This blog features posts from and about the EngX community. Want to contribute? Read our blogging guide to help you get started.
Patrick, Faye and Mick inspired delegates at the Otley Science Festival with a range of robot arm based activities. The local network have supported the festival for a number of years as it has become a more established community event. If you know of similar events or would like to participate in the future please get in touch with drozday@theiet.org .
First Lego League are thrilled to announce that the FIRST LEGO League will be happening in Scotland again. The 2015-16 season is sure to excite, now with five tournaments being held in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Dundee, and St. Andrews. FIRST® LEGO® League (FLL) is an international, robotics-based programme which ignites the imagination %u2028and problem solving abilities of children through engineering, computing, creativity and teamwork. It is designed to inspire the next generation of tech-savvy inventors! Lambda Jam are working in partnership with the Young Academy of Scotland to bring this exciting programme to Scottish children. Our support comes from the Institution of Engineering and Technology , which oversees FLL in the UK, Skills Development Scotland , and many other generous…
The 2015 IET Achievement Awards Ceremony, sponsored by GCHQ, was held on Wednesday 18 November 2015 at the Brewery, Chiswell Street, London. Science presenter Maggie Philbin hosted the event with awards presented by Naomi Climer, IET President. The event saw a double-win for the IET Solent Network with Gordon Dixon , our Community Administrator, and Joe Dunn , our Vice Chairperson and deputy Community Administrator, winning the IET Volunteer Medal and Paul Fletcher Award respectively. The international IET Volunteer Medal was awarded for the first time in 2015 for major and outstanding contributions voluntarily given to furthering the aims of the IET. Click here to read more about this award. The international Paul Fletcher Award is made annually to an IET Young Professional volunteer for outstanding…
You're told you must use a different un-guessable password for every account, but can't write them down. If you don't comply, and get hacked, the blame is on you. Dr Frank Stajano created the Pico project to liberate humanity from passwords. Frank is a Reader in Security and Privacy. He is Head of the Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Research at the University of Cambridge. He has a mixed academic and industrial background and has given over 60 invited talks on 4 continents. Visit http://mypico.org for more information and www.theiet.org/cambridge to make a booking for the event.
It was a dark wet Autumn evening which made the turn off into the Kennedy Way Industrial Estate all that more unassuming and in no way indicated the operation about to be revealed within. On the evening of the 11th November 2015 the local IET network visited Delta Print and Packaging, a local company which produces packaging for some of the world’s largest brands. Our guide, R&D director Alistair Farmer, provided a comprehensive tour of the facility where the printing capability would embarrass the most capable work place laser, never mind your domestic inkjet. As a 24hour operation this factory produces a mind blowing number of units at a tremendous rate. One particular machine accepts rolls of paper which are 7km long and can process these in just over 10 minutes. The scale can be summed…
On the 18th November, the Wales North LN, along with around thirty local companies, universities and college's, attended a careers day at Llanfylin High School. This is our first venture into mid Wales, an area that does not have a significant IET presence, we had a stand giving away leaflets and informing the pupils about a career in Engineering. We also had a large number of the famous IET torch kit which everybody enjoyed making. The school were pleased to see the IET and we hope to go back again next year! On a lighter note....some things never change.....we were invited to take partake of school dinner, which was actually most acceptable!
AMREEN AZHAR receiving the 2015 Bucks New Uni Student Prize from Bucks LN committee member Andrew Dodd. The award of the prize of £250 is in recognition of Amreen's outstanding academic performance which included her project 'Android: Mobile Revision Application' during her WEB DEVELOPMENT degree course at BUCKINGHAMSHIRE NEW UNIVERSITY. Her project is a GCSE revision guide for use on Android devices. Amreen worked closely with teaching staff and students at a school in Chesham to define the specification of her application and then test its implementation. The Bucks LN awards this prize annually to recognise the generous support for its activities received from Buckinghamshire New University.
BBC News - Robogami: the future of robotics? https://t.co/6KSTMqGYH5 — IET Robotics (@IETrobotics) November 18, 2015
At the recent, 2015, Wales GB Rally the IET Wales North Local Network had a stand giving away leaflets to students. Around two hundred visited our stand over two days and of particular interest were the IET torches which the students were able to make themselves. The event was also attendede by the IMechE, Bangor University, Glyndwr University, Coleg Cambria and other local busnesses. The event was held next to the Toyota Engine factory in Deeside which was visited by groups of students. The picture shows part of our IET stand.
The IET's Present Around The World is a global competition for Young Professionals and Students within engineering to develop and showcase their presentation skills. Its the Global Final on 18 November and five contestants from the around the world will be competing to win £1000. But what exactly is Present Around The World? Let this film take you through the entire journey from local heat to Global Final with last year's winner - Sudeshna Saha: And if you still need to know more take a look at the infographic below that summarises the competition.(Click on the image to make it larger): If you want to know whether there is a heat near you then go to the PATW website or email patw@theiet.org
FameLab is a science communication competition which challenges competitors to explain a STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) concept given only 3 minutes. Those chosen to go through from the Aberdeen heats will go on to the Scottish regional final in Edinburgh. The winner of the regional final is awarded a place at FameLab’s sci comm masterclass and also goes through to the UK final. We are looking for people passionate about STEM to come along and compete in the Aberdeen heats for a chance to go forward to the Scottish final*. You’ll have three minutes and only what you can carry with you to explain a STEM concept. Those successful at the Scottish final will go through to the UK final and be given a special Masterclass training trip. We will be providing free training to help…
Earlier this autumn the North Yorkshire Network hosted its inaugural Raspberry Jam- an opportunity to learn more about what can be done with the Raspberry Pi. Attendees were able to see the Pi in action controlling robot arms, creating music, taking images and video and transmitting then receiving radio. Watch out for a recurring Raspberry Jam event starting in the new year- for more details email drozday@theiet.org .
Recently North Wales members and non members attended a lecture delivered by Safety Consulant, Ron Pierce who shared his knowledge and experience of safety issue and how to risk assess activities using the HSE guidelines. This followed by a prctical example of aircraft safety and air traffic control. The lecture proved to be very popular with a number of our delegates making extensive notes. The presentation can be found here . (The buffet provided by Optic Glyndwr was also most acceptable!)
Emeritus Professor Chris Lowe, Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology http://www.ceb.cam.ac.uk/directory/chris-lowe will give a talk at CUED on 8 December at 1830 hrs will give a talk on Recent Advances in Sensor Technologies for Mobile Healthcare. To book your seat at the event please go to: http://nearyou.imeche.org/near-you/UK/Eastern/biomedical-engineering-association-cambridge-centre/Event-Detail?id=11279
UTC Cambridge, Robinson Way, Cambridge, CB2 0SZ Monday 23 November Wind turbines blades become damaged in service, due to leading edge erosion, lightning strikes, contamination and fatigue. If left, this may progress to cause aerodynamic losses that reduce power output and can ultimately lead to structural failure. There are proven ways to repair blade damage on onshore turbines, but, until last year, no one had successfully repaired offshore blades in situ using these methods. Rotos 360 Ltd , in a project supported by Innovate UK, demonstrated that a suspended access platform can be deployed from the deck of a service vessel. Combined with rapid UV cure resin systems and other innovations such as 24-hour working, and using a walk-to-work Offshore Support Accommodation vessel, they have been…
Would like a sneak-peak at the finalists for this year's YWE ceremony? Then watch our video to find out who is in the running to win! http://bit.ly/1MGmwXY
The Healthcare Technologies TPN is producing a series of hot topic videos. Short videos asking industry experts for their insights on specific areas of healthcare technologies. Our first hot topic video asks 'How is Big Data being used in medicine?'. What are your thoughts? Join the discussion online .
Join us for a talk by Cisco on Security for the Internet of Things. 24th November in High Wycombe. See below to book your place.
Fascinating visit to CCFE Culham on Saturday 7th November. We hope to arrange another visit in Spring 2016.
For those of you that did not get an opportunity to attend last night's IET President's Address; here it is! Naomi Climer did a fantastic job at presenting and shared a wealth of information and knowledge.
The retired members section of the Northumbria Local Network meets monthly for technical and social events; partners are welcome and membership is only £5 pa Events are usually held on the mid Wednesday of each month and are preceded with a buffet lunch at noon. Proceedings close about 3pm. All are welcome, retired or not to our wide ranging lectures and visits. For further details please contact the secretary, Robin Brooks ( robin_brooks99@hotmail.com ) Details of forthcoming events: Wednesday 17th February: Talk on the growth of grid systems in the north east in the 30’s at Westerhope. Dr Malcolm Kennedy Wednesday 16th March: Talk on “Sleep” at Westerhope. Jason Ellis Wednesday 20th April: Talk by Whitley Bay Photographic Soc at Westerhope Wednesday 18th May: Talk by Sue Hart on Textiles…
How Green is My Shipping? - Making shipping more efficient and enviromentally friendly We have a great lecture on the evening of Wednesday 9th December when Andy Male BSc (Hons) CEng MIET, Technical Manager at Cammell Laird will describe how ship owners and operators need to increase the efficiency of their ships whilst meeting environmental legislation and the technologies being looked at to achieve it . For more information and on-line registration click the link How green is my shipping?
The Schools Liaison Officer’s Role I was asked to become the Schools Liaison Officer for the IET’s Manchester Network area when I retired from full time work in 2006. I think this was because I had been involved with developing links between my Company United Utilities and local schools to try to encourage more young people to consider careers in Engineering. After 10 years in the SLO role I am now ready to step aside, and let someone new have ago at a role which I have thoroughly enjoyed and which has provided me with great satisfaction. When I asked the two IET Committee members who approached me to take on the role, what it involved? they said that since there had never been an SLO in the Manchester patch it was up to me what I did. Fortunately I received a lot of support when I took up…
Want to help inspire the next generation of Engineers and Technicians? We are looking for some local members to step up and help teams entering this year's First Lego League. The competition is organised in the UK with the support of the IET. It tests the teams in the following areas: 1. Robot Game Teams build a robot using a LEGO kit that they program to autonomously complete a series of missions on a specialised field and to score as many points as possible. 2. Project Through the project, teams learn more about the science and engineering behind the challenge theme. 3. Core Values While competing, the teams have to demonstrate core values including professionalism, cooperation, encouraging high quality work, kindness, respect and learning. More details can be found here . We're looking for…
