Transition Engineering Lab

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.

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

07/03/2025

What is a Ting you ask.

There is the historical Viking Ting which has given its name to the places where the community could gather to hear arguments, get the law speaker’s expert knowledge, voice their opinions and a judgement received from the Jarl. We have melded that process with the Ancient Greek trial before a jury of peers, and we have looked at the citizens jury process.

The result is the Transition Ting. This is now an important part of the SYSTEMS Transition Engineering Processes (STEPs) that have been developed into a standard playbook that we use in Transitioneering with communities.

This is an exciting invention that could not have happened without the help of our partners and the Orkney community. We did the research, and used design processes that push the envelope of what is possible. But we only have a well founded idea until we can practice with people facing real transition dilemmas to improve the design.

We would like to thank the folk who have come along to our Transition Ting events at the Orkney International Science Festival and took the time to participate, share their experience and ideas for improvement.

The Transition Ting is held after a good deal of hard work and input from stakeholders across the community, and a lot of research, data analysis and engineering modelling and design. We put forward what we have discovered as explorers of the past and the future, and we ask for a community decision about what we should take forward to implementation.

14/02/2025

Join the ICNZ's Transition Engineering Lab team and Glaitness School for a 'Ting' event in the Pickaquoy Centre at The Phoenix Cinema next Friday 21 February.

The School Run to Net Zero Programme has been ongoing for 3 years and was co-developed by the Glaitness pupils, teachers and our team. It is all about acting as a school community to change the 'Glaitness Way' of getting to school.

On Friday 21st the School Run to Net Zero Programme is up for deliberation! The students will decide whether the Programme should be permanently adopted into the school culture 🙌

A 'jury' of students will hear from different 'witnesses' and make a go/no-go decision ⚖️ Come support the young people taking ownership of their school run. Doors open at 1pm for a 1:30pm start, until 3pm. Tea, coffee and nibbles included.

11/08/2024

Sunset in Orkney. Which photo should we use for our “sunset industry” article?

10/08/2024

We would like you to invite folk to the Transition Lab events in Stromness.

Here it is! A complete guide to over 100 Festival events, from gold in the stars to meadows beneath the waves, from changing lives with solar power to the music of deep time, from the most beautiful berries to what teeth can tell us. It's our programme brochure, ready for you to download and study at leisure.

https://oisf.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/OISF-PROGRAMME-BROCHURE-2024-DIGITAL.pdf

With so many events, and high-quality background images, it's a big file and the download may take a few seconds; and then you’ll have a complete day-by-day listing of events. You can find out about new shelter for fish and how to build in Orkney's earth and stone; about green chemistry and living on the moon; about Viking genes and the fulmars of Eynhallow.

There's sagas and seascapes disentangling DNA, an Orkney past and Orkney's future ... and a wealth of wonderful Family Day activities when you can learn about bats, hear the sound of whales and dolphins, create constellations and enter the strange and beautiful world of fractals.

Download the brochure and let your imagination soar!