Society Blog: Drones, IT Security And Mental Health

Local Networks have been covering a variety of hot topics over the last several months including IT security, technologies to improve mental health and drones. Drone technology  Surrey Local Network   As use of drones has grown in recent years there has been a growing amount of publicity and about their pros and cons. Much has been said about privacy concerns and public misuse, however in his recent talk, IET Aerospace Network member Lambert Dopping-Hepenstal discussed the societal benefits of drones.    “They have been associated with ‘dull, dirty and dangerous’ activities – for examples the initial survey of the Fukushima nuclear power station after the tsunami,” he notes. “However, the public may not be aware of their widespread use in news reporting, sporting events and documentaries. …

Speaker Highlights - TechAAL 2016

The 2nd IET International Conference on Technologies for Active and Assisted Living (TechAAL 2016) will be taking place on the 24-25 October 2016 at IET London: Savoy Place. The first keynote speaker for the Tuesday (25th October) has been announced! We are delighted to have confirmed Professor Arlene J. Astell (PhD, BSc, CClin Psychol),  Professor of Assitive Technology and Connected Healthcare at the University of Sheffield. About Arlene: Arlene is Ontario Shores Research Chair in Dementia, University of Toronto, Canada, and Professor of Health Services Research in the Centre for Assistive Technology and Connected Healthcare (CATCH: http://www.catch.org.uk ), University of Sheffield, UK. She has over twenty-five years’ experience developing and evaluating interventions to support people to…

Afghanistan's First Ever All-Female Coding School Breaks Gender Barriers

As one of the few women working in Afghanistan's small but growing tech sector, Fereshteh Forough wants to give girls' access to the freedom and opportunities that careers in programming can provide -- and she's opened the country's first all-female coding school to help make it happen! After completing her master’s degree in computer science in Berlin, Germany, Forough returned to Afghanistan as a professor of computer science at Herat University. Last year, she founded Code to Inspire and, in its first year, the school taught 50 young women between the ages 15 and 25 programming skills in a free year-long program. And, not only will these graduates have "better chances to find jobs based on their skills," according to Forough, such training also helps raise the status of girls and women in…

A Thank You Note From FN2016 Event Organizer

You may not have heard of these 5 women. Which is why this Lego set needs to exist.

''Maia Weinstock knows a thing or two about women in science. She's a science writer, researcher, and a deputy editor at MIT News, who fell in love with biology and astronomy at an early age. "I've always been interested in understanding how our world and universe works," Weinstock said. She also has a self-described "mission" to inspire young girls to pursue science careers.'' Read more...

Science careers not only for boffins, says Prof Brian Cox

Science careers are not "boring or only for boffins", says Prof Brian Cox. The physicist and TV presenter says it annoys him "that people still have these perceptions". Prof Cox has lent his support to Engineering Open House Day where major engineering organisations open their doors to the public. Read more...

IET Open House Day was a Success

Engineering Open House Day sees the IET joining forces with iconic venues and organisations across the country to give children and their parents an insight into what it’s like to be an engineer. The initiative is all about highlighting the important roles engineers play in everyday life, with  participating venues and organisations demonstrating the creativity and excitement behind engineering careers. We had a number of fantastic events take place up and down the country and a great turn out at IET London: Savoy Place, where girls and boys of all ages learned to code with Coderdojo and BBC Micro:bit and see examples of some of the newest tech on the market. Read more...

IET Awards - Engineering Horizons Bursary

For Apprentices and Students At least six (3 for apprentices and 3 for students) bursaries of £1,000 per year are available.  Who can apply? Apprentices or Students who have followed a vocational route into engineering (HNC, HND, Access to Higher Education Diploma and similar qualifications), or who have overcome obstacles or personal challenges to pursue an engineering education, mature students and part-time are encouraged to apply. Read more...

Attribution Of Value-add Mechanisms

Successful ecosystems constantly adapt, or to say, they constantly add value to existing mechanisms. The standardisation of cyber security models, whether technical or non-technical, have allowed the same adaptation of value add methods. The cyber landscape of technology is now far more responsive to any cyber-ontologies compared to five years ago. The ability to go to market with a solution is far more simpler, technologies like jboss have created an expectation on how product should intuitively work. More over, enterprise level organisations themselves see this as a default - without even much thought. Historically, an unprecedented cyber-ontology might have required propriety based approach to provide a solution whose costly approach would mean only a select few could implement the technology…

Low math confidence discourages female students from pursuing STEM disciplines

Female college students are 1.5 times more likely than their male counterparts to leave science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) after taking the first course in the calculus series, new research finds. The  study , published last week in  PLOS ONE , supports what many educators have observed and earlier studies have documented: A lack of confidence in mathematical ability, not mathematical capability itself, is a major factor in dissuading female students from pursuing STEM. Read more...

This tool gender-swapped the voices of tech job candidates. Here’s what happened.

When Aline Lerner worked as a tech recruiter, she saw a lot of biased hiring. “The kind of discrimination and bias I witnessed went beyond gender and race, though those are certainly palpable and very, very real. It was discrimination against people without pedigree as well,” she said, mentioning that a prestigious university or previous experience at a big tech company seemed to matter more than technical ability. Read more...

IET Media Image Library

To accurately reflect the dynamic, creative and progressive face of engineering today, the IET has produced a library of images. Read more...

Dr Carl Sandom Is The Chairman Of Both The IET Functional Safety TPN And The Systems Safety & Cyber Security Conference.

Dr Carl Sandom is the Chairman of both the IET Functional Safety Technical & Professional Network and the Systems Safety & Cyber Security Conference. He is a Fellow of the IET, a Chartered Engineer and a Chartered Ergonomist and Human Factors Specialist. Find out more by visiting the conference pages and to read Carl's Chair Welcome in full. Carl is the Director of iSys Integrity; an independent safety consultancy operating worldwide and specializing in safe systems acquisition, development and certification predominantly within the Aerospace and Defence domains. He has extensive experience of managing both programme and technical risks associated with systems safety programmes compliant with safety standards such as DO-178, DO-254, MIL-STD 882, IEC 61508 and Defence Standard 00-56. Carl has…

Product Service Systems Facilitated By Availability Contracts

I am researching the optimum design for availability contracting when seeking to facilitate a Product Service System (PSS) through a servitization startegy.  Kashani-Pour et al (2016) in their paper "Product-Service Systems Under Availability-Based Contracts: Maintenance Optimization and Concurrent System and Contract Design" propose that such contracts can take three forms: Fixed Price Contracts Capability Contracts Availability Contracts For me the issue with all of these is one of risk and how to mitigate and offset the risk to the revenue stream when seeking whole-live approaches.  Consider the scenario of a long life complex manufactured engineering product (i.e. Cars, trains, aeroplanes, and shipping etc).  A significant percentage of operators who use such products to provide a service…

Developing a proposal for a new framework standard for sharing best practice in Engineering Services

BSI and the Cranfield Centre for Through-life Engineering Services (TES Centre) are to participate in an initial planning workshop to establish a framework standard for sharing best practice in Engineering Services. “Through-life engineering services” (TES) comprise the design, creation and in-service sustainment of complex engineering products with a focus on their entire life cycle, using high-quality information to maximise their availability, predictability and reliability at the lowest possible through-life cost. Recent extensive industry consultation has highlighted that the time is right to establish new formal standards in Engineering Services and related fields to help share best emerging practice. In particular, a new National Strategy for TES, published in July, calls for the development…

London Conference Report By Toronto YP Chair

As the IET Toronto Young Professionals Committee Chair, I had been nominated to attend the IET Young Professionals Community Volunteer Conference (YP CVC) 2016 and the IET Global Community Volunteer Conference (Global CVC) 2016. The YP CVC was organized by the Young Professionals Community Committee (YPCC) on June 16th 2016, at the Royal Society of Arts in London, UK. There were more than twenty international delegates attending the conference in addition to the YPCC. This conference provided a great opportunity for YP members, from different region of the world, to share experiences and ideas and get to know each other. In the morning, the YPCC exhibited the YP progress around the world, shared the best practice for engagement events, summarised the YP challenge and planned the future. In…

Fresh Ideas For A Healthy Local Network

The Toronto LN recently sent an envoy of three volunteers to the IET Global Volunteer Conference, held at the newly renovated Savoy place in London. The two day event June 17-18th was a showcase of best practice sharing, problem solving and networking with volunteers from all regions of the world and a true testament to the dedication of IET volunteers working together to support all members and raise the profile of the engineering profession globally.  Our delegates returned to Toronto motivated and brimming with fresh ideas to add value to the Toronto Network Members. Amongst these actions are three core goals: • Improved communication with members • Wider variety of events offered • Strengthen the Young professionals section Work is already underway to make these targets a reality, starting…

Mega puppet sets out across Cornwall

The largest mechanical puppet ever built in the UK has been unveiled today, as it sets out on a 200km track across Cornwall and West Devon to celebrate the area's mining heritage.   The 10 metre-high Cornish Man Mining Engine has been created by Will Coleman, founder and director of Golden Tree Productions, to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Cornwall and West Devon mining landscape being added to the Unesco list of World Heritage Sites. "I was brought up on the banks of the River Tamar with the stories and the legacy of Cornish mining all around me," said Coleman. "The landscape is deeply rooted in the impacts of that industry and in the successes and the struggles of the real people whose lives shaped our Cornish mining story” Read the full story on the E&T website...

Speaker Highlight - The Annual Healthcare Lecture 2016

We are delighted to announce our keynote speaker for the Annual Healthcare Lecture will be, Chris Lewis, speaking on " When the Hyper-connected individual meets the Healthcare sector".  Chris is a highly regarded and experienced Telecoms Industry Analyst, having worked with Logica, Ovum, Yankee and IDC since 1984. He is one of the few industry commentators who can draw together the many varied technology and business components helping shape telecoms in the context of the future digital marketplace. Since 2013 Chris has built Lewis Insight into a reputable industry advisory business and has founded the Great Telco Debate www.telcodebate.com as a platform for debating the future of telecoms. He works with many different stakeholders in the emerging TMT market including industry organisations…

Student Diaries

Want to hear what the uni experience is really like? Each term our IET student bloggers write up a diary entry of their experiences that semester. Read more...

Disadvantaged students get bursary help for aerospace engineering

A new bursary fund has been established in the memory of renowned engineer Jon Dennison, helping disadvantaged young people to learn more about careers in engineering. Read more...

Manchester Robot Orchestra ready to make stage debut

Final preparations are underway for the debut performance of the Manchester Robot Orchestra later this week. Read more...

Thanks for all those who attended yesterday's AGM & SRF TV Studio Visit

Visit Report – AGM & SRF TV Studio Tour – 23 July 2016 This year’s AGM and subsequent visit to the Swiss SRF Studios was a great success.   Following a delightful Aperitif, and hearing that IET Switzerland would support his “not for profit” organization, Fabrizio Rincon delivered an enlightening keynote presentation, detailing the aims and goals of the Zurich FabLab.  We learned all about how the Zurich FabLab started and how they support the local community to fulfil their own Digital Fabrication Projects and ideas.  Fabrizio and another Board member in attendance were glad to receive our small donation, which should help to cover the cost of 5 Raspberry Pi 3 Starter Kits.   For those of you who don’t know, the Zurich FabLab is located in the City of Zurich (Hardplatz) and can be easily reached…

IET Volunteer Tools

Over eight years of volunteering for the IET and I'm still getting to grips with the tools on offer to volunteers. I also see lots of newer volunteers tripping up because they didn't know what was available. I've prepared a few brief notes on the tools I'm aware of, feel free to comment or correct. Engineering Communities IET social media communities for geographical or technical groups. Marketing Toolkit Allows volunteers to design marketing materials, posters, certificates, flyers and newsletters, as well as ordering promotional items. There are a variety of templates to aid the creation of consistent publications. Rhythmyx CMS Allows the entry of events onto the IET events database, which feeds into the events listings on the appropriate IET Engineering Communities pages. Plus! for Events…