No, I’m not writing about another Star Wars sequel, but instead have been looking back over the last year of our Covid nightmare. Who would have thought the words lock down and social distancing would be part of our every day vocabulary and the wearing of a mask be mandatory just to pop to your local shop to buy groceries? The distressing media images over the last 12 months has indeed taken its emotional and financial toll on everyone and now we are all anxiously asking, will 2021 be a year of hope?
Looking through the general industry news, some members of the engineering community are upbeat about the year ahead, with renewables and the healthcare sector unsurprisingly earmarked as growth industries. Plus there are predictions about technical developments in their abundance including AR, MR, VR, XR (extended reality) and robotics. Of course, where there are winners there have been losers, with the current pandemic affecting confidence in the automotive and aerospace markets.
External link: The Engineer - Tech Trends 2021
From a design engineering point of view, we can say from experience that the MedTech sector has been and continues to be buoyant, needing support with the designing and developing of new medical products to bring to market. Let’s hope the roll out of the vaccine puts an end to this awful situation and that 2021 is a better year for all.
