I’m a product design engineer/industrial designer by trade (physical products - i.e. consumer products, medical devices, some small heavy engineering applications, that sort of thing), but also absolutely love nature and wildlife. I was wondering if anyone had ever heard of any jobs at the intersection of the two? I’m quite happily working as a design lead in an agency just now so this is more just to see if there even is anything out there. I’m in the UK, by the way, but I’d be interested in hearing from people all over.
edit to add: This is to say I think a lot of wonderful and brilliant design could be inspired by observing nature. I am mildly obsessed with native grasses (the tall ones) and how they grow and wonder often if similar designs might not be useful for retracting antennae or towers or something in high wind areas, like our rooftops during hurricane season. (As I am not an engineer, designer nor scientist of any sort though, this is just my mind wheeling. Whee!)
Industrial robotics is a thriving industry in many countries.
You might be able to find a role that harnesses your extraordinary interest in nature (meaning, your interest in nature far surpasses that of most employees who work there)
Where you take inspiration from nature, and apply it in a practical way to robot design — working alongside mechanical engineers, etc.
It might not be easy to find these jobs, but they are out there. Your future happiness (due to your “perfect job”) is in your hands!
There’s a lot of engineering going into various kinds of research. I’m most aware of tracking technology, which involves a lot of different strategies… piezoelectric trackers in fish, devices suction-cupped to whales, solar powered devices on Snowy Owls… there was a project aiming to get an antenna on the ISS that was hoping to enable devices small enough to work on migratory dragonflies, but I’m not sure about the status of any of that. I’m sure there’s other engineering related to conservation, cleaning pollution, etc.
Different types of engineers are employed for a variety of jobs related to wildlife conservation and research, both in the private sector and by agencies. Products range from radio telemetry tracking devices to camera traps to acoustic monitoring for bats, birds, even frogs. Structures can include artificial bat roosts and I’ve even seen an artificial nesting structure for swifts. Fish ladders at dams. Just a few things off the top of my head. Obviously different engineering is involved across these various specialized products.
This reminded me: someone here recently mentioned the Alma Bridge Road Newt Passage Project, and I wonder if anything like that is going on in the UK where a design skillset or engineering background would be of great benefit.
Anything involved with tech that allows data collection: drones, LIDAR, satellite tags, rovs for aquatic work. I think a lot of this type of work either involves modding off the shelf tech or small companies because demand is rarely high for such specialized products. Some universities/programs have workshops where people do both design and build of fairly custom tech/low number of units.
I couldn’t tell you whether there are any positions out there hiring for this sort of thing if that’s what you’re asking for, but there are a lot of products we use in environmental testing and restoration that probably required a product design engineer at some point during development. On the small side that could be things like sampling devices, passive diffusion bags, adsorbent cartridges for passive soil gas sampling, or well casing and screen filter packs, handheld instruments for field parameter monitoring etc. all the way up to larger scale systems like the engineered geotextiles used to line or cap landfills, geophysical survey equipment, high resolution site characterization instrumentation, and the analytical instrumentation used by environmental laboratories. All of these products contribute to restoration of ecosystems that have been damaged or degraded in some way. There’s definitely a need for these kinds of things.
I understand what you’re saying; but in a way, it feels like a strange twist on “the problem is the solution.” A landfill capped with a geotextile will never be “restored” in the sense of being returned to its pre-disturbance state.
I thought I wasn’t going to participate in this thread because it upsets me, but here we are.
That is undoubtedly true. A landfill site will most likely never be restored to a pristine state and will forever have land use controls in place. However the geotextiles help to prevent the spread of contamination from the landfills to the surrounding area and potential impacts human and ecological receptors. The use of lined landfills is still a big improvement on the standard practice of only a few decades ago, which was basically just to dump refuse in an unlined trench and forget it (several of my own restoration projects involve cleaning up contaminants that leached into the soil and water from those unlined landfills).
Do you mind expanding on this? I’ll admit I am confused as to what might be upsetting about the original query:
Was it something subsequent? You are a deep thinker and I would like to understand.
Please feel free to respond privately if you prefer (or maybe under a new topic so as not to derail this one away from ways nature and conservation needs have inspired design/engineering).
Yes, as long as there are humans with advanced technology on the planet there will be a need and jobs for people specializing in waste containment, land reclamation (a bit of a misnomer), and water protection. In a former job I was involved in mine reclamation where the close-out of a mining project typically resulted in a site that was eventually classified as “wildlife habitat”. That classification was often a bit of a stretch, especially with open pit mines. But there is a lot of work for a variety of engineers in this business.
I am not sure how this fits, but I read this story in the Washington Post (gift link) when it came out and it has been sitting in my heart ever since as the one place in Japan I would very much like to visit if I could. (I likely will never find myself in Japan, but if I ever did.)
I think a lot of intentional design and engineering must go into that, and I think there is a lot there to consider.
This is all really helpful stuff folks, thank you very much - I’ve just been away for the week hence the slow replies, but its really interesting the different angles you can approach from. It seems that you can approach it from a data-collection perspective (i.e. trackers and the like, sampling devices), a nature ‘restoration’ perspective (i.e. helping restore degraded ecosystems, create new habitats for animals like bats and swifts, newt bridges!) or a biomimetic perspective (i.e. using the design solutions within nature to inform new technologies, like the robot design elements). All really interesting!
Haha! That’s super cool, thanks for sharing. This sort of thing always reminds me of the episode of the West Wing when CJ gets obsessed with Wolf highways…!
Yes, this definitely is one element for sure! Biomimicry fascinates me and I’ve tried to use biomimetic principles where I can in my career so far. On the other hand though as other people have mentioned I’m also interested in design for nature, if you like, as well as design inspired by nature.
