Boldly inspiring: National Engineering Day 2024

Pointy ears, a basin haircut and a penchant for one-liners on the perils of human weakness. When it comes to who inspired Howard Rose to be an engineer, the answer is perfectly logical.

“Spock,” says Rose, a trainer in Biocontainment Engineering at The Pirbright Institute. The 1960s star of Star Trek, played by the late Leonard Nimoy, left an indelible mark on his early life.   

“In truth, a whole host of people got me into engineering – some of them fictional TV characters: Dr Spock, and Bones, and Scotty (the starship’s chief engineer).

“They were out there, tinkering with stuff, making things work. I remember watching oscilloscopes in these TV programmes, like a 3D sine wave, rotating around, and I went on to study them at college.

“Later, I came across engineering greats, like Brunel, but for me the spark was science fiction, and at school I realised engineering was bigger: it was electrical, mechanical, electronics, and many other new worlds.”

The institute is, operationally, underpinned by seventy-five per cent engineering and twenty-five per cent science 

Pirbright itself is a voyage through the engineering cosmos. Delivering an ambitious scientific research programme relies on expert insight, from maintaining air handling units, HEPA filtration, boiler steam systems and a combined heat and power plant to high voltage electrical systems, and importantly, security and IT.

As a complex animal virus research establishment, the institute is, operationally, underpinned by “seventy-five per cent engineering and twenty-five per cent science,” says Gary Oldham, senior asset and operations manager.

“Everything we do is controlled through a culture of safety. As specialists in high-hazard engineering, our process safety team was brought together to reflect expertise across a wide range of industrial engineering disciplines – nuclear, oil, pharmaceuticals, FMCGs,” says Oldham, himself inspired by tinkering with boat engines as a child in Northamptonshire.       

For Joanne Patrick, the inspiration to boldly go into engineering came from her family.

“My dad used to run a company selling TVs,” explains Patrick, an IT service desk analyst at Pirbright. “When video recorders came out, we could tune them up. Gadgets were interesting, and later, mobile phones. Working through processes, solving problems, thanks to my dad.”

Simon Mcguinness, one of Pirbright’s team of process safety engineers, also credits his dad.

Everything we do is controlled through a culture of safety. As specialists in high-hazard engineering, our process safety team was brought together to reflect expertise across a wide range of industrial engineering disciplines

Gary Oldham, senior asset and operations manager

“He was an electrician who could always turn his hand to most things and fix items that weren’t electrical. At school, I knew I wanted to leave and do something practical. I was lucky enough to get an apprenticeship as an electrician at Nestle UK in Hayes. When CD players first came out, I found my boss dismantling one in the workshop ‘just to see how it works.’ He wanted to learn, and that inspired me.”

Aaron Sayers, IT service desk engineer, credits key college lecturers for inspiring his engineering future.

“I joined a course at Guildford College where my three tutors – Joseph, Carol and Sandra – made me believe in myself. I finished the course early and loved everything about it: hardware, software, coding. My tutors moulded me into a person that loved technology: they played a massive part in my career and were really influential.”

The challenge of change is an inspiring driver, too, for many Pirbright engineers and IT technicians. Rapid restructuring to face changing demands – from helping the NHS test for Covid-19 to delivering a new data centre or mass testing for Bluetongue virus – is always around the corner.

Our driver is to give our science programmes 100 per cent support

Gary Oldham

With around 65 staff to manage, Gary and the Institute’s senior capability leader, David Shadwell, say good communication lies at the heart of Pirbright’s engineering delivery.

“We’ve restructured several times over the past eight years to meet changing demands,” adds Oldham, “but our driver is to give our science programmes 100 per cent support.”

He reels off a list of acronyms that underpin Pirbright’s safety management systems. HAZOPs, LOPAs (Layers of Protection Analysis), SWIFTs (Structured What If Techniques), FMEAs (Failure Mode Effect Analysis) and C&As (Cause and Affect).

“We’re dealing with some highly contagious animal viruses in high containment, and so we’re treated as a high hazard site by the Health and Safety Executive.

That’s the most rewarding part of engineering – using logic to fix the problem

Simon Mcguinness, process safety engineer

“Communication is key. We’ve opened up channels: we educate our researchers on the tolerances of engineering; they educate us about their scientific needs. For instance, if we take a laboratory out of action for a day’s maintenance, that can translate into a whole week lost to science.”

Inspiring the next generation to take on senior management roles will help to safeguard Pirbright’s future.

“We have our own succession planning and senior management training programme,” said Oldham. “And we’ve brought some training programmes in-house, working closely with our Learning and Development team based on quality assurance, so expertise in HEPA filtration testing and the sealability of buildings can be passed on internally.”

“KPIs, Safety Performance Indicators, and an open management and reporting culture with honest conversations are all paramount for safety. It’s an attitude that we hope continues to inspire us all.”

As Simon McGuinness puts it: “What keeps me in the job is the constant evolution of technology. There’s a split in time between planned and reactive tasks: it’s the small percentage of reactive moments, where people are scratching their heads: that’s the most rewarding part of engineering – using logic to fix the problem.”