Engineering society holds energy conference

Warwick Engineering Society held its first conference, ‘The Future of Energy’ at the International Manufacturing Centre on 25 January 2014.

The conference was organised by Kostadin Kolev, vice president of the Engineering Society and a second-year Engineering student, and a small team of engineers.

Tickets sold out a week before the event with over 200 attendees coming from around the world.

Several speakers gave keynotes, such as Martin Orrill, head of innovation and technology at British Gas and Reiner Grundman, social scientist and co-author of The Hartwell Papers.

These high-profile speakers were joined by a panel of academics, engineers, business leaders and social scientists, who gathered to answer the question, ‘Do we have the technology to transition to a low carbon economy?’

Students were invited to discover how society would tackle the energy challenges of the future in lectures, discussions, networking sessions and panel events.

Martin Orrill, began with a keynote on the future of transport. Following points for discussion included, can taxation regimes kill a whole technology? How can we use technology to reduce energy consumption at the home?

Attendees were challenged to showcase their research projects and reveal how their project impacted the energy and sustainability industry.

Warwick’s Engineers without Borders society won the £250 cash prize for their project about delivering wind turbine energy in Tanzania.

Yung-Yu Lau, a third-year engineering student and president of the Engineering Society, congratulated the winners: “Their project based on a sustainable wind turbine for developing villages in Africa and raising awareness to younger students in primary schools was inspiring to all.

“Each talk was engaging and held an interesting viewpoints on energy including a speaker in the open panel who argued it is more energy efficient driving to the corner shop than it is to cycle!”

The event was followed with a networking session in which panelists, students and alumni were provided with the opportunity to assess the success of the event and future opportunities within the industry.

Kostadin Kolev, vice president of the Engineering Society explained: “We wanted to show that being an engineer is about taking a holistic look at some of the world’s most pressing problems.

“I think the day was a great success, and a testament to how the Engineering Society has grown. We are already looking forward to continuing this event next year.”

Luke Thornton, director of marketing for Warwick Energy Conference stated: “Warwick Engineering society has started a successful flagship event.

“We think it is important to note as well that Warwick engineering students are taking on the huge and pertinent issues of today, and that they’re not just considering the technology side of things, but the issues surrounding that.”