CPGCE Winter 2015-16 Newsletter
Read about the activities of the Canadian Prairies Group of Chartered Engineers (CPGCE) Local Network over the period September 2015 to January 2016 and technical presentation events planned for February to June 2016.
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Read about the activities of the Canadian Prairies Group of Chartered Engineers (CPGCE) Local Network over the period September 2015 to January 2016 and technical presentation events planned for February to June 2016.
The Merseyside and Western Cheshire Local Network have exciting event about developing Sensor City in Liverpool on Wednesday 17th February 2016. For more information and regisration, please click the link Sensor City .
Present Around The World is the Institution of Engineering and Technology's global competition for Young Professionals and Students within engineering to develop and showcase presentation skills. The IET Hellas Network will be holding a Present Around the World (PATW) competition on Monday 23rd May 2016 at 12:00 at Piraeus University of Applied Sciences, (TEI Piraeus), Conference Centre, 250 Thivon and Petrou Ralli, Aigaleo 12244 Greece. For a map of the venue, please see attached
Presentation file is attached. The event topic is a popular one and feedback was encouraging. We plan to have Part II by organizing a discussion session with the same speaker as facilitator, on the topic of inovation. Any particular topic about innovation you want to discuss? Please suggest by posting comment below.
Find out what is happenig in the SSW Local Network area for February and March 2016. Download our programme of events
Find out what is happenig in the SSW Local Network area for February and March 2016. Download our programme of events
What lessons can we learn from the recent malware attack on Ukraine’s power grid? And what impact will governments, banks and insurers’ increasing focus on cyber risk have on organisations operating critical national infrastructure control systems? On 23 December 2015, Ukrainian media reported a cyber-attack had left half the homes and 1.4 million people in the Ivano-Frankivsk region without electricity. Although services were restored within a few hours, this was largely due to manual intervention rather than by recovering compromised automation systems. Slovakian security firm ESET later reported that the initial incident was not isolated, and that multiple electricity companies had been affected simultaneously. Reuters also reported similar malware was found in Kiev's Boryspil airport, on…
IET Joint Lecture in Kansai Region
The Orion spacecraft pressure vessel arrived at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre where it will undergo vital tests ahead of Exploration Mission-1. The Orion’s Exploration Mission-1 is due to launch in 2018 where the unmanned vessel will fly beyond the moon. It is due to travel for 3 weeks to test its capacity for future deep space travel. Why is it such a big deal? Eventually deep space travel will be done with a crew and the pressure vessel will provide life support for its passengers. Humans were originally planned to board in 2021 but NASA believes it is more likely we send off a crew in 2023. NASA is planning on using the Orion to send humans to Mars in the 2030s. The Orion was transported by the impressive Super Guppy, an aircraft that was originally designed during the Apollo programme and…
Prominent malicious attacks have brought the importance of robust UK cyber security to the attention of both the Government and the public. With a respected European agency recently publishing recommendations on how countries can better protect critical national infrastructure from cyber-attack, how does the UK measure up against these? In November 2015, Chancellor George Osborne announced plans for a £1.9 billion investment in cyber security and the creation of the National Cyber Centre . In his speech he highlighted the need to protect our critical infrastructure; in particular those systems used to control physical entities, often now referred to as operational technology (OT). Following the recent Chatham House report into cyber security in the nuclear sector , the European Union Agency…
The issue of cyber security is increasingly at the forefront of many organisations’ minds, with key questions being whether we're behind the curve in cyber security expertise, if we're fostering the right specialisms or if we even know which specific skills we need to be talking about? A recent report from the BBC stated that ISIS is planning to unleash a number of deadly cyber-attacks against UK targets and has put the issue of cyber security at the forefront of many organisations’ minds. As a result many have begun to question if we are behind the curve in cyber security expertise, and if we recognise the organisational challenges? The phrase ‘cyber security skills’ is so broad as to be unhelpful. Do we know what specific skills we’re talking about; which specialisms we need to foster?…
The Yorkshire IET Video challenge is open! We invite ANYONE who is a student at a school, college or University in the Yorkshire and Humber region to produce a short online video about ANY aspect of engineering, technology or science and have the chance to WIN >>>>>> £100 prize for the winning entry three £50 runner-up prizes. The rules are simple: - create a video about an engineering, technology or science related subject (e.g. an interview, demonstration or documentary). For examples, visit our videos page at https://communities.theiet.org/communities/videos/210 - finished production should be minimum 5 minutes, maximum 15 minutes in length - to enter, you must be a student at school, college or university in the Yorkshire-Humber region (an email from a member of staff to confirm your eligibility…
As the perimeter network scales to meet the App economy the domain based environments are making virtualisation become the core platform. We find that the increase in use of companies embracing infrastructure as a service requires data centre providers in need of more virtualisation methods. The virtualised data center has other features such as multi tenant and customer billing separation which makes the return on investment more desirable. We find that the core components such as layer 3 devices can be functional in a few clicks without the need to rack appliances. Further the ability to cluster environments also allows for virtual routing between data centres that previously could not be achieved. These benefits will become more apparent as the interlock with cyber systems will fuel innovation…
In January, we were very pleased to awards a prize to two members of staff at the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, 101 Battalion in Wrexham, North Wales. the evening was attended by senior army officers as wellas the chairman of the local network, David Crawford with staff from the IET. we are hoping to work closely with REME in the coming years, with events which will be open to IET members.
Join us for a fascinating evening when Robert Schukai, Head of Advanced Product Innovation, Thomson Reuters will give the 2016 IET and BCS Turing Lecture. This year’s talk: The Internet of Me: It’s All About My Screens will look at the way smart phone technology has completely revolutionised the way we play, work, and live, and the information challenge that comes with constantly processing and generating so much data. For more information and registration: http://conferences.theiet.org/turing/
Happy New Year from the Southern California LN committee. This year we are going to try and send a ‘what’s happening’ email every month to keep you informed about everything your Local Network is doing. Please make sure your preferences are set to receive emails from your Local Network. Following the success of last years ‘ Present Around the World ’ competition we are going to be holding our event on the 26 th March. If you know anybody aged 18-30 who fancies the opportunity to win an all-expenses paid trip to Toronto by presenting for 10 minutes on an engineering or technology related topic and then answering questions on it for a further 5 minutes, please put them in touch with Richard Tregaskes for more details. This year to help competitors prepare, where there is enough interest, we will…
Ten people in our group met up with Gavin Hukin from BAE Systems at the Spa Shop, Marham, opposite the entrance to RAF Marham at 12.50h. Gavin then escorted us to the Marham Heritage Centre and introduced us to Station Warrant Officer Steve Roberts who gave us a guided tour of the Centre. After showing us artefacts from the 1st World War, he went on to Mosquitos, Hurricanes, Spitfires and the associated pilots who flew them. We then continued to hear about Vulcan Bombers, Harriers and Tornados. Of particular note was a de-activated hydrogen bomb, and one of the much talked about Brimstone missiles, which were both on display. We thanked Steve for his most comprehensive guided tour, and continued to the CMU Unit where Martin Driver (BAE Systems) showed us around the maintenance shop/hangar.…
If you weren't lucky enough to book onto one of our new courses that I wrote about in November , then the good news is that you have another chance. Commercial Awareness for Technical People The aim of this one day course is to expose the commercial context within which technical work is carried out. It is to allow technical staff to understand how they fit into a larger picture,why they may be asked to undertake tasks that may not appear to be technical and the impact their interactions have within the commercial context. Project Management Techniques The aim of this course is to provide project managers with a toolkit they can use on their projects. The tools range from the simple that can be used on all projects to the advanced that can be used where appropriate. These are two of a portfolio…
What do Highways England and The Environmental Agency have in common? With help from CH2M, they are both implementing robust asset management systems that will be the firm foundation for their strategic plans to provide us with the service that we (English customers) desire. In a well-attended Central London evening lecture at Savoy Place on 13-Jan-2016, we were well informed by not one, not two, but six speakers, each covering their specific part, followed by a lively Q&A panel session. After a clear introduction to the concepts and standards by CH2M, we heard from TEAM 2100 (Thames Estuary Asset Management) followed by Highways England. The scale of the challenge is awesome, not least owing to the sheer number of assets in their portfolios. Consider: 21900 miles of road, 18500 bridges…
The IET Manufacturing TPN, in association with Inside Japan, are looking into organising a visit to Japan flying direct from London Heathrow to Tokyo. The visit would be fully escorted throughout with visits to Toyota, Mazda and Honda production and innovation centres. All internal travel is included either by private coach or public transport including the Bullet train. All accommodation is included with private facilities at all destinations. There is time outside of the program to visit recognised attractions at various centres. The estimated cost will be around £4500.00 per person (plus individual insurance) dependent upon response. If you would be interested in such a visit please contact Joanne Longton by email. We have some interest expressed already but we need to gauge…
The IET would like to bring to your attention that from time to time issues arise within the research community which spark widespread debate and, sometimes, disagreement. The question of “iris ageing” - specifically, the effect of the passage of time on the recognition of individuals based on the analysis of their iris characteristics is an issue which has been generating considerable debate in recent months. Two key papers in this area have been published from authors who have rather different views on topic. One of these contributions is "A critical examination of the IREX VI results" which argues that improvements in the methodology used in the NIST report would lead to uncovering of an ageing trend leading to a decrease in recognition rate over time. The second paper (written by…
Earlier this month, Alan Watts, former IET Trustee, visited Solent LN to discuss with the network the G4F proposals and upcoming members' vote. As a former trustee and the principal driving force behind the new G4F proposals, Alan was excellently placed to explain the reasoning behind the proposed changes and painted a very clear picture of how the changes would affect IET Council and the running of the IET. The Council is an advisory body for the IET with over 70 seats at present. If successful, the new G4F proposal will see this reduce to 27 members 1 president. These 27 members will be split across three boards; a Membership and Professional Development Board, a Knowledge Services Board, and a new Volunteer Engagement Board. As well as forming these three boards, the Council members will…
We’re just about to start formulating our programme of activities for the 2016-17 session and in order to ensure we have a good balance of committee members that is representative of both academia and industry; we are particularly keen to hear from academics who may be interesting in joining our team of volunteers. We are also keen to hear from female engineers in any area of Space Systems & Applications whether in academia or industry. We cover the areas of satellite systems, space vehicles and earth stations and their use for applications encompassing communications, navigation, earth observation, remote sensing and space exploration. To give you an idea of the type of activities/content we organised, here is a list of what we’ve either done just recently or are currently looking to…
Bill Drury, Chair of the PEMD TPN shares his thoughts on the TPN's latest event... "The Power Electronics, Machines and Drives (PEMD) community gathered at Austin Court, Birmingham on 1 st December 2015 for a one day seminar “Passive Components for Power Electronics” organised by the IET PEMD TPN with the support of the EPSRC Centre for Power Electronics. Over 70 attended with a good balance between academia and industry. Passive components typically account for around 50% of the volume and weight of a power electronic converter, and with faster switching speeds and operating frequencies their design is critical to optimised solutions. Their importance has been recognised by the EPSRC Centre for Power Electronics, which has a dedicated theme to components. This seminar brought together…