League tables: the top universities for research

[KB]

Collaboration can take a variety of forms at all levels and naturally research scientists use modern communication to facilitate it.
However there are levels of collaboration where physical proximity is essential and indeed there is now a focus on researchers working across labs so skills and facilities and ideas can be shared on a weekly if not daily basis.
I can see how it is different for a theoretical subject like maths.

[daddylonglegs]

so let me get this straight

what you are saying is an architect could build the Humber Bridge from his computer in London - ye right,...pull the other one, it's got brass bells on !

I don"t want to sound pedantic, but as an engineer I have to point out that it is usually engineer's who lead the design and construction of bridges (not architects!)

[Amber]

I agree that our infrastructure is parlous - it's like being in a third world country paying first world prices sometimes. But quite why everything has to be concentrated in the south east I just don't know. I drove from Cambridge to Cheltenham recently and the Cambridge end was gridlocked, even though it wasn't peak time. The cross country links are dreadful. I use the trains a lot too and the constant barrage of ludicrous reminders about how the train is 'formed of three coaches' instead of five so I must 'keep luggage out of the aisles' to allow the trolley service with its range of delicious drinks and snacks through drives me insane when actually people are standing in those very aisles and I have my suitcase on my knee as there is no luggage rack in the 'coach' (aka carriage to the rest of us). If one spends one's time shuffling about the south east it is easy to start believing some of the Government propaganda about high speed rail links, but most of us would settle for a decent service with enough room to sit down and no delays caused by signalling problems or overhead wire damage.

Not sure we can blame the universities though.

[Catseye]

don"t want to sound pedantic, but as an engineer I have to point out that it is usually engineer's who lead the design and construction of bridges (not architects!)

sorry about that.

I have to admit not so long ago I thought an Engineer was someone who fixed my boiler and a Computer Scientist was someone who lived in some broom-cupboard office in the bowels of a department with a body-odour issue that you called upon when one's computer was misbehaving

why Engineers are not given the tittle Dr(as they do in Germany) I do not know

[Rob Clark]

There's no doubt that our transportation links could do with considerable improvement, particularly, as Amber points out, our East to West routes which are generally terrible.

Whether HS2 in any way addresses those issues is a moot point. History shows us that improving links with the capital tends to draw more people to London rather than away from it so politicians are, imo, being disingenuous when they claim it will lead to large numbers of people moving out of London and the south east.

I don't pretend to know anything about STEM or engineering, but I have recently had a book published and I have never met, face-to-face, anyone else involved in the process – agent, lawyer (for contracts), designer, editor or publisher. Such a scenario would have been unthinkable a generation ago but is now commonplace.

[daddylonglegs]

don"t want to sound pedantic, but as an engineer I have to point out that it is usually engineer's who lead the design and construction of bridges (not architects!)

sorry about that.

I have to admit not so long ago I thought an Engineer was someone who fixed my boiler and a Computer Scientist was someone who lived in some broom-cupboard office in the bowels of a department with a body-odour issue that you called upon when one's computer was misbehaving

why Engineers are not given the tittle Dr(as they do in Germany) I do not know

That is OK, unfortunately engineering has a bit of an image problem in UK. I agree that a different title may help our cause.....in France we are called Ingenieurs and indeed engineers need to use a lot of ingenuity, whereas in UK the term engineer may conjure images of dirty engines....this is unfortunate and I think is also partly the reason why the number of females entering the profession is still much too low.

[southbucks3]

Engineer is such a broad term it's use is similar to saying businessman/woman.
From the highly skilled knight in shining armour that turns up to fix your boiler, through to the person suspending themselves from telegraph poles at all hours, the designer of infrastructure, to the designer and tester of international security electronic surveillance equipment, to those who measure decibels and design systems that put a stop to the misery of noise transfer, or those that keep the coal burning on a steam train.

My dad always used to huff and puff about the difference between the title electrical engineer and electronics engineer, the main difference being one wore a boiler suit and smoked cigarettes, the other wore a tweed sports jacket and smoked cigarillos!

Back on topic though, architects rarely leave the comfort of their office if they can help it, even more so on bigger projects, they appoint an architectural technician to project manage and then make guest appearances whilst they do the research from a base that could in deed be anywhere. The need to be condensed in the south east always befuddles me, we are such a tiny country yet cannot spread our skill set around the counties. Research at universities tbh does not indicate a great teaching environment, one of my lecturers very much considered his lecturing hours to be almost a punishment he had to endure in order to be able to appoint a free lackey for his research that year and write his annual tome. The prestige of being part of a great research facility is only really apparent if you are part of the research itself, which in turn at student level can be rather dull. (Particularly when it's equipment callibration a week I forfeited along with many other vocational students on a specialist diploma course and one I will never get back, but apparently the uni made great breakthroughs in industry)