Celebrating National Engineering Day
Today is National Engineering Day and we’re marking it by celebrating the incredible diversity of engineers among the students, staff and alumni of the University of Bristol – and the important roles they play in shaping our world (from AI to Z).
From advancing AI supercomputing and stress-testing subsea infrastructure, to protecting our waterways and decarbonising digital media, their work demonstrates the power and possibility of engineering in all its forms.
AI Supercomputing
James Womack and Wahab Kawafi work in the University-based Bristol Centre for Supercomputing as AI infrastructure engineers. The Centre hosts some of the UK’s most sophisticated supercomputers, including the new dedicated AI research supercomputer 
Isambard-AI which is among the most powerful of its kind in the world. The supercomputers supported by James, Wahab and the wider team enable researchers across the UK to explore a wide range of topics in areas such as clean energy and health.
Managing our waterways
Among our many talented graduate engineers are Saum and Nami. They are both graduates of our Water and Environmental Management MSc programme. Nami now works as a hydrogeological engineer in Turkey, carrying out hydrogeological 
investigations of the Sakarya and Konya rivers. Saum works as a water engineer in Kenya involved in different phases of water projects from design to supervision, including treatment plants, dams, and water pipelines.
Sustainability and Structural health monitoring
Senior lecturer Dr Neha Chandarana is a composite materials scientist based in the School of Civil, Aerospace and Design Engineering. She researches sustainability of materials, looking at environmental and societal impacts. She also researches structural health monitoring of composites, working on techniques to detect damage using ultrasonic waves. She said: “It’s a bit like listening for changes in how sound travels through a material, so if something’s damaged, the signal changes.”
Stress testing subsea pipes
Recent graduate Priyanka studied for an Advanced Composites MSc at Bristol. She is now working as a composite test engineer at a company that specialises in manufacturing m-pipe, an advanced solution crafted from PEEK and carbon fibre designed to streamline subsea architecture. She said: “My role involves testing the pipes to ensure they meet the required standards. Honestly, I love breaking pipes – it’s incredibly satisfying to see them perform so close to the predicted values!”
Making video streaming greener 
Dr Angeliki Katsenou is an electrical and computer engineer whose research includes the media communications pipeline: acquisition, analysis, compression, and communication. She is an honorary senior lecturer in networked media in the School of Computer Science and affiliated with the Bristol Digital Futures Institute. Her research focuses on the sustainability of video services, exploring the energy consumption of video technologies and identifying actionable strategies to reduce their carbon footprint while maintaining the user experience.
To find out more about the many ways engineers are helping to solve today’s challenges – and how their work is predicted to evolve over the next 25 years – explore the AI-Z of Engineering published by the Royal Academy of Engineering for National Engineering Day.
To find out about becoming an engineer and the courses available at Bristol visit the Faculty of Science and Engineering.