How Origami Unfolds to Promote Professional Values in Engineering

UK Engineering Profession Launches New Promotional Campaign

You might think origami is purely the art of folding paper, but engineers these days are using these ancient oriental techniques to help solve some of the world's great challenges.  Applications include the use of origami in collapsible packaging to help in recycling processes, folding mechanisms for use in the deployment of satellites and telescopes, airbags for cars, and origami structures for use in nano-technology and medical diagnostics.

This quietly unfolding new field of Origami Engineering is the inspiration behind Engineering Council UK's new 'Promoting the Profession' marketing campaign.

ECUK, the body responsible for regulating the engineering profession, and for developing and maintaining standards, is working with the 36 professional engineering institutions in the UK, to boost the number of engineers achieving professional status through Chartered and other categories of professional registration.

"Origami is the embodiment of skilful design, using everyday materials economically to solve complex problems.  This seemed to represent today's engineering values superbly", explained Andrew Ramsay, ECUK's Chief Executive.  "Our campaign uses origami images to reinforce the key message that professional recognition through Registration as a Chartered or Incorporated Engineer or as an Engineering Technician can dramatically improve the career prospects of knowledgeable, experienced, committed engineers and technicians.  Our research demonstrates that those engineers and technicians who achieve formal professional Registration have enhanced professional status, higher earnings potential and greater influence both at work and out in the wider world.  It is absolutely vital to the economic future of the UK that our engineers and technicians have their professional status, skills, talents and hard work properly recognised."

Andrew Ramsay believes the 250,000 currently registered professional engineers and technicians are vital to the future development of the profession.  "We need the current generation of professionally recognised senior engineers to actively encourage and enthuse early career engineers, and those coming though the universities and colleges, to apply for Chartered Engineer, Incorporated Engineer and Engineering Technician status as early in their career as possible.

Everyone can play their part in ensuring the brightest young people are attracted to engineering, and that means we need to maintain a strong and robust engineering profession".

Engineers and technicians wishing to access the materials for use in their places of work or universities and colleges, or simply to find out more, can do so via the campaign website at www.TheNextStep.org.uk.

Why origami?

Paper is a traditional cornerstone of learning, information, analysis and problem solving.  Origami embodies art, design and skill, using everyday materials in economic ways.  As such, paper and origami could both be said to represent the values of professional engineering today.

As an art form which emerged in Japan in the Middle Ages, origami has spawned a branch of mathematics.   This has led to its use in solving engineering problems.  Caltech physicist Robert Lang has published a number of books on computational origami.

See:
http://tinyurl.com/5bskby for an article on the art of paper-folding applied to engineering

http://tinyurl.com/5hgn3d for an article on DNA origami and its application to engineering

http://tinyurl.com/5djsz7 for a video lecture by Robert Lang