Shane McHugh
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shanemchugh.bsky.social
Shane McHugh
@shanemchugh.bsky.social
350 followers 1.6K following 120 posts
Talking about engineering, technology, research security and systems thinking. Fan of cats, Arsenal, weird lit, and both kinds of music.
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shanemchugh.bsky.social
Shane McHugh @shanemchugh.bsky.social · Oct 20
I’ve updated my starting pack of U.K. engineers and engineering adjacent people.
Still a work in progress, especially in areas like civil and mechanical, so please get in touch if you want to be on it or suggest more names.

go.bsky.app/HZ9n48g
shanemchugh.bsky.social
The always interesting @bioengineergm.bsky.social on how our use of the word technology frames it as an elemental force and elides notions of agency and moral responsibility.
July 30, 2025 at 7:19 AM
Reposted by Shane McHugh
raeng.org.uk
"Engineering has the power and potential to transform the world for the better, and tonight’s awards will honour those who make it possible"

🏆 Congratulations to all our winners, and huge thanks to everyone who attended yesterday.

Find out more about our winners: raeng.org.uk/programmes-a...
2025 MacRobert award winners, OrganOx, alongside Academy CEO, Hayaatun Sillem, Academy President, Sir John Lazar, and presenter of the award, Lord Patrick Vallance.
July 9, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Reposted by Shane McHugh
hetanshah.bsky.social
Some people say the biggest gap in research funding is at mid career level. So here is our new call for our mid career fellowship programme which provides buyout for 6 to 12 months to devote to the completion of a major piece of research. Spread the word!
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/mid-...
Mid-Career Fellowships
The Mid-Career Fellowships are designed both to support outstanding individual researchers with excellent research proposals, and to promote public understanding and engagement with humanities and soc...
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk
July 2, 2025 at 8:36 PM
Reposted by Shane McHugh
raeng.org.uk
Are you ready to lead one of the UK’s most influential organisations at a time of global change?

We are seeking a visionary, values-led Chief Executive Officer to drive the delivery of our bold Strategy 2030: Engineering Better Lives. Apply by 20 July 2025:
www.russellreynolds.com/en/executive...
We are hiring a Chief Executive Officer. Apply by 20 July 2025. Are you ready to lead one of the UK’s most influential organisations at a time of global change? This is a defining moment for engineering in the UK and globally. As CEO, you will shape policy, inspire innovation, and help ensure that engineering serves society — sustainably, inclusively, and ambitiously.
June 27, 2025 at 11:17 AM
Reposted by Shane McHugh
jwherrman.bsky.social
The real AI arms race is between one another 🥰 nymag.com/intelligence...
Stories about Al deployment tend to fall into a few categories. You've got productivity stories, where workers — most visibly at tech companies — talk about how Al tools are making parts of their jobs easier or harder, increasing their workload or simply making them redundant and taking their jobs. You've got top-down management stories, where Al use is suggested or mandated by leaders demanding more efficiency, who are either betting that a great deal of automation is possible within their firms, or who are just worried about getting left behind. Then you've got the stories in which people are more clearly using new Al tools against one another in an escalatory way. Job hunters, now able to generate custom applications instantly, flood employers, so employers turn to Al to manage the glut. Spammers and other bad-faith actors flood social media with near-infinite material, pushing the platforms to double down on automated moderation. Rapidly generated presentations lead to rapidly scheduled meetings recorded and automatically transcribed by AI assistants for machine summarization and analysis. Dating-app users generate chats with Al only to be filtered and then responded to by someone else using AI. The starkest and most consequential such story is what's happening in education: Teachers dealing with students who generate entire essays and assignments are turning to Al-powered plagiarism detectors, or getting pitched on ed-tech software that solves cheating with surveillance - with, of course, the help of AI. These are stories about AI, but they're also stories about broken systems. Students flocking to ChatGPT in the classroom suggests that they see school in terms of arbitrary tasks and attainment rather than education. The widespread use of Al in job hunting drives home the extent to which platforms like LinkedIn, which promises to connect job seekers with employers, have instead installed themselves between them, pushing both sides to either pay up or dishonestly game their systems. A dating app where users see opportunity in automated flirting must already be a pretty grim space. If Facebook can be so quickly and thoroughly overwhelmed by Al-generated imagery and bots, it probably wasn't much of a social network anymore — a low-trust platform better at monetizing users than connecting them. Smaller-scale AI arms races like these don't take hold unless users (or workers, or students) have already been pitted against one another by systems they don't respect. In an uncomfortably large portion of modern life - especially online - that's exactly what's happened.
June 26, 2025 at 4:47 PM
Reposted by Shane McHugh
royalsociety.org
We're happy to announce @markmiodownik.bsky.social as our new Professor for Public Engagement in Science! His mission will be to transform our understanding of how we make, use, reuse & recycle products, & explore how we can live more sustainably. Watch this space! royalsociety.org/news/2025/06...
Living sustainably to be theme for new Royal Society Professor for Public Engagement in Science, Mark Miodownik | Royal Society
Material scientist, engineer, broadcaster and award-winning author, Professor Miodownik will use his expertise to explore how we can live more sustainably, both as individuals and as a society.
royalsociety.org
June 24, 2025 at 11:20 AM
Reposted by Shane McHugh
jfcsteele.bsky.social
Always exciting when research from the lab is disseminated for the public! @theguardian.com have reported on @swallacelab.bsky.social paper turning plastic into paracetamol using engineered bacteria
tinyurl.com/32hxnwsd (original publication rdcu.be/esYfF)
Scientists use bacteria to turn plastic waste into paracetamol
Genetically modified E coli used to create painkillers from material produced from plastic bottles
www.theguardian.com
June 23, 2025 at 4:54 PM
Reposted by Shane McHugh
sciencebusiness.net
🔁Horizon Europe looks set to continue beyond 2027 — in name as well as scope.
At a Brussels event, EU research commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva said #FP10 will retain the #HorizonEurope brand. @ec.europa.eu‬ hasn’t confirmed this officially, but multiple attendees backed the comment.
Horizon Europe forever: EU research programme brand set to roll over in 2028
The next Framework Programme for research and innovation, informally known as FP10, looks set to keep the name Horizon Europe, according to comments by research commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva after…
buff.ly
June 19, 2025 at 5:30 PM
shanemchugh.bsky.social
Such a clever idea. You could imagine its application to all sorts of wicked problems…
mattsclancy.bsky.social Matt Clancy @mattsclancy.bsky.social · Jun 17
What’s the return on government support for R&D?

To try to get a credible answer, Open Philanthropy and the Sloan Foundation are committing up to $1 million to trying something new: we call it a Pop-Up Journal.
June 17, 2025 at 8:55 PM
Reposted by Shane McHugh
richardaljones.bsky.social
I very much welcome the announcement of the Local Innovation Partnerships fund, with ~ £30m funding for industry facing, translational research in each of 7 English city-regions, + places in Wales, Scotland & NI, allocated towards locally determined priorities.
www.gov.uk/government/n...
Transformative £86 billion boost to science and tech to turbocharge economy, with regions backed to take cutting-edge research into own hands
Funding package worth more than £22.5 billion a year in 2029 will boost Britain's world-leading status in research and innovation.
www.gov.uk
June 8, 2025 at 6:44 AM
Reposted by Shane McHugh
britishacademy.bsky.social
"In a geopolitically uncertain world and after more than a decade of low productivity growth, the UK needs to rethink its economic strategy." Today, we're publishing a collection of expert policy insights ahead of the multi-year Spending Review conclusion: buff.ly/DAlcNo5
buff.ly
June 3, 2025 at 7:55 AM
Reposted by Shane McHugh
colinsmith.bsky.social
Summer 1974 and the ferry from Burtonport Co. Donegal to Bran Island has made room for a “precariously perched car”. According to photographer Frank Bodson, the whole caboodle “excited no interest” among those on-board. (Observer magazine, 1/9/74.)
June 1, 2025 at 1:16 PM
shanemchugh.bsky.social
I’ve been baffled by Ridley Scott’s Napoleon ever since I watched it, but have just realised that if you think of it not as a historical epic, but as a reimagining of Raging Bull then it all makes perfect sense
May 31, 2025 at 2:07 PM
Reposted by Shane McHugh
hetanshah.bsky.social
UK must toughen regulation of facial recognition, says @adalovelaceinst.bsky.social on.ft.com/43lnQNL
UK must toughen regulation of facial recognition, say AI experts
Campaigners call on Keir Starmer’s government to create clear laws to tackle growing use of the technology
on.ft.com
May 29, 2025 at 6:06 AM
Reposted by Shane McHugh
simon.fedi.simonwillison.net.ap.brid.gy
I started reading the 120 page Claude 4 System Card and found myself unable to put it down. If you're in the mood for some excellent science fiction (or you miss Person of Interest on CBS) I cannot recommend it enough. I made detailed notes on my highlights here […]
Original post on fedi.simonwillison.net
fedi.simonwillison.net
May 25, 2025 at 5:59 AM
shanemchugh.bsky.social
Potentially great impact on hospital safety from an @raeng.org.uk Industrial Fellowship grant
drjoepajak.bsky.social @DrJoePajak CSci CChem FRSC @drjoepajak.bsky.social · May 23
'Scientists have created a novel antimicrobial coating that, when mixed with paint, can be applied to a range of surfaces to destroy bacteria and viruses – including particularly persistent strains like MRSA, flu virus and SARS-CoV-2.'
@physicsworld.bsky.social

physicsworld.com/a/bacteria-k...
Bacteria-killing paint could dramatically improve hospital hygiene – Physics World
A novel antimicrobial coating can be applied to a range of surfaces to destroy bacteria and viruses
physicsworld.com
May 24, 2025 at 8:48 PM
Reposted by Shane McHugh
jochenbrandt.bsky.social
The Department of Chemistry at Queen Mary University of London is looking to support applicants for the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) Fellowship. For people <4 years post PhD at the deadline (17th September). #ChemSky See www.seresearch.qmul.ac.uk/ccr/news/496...
Expression of Interest for Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) Fellowship
The Department of Chemistry at Queen Mary University of London is looking to support applicants for the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) Fellowship. These fellowships are for people who are less t...
www.seresearch.qmul.ac.uk
April 30, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Reposted by Shane McHugh
neural-reckoning.org
If you've finished your PhD in the last 4 years and your research could be considered as engineering, you might be interested in the RAEng research fellowship scheme which provides 5 years of funding to work in the UK.

raeng.org.uk/research-fel...
Research Fellowships
raeng.org.uk
March 17, 2025 at 7:17 PM
Reposted by Shane McHugh
hetanshah.bsky.social
Intriguing report of the thinking of the Universities Minister
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/05...
Universities have ‘lost sight of responsibility over public money’
Baroness Smith says institutions failing to rein in spending despite demanding financial support from government
www.telegraph.co.uk
May 10, 2025 at 9:14 PM
Reposted by Shane McHugh
albertocomoretto.bsky.social
Autonomous locomotion simply with tubes as limbs, and no brain? 🎈🤖

Yes, through physical synchronization! Our article is out today in Science (@science.org)

Article: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Authors: @albertocomoretto.bsky.social, H.A.H. Schomaker, J.T.B. Overvelde

More below 🧪 ⚛️
(1/6)
May 8, 2025 at 6:15 PM
Reposted by Shane McHugh
dorialexander.bsky.social
New blogpost: "Training as we know it might end".
It was originally a panorama of the new methods of synthetic generation but the stakes are now much higher and I openly wonder if model training is not soon going to change forever. vintagedata.org/blog/posts/t...
May 8, 2025 at 8:02 PM
shanemchugh.bsky.social
Very clear overview of repositioned U.K. government S&T framework by @sciencecampaign.bsky.social
sciencecampaign.bsky.social CaSE @sciencecampaign.bsky.social · May 1
What has changed in the new Science and Technology Framework?

DSIT released an updated version of the Science and Technology Framework on the 29th April. Our Policy Officer, Edmund Derby, takes a look at what has changed ⬇️⬇️
www.sciencecampaign.org.uk/analysis-and...
What has changed in the new Science and Technology Framework? - CaSE
DSIT released an updated version of the Science and Technology Framework on the 29th April 2025. Our Policy Officer, Edmund Derby, takes a look at what has changed.
www.sciencecampaign.org.uk
May 1, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Reposted by Shane McHugh
samhalpert.bsky.social
Even accepting the premise that AI produces useful writing (which no one should), using AI in education is like using a forklift at the gym. The weights do not actually need to be moved from place to place. That is not the work. The work is what happens within you.
April 15, 2025 at 2:56 AM
Reposted by Shane McHugh
ginapieters.bsky.social
Since there's a lot of discussion about #treasuries, bonds, and yields, I'm going to give a quick thread on what they are.

##EconSky
April 9, 2025 at 11:27 AM
Reposted by Shane McHugh
ailogblog.bsky.social
The endless back and forth over AGI is getting stale. We need better ways to talk about what people should do when they use large AI models. @alisongopnik.bsky.social @himself.bsky.social @dsquareddigest.bsky.social offer that and more.

On Beyond AGI! www.ailog.blog/p/on-beyond-...
On Beyond AGI!
We need new language for talking about large AI models. Alison Gopnik, Henry Farrell, James Evans, Cosma Shalizi, and Dan Davies provide one.
www.ailog.blog
April 6, 2025 at 11:05 AM