The Chief Executive of the Royal Academy of Engineering reports on the encouraging and committed response from engineers to a call for engineers ‘to help identify solutions, organisations, and contacts’ that could support the response to COVID-19
Dr Hayaatun Sillem CBE, HonFIHEEM, Chief Executive of the Royal Academy of Engineering, reports on the encouraging and committed response from engineers – including many individual and corporate IHEEM members – following a call from the Academy at the start of the ‘lockdown’ for engineers ‘to help identify solutions, organisations, and contacts’ that could support the response to COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has touched almost every aspect of our lives, and posed global challenges at a scale and level of complexity that surpass anything experienced in living memory. Creating effective responses to these myriad challenges is critically dependent on the contributions of a wide range of professions and disciplines. Engineers will be crucial to both developing and delivering solutions across many of these, whether they concern healthcare systems, critical infrastructure, food supply, cybersecurity, or business transformation – and there is no shortage of commitment and passion from engineers to step forward to contribute. From national projects like the Nightingale hospitals and the Ventilator Challenge, to individual initiatives such as small companies pivoting their production lines to make hand sanitiser, engineers have been quick to engage
At around the time that the lockdown was introduced, the Royal Academy of Engineering launched a professionwide initiative, Engineering response to coronavirus (COVID-19) [https://www.raeng.org.uk/policy/ engineering-response-covid-19- coronavirus], asking its Fellows, awardees, and partners, to use their combined engineering expertise and UK and global networks to help identify solutions, organisations, and contacts, that could support the response to COVID-19. In the midst of the anxiety and chaos created by the pandemic, it has been truly heartening and inspiring to see the wave of generosity, public spirit, and ingenuity, embodied in the hundreds of generous offers of support, ideas, innovations, and advice, that we have received.
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