Dr Sunny Bains is a scientist, journalist, editor, and expert in technical communication. She currently teaches at UCL Engineering, where she has developed a programme to teach technical argument, writing, presentation, and professional skills to undergraduates and postgraduates across the faculty. She is the founder and Editorial Director of Engineering Inspiration (ENGins), and runs a small company – Form & Content – that specialises in creating and curating readable content about science and technology.
For more than two decades, Sunny's main focus was as a tech journalist, writing for magazines including The Economist, Science, New Scientist, EE Times, Laser Focus World, and Wired. At the same time, she was busy launching and editing publications, starting with Holographics International Magazine in the late 80s. At SPIE (The International Society for Optics and Photonics) she founded several titles including Optical Computing and Robotics and Machine Perception. Through Form & Content, she then helped create projects including SPIE Newsroom, The Neuromorphic Engineer, SPE Plastics Research Online and The Briefing.
At UCL Engineering she has been a key member of the team implementing the Integrated Engineering Programme: an ambitious project to change the way engineering is taught – and the kind of graduates UCL produces – by focussing on learning-by-doing activities and by giving students appropriate training to succeed in these exercises.
A big part of this is Engineering Inspiration (ENGins), based on The Briefing. ENGins helps connect early undergraduates with the real world of industry and research without expecting them to be able to read journal papers.
She is currently on the Executive Board of the Association of British Science Writers, the Governance Committee of the National Association of Science Writers, is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and a member of both the British Computer Society (BCS) and the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET).
Sunny is still passionate about the many subjects that she followed for two decades as a scientist and journalist: holography and displays; optical, photonic, and analog computing; machine intelligence; and neuromorphic engineering. She is currently writing a book about technical analysis.
You can see the archives on this site related to her work in various roles over the years: as a journalist, editor, scientist, lecturer, and consultant.
