The CIBSE Role Model series is intended to shine a spotlight on members of our building services community from under-represented groups and backgrounds to inspire and promote diversity amongst future engineers.  As part of our Role Model series this month, we speak to Leonora Lang an Associate at Arup and member of the CIBSE Inclusivity Panel.  I’m a Chartered Engineer, specialising in lift and escalator strategy. Basically, I tell people how many lifts and escalators they need in their building. I joined Arup as a Grad and have progressed up the grades to Associate. I have an unusual background as I hold degrees in physics, space science, and mechanical engineering. I was a student member of IMechE, however, when looking into the CEng process, CIBSE were much more open and flexible given my education. Towards the end of my last degree, I took a scattergun approach to apply for graduate job opportunities. Unfortunately, I was turned down by all the schemes I applied for due to my firs

As part of our  Career in Building Services  series, today we meet  Mohammad Masud  from CIBSE Young Engineers Network (YEN) UAE, who is discussing Technical Sales within his region. If you have any questions about this career path, please contact YEN at   yenuae@cibse.org  or the Young Energy Performance Group at  yepg@cibse.org Masud graduated in Mechanical Engineering and has a post graduation in Industrial & Production Engineering, both from Aligarh Muslim University. He joined Faisal Jassim Trading Co as an Application Engineer in 2016 and had been working in Technical Sales for the past three years. Masud serves as Education Officer on the CIBSE YEN UAE Committee, helping to engage university students with CIBSE YEN through events and discussion. What do Sales Engineers do?  Technical Sales by virtue of an engineered product is quite different from normal sales. The aim is to provide a solution to an engineering problem, so in addition to the art of selling, Technical Sales E

As part of our Career in Building Services  series, today we meet Sundara Gurushev from CIBSE Young Engineers Network (YEN) UAE, who is discussing the role of sustainability in the building services engineering industry. If you have any questions about this career path, please contact YEN at  yenuae@cibse.org or the Young Energy Performance Group at yepg@cibse.org Sundara Gurushev finished her Bachelor in Architecture degree from Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Dubai in 2019. She recently joined the AESG Team in Dubai as a Sustainability Coordinator. In her spare time, she volunteers with the World Green Building Council and her university’s Solar Decathlon Team. Sundara serves as a Technical Officer with the CIBSE Young Engineers Network – UAE Region. What do Sustainability Engineers do? Typically, Sustainability Engineers work on ensuring that projects are in compliance with green building codes and the regulations that are mandated by different green building councils and loc

  Oli has been working in the built environment for around five years. He started straight after university and is currently working towards chartership with CIBSE. Now working as a Performance Engineer at Hoare Lea, Oli is focused on reducing carbon emissions by improving the performance of homes, offices, and educational buildings throughout the UK. Oli is also the committee secretary for the CIBSE Young Energy Performance Group (YEPG) , supporting the ongoing events and the organisation of the group. Who are Performance Engineers? Performance engineering is an emerging role in the built environment that exists to close the commonly talked about “performance gap”. A Performance Engineers’ job is to ensure that a building is performing as well in reality as it was designed to. How well a building is designed to perform can be measured in many ways. It can be in terms of energy consumption, thermal comfort, lighting levels – whatever is important to the users of the building. Tell us a

  To celebrate Black History Month, we're interviewing members of the CIBSE community to help inspire and promote diversity amongst future engineers. This week, we hear from Lionel James, a Chartered Engineer and Chartered Manager. My name is Lionel James; I am a Chartered Engineer and Chartered Manager with over 35+ years’ experience employed with both Building Services (BS) Design Consultancies and Contractors. My career started at Ove Arup & Partners Ltd in 1981 (now operating as Arup), the office was based in Birmingham. I was the first Black (African/Caribbean ethnicity) Trainee BS Engineer to be employed in the Birmingham office. During my career as a Building Services Engineer, I have worked for numerous Consultancies and Contractors in roles from Mechanical Designer, Principal Designer and Associate Director. I am currently employed as the Lead Building Services Lecturer and Assessor with Solihull College, in the Construction and Built Environmental Dept. I teach on co

Full name : Heather Beaumont Topic area : Facilities Management CIBSE Trainer since : 2019 Tell us a little about yourself  I’ve been an engineer for over 35 years and am a STEM Ambassador. What do you enjoy most about being a CIBSE trainer?     Putting together the content and interaction with people. Do you encounter any challenges as a trainer? All training is a challenge as every session is different, that’s what makes it interesting. What is your favourite part about your topic area?   The diversity of buildings services and management. Why do you think that it’s important that building services professionals keep up with their professional development?   Building services change all the time and there are always new methods or technologies that we can employ to improve things. Keeping up to date is essential. If you could go back to your younger self when you started working in building services, what advice would you give yourself or would you try to change some of the decisions

Last year, the CIBSE Inclusivity Panel published a set of Inclusivity Guidelines for members and staff. The guidance covers a range of areas from events and communications, to governance. In this blog post, we hear from Atif Rashid on the importance of inclusive practice in governance and what CIBSE is doing to ensure that the institution is governed in a fair and inclusive way.   Governance By Atif Rashid, CIBSE Inclusivity Panel  Governance is a bit like building services engineering. It’s all around us, hidden in plain sight, but many are unaware. When it works well, few take notice of its complex and nuanced machinations. But if it goes wrong – if it breaks down or fails to adapt to changing requirements – the complaints are many, and loud. It’s also a key component in moving the diversity & inclusion (D&I) conversation forward.  This is because, at its heart, good governance is about achieving the trust and buy-in of everyone involved in an organisation. Governance is a

  Full name : Gordon Hudson Areas of expertise : Mechanical Services and sustainability  CIBSE Trainer since: 2017  Tell us a little about yourself  I have worked in both Academia and Professional Practice in the Building Services Engineering Industry. I have always been enthusiastic about learning, whether in formal situations or from experience and that probably explains why I have a had a sort of foot in both camps.   In Academia and Professional practice, sustainability has been a keen focus for me over the last twenty years.  I am particularly interested in whether we can really achieve our aim to deliver low carbon, low impact buildings that deliver well-being. With partners at Northumbria University we researched the use of BREEAM in healthcare and that led to sustainable assessment development work in Abu Dhabi and Egypt.   It became clear to me that although building sustainable issues are worldwide their solutions and delivery are specific to regions too.    In completing th

To celebrate Black History Month, we're interviewing members of the CIBSE community to help inspire and promote diversity amongst future engineers. This week, we hear from Tejiri Ayerume, a Mechanical Engineer at chapmanbdsp.   My name is Tejiri Ayerume and I am a Mechanical Engineer. I got my Masters (MEng) in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Warwick. I did an elective of business in my final year, so the degree title is Mechanical Engineering with Business Management. I have worked in the building services industry for over a year now at chapmanbdsp. What first interested you in becoming an engineer?  While studying for my GCSEs at the Ursuline Academy Ilford I was often reminded that it would soon be time to choose a career path and therefore the subjects that would allow me to follow that path. My interest in engineering stemmed from an underlying interest in architecture and the design aspects of engineering. It was when I first read the quote “Necessity is the moth

  Michael is a Chartered Engineer and has been working as a Mechanical Engineer at Atelier Ten since graduating from the University of Leeds in 2015. More recently, Michael has taken on the role of Digital Lead at Atelier Ten. He is a member of the CIBSE Society of Digital Engineering (SDE) Steering Group and a member of the Digital Innovations working group. Michael is also a committee member of the CIBSE YEPG and looks after the social media content for the group. What do digital engineers do? Digital engineers primarily work with data integration within the traditional design and construction process, also known as Building information modelling (BIM). There are many benefits to BIM, including improvements to coordination and communication, risk mitigation, cost certainty and ultimately better outputs. In addition to working with BIM, a digital engineer may also look at improving workflows and processes within their organisation, which could be something as simple as a new Excel t

To celebrate Black History Month, we are launching our new CIBSE Role Models series to help inspire and promote a diverse workforce in our sector. We'll be asking a diverse range of individuals from across the CIBSE community to share their stories and experiences.  Today we hear from Hakeem Makanju, Building Services Manager at Transport for London and Chair of the CIBSE Home Counties South West Region. My name is Hakeem Makanju; I am a Chartered Engineer with over 20 years experience in Building Services Design Consultancy and Facilities Management. After graduating in July 1999 with BEng (Hons) in Electrical & Electronic Engineering (endorsed with Systems for Environmental Services), I progressed my career path as follows: In July 2000 , I was employed by Furness Green Partnership as a Graduate Electrical Engineer ; and thereafter signed up to their in-house accredited graduate training scheme which formed the basis of my initial professional development In July 2002, I w

  As part of the Young Energy Performance Group's (YEPG) “Career in Building Services” series, today we meet Abs, who works as a Contractor. If you have any questions, you can contact us at  yepg@cibse.org   Abs has been in the contracting industry for 9 years. He started off through the structured apprenticeship route, going onto study a BEng Hons in Building Services Engineering at London South Bank University.  He is currently working as a Project Manager and has taken several projects from inception to handover. His current project is an 8 storey office block in the heart of London. Abs currently serves as the vice-chair in YEPG and aids wherever is required, such as running events, liaising with external parties and ensuring the morale is always high! Who are contractors? Contractors are companies that are usually appointed after the design stage to carry out the construction works, from inception to handover. It, therefore, means being more presence on-site compared to consul

As part of the Young Energy Performance Group's (YEPG) “Career in Building Services” series, today we meet Tom, who is discussing District Heating Engineering. If you have any questions, please get in touch at  yepg@cibse.org Tom Burton studied Chemical Engineering at the University of Cambridge and graduated in 2018. He joined the FairHeat graduate the scheme in October that year and has been working on the graduate scheme there as a heat network engineer. Tom serves as the Technical Officer of the YEPG steering the committee, helping to organise discussion and network events and responding to consultations of key legislation.  What do district heating engineers do? District heating is the process of distributing heat from a centralised energy centre to residential and commercial users, providing energy for heating, hot water and cooling. This is a key technology highlighted by the government to decarbonise the UK heat sector and help meet the net-zero 2050 target. Engineers in t

In the first of the Young Energy Performance Group's (YEPG) Careers Blog series, we hear from Rossella Perniola on her career in building services engineering.  Rossella is a Chartered Building Services Engineer at Scotch Partners and the Chair of CIBSE YEPG (Young Energy Performance Group). She studied in Italy and has been working in the UK for 6 years, leading projects of various nature, size and complexity. Passionate about the impact that the construction industry has on the environment and on people, she is keenly interested in emerging R&D and actively engages in the climate emergency debate. What is building services engineering? Building services are systems that allow people to live in buildings comfortably and safely. These mainly include ventilation, water, drainage, electrical services, heating and cooling.  Who can embrace this career? Many students never hear about building services engineering for a long time. In fact, many professionals join this industry from

The #WeAreCIBSE campaign aims to celebrate the individuals and groups who collectively make up our Institution and keep it running. In this new blog series, we speak to members who are going above and beyond to give back to the building services community through their work with CIBSE. In this blog, we hear from Alan Lawrence CEng MCIBSE who sits on CIBSE’s Inclusivity and Diversity Panel . Tell us about yourself and your career? I am a Consultant Engineer for Savills, a global Real Estate property adviser based in London, providing Engineering term consultancy advice and project management to Commercial and Retail properties across the UK. In my 30 years plus experience in the Built Environment sector. I have worked in a range of areas including Manufacturing, Design, Fast Moving Consumer Foods, Education, Healthcare, Private Finance Initiatives and Facilities Management. What do you do at CIBSE? I decided to seek a role at CIBSE as a part of my Business Performance Development Review