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  • Innovation and Realism

    The press demand for more innovation in the rail industry may be welcomed by many but those who shout loudest rarely know what is entailed. Innovation takes many forms and so often much effort and energy is expended into what turns out to be nothing more than a pipedream. To bring some realism to the topic, the IET annual railway lecture in November 2016 invited Adrian Shooter to give his views on innovation with some practical examples of past success and failure. Adrian will be known to many, having been the mastermind in transforming the Chiltern Railways franchise and the brainchild behind the conversion of ex LU District Line stock into a low cost DMU. He is essentially a railway mechanical engineer with a long career history in both engineering and operational rail management. So what…

    Lynsay Callaghan
    Lynsay Callaghan

  • Cyber Security thoughts from CES17

    CES17 is currently taking place in Las Vegas and as ever there is an excess of companies showcasing their latest tech developments. Internet of Things is big this year, with lots of companies, big and small, launching their connected goods. All these exciting new devices got me thinking about the security of them. With cyber-attacks on the rise, the chances of people’s fridges or toasters being attacked is becoming increasingly likely. This connected shower looks like a great idea for warm showers on chilly winter mornings, but it if gets hacked and leads to a freezing cold shower – definitely not good!  So what can be done to prevent these attacks?     This infographic suggests a few basic things that consumers can do to protect themselves, including secure passwords, keeping firmware up to…

  • A Band you should know - bIaEnTd!!!

    In the autumn of 2010, there are some young people who have passion in music in an engineering society. Leaded by their chairmen(band leader), the bIaEnTd is formed! The bIaEnTd is a word formed by “band” and “IET”, which represent the band formed by the IET members. After their kick off show in the AGM of Younger Members Section (Session 2009-2010), the bIaEnTd became popular in various IET functions like the conference dinners, AGM, as well as anniversary celebration functions. The key members, band leader-drummer, pianist, guitarist, bassist and singer are the founder of the bIaEnTd, throughout the 6 years, new engin-musician had joined and the bIaEnTd will becomes stronger and stronger. President's Address 2016 in Hong Kong - bIaEnTd was our guest performer of the night (From the left:…

    Former Community Member
    Former Community Member

  • Member News Article: The Americas Round-up, 2016

    (This text has been taken from the December 2016 issue of Member News)   IET volunteers, with support from IET staff, are continually working to increase the presence of Local Networks (LNs) in the Americas.   At the heart of this work is the IET’s mission: to inspire, inform and influence the global engineering community, supporting technology innovation to meet the needs of society. Here’s a roundup of the latest activities in the Americas region. New England The New England LN recently collaborated with the local IEEE Chapter at two major events: The World Maker Faire in New York and the Women in Engineering Eastern Forum. At both events, and for the first time, the Network made IET torch kits with children. They were a huge hit, introducing engineering and the IET to the next generation…

    Former Community Member
    Former Community Member

  • IET Merseyside And Western Cheshire Events Newsletter - January 2017 To September 2017

    The latest IET MWC Newsletter is now available as an online flip book.  Please click the link! IET Merseyside and Western Cheshire Newsletter - January 17 to September 17 Edition

    Rob McDonald
    Rob McDonald

  • Expression Of Interest - Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund Engagement Workshops From Innovate UK

    This may be of interest to some of you in the Northern Ireland area - please note that the date for places to be allocated in 11th January, so register your interest quickly. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF) was  announced  by the Prime Minister at the 2016 CBI Annual Conference, and further detail of this new cross-disciplinary fund was included in the Chancellor’s  Autumn Statement  as part of the National Productivity Investment Fund. Innovate UK and the Research Councils are beginning to define a first round of challenges to be addressed by the ISCF, and will soon be in a position to seek input from industry and the research base into their development. To gather input from…

    Lynsay Callaghan
    Lynsay Callaghan

  • Expression Of Interest - Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund Engagement Workshops From Innovate UK

    This may be of interest to some of you in the Scotland South West area - please note that the date for places to be allocated in 11th January, so register your interest quickly. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF) was  announced  by the Prime Minister at the 2016 CBI Annual Conference, and further detail of this new cross-disciplinary fund was included in the Chancellor’s  Autumn Statement  as part of the National Productivity Investment Fund. Innovate UK and the Research Councils are beginning to define a first round of challenges to be addressed by the ISCF, and will soon be in a position to seek input from industry and the research base into their development.   To gather input…

    Lynsay Callaghan
    Lynsay Callaghan

  • Society Insights: December 2016 - Trains, Planes And Power

    The IET Society Insights Blog summarises some of the key areas identified by Local Networks at their events that will have an impact on society now or in the future. This month we tackle the latest from the engineering community on trains, planes and power and there is has an interesting section from the Surrey LN on Opening a new railway – a 21st Century challenge.   Opening a new railway – a 21st Century challenge Surrey Local Network   One of the most important rail projects in recent years, Crossrail will make a metamorphic difference to travel within the UK’s capital.   “London’s been growing hugely since the eighties and London Underground has been struggling for some time to cope. By building a railway that has the capacity to put a train with 1,700 people through the city’s central…

    Lynsay Callaghan
    Lynsay Callaghan

  • Getting Your Digital Self In Order...

    New Year, new you… or so the saying goes. Every year many of us (like myself) make New Year Resolutions which are usually broken by the first week of January . But this year, it’s going to be different. Firstly, my NYR’s this year are a little more generic than specific. ‘I will not drink any more coffee’ is just too specific and doomed from the start especially as my journey takes me past the coffee machine every morning as I walk through the office to my desk and I’m already drinking my second cup of the day as I type this... This year it’s going to be all about decluttering my life both physically and digitally. I’ve already made a start on clearing out the ‘physical’ with my attic and getting rid of the stuff that has accumulated up there, old ornaments, books I don’t read anymore…

  • Find out who won the 2016 IET Innovation Award for Transport

    Well done to Loughborough University, the winners of the 2016 IET Innovation Transport Award.   Repoint, a breakthrough in failsafe rail track switching -  Using safety concepts derived from aerospace and the nuclear industries, Repoint offers the potential for increased capacity through faster point setting time coupled with reduced maintenance intervention, alongside a reduced whole life cost – without the need to build new railway tracks   Please visit the Innovation Awards website for more details.

    Lynsay Callaghan
    Lynsay Callaghan

  • Technology in Retail.

    The talk on Thursday 19 January at 1830 hours will be by Paul Clarke of OCADO Plc who will explain how robots,imaging systems and technology are used to deliver goods efficiently to your home.  The talk will be held at Cambridge University Engineering Department (CUED).

    David Blake
    David Blake

  • Lynsay's Weekly Digest - Functional Safety. 12th December – 18th December

    This is my last post for 2016, so I hope you enjoy my little round ups, but please let me know if I should be focusing elsewhere of if you have other information I can add. Best wishes Lynsay  Renesas Electronics Announces Completion of Safety Microcontroller Lineup Suitable for System ... Yahoo Finance ... 26262 automotive functional safety standard ASIL-D (Note 1) to avoid fatal situations caused by system malfunction due to breakdown, and so forth.   Microcontrollers optimised for safety -critical automotive functions EETE Automotive (registration) Renesas has notified that it has added the final variants to a group of microcontrollers; these safetey MCUs are configured to be suitable for as ...   White Paper: Building Functional Safety and Security into IIoT Enterprises and Ecosystems ENGINEERING…

    Lynsay Callaghan
    Lynsay Callaghan

  • 2016 in review

    It is nearly time to say goodbye 2016 - thanks for the ride. And now for the next one !  Perhaps we need to consider 2017 in a new light, especially for the IET Radar, Sonar and Navigation TPN.   We have been quite for a few years now, but 2017 seems like a good time to review this and to start to rebuilt the TPN.  We were involved in the 2 016 IGNSS Conference which was held in Sydney at the University of New South Wales' Colombo Theatres from 6th - 8th December 2016. IGNSS runs the SE Asian region’s premier conference on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) and related Position, Navigation and Timing (PNT) technologies. This year’s IGNSS conference will be in Sydney, Australia from 6 to 8 December 2016 and will bring together leaders in GNSS and PNT to examine the latest technology…

    Lynsay Callaghan
    Lynsay Callaghan

  • 2016 in review

    2016 in review It is nearly time to say goodbye 2016 - thanks for the ride. And now for the next one !  Perhaps we need to consider 2017 in a new light, especially for the Functional Safety TPN.   We have had a good year with the support for ESAS16 and the very popular Ethics of Acceptable Safety event as well as supporting many of the IET Safety Conferences, contributing to standards and policy. Looking forward to 2017, the Executive Team are meeting in February to work on a strategy for the TPN for the next few years.  This will be looking at our aims, objectives, who we need on board, and how we get to this position.  If you have any ideas, please get involved.   More details will be posted after the meeting, so look out for this and let us know of any FS related events you go to, what you…

    Lynsay Callaghan
    Lynsay Callaghan

  • Feedback / Report from our last event: SBB Zurich (Tour1)

    Thanks to everyone who turned-up prompt, Monday evening, making this event a success.   It was a pleasure to be greeted by our host and Guide (Guido von Arx), who started the evening off with some short Videos about the latest Infrastructure developments, followed then by a tour into the nighbouring tunnels, platforms and SBB railway estate, giving us a wonderul insight into this impressive station. We saw for our own eyes, how the vacant tunnel (previously conceived for cars), will now be used as a Cycle route (under) the City.  In terms of construction, we heard heard how the concrete Pillars must go down 40m into the ground, to stop the estate from moving (it's technically built on Marshland, adjoining the River Limmat).  Our guide was both knowledgable and entertaining, pointing out some…

    Jeff Hunter
    Jeff Hunter

  • Christmas And New Year Closure

    The IET Library and Archives service will be closing at 3pm on  Friday 23 December 2016 . It will reopen at 9am on  Tuesday 3 January 2017. The online catalogue and Virtual Library will be available to members as usual while we are closed. With festive best wishes to all our members and a happy New Year.

    Anne Locker
    Anne Locker

  • Virtual Reality - True Fantasy?

    IET Central London Christmas Event, Savoy Place, 14-Dec-2016 A joint event between the IET and IMechE. Is Virtual Reality true fantasy? Well, yes and no. What it achieves can defy belief and take away our grip on reality. Its nascence through games development has spurred interdisciplinary research to take it into truly awesome realms of practical applications. The entertainment possibilities of immersive gaming have their place, but it is the  educational, training and life-expanding visions that are truly noble.    Our two enthusiastic, energetic and experienced speakers, Liz Mercuri  and Ivan Phelan , raised the excitement level of the 320 strong audience, of a very wide range of age and technological knowledge, with a fast-paced journey through the lifetime of VR.  We were transported from…

    David Tabor
    David Tabor

  • IEC 61508 - Feedback Please!

    Edition 2 of IEC 61508, an important functional safety standard, was published in 2010.  As many of you will know, international standards are subject to periodic revision, and the time has come to start the maintenance cycle for IEC 61508.  The IEC Secretariat has therefore asked for comments on the current standard to be submitted with a view to producing Edition 3 in due course.  Ron Pierce (IET representative on the relevant UK National Committee) will be collating all comments received from FS TPN members and submitting them via the BSI.  The Maintenance Teams for the standard (MT61508-1&2 and MT61508-3) are ready to get started on the revision process.   If you have any suggestions for corrections or improvements to IEC 61508 Edition 2, please send them to Ron Pierce using the IEC comment…

    James Inge
    James Inge

  • A 2016 look back

    2016 is nearly over and I wanted to take a quick look back over the year. For the network, it was a momentous year; as it was the year that the TPN started! The scoping event in September was well attended and generated some useful insights! In mid-December, the committee held the first executive meeting to get the ball rolling. We’ll be holding more meetings as we move into 2017 – if you want to be involved, please let me know ! Looking forward to 2017, I am really looking to getting the TPN off the ground. Hopefully this time next year we’ll have a thriving network and even a few events in the pipeline! What have been your IoT highlights of 2016 and what are you looking forward to in 2017?

    Former Staff Member
    Former Staff Member

  • 500 members!!

    The Cyber Security community has hit 500 members! Thanks to all our members, especially all the new members, for helping us hit this milestone!   Here’s to the next 500 J

    Former Staff Member
    Former Staff Member

  • Looking back on 2016 - the A&P TPN

    As 2016 draws to a close, I wanted to look back on the past year The TPN saw a lot of activity during 2016 including Radio Propagation and Technologies for 5G in October and involvement in EUCAP 16 and LAPC 16 . In the comments, let me know which was your favourite activity? What were your other, non TPN related highlights of 2016, both culturally and in engineering? Looking forward to 2017, which is fast approaching, I am really looking to EUCAP17 . This is a Europe wide event and we’ll be there with an exhibition stand and convened session. On a personal note, I am looking forward to spending a week in Paris! Further ahead in the year, it has been announced that IET Events will be taking over the running of LAPC in November, which I know it is exciting for us at the IET! More news will be…

    Former Staff Member
    Former Staff Member

  • Speaker Highlight - Towards 5G Mobile Technology – Vision to Reality

    We are delighted to announce that Professor Mischa Dohler, Centre for Telecommunications Research, King's College London will be speaking at the T owards 5G Mobile Technology – Vision to Reality event. Professor Mischa Dohler, will be speaking on - An Internet of Skills, where 5G meets AI, Robotics and the Tactile Internet.  Mischa Dohler is full Professor in Wireless Communications at King’s College London, driving cross-disciplinary research and innovation in technology, sciences and arts. He is the Director of the Centre for Telecommunications Research, co-founder of the pioneering smart city company  Worldsensing, Fellow of the IEEE and the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), and a Distinguished Member of Harvard Square Leaders Excellence. He is a frequent keynote, panel and tutorial speaker,…

    Former Community Member
    Former Community Member

  • IET Malaysia Network Committee 2016/18 Session

    Ir. Chris Chew Shee Fuee. Chairman Assoc. Prof. Ir Dr. Leong Wai Yie, Vice Chairman Dr. Lai Weng Kin, Honorary Secretary Ir. Amir Farids, Honorary Treasurer Ir. Dr. Matthew Y.W. Teow, Immediate Past Chairman Lawrence Lai Kun Hoong, Past Chairman Ir. Chan Cheong Loong, Committee member Eur Ing Fauzan Baharudin, Committee member Ir Jimmy Fam, Committee member Dr Baskaran Kasi, Committee member Dr. Kok Swee Leong, Committee member Pang Jia Yew, Committee member Dr John Tan, YPS Chairperson Ir. Chang Yew Cheong, Honorary Auditor Ir Dr Ng Kok Chiang, Honorary Auditor

    Former Community Member
    Former Community Member

  • IET to be awarded an Emmy

    The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) has been honoured with an Emmy Award for Technology and Engineering by The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) for its contribution towards the development of the first television camera.     The IET, which was founded as the Society of Telegraph Engineers, provided a forum for electrical engineer Willoughby Smith’s findings about the photoconductivity of selenium – which led to William Siemens’ demonstration of the ‘artificial eye’ in 1876. This was arguably the first television camera, which made use of the photoelectric properties of selenium. Tim Hamer, Director of Knowledge at the IET said: “The discovery and invention of the first television camera has been pivotal to the history of the television industry and transformational…

    Graham Turner
    Graham Turner

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