IET EngX® Community Insights

Welcome to the Community Insights blog!

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

Grid

List

Engineering Is Amazing....

A very Happy New Year to everyone I hope you all had a Merry Christmas (or a Happy Holidays!) For my first blog post of 2014 I thought I’d start the year with something a little bit different and share one of my favourite YouTube videos of 2013...Now I’m not a high octane kind of person myself but I do admire the courage and stupidity bravery of those who decide to throw themselves out of aeroplanes at high altitude, perform double back flips on motorbikes (Freestyle MX style), balance on a tightrope over a 200ft drop and perform stunts in cars at speed through treacherous terrain etc. What many people do not appreciate though, is the amount of engineering involved to enable these people to perform such feats…. So below is a compilation video of some of these crazy people. Watch and…

Lisa Miles
Northern Ireland Officers & Contacts 2013-2014

Officers & Contacts 2013-2014 Chair Jayne Brady Vice-Chair Paul Moorhead Honorary Treasurer Frank Taggart Chair of Professional Registration Sub-Committee Alan Webb Chair of Communications Sub-Committee Ben Greene Chair of Education Sub-Committee Keith Chambers Chair of Business Partners Sub-Committee Randal Gilbert Chair of Young Professionals Sub-Committee Matthew Nethercote Chair of Universities Link Sub-Committee Karen Rafferty Prestige Lectures Organiser David Macartney CC-UK Representative Richard Furey My Community Administrator David Procter Honorary Secretary Caron Malone Community Relationship Manager Carlena Probert-Baulch

Lynsay Callaghan
Committee 2014-15

The IET Control & Automation TPN Committee organises a programme of activities for engineers with an active interest in Automation and Control - particularly those involved with the design, implementation, construction, development, analysis and understanding of control systems. All of these events and activities are made possible by the efforts of a dedicated group of volunteers. If you would like to know more about the committee or volunteer your time to help with our activities, please get in touch with any of the current committee volunteers listed below. William Twohig Simon Hart Stewart Taylor - Chairman Javier Ibanez-Guzman Terence Jayasuriya Nirav Chokshi C. James Taylor Yew Chang Martin Thomas Bayliss David Smith Stefano Longo Joanne Longton - Community Relationship Manager

Joanne Longton
IET YP Best Paper Competition

The IET Railway Network invited young railway professionals from across the industry to hone their writing and presentation skills by participating in the 2013 Best Paper competition. The 2013 theme was 'What is the value of innovation?' The winners of the competition were Jay Shen and Ali Najimi, Atkins with their paper on 'Innovation in the UK Rail Industry - Barriers and their Impact on Innovation Performance. Further information on their paper, together with those of the other entrants can be found here and there are also links to IET.tv where you can watch all the presentations.

Deborah-Claire McKenzie
HTN Community Update - 28 December 2013

Hello once again to all IET and Healthcare Technology Network members. This month's update also serves as a review of some of the Network's activities over the last year. Before the current session had begun in October, the HTN had already lent its support to several outstanding events in 2013, with notable highlights including the PGBioMed conference held at the University of Surrey and a sponsored session at the IEEE EMBC conference in Osaka. The network's stated ambition since the beginning of the current session has been to develop its level of international engagement, both via the online eCommunity and through events in the UK and abroad. This aim coexists alongside initiatives to to work closely with related groups in other institutions to promote excellence and commercial awareness…

Peter Bannister
IET London & IMechE Greater London Christmas Event

Collaboration has been high on the agenda of the IET London Network this year and the evening of Wednesday 18th December saw the first jointly organised event between the volunteers of the IET London Network and those of the IMechE Greater London Region. We were treated to a talk by John Hutchinson, an ex Pilot of Concorde, and a post event Networking session where members of the public were able to network with members from both Institutions along with mulled wine, music and minced pies! Selected Feedback from attendees: "This was a really interesting and informative lecture from a passionate and charismatic speaker on a subject that was clearly close to the hearts of most of the audience too. Well-deserved praise for Concorde - a truly astounding achievement of engineering." "The speaker…

Lisa Miles
Executive Committee

The IET Multimedia Communications Committee organises programme of activities for engineers working within the Multimedia, Broadcasting and Communications Industries . All of these events and activities are made possible by the efforts of a dedicated group of volunteers. If you would like to know more about the committee or volunteer your time to help with our activities, please get in touch with any of the current committee volunteers listed below. Graham Turner Chairman Martin Russ Member Ratnasabapathy Jananthan Member

Lisa Miles
Communities Resourcing Committee realtionship With TPN's

The Communities Resourcing Committee (CRC) oversees, co-ordinates and resources IET community activity by facilitating communication between all communities around the world. The CRC also co-ordinates, guides and supports the five Community Committees and part of the drive through 2014 onwards is to engage IET members through increased engagement with TPN's. IET member / non-member engagement opportunities through great events/lectures etc are all reviewed as part of the funding cycle so please keep the great ideas coming in. The group is headed up by Nigel Ward, he is one of the most active volunteers I have ever met and contributes a huge amount of time to the IET. As well as being chair of the CRC, he is a member of the Knowledge Management Board (who CRC reports to), and he sits on the…

Lee Wood
Transferable Safety - Fact Or Fiction?

UPDATE: Sep '14: The draft document discussed at the seminar, on Assessment of Safety-Related Compliance Claims, is now available on the SCSC website . On 5 December 2013, the Independent Safety Assurance Working Group organised a successful seminar on the reuse of safety arguments and evidence, in collaboration with the Safety Critical Systems Club . The theme of the day was "Transferable Safety". Can a system or component that has been approved for use in one context legitimately be claimed to be safe in another? There are obvious benefits if it can: avoiding the time and cost of repeating certification processes or generating new safety evidence. But is this just a pipe dream, or can safety arguments legitimately be transferred from one regulator to another, or even from one industry to…

James Inge
Has Your Professional Registration Form Fallen To The Bottom Of Your In-tray?

Many of us are looking forward to a well-earned rest over the Christmas break and during this time we often find ourselves reflecting on what we’ve achieved over the past year and thinking ahead to the next. If you have some time off over the festive period, or a quieter time at work then why not make the most of this time by looking again at professional registration or dusting off the unfinished application form sitting at the bottom of your in-tray? Update or start over? Whether you update an existing application form or start a new one depends on when it was that you last updated your form. The IET has recently updated the application process so if it has been more than two years since you last downloaded an application form it’s a good idea to start afresh. This doesn’t mean that you have…

Kathryn Bain
Automation Federation and Alabama Technology Network Seminar

Automation Federation and Alabama Technology Network announce seminar to explore implementation of recently released Cybersecurity Framework The Automation Federation and the Alabama Technology Network will sponsor an informative, free seminar on 21 February 2014 in Birmingham, Alabama, USA to examine the details surrounding the implementation of America’s Cybersecurity Framework. At the seminar, representatives from the White House, NIST and leading cybersecurity subject matter experts will explain the importance of the Cybersecurity Framework, and will illustrate why industrial automation control systems (IACS) security standards are such vital components of the plan and essential to its successful implementation. To register to attend this important, free seminar, go online at www.atn.org…

Joanne Longton
Committee Members 2013-2014

Ronaldo Ronaldo Chairman Ian Williamson Vice Chairman Lee Wood Past Chairman Joanne Longton Community Relationship Manager Thomas Hlaing Member Derek Little Member Stephen Long Member Jeremy Hadall Member Lim Yew-Kee Member Zhongde Shan Member Qing Li Member James Cody Member

Joanne Longton
Looking for Volunteers

The IET Manufacturing Network is looking for volunteers to join the exec team. Follow our discussion thread If you are interested to join the exec team or just want more information about what is involved please contact: Joanne Longton Ronaldo Ronaldo We are also seeking to appoint a Vice Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer. Find out more about these roles . If you wish to apply for any of these roles please send your CV and a short paragraph (150-250 words) to Joanne Longton, CRM, and let us know how you can make an impact through your involvement with the Manufacturing TPN.

Joanne Longton
Rainwater Harvesting on the Sea – A Solution for the Global Water Crisis

IET Singapore Network had an unusual Members’ Nite on Wednesday 20th November in that the talk presented was not about an existing technology, process or installation. Instead, Dr Charles Su of Newcastle University presented a very interesting proposal to harvest rainwater and store it under the sea: “Rainwater Harvesting on the Sea – A Solution for the Global Water Crisis”. Dr Su showed just how small a percentage of our planet’s water is available for consumption. He also showed how Singapore could be an ideal country to benefit through the harvesting of rainwater. Members were then invited to provide helpful feedback to support or modify the proposal. The talk was well-received and the lively post-talk discussion highlighted challenges that would need to be dealt with should the project…

Sarah-Jane Travi
Watts For Christmas?

The IET London - Teddington group, together with the National Physical Laboratory and Kingston University this year collaborated to bring together "Watts for Christmas?" - a collection of Science, Engineering and Technology Lectures which took place at NPL in Teddington on 5 December 2013. Watch videos of all of the talks below, and find out how to power a car with a candle, how computers can interact with your brain and why a random guess may not be so random after all! If you attended the event, please tell us what you thought by adding your review of the lectures Christmas Candles Dr Michael de Podesta from the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) We all love to see candles burning in a window at Christmas - but did you know each flame is an astonishing world of metal-melting super-high temperatures…

Lisa Miles
Robots Like Us

The IET Robotics and Mechatronics Technical and Professional Network sponsored a distinguished speaker public lecture presented by Murray Shanahan at the Science Museum on the 27th November 2013. Murray is professor of Cognitive Robotics with the Department of Computing at Imperial College London, respected for his advances in Artificial Intelligence, the modelling of neural networks and most recently in understanding how, and indeed if, cognitive robots can ever be said to have consciousness similar to ours. Murray's enjoyable and thought provoking lecture covered ideas of physical embodiment as the foundation to developing a "Artificial General Intelligence" and how robots might be imbued with notions of common sense by an ability to predict future outcomes, showing how a new generation of…

Joanne Longton
Call for volunteers - your community needs you!

Are you working or studying in Robotics and Mechatronics? Are you passionate about supporting the community? Do you have 3-4 days per year that you can volunteer to attend committee meetings and organise activities? We’d love to hear from you! The IET Robotics & Mechatronics Network is seeking professional engineers working in this field to join our Executive Team. By volunteering for this role, you will be representing the interests of the community as a member of the IET and a registrant of the Network and we would like to invite you to put yourself forward for this very rewarding opportunity. What is the role of the Network? The role of the Network is to provide a platform that enables the exchange of knowledge and information amongst the community through a variety of networking opportunities…

Joanne Longton
JLB 2013 - Is The Set Top Box Dead?

This year, the IET Multimedia Communications Network collaborated with the BBC to deliver the prestigious John Logie Baird Lecture on October 3rd 2013. The lecture brought together top industry experts to debate whether or not the set top box is dead, given the increasing use of online services by the audience and the delivery of content to all sorts of devices. Click on the speakers names below to view their presentations on IET.tv. The evening was hosted by William Cooper , CEO of informitv and a well-known industry commentator on interactive media services. Speakers included: Alix Pryde, Director of Distribution, BBC Ian Mecklenburgh, Director of Consumer Platforms at Virgin James Rosewell, Founder, 51 Degrees.mobi Efe Cakarel, CEO and Founder, MUBI Tom Cape, CEO, Capablue David Cutts, MD…

Lisa Miles
Chairman's Message 2013

So who am I? I’m a Teaching Fellow in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Warwick where I teach Mobile Robotics. Previously I have worked for Cheltenham Science Festival and I managed an EPSRC-funded project called Walking with Robots. In 2010, Walking with Robots was awarded the Rooke Medal for the Public Promotion of Engineering by the Royal Academy of Engineering. I took over as Network Chair in October 2013 and since then my feet haven’t touched the ground. We’ve run a very successful event on Space Robotics, a ROS workshop aimed at early career roboticists, taken part in a festival of robotics at the Science Museum and supported two international conferences. But it doesn’t stop there, we’ve lots planned for the coming year including a public talk on Assistive Technology…

Joanne Longton
Chairman's Message

I am honoured to serve you as Chairman of the Manufacturing Network. I would like to thank Lee Wood CEng, for all his hard work that he has put into this network in the past seven years as Chairman. It is reassuring to see that manufacturing continues to make positive headlines in the recent months - not only in the UK but across the globe. From the new product development to packaging and distribution, engineers play a big role in manufacturing and contribute enormously to the economy. Economic contribution whilst important, I would argue, is a by-product of manufacturing activities. Throughout decades we have seen how manufacturing has realised many of human aspirations; producing more affordable transports through lean manufacturing, micro-fabrication techniques enabling the creation of…

Joanne Longton
He's Supersonic....

There are many people in the world who have a fear of flying, although to be honest I think it’s more a fear of crashing! I, however, am not one of these people as I adore flying!!!! Being in an aircraft at 35,000ft and looking down at the world is one of my favourite things to do. On flights I’m usually superglued to the window watching the world below go by and night flying is my absolute favourite. On a recently journey we flew over London at dusk and the view was spectacular with the city lit up! You also get a good idea of just how large London really is… One of my regrets is that I never got to fly in Concorde (although in reality I would never have been able to afford it anyway) and had to make do with watching it land and take off from Heathrow every once in a while. One of the test…

Lisa Miles in Aerospace
Five Reasons To Join The IET's CPD Monitoring Scheme

If you’ve heard about the IET’s new Voluntary CPD Monitoring Scheme, which is open to all TMIETs, MIETs and Fellows, you may be considering whether you should join. Here I give you five reasons to go ahead and join. 1. It's simple to do As a scheme member, all you have to do is: a. Use Career Manager to record your CPD online i. Add any CPD you are planning in advance to your CPD objectives. ii Record your CPD activities (both planned and unplanned) iii. Create your CPD Activity Report at the click of a button b. Undertake a minimum of 30 hours per year (a minimum of 10 hours if you are retired). For more details, please see our CPD Policy web page c. Declare your CPD at the beginning of each year for the previous year d. You may then be selected to have your CPD records reviewed by a Volunteer…

Former Community Member
Why The US STEM Initiative Shouldn't Overlook Computer Science

NJIT Online Master of Science in Computer Science

Former Community Member
Young Woman Engineer of Year announced

A space engineer from Hertfordshire has been named Young Woman Engineer of the Year by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET). Read more...

Former Community Member

Welcome to the Community Insights blog!

Community Rules & Guidelines