[In my home workshop,] generally I'm mending things, which is interesting because you learn a lot about why they broke.

So I think the winners in recession are the people who produce new technology that does things better, which people really want.

The important thing is to learn from mistakes - something graduates are adept at. Our graduate engineers are working on new technology - from uncharted applications for our digital motor, to a new take on the hand dryer. With an unhindered mind, nothing is off limits.

Engineers are behind the cars we drive, the pills we pop and the way we power our homes.

An inventor's path is chorused with groans, riddled with fist-banging and punctuated by head scratches.

It's the unlikely juxtaposition of creativity and logic which causes the wooliness and confusion around the term 'innovation'. Everybody wants to be innovative; many companies and ideas are proclaimed to be innovative and no one doubts that innovation is a money spinner. And, thus, we are all looking for the magic formula. Well, here you go: Creativity + Iterative Development = Innovation.

Life is a mountain of solvable problems and I enjoy that.