Nick Axten: the PhD student who never gave up

Want to know more about how Engineering can be applied to global development? Here is a shorter bonus episode with Barnaby as well as Sammy and Francisca from the Dream Renewables Team in Ghana talking about how they’ve done exactly that. Dream renewables “empower communities to create and maintain sustainable energy solutions that address their specific challenges... by providing engineering and entrepreneurship education programmes for young adults in Ghana." Enjoy the episode and head to https://sites.google.com/view/dreamrenewables/home to find out more about what Dream Renewables do. Follow us on Instagram: ⁠@dof.pod⁠ and Twitter: ⁠@dof_pod⁠. Produced by Ashik Jayakumar, Music by George Vessey. Please remember to rate and subscribe to the podcast if you love it! It helps us keep doing what we're doing.

Everyone’s talking about one thing right now and it’s not the start of the cricket season. It’s AI, and specifically ChatGPT, and even more specifically what universities are going to do about it. We got Ed Daniels on the show to try and sort some fact from fiction. Not only has Ed recently won a grant to help him develop his AI detection app "AIED", he's also got wide ranging knowledge of the future of AI and some interesting ideas about how we should be dealing with such fast paced change. Come and listen to find out how AI detection works, what the future of AI looks like, and how you can start using ChatGPT to your advantage. Follow us on Instagram: ⁠@dof.pod⁠ and Twitter: ⁠@dof_pod⁠ Produced by Ashik Jayakumar, Music by George Vessey Please remember to rate and subscribe to the podcast if you love it! It helps us keep doing what we're doing.

What on earth does net-zero look like? How do we get there? How do you avoid the spiralling doom of climate anxiety? What the hell are Carbon Credits? How much of what we see in the news is just a fad? How much is here to stay? Should we rely on technology or societal change to save us? Why do we care about any of this anyway? Sustainability Consultant Barnaby King takes us on a high octane (low-carbon) trip around these massive topics and we come away a little bit wiser, a little bit more focussed, and a little bit more inspired. We hope you do too! Follow us on Instagram: ⁠@dof.pod⁠ and Twitter: ⁠@dof_pod⁠ Produced by Ashik Jayakumar, Music by George Vessey Please remember to rate and subscribe to the podcast if you love it! It helps us keep doing what we're doing.

53 years in total, a four decade intermission in the middle and a lifetime of thinking. That’s the story of Dr Nick Axten’s 2nd PhD. We take a brief step away from engineering and technology to hear his wisdom on being curious, taking time over the important things, and doing the work you truly believe in. It’s a fascinating conversation from a man who is one of a kind and who has a long time perspective on the ever changing world of academia. We really hope you enjoy it! Follow us on Instagram: @dof.pod and Twitter: @dof_pod Produced by Ashik Jayakumar, Music by George Vessey Please remember to rate and subscribe to the podcast if you love it! It helps us keep doing what we're doing.

Can engineering education be delivered in a better, more engaging way? Will a diverse, socially conscience, talented generation of designers and engineers change the world for the better? Does (G)en(Z)gineers work as a pun for a podcast title? Elvis Tinago and Isabella Mascarenhas are two people that think so.  They head up the community Engineering department at RS Group - not only a global provider of components and parts for millions of engineers - but also an influential voice in the future of engineering education. Ellie is away this week so Alby & Ashik head to London to hear about what makes Gen-Z engineers different from those that have gone before, RS’s hugely popular DesignSpark platform, and why Elvis left his engineering career to pursue something bigger.   If you think Engineering and design can change for the better, this is well worth a listen - Elvis and Isabella really are experts in their field. Follow us on Instagram: @dof.pod and Twitter: @dof_pod Produced by Ashik Jayakumar Music by George Vessey Please remember to rate and subscribe to the podcast if you love it! It helps us keep doing what we're doing.

Andrew Garrad is a pioneer of the wind energy industry and he’s here to tell us about the growth of that industry up until now and the future of where it’s going.  Andrew set up his business, Garrad Hassan, 40 years ago and it became the leading renewables consultancy in the world with 1,000 staff in 29 countries. He’s been the president of the European Wind Energy Association, Chair of Bristol European Green Capital 2015 and has received a CBE for his services to renewable energy.  Andrew talks in detail about his most recent project - a community owned, community led, wind turbine in Lawrence Weston. This turbine has gone up this month and is the largest of its kind in England. It will power a community the size of Lawrence Weston whilst providing £100,000 per year in community funding each year. It’s a truly remarkable story of tenacity and grassroots agency.  Amongst all of this, we learned about Alby’s holiday in Kos, Ashik’s Birthday paradox, and the fact that Andrew and Ellie are perfectly compatible for sharing a box of celebrations. Enjoy!  Follow us on Instagram: @dof.pod and Twitter: @dof_pod Produced by Ashik Jayakumar Music by George Vessey

Working at festivals, having to use their breaks for either grabbing food or going to the toilet because the toilet queues were soooo long, Amber and Hazel decided to do something about it. 2 years ago, they founded Peequal, the UK’s first squat and go women’s urinal and since then they’ve taken their product to festivals around the UK (Glastonbury, Shambala, Wilderness and more). It’s 6 times quicker to use than a normal public toilet and 95% of women love them. It’s not just the product they love either, it’s the opportunity to discuss and challenge all the other normalised inequalities that are out there. Sure, they’ve been guests on Woman’s hour, featured in the One Show / Forbes / the i / the Guardian and been interviewed on BBC TV, but now at long last they come on to Degrees of Freedom (aka DOFPOD) with me and Ellie to answer the real questions like: What did you make of each-other before you were co-founders? How do you hype yourself up for a pitch? What do you do when a potential investor laughs at your business? What’s your favourite type of cheese? Follow us on Instagram @dof.pod or twitter @dof_pod where we’re sharing ideas, resources, and behind the scenes content related to all our podcasts. For those that want to find about more about designing to address normalised inequality, we both thoroughly recommend you read Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez. There is also an accompanying podcast (they’re all brilliant but start with this episode https://open.spotify.com/episode/18iXQ5gZIU6695qNHfmkhX?si=nqZjjK89TECFkFjgAZyY6Q) and a newsletter that you can find on her website. To apply to work for Peequal at festivals in Summer 2023 (why the hell wouldn’t you?!), follow this link: https://www.peequal.com/paid-jobs For those with bags of money or a shrewd eye for investment keep an eye out on @peequaluk socials for information about how you can invest. Produced by Ashik Jayakumar, Music by George Vessey

Fix My Crack are a phone repair service taking southern universities by storm with their cheeky marketing, convenient service, and  frighteningly low prices. We roped in the heads of the crack team – Casey (founder) and Ishaan (chief technician) – to chat about how the business started, why students make a brilliant team, and why repairing things in a world of ‘just buy a new one’ is so important. This podcast is focussed around Sustainable Development Goal 12 – Responsible consumption and production. Read more about it here: https://www.globalgoals.org/goals/12-responsible-consumption-and-production/. Here’s an even better idea... follow us on Instagram @dof.pod or twitter @dof_pod where we’re sharing ideas, resources, and behind the scenes content related to all our podcasts. Instagram: @dof.pod Twitter: @dof_pod Produced by Ashik Jayakumar, Music by George Vessey

Join us on our trip to London as we sit down with April from Aleios where we chat all things computer science, coding, AI are much more. If you have ever… a. wanted to know more about coding and what computer science is b. wondered what a career change could mean for you c. worried that AI will actually take over the world d. wondered how sustainability can be found in tech … this ones for you! This is an insightful, funny and honest look into what it means to work in tech. April shares her story from studying English to challenging stereotypes as a woman working in computer science and can’t wait for you to listen! Enjoy and check us out on our new social media channels: Instagram: @dof.pod Twitter: @dof_pod Produced by Ashik Jayakumar. Music by George Vessey.

Matt from Bristol council innovation brightened a cold winters morning. Reasons to listen: you want to know how to engage in the climate crisis, you love cycling, you think heat pumps are sexy, you’re fascinated by behaviour change. Find the full-length original episode here:  https://open.spotify.com/episode/2RqG1yRJmmIHTDqQWTg7BJ?si=EvbLbeG9SMCdWeF_hVyG9A https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/engenius/id1341492494?i=1000592722548 Originally produced on behalf of Engenius with Engineers Without Borders Bristol.