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This blog features posts from and about the EngX community. Want to contribute? Read our blogging guide to help you get started.

  • FIRST®︎ LEGO®︎ League (FLL) UK

    You may be aware that the IET is the FIRST LEGO League Operational Partner in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The FIRST LEGO League is a global science and technology competition for teams of up to 10 students, aged between 9 to 16 years, to encourage an interest in real world issues and develop crucial key skills. Each year the teams build, program and test an autonomous LEGO MINDSTORMS robot to solve a set of missions, as well as research, develop and share their innovative solution. In 2013 Untitled 1 from Bath won the Champion’s Award in St. Louis, MO, USA, beating teams from across the globe taking part in the festival. In 2014 Invicta from Kent did it again! Teams from Coventry schools are currently needed. If you have any links with schools in your local area who could take part then…

    Joanne Longton
  • IET London's Engineering Challenge

    [ View the story "IET Engineering Challenge" on Storify ]

    Former Community Member
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  • WISE Visit

    Thank you very much to Dave Spinks, Fellow of the IET, for sending this fantastic write-up to the Women's Network! During the week commencing 4 th August 2014, a group of young women visited the Defence School of Aeronautical Engineering (DSAE) Cosford, as part of the ongoing “Women into Science and Engineering” (WISE) project. One of the areas visited was the No: 1 Radio School (No: 1RS) which forms part of the Defence School of Communication and Information Systems (DSCIS) organisation. DSCIS, itself, is under the control of the Defence College of Technical Training (DCTT) which has overall responsibility for the education of personnel from all three Services in specialist engineering disciplines. No: 1RS provides training for Trade Group (TG) 4 Information Communication Technology (ICT)…

    Former Community Member
    Former Community Member
  • Swindon Committee and Volunteering

    Would you like to meet up with fellow-engineers from other organisations? Do you want to expand your own skills while contributing something to your profession? Are you interested in attracting the next generation of engineers? What ideas do you have for your local IET community? We are always looking for volunteers who have an interest and want to contribute to the work of the committee. IET membership is only required for Officer roles, otherwise men and women of all ages are welcome. We always encourage ‘new blood’ to refresh our Network and the widest possible range of people will help us to maximise our relevance in Swindon. When you are ready to become involved, please contact our Chairman Walter Featherstone to express an interest via email - Swindon@ietvolunteer.org . You do not…

    Ken Mills
  • Wish You Were Here - Visit To LEGOLAND Malaysia

    Legoland Malaysia, Malaysia's very first international theme park with over 40 interactive rides, shows and attractions was opened in Nusajaya, Johor, Malaysia on September 15, 2012. It is the first Legoland theme park in Asia and sixth in the world upon its establishment. For those who may not be familiar, Legoland Malaysia is easily accessible from the North-South Highway and just a short drive from city of Johore Bahru. IET Malaysia organised a technical visit to Legoland Malaysia on the morning of Saturday June 21, 2014 to enable participants to learn more about the technology and operations of the theme park. The participants benefited from up close and personal interaction to 2 of their major rides as well as insights through a technical briefing by their Technical Manager, Rajendran…

    Julie
  • 5th IET Malaysia Network Prestige Lecture And Annual Dinner 2014

    The 5th IET Malaysia Network Prestige Lecture and Annual Dinner was successfully organised. There was a total of 222 participants attended the Prestige Lecture. Our distinguished guests during the night are Ir. Professor Academician Dato' Dr. Chuah Hen Teik(President of Universiti of Tunku Abdul Rahmant, Past President of IEM), Ir. Tan Yean Chin (IEM Dupety President) Ir. Chris Chew Shee Fuee (IET CCAP Chairman) Ir. Lam Seng Yew (IEM, EETD Chair), Ir. Steven Ng (TEEAM Vice President), Ar. Sarly Adre Sarkum (MGBC Chairman) , IET Members, Universities and Industrial Partners. The Prestige Lecture was delivered by Ir. Professor Academician Dato' Dr. Chuah Hen Teik on the topic of "Science, Engineering, Technology & Innovation (SETI) Education for Economy Transformation". The Prestige Lecture and…

    Julie
  • EVs And Their Appetite For Power

    If you didn't manage to attend the event in Milton Keynes you can now view content from this activity on IET.tv. Click here for further information on the event and links to the presentations.

    Julie
  • Engineering The Shard - IET London Network event 14 August 2014

    The IET London Young Professionals Network brings you this Engineering C hallenge 2014 event. There will be team based challenges designed to make you get creative, think on your feet and problem solve. No prior preparation is required - just get involved and bring out straightforward engineering thinking. Attendees will also have the privilege to listen guest speaker Roma Agrawal structural engineer from WSP Group as she shares her highlights when engineering London's popular skyscraper, The Shard. Event programme 18:00 : Drinks & Snacks 18:30 :About the competetion & speaker introduction 18:45 :Lecture by Roma Agrawal on The Shard structural design 19:15 :Q&A 19:30: Engineering Challenge 20:15:Winners Announcement 21:00: Close Registration information Unfortunately registration for this event…

    Former Community Member
    Former Community Member
  • Top Mathematics Prize Awarded to a Woman for First Time

    Iranian mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani wins the Fields Medal, considered the Nobel of math, and breaks into a male-dominated academic elite. All 52 previous winners of the award were men! Read more...

    Former Community Member
    Former Community Member
  • Internet of Things launchpad competition

    IoT Launchpad competition Working through Tech City UK, the Technology Strategy Board is funding a £1m competition to support IoT projects from early stage start-ups and SMEs. To be eligible, UK registered companies must be based in London or Cambridge - or working with partners within those two clusters. Projects must be business led, can be up to 12 months duration and with a maximum of £150k grant available (at 60% of eligible costs). Larger projects will be considered but support is capped at £150k. The entry procedure is a bit different - a two minute video presentation. The deadline for applications is 3 September 2014. Further details and the route to application can be found here: http://www.techcityuk.com/programmes#iot?utm_source=emailing&utm_medium=mailkitchen&utm_campaign=news14…

    Former Community Member
    Former Community Member
  • Global Engineering Grand Challenges

    Engineering Grand Challenges Initiative Following the successful 2013 Global Grand Challenges London Summit, organised by the Royal Academy of Engineering, EPSRC set out to identify Engineering Grand Challenges. In order to start this process, EPSRC organised a two-day retreat, bringing together 25 academic, industry and government experts in facilitated discussions. The outputs of the retreat are included in the following report: http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/newsevents/pubs/engineering-grand-challenges/ Seven areas have been identified as potential Engineering Grand Challenges: · Risk and Resilience in a Connected World · Controlling Cell Behaviour · Engineering from Atoms to Applications · Bespoke Engineering · Big Data for Engineering Futures · Suprastructures - integrating resource infrastructures…

    Former Community Member
    Former Community Member
  • EMEA Communities Volunteer Conference (CVC)

    The 2014 EMEA CVC is upon us and we are making our final preparations! Many of you will have attended the CVC in the past and will understand that the CVC is an excellent opportunity to get together with other volunteers across the region to share ideas, case studies and new information. Being involved in the CVC is one of my favourite parts of my job as the senior staff member for the EMEA communities committee. It's highly valuable for me to be able to see so many members in one weekend and work with you on ideas or any issues. One way in which we help define the agenda is through a pre-CVC questionnaire. This year we'd like to invite all volunteers from the EMEA region (including those who are not attending the CVC) to complete the questionnaire attached to this blog post. This will help…

    Former Community Member
    Former Community Member
  • Beefeater Gin Visitor Centre

    Beefeater Gin opens London’s first ever Gin Distillery visitor centre, designed by Lee Boyd and Four-by-Two Lee Boyd has recently collaborated on the exciting new Visitor Centre for Beefeater Gin at their distillery in central London which now provides visitors an insight into the history of gin and an understanding of the process of gin making. A bold new extension providing a point of entry to the centre, links the different parts of the distillery and allows visitors to move from the exhibition floor to the stills house without interrupting the day to day workings at Beefeater. Beefeater Gin: Beefeater Gin is the world’s number one premium gin and has been made in the heart of London for over 150 years, the only international brand to have its distillery in the capital. Beefeater is uniquely…

    Former Community Member
    Former Community Member
  • Simple buildings, better buildings? CIBSE event

    Full details: http://www.cibse.org/symposium Thursday 16 - Friday 17 April 2015, University College London This is the fifth Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) Technical Symposium. The Symposium aims to encourage the participation of both young and experienced industry practitioners, researchers and building users to share experiences and develop networks. Each year the Symposium visits a different city and in 2015 will be hosted in London by University College London (UCL). The 2015 Technical Symposium will address the theme of: Simple buildings, better buildings? Delivering performance through engineered solutions Are we making buildings too complex? Might that complexity be holding back lifetime performance? Are modern buildings, with all the range of technologies…

    Former Community Member
    Former Community Member
  • Getting public spaces right

    When city agencies set out to create public spaces, their top concern is typically making sure that people and goods can get to their destinations as quickly and easily as possible. But while efficiency is critical, another important factor — user experience — has all too often been overlooked. As any number of sad, empty plazas littering cities around the world attest, in the absence of high-quality aesthetics, comfortable seating, and consistent maintenance, people tend to stay away.. Article in full: http://www.arupconnect.com/2014/07/29/getting-public-space-right-in-new-york/

    Former Community Member
    Former Community Member in Space
  • How can the UK innovate for the world's future cities?

    Two, FREE reports from the Future Cities Catapult: How can the UK innovate for the world's future cities? https://futurecities.catapult.org.uk/documents/2157622/0/FutureCitiesCatapult_UKCapabilitiesReport_Summary.pdf/97f15375-de1a-4122-ba42-7a3d9121c3fa What are future cities origins, futures and uses? https://futurecities.catapult.org.uk/documents/6697210/0/What are Future Cities_ July2014.pdf/4c93a7e4-44e1-4ee0-8e65-ad2a08f28506 Check out the IET's upcoming Future Intelligent Cities Conference, 4 - 5 December 2014 www.theiet.org/future-cities

    Former Community Member
    Former Community Member
  • EVs And Their Appetite For Power

    As the number of Electric Vehicles increases, the energy demands of these vehicles will become more of an issue. The ARTS TPN in conjunction with the Buckinghamshire Network recently organised a technical event which covered some of these issues.   The three, interlinked, talks given to the local Network in Buckinghamshire were entertaining and illuminating.  The three speakers gave insights into some of the practical issues met when introducing Electric Vehicles (EVs) into the transport infrastructure.   Pete James the chair of the TPN and also of Lyra Electronics, chaired the session with calm authority.  His talk looked at the power densities of the types of batteries used today.   Ben Godfrey from Western Power talked about the power infrastructure used for electric buses in Milton Keynes…

    Deborah-Claire McKenzie
  • LAPD start trialling an Electric Stealth Motorcycle

    Los Angeles Police Department are evaluating electric motorcycles, including one that looks conventional but can run near silently and an extreme version that was originally developed for the US Special Forces, which the LAPD off-road division will use. For more details on this article and a video clip click here .

    Deborah-Claire McKenzie
  • LED lighting

    Are you now working with the LED Lighting Code of Practice? http://www.theiet.org/resources/standards/led-cop.cfm Have you joined the Lighting MyCommunity Group? https://communities.theiet.org/communities/home/478 Filmed presentations from the Built Environment Sector's Summit: Lighting are available to view, here: https://communities.theiet.org/communities/videos/478

    Former Community Member
    Former Community Member
  • Celebrating Women in Engineering

    4th August 2014 marks the 100th anniversary of the start of Britain's involvement of WW1 Take a look at the online version of our wallchart illustrating how women played a significant part in WW1 as engineers and how the IET and the Women's Engineering Society continue to support women in engineering today. Read more and download the file...

    Former Community Member
    Former Community Member
  • A Committee Meeting With A Difference!

    A couple of weeks ago the Aerospace Executive team enjoyed a break from their usual meeting venues in London/Bristol, when John Beirne one of the committee members kindly hosted a one-off committee meeting/visit to RAF Syerston. The base near Newark was used as a bomber base during World War II with operational squadrons of Wellingtons, Hampdens and Lancasters all flying from there at some point. After various changes following the war, the base is now used to provide engineering support (Forward and Depth maintenance) to ensure the Air Cadet Organisation can operate its aircraft. After our committee meeting and lunch, John showed us around the Glider Maintenance Section, which provides engineering and logistics support to RAF Syerston’s Central Gliding School and 25 Volunteer Gliding Squadrons…

    Deborah-Claire McKenzie
  • 2014 IET Skills Survey

    The IET carries out annual surveys of businesses to gauge the state of skills in the engineering and technology sector. The IET interviewed 400 employers from a range of engineering and IT organisations across the UK and asked them about their recruitment plans and experiences. The results, published in the ninth annual IET Skills and Demand in Industry report, outline current and planned levels of engineering and IT recruitment, the difficulties that employers are experiencing in recruiting the people they need and the skills gaps they find with the people that they employ. The results have been compared to previous years to show recent trends. Read more...

    Former Community Member
    Former Community Member
  • David Drakes' Personal Account of The IET PATW Regional Finals

    On July 16th our chairman requested that I attend the PATW as he was unable to do so as previously planned. Within twenty four hours I made all of the necessary travel arrangements to secure my attendance. I contacted Ms Baksh, and met with her prior to our departure to review her presentation, offer advice on ways to improve same, but generally to give her the assurance that I was her disposal should she require any assistance from our LN. Prior to our departure, I also received information from the coordinator of the event in California - detailing local arrangements, the PATW schedule etc. Our flight out of Port of Spain on July 24th was due to take us directly to Houston. From there Ms Baksh and I would travel to the conference location via Los Angeles (LAX) and Santa Ana (SNA) respectively…

    Jason Robert Rameshwar
  • Flugwerft Schleissheim Visit

    Deutsches Museum - Flugwerft Schleissheim Blue skies and warm weather failed to deter 25 visitors from spending a sunny afternoon indoors at the Flugwerft, the aerospace collection of the Deutsches Museum in Oberschleissheim, just outside Munich. Organised by the IET's German LN, the group was shown round by Kurt Rathmann, formerly of the Luftwaffe, who had served not just in Germany but also in the USA. The guided tour encompassed the history of aviation, from Ludwig Prandtl's collaboration with Frederick Lanchester, through to Dornier's Do-31 10-engine STOVL research aircraft, up to DA-1, Germany's first Eurofighter (which some members of the group had helped to design). Several people braved the steep climb into the cockpit of the museum's latest exhibit, a newly-retired F-4 Phantom. Kurt…

    Howard Gray