Engineers 2030: Rethinking engineering and technology skills for the 21st century

Professor Sir Jim McDonald GBE FREng FRSE

Professor Sir Jim McDonald GBE FREng FRSE is one of Scotland’s most accomplished engineers and President of the Royal Academy of Engineering. In HM The Queen’s Jubilee Birthday Honours List in June 2012, Sir Jim was awarded a knighthood for services to education, engineering and the economy. He was appointed a Knight Grand Cross in the 2024 New Year Honours list for services to engineering, to education and to energy.

Professor Bashir Al-Hashimi CBE FREng FRS

Professor Bashir M. Al-Hashimi is internationally recognised for his sustained and pioneering research contributions to advanced semiconductor chips test, energy-efficient embedded systems and the emerging research field of energy harvesting computing. His research has led to substantive innovations in related enabling hardware and software technologies with major application in mobile electronic systems and digital devices. The impact of his research and technology transfer has been significant in both academia and industry across the world. A highly cited researcher, he has published nearly 400 technical papers, with eight best paper awards at international conferences and has authored / co-authored and edited five books and eight book chapters. He is Vice President (Research & Innovation) at King's College London, Arm Professor of Computer Engineering and served previously as Executive Dean of the Faculty of Natural, Mathematical & Engineering Sciences at King's and Executive Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences at University of Southampton.

Professor Kay Bond

Professor Kay Bond is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer and member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE), the Institution of Engineering Designers (IED) and the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET). She has extensive experience of working with IMechE and IED, serving in the areas of academic assessment and accreditation. Kay has garnered extensive knowledge and experience in development and delivery of an engineering curriculum portfolio area in previous roles as Faculty Director of Academic Quality and Enhancement and Faculty Curriculum Development Manager at the University of Nottingham. Within the dynamic environment of TEDI-London, Kay leads the academic team in developing and delivering a curriculum that empowers a diverse student cohort, equipping them with the necessary skills to tackle complex contemporary challenges. Driven by an interdisciplinary, project-based approach, this curriculum emphasises students' professional and global responsibilities. Kay’s pedagogical interests are particularly centred around learning outcomes-based and technology-enhanced education and assessment.

Dr Alice Bunn OBE

Dr Alice Bunn is Chief Executive of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Alice is a Fellow of the Institution and took up her role as CEO in July 2021. Working with our highly valued members and staff, she is responsible for delivering our mission of improving the world through engineering. Alice brings a focus on our values of inclusivity, impact, innovation and integrity - in developing future strategy and in the day to day running of the Institution’s business. In her previous role, she was International Director at the UK Space Agency, responsible for increasing the UK’s global influence in science, security and trade through space. Alice sits on the Board of Engineering UK; is Chair of the Professional Engineering Committee; is President of the UKSpace trade association; sits on the Board of Directors at the US Space Foundation as well as on the World Economic Forum Future Council on space technology. She is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society and is a trustee at the charity SwimTayka.

Andrew Churchill OBE FREng

Andrew Churchill is the Chairman of JJ Churchill Ltd., an aerospace precision-engineering business based in the Midlands. He is a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and of the IET as well as a Commissioner for the Manufacturing Commission. He is also a Steering Board member of the 5% Club, a dynamic movement of employer-members working to create a shared prosperity across the UK by driving ‘earn and learn’ skills-training opportunities. Since 2021 Andrew has been a board member of ADS, the trade association representing the UK’s aerospace, defence, space and security sectors. He has been a member of the Prime Minister’s Industrial, Manufacturing and Infrastructure Business Council and for ten years was on the boards of Make UK (The Manufacturers’ Organisation) and Midlands Group Training Services (a centre of excellence for education, training and development of engineering apprentices), as well as six years as a director with the Design & Technology Association (championing D&T education in schools). Previously, Andrew sat on the Ministerial Advisory Group on Manufacturing and was part of the All-Party Manufacturing Group. Away from work, he is a school governor and a previous district councillor for South Derbyshire.

John Cope

Born to a 14-year-old girl on a council estate, John went into foster care before being adopted. It’s this start in life that drove him to dedicate his career to education, social justice, apprenticeships, and politics to help spread opportunity. He's been appointed to the government’s Digital Skills Council and the board of the Institute for Apprenticeships & Technical Education which oversees the English skills system. Until recently, John was Executive Director at UCAS where he drove forward the inclusion of apprenticeships on UCAS for the first ever time. He recently joined the strategic consultancy firm PLMR at a Senior Counsel to advise on education, skills, and labour markets. Alongside this experience, John is a parliamentary candidate for the 2024 general election and is an elected local councillor in his constituency. Previous experience includes being a political advisor to several cabinet ministers; co-founding the Education Policy Institute; advising FTSE CEOs on labour markets and workforce policy at the CBI; and managing press for ministers during the 2015 general election.

Emma Crichton

Engineering shapes the world in which we all live. Emma believes in the need to reshape how we engineer to ensure a safe and just future for all. She is a chartered civil engineer with six years of experience working on projects within the water industry in Scotland, and over five years of experience working in the social sector with Engineers Without Borders UK. Emma is an emerging leader and advocate for globally responsible engineering, as demonstrated by her roles as Innovation Director at Engineers Without Borders UK, as a trustee at Azuko (an architecture charity), and trustee with Useful Simple Trust (a B-Corp and Social Enterprise). Additionally, she sits on the Engineering Council (UK regulator) board as a representative of the Institution of Civil Engineers.

Professor Jarka Glassey FREng

Professor Jarka Glassey completed her biochemical engineering studies at the Slovak Technical University in Bratislava and currently works at Newcastle University, UK. Her research approach is based on the use of machine learning, AI and hybrid modelling for bioprocess development, scale-up and process intensification. She is currently VP Executive of EFCE and VP Executive of ESBES and is actively involved in the EFCE working party on Education, WP on QbD as well as the Measurement, modelling, monitoring and control section of ESBES. She was elected a Fellow of Royal Academy of Engineering and is chairing the Board of Engineering Skills X, Engineering Skills for Safety. She is passionate about the education of future generations of chemical engineers and her research in this area includes active teaching methodologies (such virtual and augmented reality) in education and assessment of knowledge and professional skills.

Dr Sarah Jayne Hitt

After earning her PhD in Literature (specializing in Native American Studies and Literature of the American West), Sarah was surprised to find herself establishing a career in engineering education at the Colorado School of Mines. There, she served as the Director of the Writing Center, Director of the McBride Honors Program in Public Affairs, and Founding Director of a First Year Honors Program designed to bring the arts into ethical engineering design and to recruit diverse students to engineering. While serving as coordinator for a module called “Nature and Human Values”, it received an “Exemplar in Engineering Ethics Education” award from the National Academy of Engineering. In 2019 she moved to Hereford to become Founding Professor of Liberal Studies at a startup higher education provider, the New Model Institute for Technology and Engineering (NMITE), specialising in bringing ethics, communication, sustainability, and a place-based approach to the curriculum. Now, she acts as Project Manager for the Engineering Professors’ Council’s Ethics and Sustainability Toolkits, is Visiting Professor in the School of Computing, Engineering, and the Built Environment at Edinburgh Napier University, and is Lead for Transferable Skills at NMITE’s Centre for Advanced Timber Technology. She has recent publications in the International Handbook of Engineering Education Research and Engineering and Technology Magazine.

Professor Tim Ibell FREng

After graduating from the Universities of Cape Town and Cambridge, Tim spent two years in industry before completing postdoctoral research at Cambridge. He joined the Department of Architecture & Civil Engineering at the University of Bath in 1997. In 2002, Tim spent a year in the United States on a Fulbright Distinguished Scholar Award. He was promoted to Professor in 2003 and held the role of Head of Department from 2005 to 2008, and again from 2010 to 2013. Tim was Associate Dean (Graduate Studies) from 2008 to 2013 followed by Associate Dean (Research) from 2013 to 2017. After a year at Cambridge as the Sir Kirby Laing Professor of Civil Engineering, he returned to Bath in 2018, where he is presently Dean of the Faculty of Engineering & Design. Tim was President of the Institution of Structural Engineers in 2015, and is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. He has been a member of the Joint Board of Moderators (JBM) since 2005, and is a past Chair of the JBM. He has also served on two REF panels in 2014 and 2021. He and his team have received six best journal-paper awards, including three each from the Institution of Structural Engineers and Institution of Civil Engineers. His research has involved realistic assessment of structures, strengthening of structures using advanced composites, fabric-formed concrete structures, and the achievement of net-zero structural design of buildings.

Hiba Khan

Hiba is a Chartered Civil Engineer and Sustainability and Social Outcomes Lead (IDS) with more than 9 years’ experience in international development, sustainability, engineering design, project and stakeholder management, and project implementation within the engineering, management and development consultancy, Mott MacDonald. She also sits on the Board of Trustees of the UN Global Compact Network UK, the world’s largest corporate sustainability and social responsibility initiative. Hiba has helped to design and construct irrigation schemes to increase food security and farmers’ incomes in Uzbekistan, Tanzania and Myanmar, reduce flooding and erosion that claims hundreds of metres of land each year in Bangladesh and helped water companies in the UK to reduce leakage. Hiba has also led the International Development Unit to operationalise sustainability and social outcomes and is currently managing an innovation project to mainstream nature-based solutions and drive collaboration within the water sector and beyond.

Jade Kimpton

Jade Kimpton is an apprentice substation engineer at National Grid, with her apprenticeship she studied a foundation degree in ‘Electrical Power Engineering- Transmission’ where she achieved a distinction and was awarded the ‘Best Student in Electrical Power Engineering (Transmission) for Outstanding Results’. Jade’s role as a substation engineer primarily involves establishing safety from the system to ensure that work on substations can be carried out safely. Jade’s role also involves carrying out maintenances and repairs on substation assets to ensure their safe operation, this ensures that the UK’s electricity supply remains reliable. Substations have a vital role in connecting renewable generation onto the transmission system and enabling the green energy transition. Jade’s future career goal is to become a commissioning engineer where she will be responsible for the commissioning of these renewable generation connections. Jade is keen to encourage more women to consider an engineering career in the energy sector and she has been active in trying to promote women in engineering. Jade was the vice-chair of the Women’s Engineering Society Apprentice Board where she organised a networking event for 50 female engineering apprentices. Jade has also worked with organisations such as BBC Bitesize and the Gatsby Foundation to further promote the benefits of engineering apprenticeships and to highlight how rewarding a career in the energy sector is. In 2023 Jade was awarded the ‘IET Young Women Engineer of the Year- Mary George Memorial Prize for apprentices’ for her contributions to engineering.

Manoelle Lepoutre

Manoelle Lepoutre is , Vice President Académie des Technologies, France. A graduate from the ‘Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Géologie de Nancy’ and the ‘Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Petroles et Moteurs’, Manoelle has had an international career in industry and the energy sector for over 40 years, with 20 years in high profile C-suite positions. She has broad experience in innovation and transformation in a range of roles: Business Sustainability: Design and implementation of politics, process, road map, action plans, venture capital in New Energy and new mobilities and as Senior VP of Research & Development, Exploration and Production Branch at TotalEnergies. She is a non-executive Director and President of the Strategy and ESG Committee of the Eramet Board. With multiple experiences of boards, advisory and scientific committees, she had been advising senior executives in their strategy and sustainability journey since 2022, and was elected as Vice-President of the French ‘Academie des Technologies’ in January 2024.

Professor John Mitchell

John E. Mitchell is Professor of Communications Systems Engineering in the UCL Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering and Co-director of the UCL Centre for Engineering Education. Between 2012 and 2016 he was on secondment to the UCL Engineering Sciences Faculty office, where he led the introduction of the Integrated Engineering Programme, a major revision of the curriculum across the engineering faculty. In 2018 he was part of the team was awarded the HEA Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence (CATE). He has published widely on curriculum development, active learning and issues of diversity within engineering education. From 2015 to 2022 he was Vice-Dean Education of the UCL Faculty of Engineering Sciences. Professor Mitchell is a Chartered Engineer, Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, President of the Engineering Professors’ Council, Vice-President Publications of the IEEE Education Society and was until recently a Member of the Board of Directors of the European Society for Engineering Education and Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Education.

Julian Perkins

A queer POC who works as a mechanical design engineer. He has spent most of his engineering career in the USA working in subsea oil & gas, designing subsea emergency equipment, and flight aviation, designing flight simulators. Moving to the UK in 2021 allowed him to experience new cultures, new perspectives, and the new possibility of working in the rail industry. He may be an engineer by day, but by night, he is a co-creator of an US-American social justice zine, Enjambment, and a creator of a podcast that focuses on the extraordinary stories of the “ordinary” human, while competing as an international volleyball player. By being a part of Engineers 2030, he hopes to expand the perception of who is an engineer and what an engineer looks like to reflect the diverse, intersectional society we live in today and to remove barriers and preconceptions for future engineers.”

Paul Skerry

Paul has been a Chartered Engineer since 2003 and is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), Chartered Institution of Civil Engineering Surveyors (CICES) and the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3). With a background in construction, he has 30 years experience, which began in operations before moving to a specialist role in training and development in 2012.  He recently joined IOM3 as the Director of Membership and Professional Standards, from Laing O’Rourke, where he focused on training, development and future skills for technical staff. Prior to that, he was responsible for early career development at BAM which included the delivery of a variety of training schemes. His CV includes non-executive roles associated with technical skills development, including External Examiner for Leeds Beckett University and membership of the IfATE Construction Route Panel. For a number of years he was Chief Examiner for CICES and Co-Chair of the Employers Group and an active Panel Member for Experiential Learning and wider JBM activity at the ICE. He recently became a Trustee for Engineers Without Borders, focussing on the personal contribution scientists and engineers can make to carbon reduction. At IOM3, he is looking forward to supporting members to become the best versions of themselves while working towards achieving these ambitious goals.

Kayley Thacker

As a third year Chemical Engineering student at the University of Birmingham, my academic journey so far has been driven by how we can use sustainability and global responsibility as tools to create a better world. I have proactively been involved with Engineers Without Borders during my time at university as the President of my Chapter, where I lead a group of students passionate about enacting positive change. I am keen to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration between students, as I believe through working together we can best amplify our call for change. I have also recently stepped into the role of Student Champion, where I have been able to play a key role in advocating the importance of integrating globally responsible thinking into our education system. My experiences have strongly reinforced my belief that there is a critical need for engineering education to be reformed and adapt to the rapidly changing world we live in. I am excited to be part of this inspiring movement, and to create tangible and valuable change across the engineering sector.

Gary Wicks

Gary is Principal Innovation Architect - Disruptive Innovation and a leading Airbus expert in innovation and transformation with over 35 years of experience in engineering, research & technology, organisation and business development for the advancement of commercial aviation and aerospace. Since graduating in electrical and electronic engineering in 1985, Gary has developed strong engineering foundations through a career in automotive, defence, and commercial aviation, where he was one of the architects of commercial aircraft modular avionics and leader of associated international standards activities, a member of government assessment panels for more electric and power optimised aircraft at both UK and European programme levels, and laterly one of the architects of the next generation of vehicle health management systems. After a very fulfilling period as Head of Airframe Systems Research & Technology at Airbus Commercial Aircraft, he is now well into the “third phase” of his career. Gary is one of the founders of the corporate innovation function and ecosystem throughout Airbus, and as the leading innovation architect at Corporate level he continues to exploit his engineering mindset and competence to leverage the rich and highly diverse engineering and technical talent (skills and cultures) available in Airbus to address the most strategic business and ecosystem challenges facing the aerospace sector

Professor Chris Wise FREng

Chris co-founded Expedition in 1999 and the Useful Simple Trust in 2008. Prior to this, he worked for Ove Arup and Partners from 1979. Serving in the UK, Australia and USA, he became Arup’s youngest Director in 1992, later appointed one of five Board Directors responsible for Building Engineering. He has a reputation for hands-on creativity and innovative engineering projects, both as design lead, and in collaboration with some of the world’s leading architects. He has also been a long-time innovator in the field of engineering design education, including founding the Constructionarium while the first Professor of Creative Design at Imperial College. In 2012, Chris was honoured with two Gold medals, receiving the highest individual award from both the UK’s primary professional engineering institutions, IStructE and ICE, in recognition of his design and educational contribution to engineering in the design community and society.