Engineering eye - May 2014

Eye quite fancies itself in silver hotpants. But in the comforting environs of its own home, where Mrs Eye (or perhaps Mr Eye) claims to appreciate the spectacle. Eye certainly would not consider wearing them at PE’s offices in Chelsea, or indeed at a recent notable engineering trade fair attended by thousands in Birmingham, where a young lady was being paid probably not very much to do just that, wowing punters otherwise disengaged by a sterling line-up of the latest, er, machine tools. Eye is all for “sexing up” the industry, but felt this was retrograde in the extreme. What were young female engineers looking for inspiration meant to think? Alright, you’re disseminating information on spark wire erosion. But in hotpants and a croptop? This is not some mealy-mouthed matter of political correctness. If it walks like a dinosaur, talks like a dinosaur, and enjoys public displays of hotpants, it’s probably a brontosaurus. Meanwhile, Allan Cook CBE was giving a seminar on skills shortages in another room. The odds of filling those shortages are lengthening.

Could we be asking too much in expecting grubby gas fitters on television drama series not to be described as engineers? Reader Ian Berry believes we may be “barking up the wrong tree” in our desire to see engineers, er, fictionalised realistically. Berry suggests we instead push for more reality TV whereby gals and guys in the profession put themselves forward when some uber-firm unveils a technological triumph on the news. “At present one can almost invariably tell whether a report on, say, a technological breakthrough, originates from the UK or from overseas by whether due credit is given to any engineers involved or whether the advance is merely attributed to unspecified ‘scientists’,” opines Berry. “Changing the culture would require a concerted effort by engineers engaged in such projects to put aside their natural modesty and insist on their role being properly acknowledged.” 

If you want to be a millionaire - study engineering.  That was the advice trumpeted in an article in the New Statesman which popped up on Eye’s Twitter feed suggesting that research had shown that engineering was the best degree to study if you wanted to become wealthy. The piece crunched together the academic histories of the world’s millionaires and found that engineering was the most studied subject, leaving economics and law flailing in its wake. Eye thinks the result was never in doubt.

If you have any news, rumours or gossip, email the Eye at engineering.eye.pe@gmail.com