST Tuesday, 13 October 2026
Speakers Ali Parandeh, Founder & CEO, Build Your AI
Moderator To be confirmed
Cooling demand is projected to triple by 2050, with air conditioning expected to become one of the largest drivers of global electricity consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. This session will showcase a novel intelligent cooling technology, capable of reducing cooling energy consumption by up to 65%, achieving COPs exceeding 10, while operating with minimal water use and significantly lower environmental impact than conventional systems. The webinar will also highlight the UKRI-funded £2.8 million S2Cool project, which brings together more than 30 academic and industrial partners to develop and demonstrate next-generation, refrigerant-free, ultra-low-energy cooling technologies. Real-world pilot demonstrations in commercial buildings and hot climates will illustrate how intelligent, AI-enabled cooling can reduce carbon emissions, strengthen energy resilience, and deliver sustainable thermal comfort, helping cool the world without heating the planet.
Details 15.00 - 16.00 BST Tuesday, 13 October 2026
Speaker Muhammad Wakil Shahzad, Professor and Chair in Advanced Energy and Sustainability, Northumbria University Sheng Dai, Professor of Chemical Engineering and Head of the School of Chemical and Process Engineering, University of Leeds
AI is moving quickly from isolated pilots to always-on, multi-step workflows — and that shift is changing how organizations think about cost, governance, and where workloads should run. Join us for a practical look at deskside agentic AI and tokenomics, and how they help teams build, govern, and scale AI closer to where work and data already live with better control over performance, security, and long-term economics. We’ll finish with the Dell Pro Max GB10, a compact high-performance AI workstation designed to bring that local, production-ready capability to the deskside.
Details 10.00 - 11.00 BST Wednesday, 14 October 2026
Speaker Stewart Hunwick, Principal Technologist, EMEA, Dell Technologies
Moderator Joe Flaig, Deputy Editor, Professional Engineering
The application of AI/ML for detecting mechanical problems in machines has the potential to significantly improve conventional condition monitoring approaches. For example it may result in earlier and more robust detection, increased failure mode coverage and improved diagnostic accuracy. However there are multiple challenges when developing an optimised AI/ML approach, which depend on data quality, data quantity, sensor coverage, available test cases and labelling of data; as well as incorporating physics and engineering knowledge. In this session, we will present an introduction to digital tribology, providing an overview of the topic, covering the basics of digitisation through to advanced modelling techniques and high-level strategies for how AI/ML may be successfully applied to improve early wear detection and machinery condition monitoring.
Details 12.00 - 13.00 BST Wednesday, 14 October 2026
Speaker Honor Powrie, Visiting Professor at nCATS, University of Southampton and Senior Director, GE Aerospace Robert Wood, Professor of Surface Engineering and Tribology, University of Southampton
Whilst the development of standards such as TS 50701 and IEC 63452 is driving improvements in implementing cyber security in railway projects, a common pitfall seen is the lack of understanding of what is required when it comes to ensuring that cyber security countermeasures projects implement can be integrated into railway asset owners Cyber Security Management Systems. This presentation will provide an overview of the challenges faced by railway projects and asset owners and highlight technical and governance solutions. Whilst the focus of this presentation will be lessons learnt in the railway industry it is anticipated that it will also be more widely applicable to other industries.
Details 15.00 - 16.00 BST Wednesday, 14 October 2026
Speaker Alex Bishop, OT Cyber Security Lead, Tilt Consulting
Moderator Paul Seller, Non Executive Chair, Tilt Consulting
Faster, better digitalisation of the GB electricity system is critical to meeting the Government’s Clean Power 2030 target, most critically the flexibility sub-target of 10-12 GW of consumer-led flexibility by 2030. This talk will consider what digitalisation is, why we need it and what it enables in the wider electricity system. It will also explore a range of use cases to explain its key role in a transitioning energy sector – this includes upgrading a legacy system, designing and delivery new point-to-point solutions and then creating the real value from integrating point solutions tougher.
Details 12.00 - 13.00 BST Thursday, 15 October 2026
Speakers Eric Brown, Director, Grid Scientific Limited
Moderator Simon Evans, Global Digital Energy Leader, Arup