National Engineering Day 2024
National Engineering Day is an initiative of the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng), aimed at highlighting the role engineers play in our everyday lives and inspiring more to pursue the field.
With the theme for 2024 focused on ‘role models’ we asked some of the Atlantic Pumps’ engineering staff who had inspired them to take up their career in pump and hydraulic engineering. Robert Stephenson, James Dyson, Barnes Wallis, an amazing university lecturer? For the vast majority, their answer was a parent or grandparent. Sure, Isambard Brunel and Elon Musk came up, but it was apparent that our engineering staff were on the pathway before they even reached school age.
Speaking to engineers about their calling, you realise that if you want to be an engineer, all is needed is the opportunity. Building up the UK’s pool of future engineers is not so much as ‘making engineers’, but removing barriers for those who have that yearning, and encouraging that innate burning desire to learn and do. “I've never thought of doing anything else” is a frequent explanation of how they ended up in engineering.
Given the opportunity, engineers fly! Common barriers to an engineering education and career include family background, misconceptions of engineering careers, and stereotypes. Myths and stereotypes need breaking down and opportunities sought for disadvantaged groups to have real-life, hands-on experiences. Atlantic Pumps seek to do this through partnering with educational institutions including Sheffield University’s AMRC (Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre), University of Derby, Institute of Quarrying, the Pump Centre and other bodies.
The Engineering Breed
A frequently occurring theme in the conversations this started was that most displayed strong engineering traits from childhood. It seems most of our engineers came from a family line of mechanics and engineers; typically fathers and grandfathers had worked on steam trains, civil engineering, in mining equipment maintenance, or metal forges.
“I absolutely always wanted to engineer” says Andy Brain, a CAD engineer in the Atlantic Pumps’ R&D team. Starting his career “on the tools” at the age of 16, Andy kept up his learning, keeping abreast of new technology and the changing fortunes of British engineering. In his 30’s he was doing nightshift everyday after his full-time job at a machinery company, adapting to shifts in industry by embracing the latest developments in computer aided design.
In fact, it seems adaption is an inherent strength of the engineering mindset. William Penny, pump engineering apprentice, remembers the being impressed by the way his grandad (a hydraulic engineer himself) was never confused or stuck when they holidayed in diverse cultures abroad. He sees a clear link between this resourcefulness and adaptability with the ideal engineering character.
Rabbi Afoakwa, Electrical Engineer at Atlantic Pumps, credits his upbringing for his interest and skills in engineering. He always enjoyed making, and every toy he was given was opened up and reverse-engineered to study how it was put together. With his father often away travelling, he was the one who was called on to build, fix and service things around the home.
Rabbi grow to appreciate the impact that engineers have on people’s lives. Moving from his home in Ghana after gaining early experience at Electricity Company of Ghana a B.Tech degree in electrical and electronics engineering from Kumasi Tech University, he graduated with a Masters degree (Distinction) from Sheffield Hallam University. Now working on electrical system design and automation at Atlantic Pumps, he has settled in the area passionately pursuing his engineering career.
Rabbi took a break from his busy schedule in Atlantic pumps’ R&D department to answer our question for National Engineering Day: Which engineer inspires you, who is an engineering role model?
“Elon Musk really stands out as an inspiring engineering role model to me. His work with Tesla, SpaceX, and even early ventures like PayPal, shows how engineering can truly transform entire industries and tackle some of the world’s biggest issues. I admire his drive to innovate and his commitment to making things happen, even when the odds are stacked against him.
I listened to an audiobook titled Lift Off: The Early Days of Elon Musk to Launch the SpaceX and the manner the author described his work ethic and decision-making is just out of this world.
What I find most inspiring is his willingness to take risks to make real change, especially in areas like renewable energy and space exploration. He’s ambitious, and bold, and shows how engineering can be a force for good” explains Rabbi.
Listening to Rabbi, you can’t help but notice his passion for engineering as a force for good. “It’s my way of making the world a better place” he says. “I feel it personally, the importance not to compromise on quality”.
As for Paul, he was an engineer from a kid in all but name. Although none of his close family were engineers, his bedroom was an inventors and creators lair from a young age. Always inventing machines to propel things faster and further (from tennis balls to himself), the usual bedroom furniture was hard to see amongst his projects; a self-built electric scooter, homemade 3-D printer, and the aforementioned shoulder-mounted tennis ball launcher (Lynx deodorant propelled type). Things came to a head when his dad invested in the latest fax communication technology, only to have it de-engineered by his inquisitive son.
Trying to escape his engineering destiny, Paul threw himself into pump sales, only to find himself back at inventing new pumping technologies - to better solve the issues his customers were experiencing. Similar to his colleague Andy, Paul spent many after-work hours studying, mostly while the rest of the world was sleeping. He is now a highly qualified electrician and programmer working on Atlantic Pumps’ most exciting cloud-based pump control and fluid data software innovations. He has certainly built upon, and gone far beyond, his intimate knowledge of fax communications!
Luke Middleton, another member of our engineering team is concerned that misconceptions around engineering create an invisible barrier to women – a barrier of expectations. “There’s a misconception of engineering that I think is off-putting to females; oil covered hands, dirty, heavy work – buts its not like that. On the civil engineering course, there was a fairly even male/female representation, whereas the mechanical engineering was like 90% male. Those females that did push through the barriers are some of the best engineers I’ve known”.
As to his own thoughts on engineering he says, "...it combines all the subjects I love – maths, physics, and electronics. I really love learning."
Our research into women in engineering reveals there are still big gaps, especially in certain engineering fields. Most of the women we identified in engineering had arrived at the career through studying geology, earth sciences, biology and medical science. For Tanja Gjerde, it was a fascination with minerals and rocks that got her ‘on the tools’ and learning to drive dump trucks. She is the mining engineer and geologist for thirteen quarries in Norway, according to a recent interview with Liam McLoughlin of AggBusiness.com. Her wide-ranging responsibilities include studying site geology and data, piloting drones, evaluating aggregate quality, liaising with government departments, undertaking sustainability improvements, and discovering new supplies of mineral ores from prime (mining) to secondary (recycled or by-product) sources.
Tanja tells McLoughlin from AggBusiness “My mom is quite into the biology in nature and when I was first introduced to geology, I said to my parents that I’m going to be a geologist. I’ve never been in doubt since…being a geologist isn’t work, its’s a lifestyle”.
Working for Feiring Bruk, Tanja enjoys the work environment and says the company “let people follow their path if they’re passionate about something”. That freedom links closely to something else William Penny told us about his engineering career at Atlantic Pumps “in many jobs you are told how to do it, here you are encouraged to think outside the box and be inventive”.
Passion, lifestyle, calling, variety, resourceful, impactful…words that come up time and again when talking to engineers about their career.
It seems that the only thing we need to do to encourage more engineers is to believe in them, expose them to stimuli – and let them go for it.
Like to make something that solves a problem? If you’re a interested in hydraulics, mechanical or electrical engineering follow us on LinkedIn for job openings and learning opportunities.
Are you seeking innovative solutions to your fluid or dry material movements across site? Our engineers can come to site and work independently, or alongside your own engineering team, to improve your pumping and conveying systems.
