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Mission to Mars – Disappointingly Successful

On this day in (engineering) history… Stephen Phillips November 28, 2023 Mariner 4 blasts off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, bound for Mars It is a fine winter morning at Launch Complex 12 on Cape Canaveral, Florida. Perhaps it is too cold for NASA’s mission controllers to sweat, while they nervously wait for the two-stage rocket sitting on the pad to lift off. Today is November 28 th , 1964, the vehicle is carrying Mariner 4, and at 9:22AM local time, the engines will ignite and (hopefully) send the space craft on its 228 day voyage to Mars. Up to now, there have been six failed attempts to send a probe to Mars, five by the USSR and Nasa’s failed Mariner 3. Mariner 4 now carries the hopes of everyone in the space agency. Mariner 3 made it to earth orbit only for a metal fairing…

Stephen Phillips
HYPED events - talk & visit report

Our 2023 events continued with a talk given by five members of the HYPED team in October with a follow up Visit to the HYPED facilities at the University of Edinburgh School of Engineering at the King’s Buildings campus in November. Both events were organised by our Secretary Ian Smith who also provided the report below. HYPED is an interdisciplinary student team dedicated to progressing the concept of the Hyperloop transportation system by producing pod prototypes, conducting full-scale research, expanding the Hyperloop community and raising awareness of STEM. The project has been running since 2015 with a team of up to 150 undergraduates of different STEM disciplines, working in collaboration to research, design, manufacture and test Hyperloop pods. Hyperloop is a concept for future mass…

Samuel Gaw (Jim) in students
New IET report explores neurodiversity within engineering and technology

The results of a new IET report published this week reveals there is an urgent need to make engineering and technology more inclusive for neurodivergent people – and provides practical guidance to employers, managers and colleagues of neurodiverse professionals and external partners on how to build a more inclusive profession. In 2022, the IET conducted a survey within our volunteer community and, of those who responded, 19% identified as definitely or possibly neurodivergent. As a continuation to this survey, we carried out further qualitative research, as well as a series of 10 focus groups with neurodiverse engineers and technicians to better understand and increase awareness of the lived experiences of neurodivergent people within the engineering and technology sectors. The report found…

Daisy March in Research and Innovation

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Latest IET EngX News

EngX Update - Ask the Expert and updates to the forum

Happy Monday EngX Community! Today we’re launching a new type of discussion event on EngX - Ask the Expert. Ask the Expert is an event that takes place in our Ask the Expert forum over the course of a couple of weeks where you’ll be able to ask questions to an expert Engineer on a chosen subject. This month’s topic launching today (Monday 13 th November) is Net Zero with Erusa Adizie a Net Zero Manager working for Tarmac. Erusa will be answering your questions on how organisations such as Tarmac reach their Net Zero targets. If you have a question you’d like to pose to Erusa, pop over to Ask the Expert and post your question there. Taking it off-Topic We’ve had feedback from a number of EngX community members that you’ve been missing a place to have general ‘off topic’ discussions…

Lisa Miles
Handy tips for sharing and adding extra content to your posts

Did you know that you can add and share extra content into your forum and blog posts in EngX? You can include polls, embed YouTube videos, Facebook posts and even files from Google docs too! Vote in our Poll! Including a poll in your question or discussion is a fun and easy way of surveying the EngX community’s opinion about a topic. Select insert from the editing options when writing your post and then poll . A new window will pop up for you to add your question, a short description (which is optional) and then the options you’d like the community to vote on. If you need more options than the three that are visible just select ‘add option’ to add more! Don’t forget to switch over to the configuration tab in the window to enter an expiration date for your poll and choose the display…

Lisa Miles
Thanks for all the feedback!

Moving to a new software service is never easy. I’m sure you, like me have been frustrated when your favourite app or piece of software is updated, then you have to relearn everything all over again because nothing is in the same place and the way you did X to get Y is now completely different (umm… Windows 11…. #justsaying) Online communities are no exception. Those of you who have been a member of our online community at the IET for some time will have been through a number of different iterations over the years. First the Fusetalk forum then MyCommunity followed by Engineering Communities and now we have IET EngX. Of course with every changing of the platform software comes a variety of feedback both positive and not so positive. Picking through that feedback to find the things that…

Lisa Miles

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Latest articles from E&T Magazine

Hydrogen plane start-up receives massive taxpayer investment

Aviation start-up ZeroAvia has secured $116m (£92m) from backers including the UK Infrastructure Bank (UKIB) to help the firm build its first engines and advance its R&D efforts.

E+T Magazine
China’s Belt and Road Initiative pivots to renewables and away from fossil fuels

The Chinese government launched the controversial initiative in 2013, which aims to develop large-scale infrastructure in foreign countries in an effort to enhance its economic influence globally, as well as to address domestic overcapacity issues by exporting excess industrial capacity. It has faced both praise and criticism, with supporters arguing that it can promote economic development and connectivity among participating countries, while critics raise concerns about debt sustainability, environmental impact and the geopolitical implications of China’s increased influence. The report from Wood Mackenzie, Belt & Road at 10: powering on through growing pains, found that overseas power projects built by Chinese companies now amount to an estimated investment value of around $200bn (£160bn…

E+T Magazine in Renewable Energy
Domestic EV manufacturing faces roadblock due to ‘gigafactory gap’, MPs warn

The UK faces a huge “gigafactory gap”, with less battery production capacity than needed for the nation’s future needs, according to a report from the cross-party Business and Trade Select Committee. If the gap is not plugged, the committee says, automotive production in the UK could decline, putting hundreds of thousands of jobs at risk. Using low-carbon energy sources, the UK could become a major centre for “midstream” refining processes for critical materials such as lithium. Doing so would establish the UK as a “frontrunner” in building sustainable and ethical batteries, compared with those from China and European countries, the report found. Currently, China accounts for 78 per cent of the world’s cathode production, and its dominance over large parts of the battery supply chain…

E+T Magazine in Power Conversion

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