For those that don’t know the layout of the Scotland North Committee, the area is split into districts that each have a representative on the Scotland North Committee. The Committee pulls together the event plans for the year and submits the budget. The Scotland North Committee organises events in Aberdeen, Dundee, Inverness, Perth, Thurso, Orkney, Shetland, Stornoway. These events cover a range of engineering, management and general interest.
Bit of background for those on the community page who are not local.
The Western Isles is a chain of islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the Northwest coast of Scotland. The Islands are also known as the Outer Hebrides or officially called by the Gaelic name, Na h-Eileanan Siar.
The Hebrides are known as the "long island" as they stretch for over a 100 miles. The islands are steeped in history and culture, ranging back thousands of years.
The Isle of Lewis is the most northern of the Western Isles. and Stornoway is the main town on the Isle of Lewis and is also the home of the Western Isles Council. Just over 6,000 people live in the town, which represents about a third of the total population of the island. Barra and Vatersay are the most southerly islands. Two ferries and numerous causeways joint the islands together, giving a stepping stones feel to the islands.
Events that have happened so far –
Spaceweek event – this was very successful and there was some national press and television coverage that ran from 22 – 24 November 2016.
One of the main speakers was Richard Varvill, co-founder, Technical Director and Chief Designer at Reaction Engines. Richard Varvill gave an evening lecture on the SABRE engine and the SKYLON project. At Reaction Engines, Richard is working on the successor to the RB545, SABRE (rocket engine). On 22 May 2014 he appeared in an edition of Horizon, called The £10 Million Challenge. Richard began his career with Rolls Royce Military Engine Division working on advanced gas turbine concepts (EJ200, Hybrid Fan Vectored Thrust Engine and ACME) and prior to founding Reaction Engines. was responsible for engine design work on the RB545 air-breathing rocket engines and winged launcher studies for the European Space Agency.
Prof Christopher CR Jones, BAE Systems Engineering Fellow, gave a lunch-time talk on innovation in defence aerospace. The programme included an invitation to all Western Isles Primary schools to build a model Bloodhound car from blocks of expanded polystyrene, attach a solid-fuel rocket motor and race it! We had enough polystyrene for 50 cars.
Finally, Dr Chris Macleod (UHI) gave an evening talk spoke about promising research into advanced SCRAMjet engines and the difficulty of mixing fuel for sustained combustion. During the same evening, Richard Tarvis from Scottish Enterprise outlined the progress and potential for Stornoway becoming the UK’s spaceport.
You can see some footage of previous events in the video section.
As you can imagine, to put together these types of events for anyone to attend for free is shows the commitment of the IET volunteers. If you feel you can offer help or would like to volunteer, please get in touch.