Welcome

Cooke Associates is a network of consultants delivering to three sectors; Sports Engineering, Sustainable Engineering and Management Development.

Alison gives lectures for a number of organisations based on her engineering experience, including for Carnival UK on cruise ships. The slides for these talks can be found at the links below:

Alison was until recently (2011-2019) a trustee of the Mayden Foundation: a not for profit charity whose primary objective is to provide free-to-use web information services for the public benefit. For more information, and to look at the projects that the foundation is working on, follow this link.

Sustainable Engineering

Cooke Associates CO20 Project in 2021

  • Esther Tun helped Dr Cooke with a project in summer 2021 called CO20. Its goal to coordinate with offical partners in the faciliation of planting a large woodland of trees, somewhere in the UK. As well as to promote such projects through public engagement and encourage others to take part in similar schemes and sustainable climate change solutions.
  • This project aimed to offset Dr Alison Cooke's lifetime carbon emissions, in response to the Paris Agreement in 2015 and as her own effort and commitment in the fight against climate change. This also meant the implementation of a method to calculate one's lifetime carbon emissions, and the number of trees/amount of land needed to offset said emissions. The methods of calculation are available on the Carbon Calculation page.
  • Dr Cooke finalised on the location of Pertwood Manor Farm, owned by friend Dr Ros Smith, in Wiltshire, for this project. With an aim to plant a blend of white elms and mixed native trees. With thanks to Wessex Woodland, the tree contractor on board, and Strutt and Parker, our national land agent.
  • Dr Alison Cooke and Dr Ros Smith met on the farm on the 26th October 2021 to plant the symbolic first tree. BBC Look East interviewed Alison at her home in Cambridge on the 25th of October 2021 and BBC radio Cambridgeshire and BBC radio Whiltshire also recorded live interviews with Dr Cooke on the 25th and 26th of October 2021.
  • The planting began on the 24th of January 2022 for approximately 10 days, using 1.55 hectares of land and planting 1715 trees.
  • To the right is a picture of Dr Cooke and Dr Smith planting the symbolic last tree, a white elm, on the 23rd of February 2022.

    • Dr Alison Cooke, founder of Cooke Associates, has recently been working in the following areas:

  • Future Climate – Engineering Solutions (FC-ES): FC-ES is a network of engineering associations around the world who are working together to analyse technical solutions and develop national climate action plans for their home countries. The challenge is to find solutions that will create a low carbon society. This took Alison to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2010, 2011 and 2016. Dr Cooke also attended the third European Climate Change Adaptation Conference (ECCA) in Glasgow in June 2017.
  • Alison Cooke has been involved with public engagement, giving talks in relation to current sustainable engineering and climate solutions. These have been in coordination with People Power Social Club (PPL PWR) in May and June 2020, the UNFCCC Conference of Parties (COP21) at the start of 2016 in Paris on behalf of FC-ES, and for 'Carnival UK Group'. More details can be found on the Sustainable Engineering pages. Video links to People Power talks below.

    • 1. Energy & Climate Change - PPL PWR SCL CLB

    2. Climate Change & the UN - PPL PWR SCL CLB

    3. Sustainable energy - PPL PWR SCL CLB

    4. Wingsail Technology - PPL PWR SCL CLB

    Previously, Dr Alison Cooke has worked in the following areas:

    • Energy Efficiency in the Built Environment (EEBE): this project looked at how energy would be used in buildings in 2050, what are and how to overcome the barriers to energy efficiency and how policy can improve energy efficiency in buildings.
    • The Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership (CISL): CISL is an institution dedicated to working with leaders from business, government and civil society on the critical global challenges of the 21st century.

    YOUTH CLIMATE SUMMIT 2020:

    • Dr Anna Hands, an associate in our network, was invited to give a talk for the Youth Climate Summit in her capacity as Director of PPL PWR (More information can be found at People Power pages). Coordinated by the environmental charity Global Action Plan and a team of dedicated teachers, the Youth Climate Summit was a free, week-long virtual festival (9-13th November 2020) of themed discussions and activities, aimed towards primary and secondary aged children. This official event, took place instead of COP26 that has been postponed till November 2021 and the event provided over 160 free online sessions over the 5 day period.
    • A more detailed report can be found in our Sustainable Engineering pages under Youth Climate Summit 2020, including a thorough report of Anna Hands' insightful talk called 'Ingredients to make a Change'.

    Dr Anna Hands, one of Alison Cooke's associates, gave a recent TedX talk which looks at climate change with the theme 'Resilience Amidst Disruption' and titled 'Combating the climate crisis through community' on Saturday, March 27th, available via this link.

    Tom Hands, another Cooke Associate, is currently involved in a project with People Power that looks at creating a cheap particulate air sensor to help map out the air quality in Camden Town in London. He specifically worked as part of a data team looking to use extrapolate things from data that would collect the data and present it in useful ways for the local council to use.

    Sports Engineering

    In 2013, the Sports Engineering educational resources developed by Cooke Associates were made available in the eLibrary of the National STEM Centre of the University of York, in association with Mayden Foundation:

    Sports Engineering projects range from creation of a number of interactive education packages to consultancy on development of wingsail technology.

    Alison Cooke, the founder of Cooke Associates, was until 2005 a member of the Executive Committee of the International Sports Engineering Association, which manages the journal Sports Engineering and related conferences, this included being a member of its editorial board. She was also Director of Sports Engineering Research at Cambridge University from 1999-2000.

    Watch this video about 'what tennis pros look at when they pick a ball', released in June 2021. This gives a little insight into professional tennis players perspective of what makes a better tennis ball and the physics behind it.

    Management Development

    Management Development Projects include:

    Alison Cooke was an industrial tutor and course leader for Industrial Systems, Manufacture and Management (ISM – previously ACDMM) at Cambridge. In this post she managed in excess of 120 collaborative projects with industry ranging from multinational companies to small high tech companies. From 1991 to 1994 she was also the RTZ Industrial Fellow in Manufacturing Strategy.

    Alison Cooke has published a number of articles on Management Development. She has also mentored for the Marie Edwards college as an alumni in 2020 - link to programme.