The Institute of Water is delighted to invite people to join the One Day Engineering Conference, held on the 2^nd April 2019.

Titled: ‘Back to the Future – building on our engineering heritage to shape the future of the water industry’, the Conference will be hosted by Institute of Water Vice President Engineering Jo Parker and will feature parallel themes of innovation and building on the water industry’s great engineering past.

The Conference will present case studies looking at challenges and innovative engineering solutions.

There will also be a panel discussion on how we can recruit the best technical people to respond to future challenges faced by the water industry plus an examination of the supply and demand for engineers in general and looking at some ways in which young people can be attracted to engineering. Delegates will contribute to round table discussions, reviewing engineering skills needed for the water industry referring to the past, present and future.

 Institute of Water Vice President Engineering and Director at Watersheds Associates, Jo Parker, said:

“Our current water infrastructure is still heavily reliant on what the Victorians built for us. Whilst this has certainly stood the test of time, we have reached a point where we must look again at how engineering innovations can help deliver our water in the future.  

“I’m delighted to have the opportunity to host this conference at the Discovery Museum in Newcastle. The museum proudly displays many engineering marvels from throughout the ages and highlights how we must continue to look at the past to engineer our future.”

The One Day Engineering Conference is part of the Institute of Water membership benefit. Every six months the Institute of Water holds a specialist one-day conference, rotating the disciplines of Engineering, Environment and Science. These are free for members to attend and is an excellent CPD opportunity. Non-members can also attend at a competitive rate.

The Royal Academy of Engineering called on engineering organisations to increase their use of data to measure and improve diversity and inclusion (D&I) in the profession at a ‘Data Driven Culture Change’ event yesterday.  Attendees also debated the state of D&I in engineering organisations.

The benefits of a data driven approach for both large and small companies were demonstrated by presentations from multinational IBM and Customem, a start-up focusing on capturing hazardous chemicals from water. Gary Kildare, Chief HR Officer of IBM Corporation Europe, highlighted the potential of data and artificial intelligence s to help improve and extend the diversity of workforces. Customem’s CEO and co-founder Henrik Hagemann outlined his philosophy of building a small team with specialist skills whilst consciously looking for maximum diversity.

At the event, attendees from across the engineering profession discussed the initial findings from a survey conducted in the summer of 2018 to shed light on the state of D&I in engineering employment – the full report will be published next year.

The survey found differences in the perceptions, actions and experiences of engineering employers of different sizes in relation to D&I, and that smaller organisations typically face challenges that limit their capacity to promote D&I. The Academy plans to address this by working with start-ups and SME leaders from the Academy’s Enterprise Hub to develop guidance specific to smaller organisations.

Many engineering employers, especially smaller organisations, thought it unlikely that increasing D&I in their business would reduce or eliminate skills shortages, but they did identify other benefits including improving company image or reputation; improving compliance with legislation; and increasing collaboration.

Previous research, “Creating cultures where all engineers thrive” found that inclusion benefits the performance of individual engineers, with 80% reporting increased motivation, 68% increased performance and 52% increased commitment to their organisations.

The Academy launched guidance at the event to give leaders, managers and people managers across engineering the tools to use existing and new data as a powerful lever for change.

John McCollum, Engineering Director a BAE Systems and member of the Academy’s Diversity and Inclusion Leadership Group Steering Group, said:

“Measurement of diversity and inclusion is crucial to effect change across the engineering profession. The profession needs to become better at measuring diversity and inclusion to target interventions and actions, and make meaningful progress.”

Measures for D&I in engineering were developed by the engineering companies working with the Academy to provide a framework to drive change across organisations, from large corporations to SMEs, and irrespective of whether they are beginning their D&I journey or progressing towards maturity or beyond. The measures are validated by the Employers Network of Equality and Inclusion (ENEI) and tested with both large corporate and SME organisations to confirm relevance and proportionality.

The  ‘D&I in engineering measurement framework’ can be downloaded here: https://www.raeng.org.uk/policy/diversity-in-engineering/business-benefits-key-facts/diversity-group-analysis

[1] https://www.raeng.org.uk/news/news-releases/2017/november/creating-cultures-where-all-engineers-thrive-can-t