Professional Engineering

The Eye occasionally finds itself courted by TV companies, which gives it a special secret thrill. But since it must remain veiled in a cloak of anonymity to preserve its position as the leading engineering gossip column and confidant, it has been unable to take on the various offers that have come its way. A television production firm called – appropriately enough – Nerd was the latest to flutter its eyelids the Eye’s way, on behalf of the Discovery Channel. Nerd is looking for a male or female aged 25-40 who is passionate about engineering to host a show about a room filled with dream gadgets. Items that might appear in The Men’s Room, as the show will be called, include a wave machine for surfing practice or an “ever-changing” climbing wall. So if you have a hankering for such toys for the boys, why don’t you contact Nerd to see if you fit the bill? Just don’t send your preview tapes to the Eye – it will be subsumed by envy.

The news that Epsom and Ewell MP Chris Grayling is to go on “work experience” at an engineering firm in the petrochemical and rail industries was most welcome, the Eye felt. How easy it is to sit there and pontificate about the problems facing businesses without putting oneself in the hot seat, so to speak. Grayling’s commitment rather reminded the Eye, in a case of life imitating art, of the travails of minister Peter Mannion in The Thick of It, when he makes a fool of himself at the local immigration offices. Eye thought about other politicians it would like to see spending a day at the coalface: David Chaytor at a practice of accountants. Or perhaps Chris Huhne at the DVLA. For engineering firms, let’s see the Deputy Prime Minister at Sheffield Forgemasters, addressing the blank space where that ultra-large press should be. The possibilities are endless. 

And finally: the status issue rumbles on. A reader writes that it is a waste of time for individuals to contact MPs and sign petitions on the status of engineers, although in the Eye’s view the current e-petition is doing pretty well. The reader says the IMechE and equivalent bodies should give up their charitable status, charge more money for membership and get on with being more constructive, acting much like the British Medical Association or the Law Society. They would still act as learned societies. Food for thought...