Hello, I am Hayley Loren, I'm a marine engineer and I am joined by Alex Knight who is a mechanical engineer
And today we are chatting about mechanical engineering. So what is it what's involved and what sort of jobs
can you go into? so if you're interested in mechanical engineering this is the chat for you!
I make videos about engineering. So if that sounds good to you then consider subscribing. I can't say subscribing! Oh well that can stay in!
So what is mechanical engineering? Alex: Mechanical engineering is
creating, designing
making, building and improving
things
Systems in the world around us. So can that relate to any industry? I would say it relates to pretty much every industry
Everything you come across everything you touch everything you use will at some point more likely than not
will have had a mechanical engineer involved in the design or the creation or the build or the maintaining of it
So what industry you in at the moment? I'm actually
predominantly in civil engineering industry now
I used to be much more in mechanical engineering and systems engineering
but I've moved into a more civil infrastructure based organization, but I still work with a range of mechanical and
civil and electronic and electrical engineers
So when you first started what was your first job? My very first job actually was working for a medical engineering company
so I was
creating and testing
sensors that went on a little device for kids with asthma. So doctors
could check whether their asthma was getting better or worse and then adjust their medication accordingly
so it's really interesting because I was straight out of
university and went to work for this tiny little company only five people and we were doing something really
important and really making a difference to children's lives and I've got to go into hospitals and do testing on this device and
work in all sorts of different areas of
Production and manufacture and testing and clinical trials. So it's fantastic for a first job
It sounds like it's good because when I was young I used to have one of those inhalers. Yeah. Yeah blue ones
Yeah, and you just have to kind of gasp if it was working
Yeah
And the trouble is when you go to get your asthma checked and you have to do what's called
spirometry and you have to take a really deep breath and then breathe out as fast and as hard as you can okay it actually
Makes you cough and it's really unpleasant for kids and some kids can't even do it
Whereas the thing we were designing was actually to make it a lot more easy
You could just breathe into it normally or even just speak into it and it would pick up how well your asthma was
Coping that day. So so what was the actual mechanical part of that?
so it was some design so designing the the housing that the sensor would go into to make sure that we
Captured the right amount of airflow over it
and also the testing element of its there working in a lab and
Testing to make sure that the sensors were repeatable you got repeatable results from them
And also working with suppliers to get these sensors that actually had a sort of chemical film on it
So, although I wasn't the expert in the chemical film
We had a biochemist who was expert in that and I did the mechanical design of how to house that and keep it safe
So that kids couldn't pull it out swallow it you know what those kind of thing
Yeah, when you were talking about that in the kids, I suddenly just jumped to toys
Yeah, come mechanical because obviously you've got those little trucks like my got this little car the drives around it
Yeah, is that mechanical? Of course it is. Yeah, everything is mechanical engineering
So yeah, I've got two kids my kids play with toys that have been designed manufactured by mechanical engineers and product designers
You know see work together, but in terms of how something actually works
Then you need a mechanical engineer to design
and test that to make sure it's gonna do what it needs to do and that it's safe so planes
Obviously cars and his form of transport and if I'm a transport
Anything you can think that you do you come in contact with in your life?
So from getting up in the morning to turning the shower on how does the water get there?
How is the shower a system designed to going downstairs and making your breakfast? Where's the food produced?
How does it get to where you need it to get to in the shops?
Through turning the light on and the TV on how does the electricity get to where it needs to go so energy production energy
Transmission, you know, everything is a combination of different types of engineering but mechanical engineering is so broad
That really a touch on so many different elements and kind of has weaves into all different types of engineering
Isn't it crazy to think that it's just
Surrounds us. Yeah the time yeah, you can't get away from it
and that's why we need more engineers because everything we rely on in our lives is
Engineering like engineering is fundamental to everything we need and especially when you think about the future
Addressing those kind of global challenges. We've got we're gonna need more engineers and your mechanical engineers, but more broadly more engineers
Actually to help us address those global challenges and achieve our global goals speaking of then getting into engineering and we need more engineers
What would your advice be if there's like an a-level student thinking or should I go into engineering?
What should I study for a level two? Actually, what would your advice be?
Well, I suppose traditionally as maths and science like you do need basic maths
It's very hard to do some of the things you need to do to say understand how stronger material is or understand how something is
Going to perform at what point it's going to fail
If you can't do the maths to understand the calculations around how that thing is going to perform
But I wouldn't say you need to be a math genius. You just need to have
enough math ability so maths is a good one, obviously sciences, but also things like the creative side of things so arts or
Technology, we need that creativity to provide the innovation that's actually going to make things better and move us forward
That's so true. I've been I've met quite a few
Engineers who did art? Yeah, I made it music so they only did masters
they're one a level and then I thought it was creative and
actually, it really really helped them go through their careers because you can think differently and I think and my husband is an engineer as
Well, he didn't do maths a-level at all
So he did physics and then when he got to university he did a foundation in maths for a year
Alongside other subjects to help him get the basics that he needed and now he works in energy from waste plants and does
You know all this fantastic stuff and he's a fantastic engineer, but he didn't actually have my salable
I didn't either he's also charted, you know, so he doesn't stop you getting charted there. I don't think any limit really
That's a great thing. There are so many different ways to go into engineering now
So what if you could work on any project that exists right now? What would you work on Wow a great question?
Well, I have to say although I've moved away from medical engineering
That's where my career started and I've gone round the houses from submarines to bridges
But I feel like I would love to get back into something
That's really making a fundamental difference to people's lives
And I feel like there's the health and medical side of engineering is so fundamental
so
I would love at some point and I don't know where my future engineering crew is going because it goes up and down and all
Around palliative but one day I'd love to get a link back into health and medical engineering and ideally working with children my goodness
the amazing thing
I always think about engineering is that you can find something that you're genuinely passionate about an industry and then you can just look into
It and see okay, what type of engineering is involved in that industry so you can work in things that really make a difference?
Which is partly why I went into it
I know it's renewable energy and things like that
If you have any questions at all for Alex and feel free just to drop them in the comments
And I'm sure you'll be happy to absolutely yeah, and thank you for joining and see you next time