Few things make me proud to be a professional engineer. At parties, I find myself claiming to be an accountant to boost my cred. However, BBC2’s The Big Life Fix with Simon Reeve has made me proud.
Born with no hands or feet, but want to ride a bike like your teenage mates? Ask an engineer to make one for you.
Had a stroke and can no longer speak to your wife? Have an engineer make you an iPad stylus and app to trigger snips of your voice taken from old home videos.
An artist with Parkinsons who can no longer hold a pen? Well, you get the idea.
Watch either episode and see if you have dry eyes at the end.
This could well be the kick up the arse I need to get out of Industrial Printing (where, my colleagues remind me, we design the printers to print the codes to stop people poisoning themselves with gone-off food or conterfeit drugs) and into something more life-affirming. Or, more likely, back into broadcast audio gear where I make radio listeners happy (and my family poorer).
Thanks for this – I’d missed this completely – brilliant TV.
I happened upon this series by chance, and you are quite right! Brilliant idea – get people with a problem to talk to bright people who can sort things out. Just watching the creative process is fascinating – top, top programme!
I do have a problem with the clever-clever language, but that’s possibly just me.
They’re not inventors, they’re engineers. Inventors well, invent things. Engineers solve problems.
That’s not an Maker Space, it’s a workshop.
Still, it has made me wonder if what I’m doing now is sufficient to satisfy my desire for inner wellbeing. I have a feeling I’m not going to be on my deathbed thinking “I wish I’d printed more best-before dates and barcodes”