It's an honour to be elected as a chair of an IET local network, and I was honoured to serve the Wales South West Local Network in 2017-2018. As I prepare to hand over the baton to my successor, Ms Susan Jones, at tonight's October Lecture on Environmental Management Technologies  I have the opportunity the reflect on the year just gone and mention some of my personal highlights.It's an honour to be elected as a chair of an IET local network, and I was honoured to serve the Wales South West Local Network in 2017-2018. As I prepare to hand over the baton to my successor, Ms Susan Jones, at tonight's October Lecture on Environmental Management Technologies  I have the opportunity the reflect on the year just gone and mention some of my personal highlights.


In my day job, I'm an academic working in the College of Engineering at Swansea University and IET Student Advisor. Swansea University has been an Academic Partner of the IET for some years and in the last two or three years, we have been working to establish a branch of IET on Campus, a student-run initiative designed to introduce young IET student members at the start of their engineering careers to IET volunteering. Just before I took over the chair we finally established our first IET on Campus at Swansea University and welcomed the first officer, Manesh Patel, onto our local network committee. One of the key targets I set for myself as chair was to see more student attendance at our local events, the relaunch of a South Wales heat of Present Around the World as a student-led initiative, and to ensure a safe succession of IET on Campus into the 2018-2019 session. We had a small increase in student attendance at our local network events, and a safe hand-over of stewardship of IET on Campus to Harry Upton, a final year MEng student in Electronic and Electrical Engineering, who was welcomed to his first local network committee meeting last week. With an even stronger commitment to cross promote our local network events and the On-Campus events, we hope we will see an even better response from our younger members this year. A commitment to Present Around the World remains elusive, but we are hopeful!


I broke my ankle over the August bank holiday weekend and I am thankful to our incoming chair Susan Jones for stepping into the October slot, when I should have given my chair's address, and delivering an excellent interactive talk entitled Problem Solving: Engineers don't always have the answer at the ALEX Reading room, the University of Wales Trinity St David (UWSTD). I finally gave my talk Indistinguishable from Magic in March, in an event that was co-sponsored by the Electronics and Communications Technical Network and the British Computer Society (BCS). I enjoyed preparing a retrospective on my nearly 40-year career of dabbling in computing and I hope the audience enjoyed the results too.


In November, one of my colleagues from Swansea University, Dr Richard Cobley, delivered a joint IET/Institute of Physics talk entitled Nanoelectronics: are we there yet.


Former South Wales East committee chair, jazz star and podcaster Rhys Phillips gave the Christmas Lecture Thunderbolts and Lightening -- are they really frightening? (Answer yes!) in December. 


We started 2018 with a talk jointly arranged by the Electronics and Communications Technical Network and Swansea Amateur Radio Society on Ground Penetrating Radar and its uses in archaeology which was excellently delivered by Erica Utsi.


Professor John Rees of UWSTD gave us a fascinating insight into Knowledge and Business Value in February.


In April we had a technical visit to Pembroke Power Station which I was unable to attend, but those who did, reported it a great success.


The year was topped off by the South Wales Prestige Dinner, this year hosted by colleagues of Wales South East at the Cardiff City Stadium. There was only gentle banter about the exchange of fortunes between Cardiff and Swansea City football clubs; I won a bottle of Single Malt Whiskey in the Raffle which raised funds for IET Connect; and a splendid time was had by all!


In the background, Susan Jones was busy, as vice chair, running the many Programme Committee Meetings that were held in the Westbourne public house, the results of which will be formally announced at tonight's inaugural meeting of the new season. There was an extra challenge this year as the IET are changing their events year to map onto the calendar year so 2018-19 season is 15 months rather than the usual 12. So thank you, Sue, for curating such an amazing programme. I would also like to thank Simon Forster who is heading the planning committee for next year's Prestige Dinner which will be held in commemoration of the first transatlantic flight.


I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the volunteers who serve on the Local Network Committee and plan its activities, the Honorary Treasurer, Nick Marsh, and Secretary Hugh Woodward, for their support for me, and the staff at the IET, especially Julie Hudson, who keep the local network on track. The local network committee met five times during the year, and we thank the Business School at UWSTD for hosting us, and the Rose Indienne for always having a table for us for the traditional post neeting curry.


In other news, some of the local network committee, and colleagues from Wales South East and South West met with IET Communities Chair and officers to discuss strategy and we are slowly moving our IT onto Office 365. 


And that's it from me. Please do note that the IET Wales South West Local Network is run by volunteers and there are always opportunities for others to get involved. Young Professionals would be especially welcome. If you would like to find out more, please get in touch by commenting on this message.