New Technologies in Engineering

Engineers have always been the people that have taken new discoveries in science and technology and found out ways to make them useful to people.  Back in ancient times engineers were the ones who figured out how to get water into cities, like how the Romans built the aquaducts to get fresh water across miles of land.  Engineers also needed to figure out how to make the discovery of electricity something that everyone could use, and designed and built the power plants and power grids that everyone relies on today.  So when scientists make breakthroughs, it's up to the engineers to find a way of putting this new knowledge to use in the real world.  This is especially true in modern times. Scientists are discovering new things faster than ever and the challenges that engineers need to solve are much more complicated than they have ever been in the past.

One of the biggest challenges that modern engineers face is from creating sustainable buildings, cities, and communities.  This is because current ways of building things results in a lot of carbon pollution in the atmosphere.  This has lead to climate change around the world, and engineers need to come up with new ways that have much less of an impact on the world's climate and use less resources than they do now.  A lot of this can be done by setting new rules and regulations, or even just passing laws that stop people from using power and water wastefully, but if engineers want to be able to do enough to make a serious difference with climate change then they are going to have to look at new technologies to help them do it.

For example, solar and wind power are new technologies that can create electricity sustainably and with no carbon pollution, but it is difficult to find ways to use them to power entire cities.  Some engineers in Australia though have found a way to power an entire office building completely with the solar and wind power it creates on its own, meaning that the building is already close to completely sustainable on its own.  On top of this, the building also recycles all of its own water using the power it generates itself, so it uses a very little amount of the water resources in the city where it is.

Both of these things are very important if the world wants to build sustainable communities.  Fossil fuels like oil and natural gas will start to run out later in this century, and unless engineers begin to design things that require less of this fuel now cities won't be able to keep their electricity for ever.  Also, the population of the world gets bigger and bigger every year, but the supply of fresh water for all of these people to share doesn't grow at all.  So unless engineers can find ways to use less water, there won't be enough water for everyone to drink in the future.

Not all of the new technologies that engineers are using are related to building sustainable cities or fighting against climate change.  Some of the most interesting ones just let engineers build things that have never been built before.  But new technologies are always being experimented with by engineers, and this blog is about all of them.