Welcome to The Enviro Engineer Website
Having retired from a career with nearly 50 years’ experience in Engineering, I have now set up this website. The reason for this is to provide interesting information for anyone, including young engineers or scientists. The site will provide information of various disciplines such as science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
So, what makes me an expert? I will try to answer this question on this Home page. This includes a brief history of my career in engineering, including my background.
How the Science and Engineering started
Firstly, my interest in engineering probably started in my early teens when I stripped down and rebuilt my bicycle. I then went on to eventually build my own bicycle from scratch. Also, an interest in history and the military as a teenager, resulted in making castings of model soldiers. After that, I joined a period re-enactment society because of this interest in history and the military that remained into my early 20s. I used my practical skills during that time to construct replica muskets for the re-enactments. Once I left school, I applied for a course run by the local technical college.
The local technical college was advertising a one-year pre-apprenticeship course at the time I left school. I joined this course as it gave school-leavers a taste of the type of careers in both engineering and the construction industry. The course included practical modules in vehicle maintenance, bricklaying, welding, carpentry, electrical wiring and workshop skills. The course also provided classroom sessions in mathematics, mechanical science and technical drawing.
Image of profile cutting machine by wqh364330634 from Pixabay
My Engineering Apprenticeship
After the pre-apprentice course, I started my working career as an apprentice mechanical fitter, obtaining City & Guilds qualifications at the Inverness Technical College. Once I completed my apprenticeship, I trained in drawing office practices and worked as a Hydraulic and Pneumatics engineer. My next career move involved working in the drawing office of an engineering fabrication firm. They produced steelwork for the offshore industry. Due to a downturn in engineering construction, redundancy forced me to change direction when I moved to Glasgow. I was then employed with a software development company writing software code.
A Science Degree
Following a spell working in Glasgow as a software developer, I moved back to my home area and undertook higher education. After obtaining a Bachelor of Science degree with distinction. Following an approved programme in Applied Environmental Science. The degree was at the UHI Millennium Institute, now the University of the Highlands & Islands.
Change In Direction
Hence, with my new environmental qualifications, I started work in a small Civil & Environmental engineering office. My role was providing environmental design solutions for the housing and construction industry. During this time, I took further training courses in Sustainable drainage and flood modelling. I also studied in my spare time and obtained a Diploma in Pollution Control through the Open University.
At the end of 2011 I stepped down as a company director to go self-employed as an environmental engineer. During this period, I carried out drainage design for private developers, ground investigation and flood risk assessments.
During the last few years I achieved membership of the Institution of Environmental Sciences and associate membership of the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management.
The rest of my website will try to investigate the STEM subjects of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. This website will I hope to demonstrate how these subjects all link together throughout history.
Hopefully, I will be able to supply further information on science or engineering subjects and add further information to this website over the coming months.
