Engineering Equity with Automation | Poggy Murray Whitham | TEDxHeriot Watt University

Challenges in the Engineering Industry - The engineering industry faces a growing skills gap and a mental health emergency [11] - Construction, engineering, and manufacturing workers are over three times more likely to die by suicide than the national average in the UK [12] - Research indicates that 81% of engineers report emotional or mental health concerns, yet less than half are comfortable discussing it with their employer, and 25% have considered suicide or self-harm [13] - The UK has a shortfall of over 173,000 engineers, costing the UK economy approximately 15 billion pounds (15% billion) annually [14] - In a 12-month period, over 38,000 women left engineering roles in the UK, decreasing the proportion of women in engineering and technical roles [15] - Research shows that nearly 72% of queer engineers in automation have experienced or witnessed discrimination in the workplace [16] Proposed Solutions & Recommendations - Inclusion should be engineered, not improvised, drawing from automation principles [8] - The industry should apply engineering logic to the workplace, monitoring people as critically as technical assets [10] - Implement condition monitoring techniques for inclusion, tracking psychological safety, workload equity, career progression, and cultural climate continuously [23][24] - Build in feedback loops using networks, employee resource groups, micro-surveys, and regular conversations for continuous course correction [25] - Track promotion patterns and trends, not just individual complaints, treating inclusion with the same rigor as quality control [26][27] - Design inclusion from the ground up, based on data, to avoid reactive measures [27][28]