Meet the Co-Founders of Global Engineering Futures.
Global Engineering Futures has had an exciting journey from its conception in late 2019. Now, in just 12 months, Global Engineering Futures’ volunteers span 20 countries, representing multiple disciplines – the aim of which being to engage individuals globally to utilise their expertise and collaborate towards a sustainable future.
Global Engineering Futures was originally proposed by Thomas Kavanagh before being developed further with the help of Ethan Errington, and David Wickham. Thomas is a Chemical Engineering PhD student researching process automation. Within, Thomas is focused on developing a process automation strategy for the upstream production of monoclonal antibodies used in vaccines, cancer treatments, or against many other inflammatory, cardiovascular, and infectious diseases. Ethan is also studying towards a PhD with the Science and Solutions for a Changing Planet Doctoral Training Program as part of the Towards Zero Pollution Society. Specifically, Ethan is developing nanotechnology-based approaches for removal of oily pollutants from municipal waste-water in ways that could lead to recycling of waste in the future. David studied chemical engineering at Imperial College London where he researched and developed a hydrogen energy systems optimisation model for the transport sector, allowing for the analysis of potential decarbonisation pathways. David is now an engineer at Ameresco where he specialises in data driven approaches to decarbonising the heating and energy sectors.
Thomas, Ethan and David sat down to discuss how it all began, touching upon various challenges faced and notable moments. Thomas first proposed Global Engineering Futures whilst Chair of the Institute of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) Early Careers Committee. Whilst volunteering here Thomas, Ethan and David created Global Engineering Future due to:
1. A need for increased collaboration between disciplines within, and outside of engineering,
2. The lack of diversity and inclusion within existing initiatives aimed at early career engineers,
3. The urgency to address the current sustainability challenges that exist in society.
With Global Engineering Futures, they could address and improve upon several things. The first being, as several studies have shown, that not all engineers are fully aware of the current sustainable development challenges that exist in society.
“From research, the idea of sustainable development, and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, isn't always fully understood or focused upon by early-career engineers. People can mistake sustainable development as only including green energy (e.g. solar panels or wind turbines) or climate change. In reality, it includes a very wide range of agendas such as access to healthcare or access to education. Because of this, it can be difficult to appreciate the breadth of sustainability and the challenges associated with moving society towards sustainable development. From an engineering perspective, we cannot create sustainable solutions if we do not understand the initial challenges. Awareness of sustainability is the first step towards creating a sustainable future.”
There was also saw a lack of a wholly inclusive global opportunities for early-career engineers to get involved in. The initiatives that did exist were often country-centric or were limited to a few select countries.
“Enabling inclusion of the individuals that are brought together to address the sustainable development challenges will lead to a greater diversity in the solutions that are created. While still important, this is where country-centric approaches are at a great disadvantage.”
With an idea of an initiative in place, support was required. Global Engineering Futures received support and funding from IChemE. Additionally, they gained support from the World Federation of Engineering Organisations (WFEO), whose aim is also to increase collaboration amongst engineers. Finally, Imperial College London also helped fund Global Engineering Futures. With similar goals in mind, a collaborative competition with the WFEO Future Leaders Committee was initiated in line with the World Engineering Day for Sustainable Development.
Aida Rafat - Winner of the collaborative competition led by Global Engineering Futures with the WFEO Future Leaders Committee for the World Engineering Day for Sustainable Development.
“We had over 400 people from 70 countries applying for the competition we led with support from the WFEO highlighting the power of collaboration. With the help of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), IChemE, Imperial College London, European Young Engineers and many other individuals, we were able to involve a wide diversity of engineers in the organisation of this initiative. The competition showcased outstanding initiatives from early-career engineers who were working towards advancing sustainability. The winner, Aida Rafat, was addressing fast fashion utilising chemical engineering solutions."
One of the key tools that Global Engineering Futures have developed is The Global Engineering Network that will allow engagement first-hand between early-career engineers and sustainability leaders from across the world. Through this network, early-career engineers will be able to connect with each other giving them the opportunity to learn and collaborate. Additionally, not all early-career engineers are aware of the organisations and initiatives that cater to them which the Global Engineering Network can connect them to. At present, the Global Engineering Network has representation from over 20 countries across 4 continents.
“When developing Global Engineering Futures one of the key objectives was to make a substantial effort to engage engineers that are under-represented. Therefore, when setting up our initial structure, we created a Diversity & Inclusion Department who ensure that all volunteers champion, are knowledgeable about, and enforce Diversity and Inclusion in everything they do. As part of this, we created The Global Engineering Network that is bringing together engineers from across the world. To truly achieve a sustainable future, we must include everyone ensuring those that are at a societal disadvantage have the support they require. This is not a tick-box exercise but a requirement - a greater diversity of people engaged in engineering a sustainable future will create a greater diversity of sustainable solutions.”
Ethan touched upon many memorable moments since the early days of the organisation till today. The support they received from external organisations being an important one.
“It is important to remember that Global Engineering Futures’ mission isn’t based on new, ground-breaking insights. However, the issues addressed by Global Engineering Futures are fundamental and are faced by early career engineers today. The real challenge is therefore in defining new approaches that are tractable on a global scale and open to collaboration with other organisations including those that we have worked with so far.”
An inspiring moment was also when Thomas realised how many other individuals were passionate about achieving Global Engineering Futures mission causing the team to grow rapidly within weeks.
“In March 2020 there were 20 volunteers, then in two weeks we were 50. At this point, lockdown in the U.K. had just begun. However, we were fortunate to be able to spend almost all of our weekends meeting virtually just a few (over 30) extremely interesting, down to earth individuals from across the world who wanted to join the team. It was so exciting seeing how many people were inspired and wanted to work together to achieve some very ambitious goals! We had volunteers coming from all disciplines, including investment bankers, human resources specialists, graphic designers, software developers and more. We now stand at nearly 100 volunteers from over 20 countries and are continuing to offer a volunteer, from any demographic or discipline, the opportunity to contribute towards a sustainable future in our Volunteer Programme.”
Tom and Ethan define sustainability as ensuring that all processes are able to positively impact society, and that they continue to do so long term. People and the surroundings are at the core of their definition of sustainability. They state that we need to understand what needs to be sustainable for people on a local level, on a national level, and on a global level, and how those aspects are all interlinked and interlaced.
For those starting their engineering careers, Thomas and Ethan urge that people look beyond their education or day job to see what they can do outside of these to add value to society. Additionally, they state the importance of engaging with people outside their discipline and network.
“It’s no-good trying to encourage sustainability and trying to be inclusive and promote diversity when all the ideas come from a small group of people who do not step outside their comfort zone to collaborate. No individual, organisation or country can achieve a sustainable future alone. The only way for a sustainable future to be achieved is through collaboration between individuals from differing disciplines, demographics, and organisations. Global Engineering Futures was founded towards enabling this amongst early career engineers.”
Global Engineering Futures’ main priority is to engage with a wider diversity of early-career engineers to ensure that everyone feels welcome. By 2021, Global Engineering Futures aim to have engagement of early career engineers from 50 countries within the Global Engineering Network, increasing to 100 countries by 2022. Additionally, planning is underway for one of the first globally inclusive summits for early-career engineers from across the world to come together and create a sustainable future.