Edition 41

DTU Times interviewed Dr. Tim
Fox, Independent Consultant
and Former Head, Energy and
Environment, IMechE, United
Kingdom, who was a keynote
speaker at NFEST 2018.
How do you think Engineers,
mechanical Engineers in
specific, can prove beneficial
tackling the losses in food
supply chain?
There are many challenges in
the food supply chain that have
mechanical Engineering in the
root of their solution. Many of
the challenges are to do with
refrigeration, transport vehicles
and mechanical handling
of produce at the farms and
docks and these are all very
straightforward mechanical
Engineering challenges. But the
solutions need to be sustainable,
so we need to find solutions
wherever possible, use clean
energy and work in harmony with
the environment and increase
the efficiency of machines so that
they cause minimal damage to
the environment.
You have been active in
the past about the need to
produce food in urban areas.
What steps according to you
should be taken to increase
the sustainability of food
production in urban cities in
India?
As India moves forward
and becomes much more
urbanised, there are significant
opportunities to use vertical
farming where farm produce
is grown in warehouses using
a racking system and highly
controlled water and air systems
that ensure that the food is of
very high quality with minimal
environmental footprint
and is closer to the point of
consumption. Production close
to consumption reduces the
need for transport and the
environmental damage that
transport causes. Therefore,
vertical farming is a huge
opportunity to have a sustainable
food system in India.
You have stressed upon the
need for clean cooling. How do
you see unmanaged growth in
cooling as a global threat and
what according to you needs
to be done in order to achieve
sustainable cooling in the
future?
Cooling is an enormous
challenge for Engineers
because current cooling and air
conditioning systems are based
on the technologies that were
developed in the 1950s and 60s
and are very inefficient. There is
an opportunity for mechanical
Engineers to increase the
efficiency and combine these
systems with sources of
renewable energy that will
provide a much cleaner solution
for food cooling and food supply
to future customers.
You have tweeted about the
need to change the image
of an Engineer from middleaged
males with glasses and
jackets. What according to you
should be the ideal image of an
Engineer?
There is a historic image of
Engineer that is a stereotype
of a person who is technical, in
glasses and probably a male.
With the sort of challenges we
are facing with sustainability,
the image needs to change to
Engineers that are much more
caring about their environment
and the societal implications
of their actions. In many cases
we should see a bigger input
from lady Engineers who
can bring a different way of
thinking to Engineering that can
complement the thinking of our
male colleagues. So, the image
of an Engineer needs to change
from one wearing a hard hat to
one doing doing useful things for
the planet.
“THE IMAGE OF AN
ENGINEER NEEDS
TO CHANGE”
DTU Times • November 2017-January 2018 • 27