#67

It's exhibition season again! Feet hurt thinking about it.

Call for help

I need testers to break our Proof of Concept and feedback if it's shit or not.

I posted this image yesterday, it shows a breakdown of where Chat-GPT gets its answers from - scary I know.

Also, completely useless for an engineer on site trying to find an answer to a breakdown, to be given answers from Reddit threads.

So, our platform will only use the vendors manuals, CAD files, datasheets and landing pages as it's resource base. AND cite the manuals it used to give the answer.

However, I need to know if it works and if it does is it viable to commercialise.

Access the "EI-AI" Proof of Concept: https://engsafeai.aifactorylabs.io

Then fill in this survey - your feedback is super important: Https://forms.gle/v7C84efjjNaM3D1f8 

Upcoming Events - Get Registered!

Manufacturing & Supply Chain Conference & Exhibition, Northern Ireland - 11th September: https://www.northernirelandmanufacturing.co.uk/tickets/

EMCON Engineering & Manufacturing Show, Sunderland - 18th September: https://www.northernirelandmanufacturing.co.uk/tickets/

PPMA Total Show, NEC - 23rd-25th September: VIP Ticket!!

Manufacturing & Supply Chain Conference & Exhibition, Glasgow - 1st-2nd October: https://www.manufacturingexposcotland.com/tickets/

Engineering Design Show (EDS), Coventry - 8th-9th October: https://forms.reg.buzz/engineering-design-show-2025/?affiliate=d7e12c58c79b4e9a4f3a1acec0a2d253cc9606daa1882bbc553901161f456469

Digital Manufacturing 2Day from MTC Events, Coventry - 22nd October: https://mtcevents.co.uk/upcoming-events/digital-manufacturing-2day/

Women in Manufacturing from Institute for Manufacturing (IfM), University of Cambridge, MTC Coventry - 23rd October: https://engage-events.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/WomeninManufacturing2025#/

Advanced Engineering UK, NEC - 29th-30th October: https://register.visitcloud.com/survey/2ehz86mul5ggl?actioncode=NTWO000323QJR&partner-contact=0dsfc0u8f2c34&verifier=POGM3btADLHPW4Z7YTuAk0UIWSs

Next Gen Makers Skills Conference, MTC Coventry - 30th October: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/next-gen-makers-engineering-skills-conference-2025-tickets-1455035031949

Tom's tales

Changed the subject line to be more fitting to me spewing out my brains here every week (sorry).

Also moved to the bottom because what I write next is personal. If I don't write, then I bottle it up - If you're new here then apologies because I use this space as therapy sometimes.

My parents moved my nan into a nursing home last week, as her Alzheimer’s has deteriorated quickly over the past few months.

As I went to bed Friday night, I cried at the thought of her bungalow door shutting for the last time.

That tiny, one-bedroom home carries memories. The difficult memories outweigh the happy ones, but still, it's where I remember my grandparents together.

It’s where I watched my grandad’s Alzheimer’s take hold, until my nan could no longer care for him. We watched them both struggle through, pretending to smile when we visited. Then we watched as my nan became a shell of her former self, losing her life partner, alone for the first time in 60 years.

I couldn't go back there to see the door shut.

When I visited Nan at the weekend, I took my (nearly) two-year-old with me. He was scared of everyone in these new surroundings, glued to my side. And honestly, I could feel that same little boy in me too - the one who was anxious the night before, dreading the moment I’d see her sitting quietly in a chair in the corner of a nursing home for the first time.

She's happy though. Somehow bagged herself a boyfriend in the first couple of days there. Like an 80's+ Love Island, except the ratio is 20:1 women to men and none of them know what a selfie is. It's a strange disease.

My grandparents ran an engineering company in Coventry for decades, "Flude Machine Tools", you know the old school engineering - stripping Webster Bennetts and rebuilding them - everyone smelt of oil, topless calendars on the walls, wore overalls every day and swore every second word.

The type of business I tell school kids our industry isn't like anymore but I'm proud of my heritage in manufacturing.

I miss the sound of my Dad opening the shutter door as the chain clinks together and the smell of oil wafts out, me and my brother walking over bits of swarf and climbing the stairs to the world's smallest kitchen to make a cup of tea for everyone, seeing my nan smiling at us as she worked on the computer in the office.

Maybe that’s why I put so much into Engineers Insight. I’m not the best engineer - my dad will always have that title - but I feel a responsibility to carry our name forward in UK manufacturing.

To make it mean something. To make a difference.

Engineers Insight isn't just an app. It’s a way of keeping those shutter doors open for the next generation.

It’s a way of showing kids, like my son one day, that engineering isn’t a fading story from their grandparents’ time - it’s alive, it’s exciting, and it’s theirs to shape.

That’s the legacy I want to leave.