This page sets out the purpose and overview of the content of this site. Navigating the site is straightforward using the menus or you can get an overview of all of the pages by going to All Pages. If you are interested in engineering – whether qualified technically or not – then this site will hopefully […]
Following on from the philosophical pages we assume here that certainty is only available through faith. But we will not assume that this implies that we are helpless and cannot act to fulfil a proper duty of care. Dictionary definitions of certainty include words such as truth, surity, freedom from doubt, trustworthiness, reliability, dependability, unquestionablness, […]
Processes are central to our approach. Everything – every object – exists in time. Therefore every object has a life cycle and is a process. But the process is set in the context of a system containing other connected processes – some at higher and some at lower levels of definition. We capture those processes […]
What is the point? How do we think? How do we act? What is there? How do we discern or distinguish something from something else? We define an object as anything that we discern. A dictionary definition is that an object is anything that is relatively stable in form or a thing, person, or matter to which […]
Chemical and bioengineers work at the interface between molecular sciences (chemistry, biology and medicine) and large-scale engineering.The new bioengineering discipline of synthetic biology has exciting potential for the design of entirely novel biological chemicals and systems that could prove useful in applications ranging from fuels to medicines to environmental clean-up and more. Chemical engineering began […]
Axioms Principles Corollary: C6 regarding fitness for purpose. What: Hard systems are not universally true i.e. true in all contexts and circumstances. Rather they are dependably fit for purpose to a degree […]
The Crimean War (1853-1856) became the first war where people at home knew what was happening. This was largely because of a new underwater telegraph cable – news could reach London in a few hours. The editor of the Times sent William Howard Russell (1820-1907) who made himself intensely unpopular by describing the conditions in […]
by Neil Carhart The Civil Engineering profession is entering a period of increased focus on complexity, interdependency, the effective delivery of stakeholder outcomes, and for some, the fundamentally broadening of what it means to be a Civil Engineer. Much of this comes from increased urbanisation, demands for sustainability and resilience, digital innovations and a need […]
Engineering Timeline AD Please note that the following table may well be missing some important developments. We would be pleased to receive comments, corrections and suggestions. Engineering Timeline BC 2,000,000 – 10,000 Stone Age Palaeolithic Flaked stone, wood, bone, leather and vegetable fibre tools, hunter gatherers. First evidence of structures of stones to hold branches […]
Axioms Corollaries Principle: P1 of fitness for purpose The systems models should be of appropriate quality as to be fit for purpose. But check that the purposes include all purposes i.e. not just function but risk, safety, affordability, sustainability, resilience etc. Principle: P2 of proper duty of care A duty of care is […]
by Stirrat, GM1, Blockley D I2, Alexander K3, Phillips S4 1 Emeritus Professor of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, University of Bristol, UK. 2 Emeritus Professor of Civil Engineering, University of Bristol. 3 GP & Chair Bristol North and West Locality Leadership Group at Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire CCG, UK. 4 Alliance Director (Interim)| Lambeth […]
by Mike Johnson As Transport for London’s (TfL) ban on Über comes into effect, there appear to be quite polarised views for and against this somewhat disruptive taxi firm. When reading that Über will contest the ban in the courts, I was left pondering what’s actually unique from a systems perspective between Über and those […]
We can apply the systems methods proposed on these pages to physical objects, such as building structures. Conventially they are modelled as action and reaction over time. The loads acting in a gravitational field are the action potential that causes a flow of force through a structure which is then reacted by the foundations. More […]
by David Blockley I am no politician. I did not foresee the rise of so-called ‘populism’ (by that I mean support for the concerns of ordinary people), calls for independence in all of its forms, major shifts such as Brexit and the all too many public financial and sexual abuse scandals. We are all struggling […]
