Elon Musk: Renewable Energy, Automotive and Hyperloop - GineersNow Engineering Magazine

About NWED and WES trending on twitter for 10 hours in the UK and for 5 hours worldwide, and we recorded over 90 mil-T H I S Y E A R I S T H E T H I R D Y E A R of the lion twitter impressions. The day was mentioned inNational Women in Engineering Day, which takes English, Welsh and Scottish parliaments and eventsplace on 23 June annually, and continually grows were supported by numerous high profile celebri-in influence and reaches ever greater international ties, politicians and members of the Royal Family.audiences. The event was established in 2014 to cel- The type of thing we have seen on the day includ-ebrate the 95th anniversary of the Women’s Engi- ed conferences, open days, visits and trips, quizzes,neering Society (WES), a society which was formed videos, competitions, blogs, and social media sup-in the UK at the end of the First World War by port. We were amazed by the range of things thatwomen who were willing but legally unable to con- were thought of to celebrate the day and the level oftinue in the technical and engineering careers that support it received. The day generated an enormousthey had been introduced to during the war. Now, amount of press attention too, with hundreds of re-97 years since the inception of WES, the UK still ports appearing on the day nationally and a growinghas a significant problem in attracting women to international presence. Last year, we saw events thatthe engineering sector, with the lowest percentage take place in India, South Africa, USA, Ireland andof women in the engineering workforce in Europe Canada.at only 8%. This year, the date of National Women in Engi-The day itself is a celebration of the roles of wom- neering Day will coincide with the UK’s EU Ref-en in engineering, and is based on the Internation- erendum. Not ideal! After a few debates about aal Women’s Day model of individual ownership date change we decided to go ahead regardless. Thearound a common goal. Established with the aim of theme this year is Raising Profiles and one of thefocusing attention on the careers available for wom- things that WES is also coordinating is the inaugu-en in engineering, and celebrating the achievements ral list of 50 Top Women in Engineering. This willmade by our women engineers, this day is also a be a great way of raising the profiles of our amazingmeans for companies to look at their own efforts women engineers, and also showing what great roleto encourage inclusivity in the workplace to ensure models we have out there. We are looking forwardthat we meet the skills shortages that we current- to seeing the range of activities that take place againly face. The consequence of this philosophy is that in celebration of this day, and we are gearing up foreverybody feels they have a role to play, and that a whole week of celebrations – both national and in-the onus is on the individual to get involved and ternational - to coincide with our centenary in 2019.do something positive on the day – however big or We would like to encourage you all to get involvedsmall. This was actually the hardest part of the es- in some way if you can. And if it is too late for thistablishment of the day – we had lots of offers of sup- year, then put the date in your diary for next year.port, but we didn’t want support – we needed own- For further information please see the NWED web-ership. We wanted people to let us know what they site www.nwed.org.uk and get involved using thewere doing, but as a small organisation we were not hashtag #NWED2016. Please let us know what yourealistically able to help with anybody else’s event – are planning!all we could do was encourage and send resources.The result has been a day which has been truly di-verse in its response. In 2015, we saw as many as 400individual events taking place across the UK, linkedby the campaign hashtag #NWED. We saw the day ISSUE NO.004 RENEWABLE ENERGY 151

ENGINEERS CREATE MOBILE HOUSES: PROJECT CASAS EM MOVIMENTOBRINGS NEWCONCEPT OF HOUSING TO A GLOBAL SCALE Project Casas em Movimento Brings reality with the help of transferable You the New Concept of Housing to a units and advanced technology. The Global Scale! project of Casas em Movimento is Imagine your house moving to wher- known to have developed in Portugal, ever direction you want without you at the University of Oporto. This proj- doing much at all. This mobile house ect is based on the east-west rotation can make that happen! of the sun for the production of ener- The University of Oporto has creat- gy, adjustment of the lightning in the ed an awesome project— creating a room and the consumption of heat. moving house, which is also capable The house creates energy through of generating energy from sunlight. several photovoltaic solar panels. This house can also be enlarged ac- Thermal cork and numerous complex cording to the needs of the family. structures of timber are added along The architectural world saw the in- with this, to ensure greater amount of troduction of a new concept that pri- stability. marily concentrated on the creation The houses that are created are known of houses that are adjustable. As the to be self-sufficient and help in the family members increase, the house sustenance of energy. As stated above will also increase in size. These type they make use of solar energy and of homes came into existence with the transform into two types of energy, help of artistic groups like the Japa- thermal energy and electric energy. nese Metabolists and British coordi- This makes the house rotation follow nation. They are groups that can be the course of the sun. found in an architectural magazine, The primary attraction of this house known as Archigram. However, most is that it produces twice the energy of the mobile house designs created that it consumes. Excess of electricity never crossed the boundary of the that has been produced can be used page. The only exception is the cool for charging electric vehicles or can Nakagin Capsule Tower situated in be sold off to the main grid. Tokyo. All of these happened in the Wouldn’t it be exciting to live in a twentieth century. house that moves? With people trying As soon as the 21st century arrived, to revolutionize the green movement, new ideas began taking form. Thus, this project is one way to inspire peo- the project has been turned into a ple to use renewable energy more.152 ISSUE NO.004 RENEWABLE ENERGY

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