Transition Engineering Lab

10/12/2025

Contributions to the National Engineeering Policy

Over the past year Professor Krumdieck has participated in workshops and meetings as part of the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE) policy initiative to reimagine the engineering and technology skills needed for a future where both people and planet can thrive. The final report, "Engineers 2030", was delivered to parliament on National Engineering Day, 5 November. The project was led by the RAE National Engineering Policy Centre, included the RAE Engineering Skills Committee, and contributors included professional engineers from industry and academics.

The launch was sponsored by Lord Mair CBE, and included speaches by Minister for Industry and Business, Chris McDonald MP Both of whom are engineers. Support for engineering higher education and professional development was announced.

Heriot-Watt University is well placed to take a leadership position in line with the vision and principles set out in the report.

Vision: By 2030, engineers play an urgent and pivotal role in sutainable growth, technological development and environmental regeneration with all sectors of engineering working inclusively and across fields. Engineers are demonstrating leadership, creativity and technical excellence by implementing solutions that shape the future and enable society to navigate immediate challenges.

Principles:
1. Resilient and future-facing
2. Socially responsible and inclusive
3. Trusted by the public
4. Integrated approach
5. Data dn digitally fluent
6. Commercially and economically literate

This sounds just like the MSc ReSET!

06/12/2025

Shetland Climate Festival and Brae College
13 Sept 2025
Sandy Gunn, Paolo Cherubini and Susan Krumdieck travelled to Shetland for the Year 3 meeting of the Islands Centre for Net Zero. While in Shetland, we were asked to provide a seminar for the public at the Shetland Climate Festival. Professor Krumdieck presented a workshop on the Transition Lab carried out this year on the Housing Crisis, and took the audience on a time travel tour of Stromness 2125 to talk to the locals about how their housing market works so that there is no housing crisis. The audience were invited to write a postcard from the future about what they found in the next century. Some interesting observations were made:

- "Don't be afraid to think aoutside the box!"
- "Housing is allocated on the need of the community. On the time scale of our islands, homes are really part of the community, and individual ownership doesn't make sense."
- "It was amazing to see how they were helping people find accommodation that is suitable and affordable."
- "I loved the biodiversity and resilience of the community. I found a place where my grandchildren can call home. It was quite an adventure to explore Stromness in 100 years."
- "It was interesting to see how they don't use vehicles. In some ways not much has changed, except that teh solution for housing is possible."
- "You wouldn't believe how familiar things are here in 2125. I just had the feeling that it all worked better. Stromness has become vibrant! Why had we not thought of this before?"

06/12/2025

Winter Graduation at Heriot-Watt University 2025

Dr. Florian Ahrens returned from his new postdoctor position as a Transition Engineering research associate at Technical University of Chemnits in Germany. His parents also came for the ceremony.

A number of the MSc students from Orkney and even some on-line students, like Genevive from Ghana, brought their family and friends to the happy occasion.

Benjamin Pyle was in the Transition Lab on Housing Crisis in Orkney, carried out with stakeholders from the OIC and others.

06/12/2025

It doesn't get any better than this!
Jack Boulton completes the requirements for his PhD in Transition Enigneering at Heriot-Watt University. Jack came to Orkeny from New Zealand where he earned his Engineering degree in Mechatronics (BEHons) and worked for a few years in consulting for the off-shore oil and gas sector. HIs research took on the biggest challenge of our time, the energy trilemma - Affordability, Security, Sustainability - by working on engineering the transition of the business model for oil producing companies. Jack worked with oil industry professionals and contributed some new and very useful tools for tackling predicaments and wicked problems, and exploring unthinkable opportunities. And yes, there is a way out of the energy trilemma.

His examiners were Associate Professor Ana Paula Fonseca of the Edinburgh Business School, and Tim Foxon, Professor of Sustainability Transitions at University of Sussex. The examiners were so impressed with the thesis, they recommended it for the MacFarlane Prize.

Jack carried out his research with a Watt Scholarship from HWU, and he was also awarded a UKRI grant to apply the Transition Engineering approach to the problem of uncontrolled growth of data processing. Jack also worked with Florian Ahrens in the School Run to Net Zero Transitioneering project with Glaitness Primary School in Kirkwall.

Congratulations Jack!

05/08/2025

Postcards from the Future 2125

The Orkney International Science Festival hosted a presentation of part of the Transition Engineering Lab research - namely "how do we learn from the future?". That is a good question.

The presentation involves setting up the approach of imagination-powered InTIME Travel, and then Professor Susan Krumdieck acting as tour guide on a short trip to Stromness 2125.

In this trip we were focused on asking locals in post-oil Stromness 2125 the question:
"How do people who need to be here for their livelihood find a place to call home that supports the wellbeing of household members and the community?"

We discovered some surprising things in 2125. Join in the research project by writing a "postcard from Stromenss 2125" to someone today who you think needs to know about what they have in the future that we need to get onto inventing now.

https://youtu.be/9FDhLeMFI8k?si=E6SdmhhG6fun_Og7

05/07/2025

We would love to have a local candidate from Scotland for our PhD fully funded scholarship in Orkney.
Do you know of a radically curious and capable engineer with interest in energy systems transition engineering?

Pass the word.

Funded research opportunities in the School of Energy, Geoscience, Infrastructure and Society at Heriot Watt University

29/06/2025

The first PhD in Transition Engineering awarded to Dr. Florian Ahrens.

Congratulations to Florian!

Thesis Title:
Transitioneering: an approach for dealing with the wicked problems encountered in systems transition engineering
with action design research case studies in travel behaviour, plastic products, agriculture, upstream oil business, and energy poverty.

Many in Orkney will know about one of the Transition Lab projects that Florian was instrumental in over the past three years:

> School Run to Net Zero with the students at Glaitness Primary
> Food Service Food Waste with NHS Balfour staff, OIC and Scottish Watter
> Energy Poverty in a Wind Rich Community with researchers from the DISPATCH project, OREF, THAW and a number of others
> Housing Crisis Finding a Place to Call Home with a wide range of stakeholders

The Transition Lab is now teaching the Transitioneering approach, using the methods, processes and tools, to take on the complex and "wicked problems" of shiftng away from unsustainable energies, and building resilient, robust and regenerative local needs-meeting systems. We are also teaching short courses and MSc courses using the playbook of Transitioneering Processes developed by Florian with the help of stakeholders in Orkney and research collaborators.

Florian is off to Technical University Chemnitz in Germany in August to take up a post-doc position and help establish the first Transition Lab in Germany!

The external examiner was Associate Professor Adam Cooper an expert in Engineering Policy from University College London, Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy (STEaPP). The chair was Associate Professor Wolf-Gerrit Fruh from the School of Engineering at HWU Edinburgh. Thanks to Adam's Place in Stromness for hosting the celebration meal.

29/06/2025

A delegation from Groningen, Holland visited the Orkney Transition Lab, and got a presentation from Professor Krumdieck outlining what the Transition Lab is all about. We start Transition Lab projects by focusing on defining the problem, and digging deeper than the stories we are used to, and right into the assumptions we are making about how things are. The process at the front door of the Transition Lab is the Stakeholder Clinic. The assumptions that we work to interrogate are that there are solutions that can come from somewhere else, from government or from some tech billionare that can fix what is going wrong. What if that assumption is wrong? What if we need to reverse engineer changes in promlematic systems from the ground up? Local people will need help of engineers and other professionals who have also flipped thier perspectives to look at building robust and resilient local systems.

The Groningen delegates heard about how the Transitioneering approach being developed in Orkney is now the basis for a first-ever disciplinary programme at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. A good number of the delegates wanted to know more, downloaded the Transition Engineering book on the spot, and expressed interest in collaboration. Thank you Orkney folk for helping us do the research to develop these processes.

16/06/2025

Professor Krumdieck and Dr. Cherubini were invited to give keynote addresses and guest lectures at University of Pisa and Sapienza University Roma in May. They gave presentations on the Transition Engineering work underway in the Orkney Transition Engineering Lab. The work generated high interest amongst students and professors alike. In Rome we had a fruitful meeting with Professors and agreed to build a network around key concerns in engineering energy systems transitions.

The role of engineering in providing the needs of society is changing greatly - we now need to work on engineering the change of complex systems that the economy is not really prepared for. New capabilities in addition to engineering sciences and modelling include:
> Interdisciplinary Transition Invention, Engineering, and Management (InTIME) Design
> Adaptive Integrated Practice including Wellbeing
> Understanding Ecosystems, Nature Positive Engineering, and Anthroposystems
> Working with all communities, not just clients
> Working for the Future
> Convergence of Knowledge and Experience
> Exercising Shared Responsibility
> Continuous Respectful Learning from all Stakeholders
> Service Models that productively address Wicked Problems
> Standard Processes for Non-Standard Complex Situations
> Transition Labs supporting rapid technical viability assessment, intercultural relevance, adaptive capacity

Two hundred years ago, Heriot-Watt University took on the complex issues causing harm and upheaval through the Industrial Revolution by teaching workers the mechanics of machines and energy so they could work safely in this new and dangerous industrial ecosystem. We aim to lead on Systems Transition Engineering Processes (STEPs) for navigating the wicked problems of progress.

Professor Sergio Ulgiati, Dr Paolo Cherubini, Professor Susan Krumdieck, Professor Andrea Micangeli

04/05/2025

Postcards from the Future
Methods Research in Transition Engineering

Did you have a History class in school? Did you have a Future class in school? We live in a land where History is part of life, and we trust Archaeologists, Historians and Curators to rigorously explore and build evidence for how people lived in the past. People have always had a much different relationship with the Future. This seminar will review approaches for exploring forward in time and make the case that Future Blindness has been a necessary human adaptation. However, the industrial revolution has disturbed the long-run system dynamics in a way that the rigorous scientific modelling has warned is on the pathway to catastrophic instability. Engineers need a rigorous, science-based approach to explore the future as an essential step in Systems Transition Engineering. The research at HWU is defining a new discipline of Systems Transition Engineering Processes (STEPs), which includes a methodology for exploring for the survivable and thrive-able future. The seminar will explain the foundations for the approach, and we will give a demonstration that is part of the current Transition Lab on the Housing Challenge being carried out by the ICNZ.

Presentation from Professor Susan Krumdieck, Research Director ICNZ, Heriot-Watt University

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Join Zoom Meeting

https://zoom.us/j/97942987887?pwd=T0VP5Qd8ICHYEmlrpwWj93MwDHhxMw.1

Meeting ID: 979 4298 7887
Passcode: 249950

29/04/2025

If you have time to listen to a podcast, listen to Josh Kearns and myself playing idea volleyball. I think I won.

Professor Kearns has retired from teaching engineering at an American university to build a farm and resilience network - what some people call "doomers". He has read the Transition Engineering book and is a member of GATE. But he has lost hope that engineering can change, like everything else, it's too hard.

He came to this conversation for the Doomer Podcast loaded and ready to take on the mission and especially my optimism. But maybe he got a little hope to take into his doomer perspective?

Transition Engineering with Susan Krumdieck and JoshSusan Krumdieck (PhD, mechanical engineering) is a Professor at Heriot-Watt University in Scotland and is...

07/03/2025

I’m happy to share this podcast that features the work of Heriot-Watt University Transition Engineering Lab