• Question: Tell me about your greatest success in using the principles of logic to solve an engineering problem in your last job.

    Asked by amulligan12 to Cathy, Jaz, Mark, Roma, Rory on 16 Jun 2014.
    • Photo: Roma Agrawal

      Roma Agrawal answered on 16 Jun 2014:

      We did a very cool thing called ‘top down construction’ on the Shard- watch this short documentary all about it! Needed lots of logic to work out how to build it.
      http://www.thenbs.com/nbstv/DesignSpecification/programme.asp?refCode=313331&title=Engineering+the+Shard

    • Photo: Mark Greaves

      Mark Greaves answered on 17 Jun 2014:

      I developed a scheme at a sewage works that had the potential to save both building costs and operational costs (power).
      Gravity is a very underrated thing. Using the principle of gravity I designed a sludge system that reduced pumping needs. Sludge is the solid waste from sewage, its pretty tricky stuff to handle so the less pumping the better. My design eliminated at least one stage of pumping through the use of gravity and a particular type of pump – a ram pump.

      Mark

    • Photo: Rory Hadden

      Rory Hadden answered on 17 Jun 2014:

      I helped to develop a new toilet that burns poop to stop the spread of disease and to generate energy. It is designed to work in developing countries where there is very little infrastructure to deal with waste (I’m sure that Mark an tell you just how difficult and resource intensive a normal water toilet that we use is!).

      Poop doesn’t normally burn so we had to find a way to process it to allow it to be ignited. We also modified the burning to be the same as the flameless burning you see in a charcoal BBQ. We had to logically figure out how to do this because this allows us to recover more of the energy in the poop. The reason I like this is because it turns a waste product (poop) into something useful (energy) while solving the problem of disease spread!

      You can see more about our toilet here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ttFYlEF9as

      Rory

    • Photo: Jaz Rabadia

      Jaz Rabadia answered on 17 Jun 2014:

      When i was working at Sainsbury’s I was looking at ways they could save energy in their convenience (smaller stores) I noticed their energy use was very high even when the store was closed. SO i did a night shift and observed the staff. They forgot to switch off lights and pull down refrigeration blinds and switch off heating. One thing they didnt forget to do was set the security alarm. So using logic and engineering I got a specialist to wire the lighting and heating to the alarm system. So when the last person left the store and set the alarm, all the lights and heating turned off at the same time 🙂 simples – they saved 15% off their energy bill

      Jaz

    • Photo: Cathy Fraser

      Cathy Fraser answered on 18 Jun 2014:

      When we work on part of the electricity system we need to make sure that we can still get power to the whole country even if taking a set of pylons down and replacing them!
      I’ve had to plan a few of these maintenance jobs – you have to make sure the cables that you’re using as replacements can still carry the amount of power required. You also have to work out how much power is required – and this changes throughout the day!
      Plenty of planning, and definately a good feeling when it’s all agreed and you see it happening!

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