Inventive: A podcast of Engineering Stories with associated live events and career resources

工程学充满了故事。这是关于人们面对挑战并深入挖掘以克服挑战的故事。然而，与传统的动作英雄不同，拯救世界的并不是他们能跳多远或爬多远。这就是他们如何应用复杂的科学知识和实用专业知识。不幸的是，让工程师完成他们所做工作的技术深度，也是公众欣赏和理解的障碍。这个有创意的播客将使用讲故事的方式来克服这一障碍，并鼓励观众梦想工程以及他们能做的事情。它将通过工程师、小说作家和屡获殊荣的广播制作人共同创作来实现这一目标。我们将把事实和虚构结合起来，创造出引人入胜的故事，为播客服务，但真正的工程师是他们的核心。这也是一个机会，可以在2018工程年的遗产上发扬光大，对抗工程方面的刻板印象。我们将通过选拔有引人入胜的故事的优秀工程师来做到这一点。它将以极具包容性的榜样为特色，以对抗白人男性在工程学许多领域的主导地位。我们将与其他领域的有影响力的人合作，瞄准难以接触到的受众。播客已经成为主流，数百万人现在收看了诸如科学星期五、电台实验室和你应该知道的东西等节目。不幸的是，在这个以小规模播客为主的不断增长的市场中，工程技术仍然相对隐蔽。当提到工程学时，它通常被贴上‘科学’的标签，从而错过了教育公众关于工程学的机会。因此，我们将创建一个展示工程的播客，利用播客市场目前的空间。通过这一点，我们将启发社会对工程学的贡献。挑战是创建一个播客，覆盖那些已经对工程学感兴趣的人。不幸的是，媒体用于工程的叙事方法往往是有限的。历史叙事很常见，但这可能会强化这样一种观点，即这门学科是关于过去时代的重型工程；它忽视了正在改变我们现代世界的当今工程师。关注最大、最长、最高的人讲故事是很常见的--这是一种类似于男孩玩具的方式--但这种方式的吸引力有限。另一种常见的策略是设置一些不能令人信服的危险，居高临下地对待观众，忽视这样一个事实，即工程学完全是为了设计出风险和失败。为了接触到更广泛的受众，工程学需要与处于中心的人一起讲述更好的故事。它还需要与不同听众的兴趣和关切相结合的内容。因此，播客将探索不同的叙事方式。我们将与有伟大故事要讲述的工程师进行实事求是的采访，并特别委托编写虚构的作品。例如，一个特定的工程师希望拥有什么样的超能力来让他们的工作变得更容易，以及什么样的引人入胜的虚构可以建立在这个前提之上？这将允许我们以一种有趣的方式探索对工程实践至关重要的东西：找到巧妙的方法来绕过限制。围绕播客，还建立了另外两个面向公众的活动。第一种是现场录音，它创造了与公众对话的机会，例如关于工程伦理问题的对话。第二是开发丰富的媒体资源，在学校提供职业建议，利用工程师们引人入胜的故事来激励下一代工程师。为了实现上述目标，我们组建了一支由广播、动画、社交媒体推广和职业/课程发展方面的专家团队。为了塑造项目并最大限度地发挥影响，我们有一个小型顾问委员会，他们带来了科学传播和写作小说和非小说方面的专业知识。

Engineering is full of stories. It's about people facing challenges and digging deep to overcome them. Unlike conventional action heroes, however, it is not how far they can jump or climb that saves the day. It's how they apply complex scientific knowledge and practical expertise. Unfortunately, the technical depth that lets engineers achieve what they do, is also a barrier to public appreciation and understanding. The Inventive Podcast will use storytelling to overcome this barrier and encourage its audience to dream about Engineering and what they could do. It will achieve this through a co-creation between engineers, fiction writers and award-winning radio producers. We will mix fact and fiction to create engaging stories that work for podcasts, but with real engineers at their heart.This is also an opportunity to build on the legacy of the 2018 Year of Engineering to counter engineering stereotypes. We will do this by casting brilliant engineers who have fascinating stories to tell. It will feature great inclusive role models, to counter the dominance of white males in many areas of Engineering. We will work with influencers from other spheres to target hard-to-reach audiences.Podcasting has gone mainstream, with millions now tuning into shows such as Science Friday, RadioLab and Stuff You Should Know. Unfortunately engineering remain relatively invisible in this growing market with mostly small-scale niche podcasts. When Engineering is mentioned, it is usually badged as 'Science', thereby missing the opportunity to educate the public about engineering. Consequently, we will create a podcast that showcases engineering, exploiting the current space in the podcast market. Through this, we will inspire society about the contribution engineering makes.The challenge is to create a podcast that reaches beyond those already interested in engineering. Unfortunately, the narrative approaches that the media uses for engineering are too often limiting. Historic narratives are common, but that risks reinforcing the idea that the subject is about heavy engineering from a bygone era; it ignores the current engineers who are transforming our modern world. Story-telling focusing on the biggest, longest, tallest is common - a sort of 'boys toys' approach to the subject - but this has a limited appeal. Another common tactic is to set-up some unconvincing jeopardy, patronising the audience and overlooking the fact that engineering is all about designing out risks and failure. To reach a broader audience, engineering needs to tell better stories with people at the centre. It also needs content that engages with the interests and concerns of a diverse listenership.Consequently, the podcast will explore different narrative approaches. We will interweave factual interviews with engineers who have great stories to tell, with pieces of fiction that we'll especially commission. For example, what superpower does a particular engineer wish they had to make their job easier, and what engaging fictionalisation could build on that premise? This would allow us to explore in a fun way something that is central to engineering practice: finding ingenious ways to get around limitations.Two other public-facing activities have been built around the podcast. The first is live recording, which creates opportunities for dialogues with the public, for example over ethical issues in engineering. The second is the development of media-rich resources for careers advice in schools, drawing on the compelling stories of the engineers to inspire the next generation of engineers.To achieve the above, we have assembled a team of experts in radio, animation, social-media promotion and career/curriculum development. To shape the project and maximise impact, we have a small advisory board who bring expertise in science communication and writing fiction and non-fiction.