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

  • Human Capital Model

    Human Capital Model

    A few years ago, I put forward some academic theories based on conceptual frameworks that are employed to help explain the changing dynamics of security qualifications. Change is typically fuelled by the need to satisfy desire outside the normative environment or hygiene theories associated with the Human Capital model. It was researched that training is initially paid for by the employer where initial wages are less for the employee who can expect higher earnings at a later stage one they demonstrate within their role how the knowledge acquired can help increase efficiencies and even profitability for the department this demonstrates the managers return on investment. In this model, during the training period the actual training costs are deducted this giving more economic 'value' to the trainee…

  • IET Tustin Lecture: Reducing Lap Times And Fuel Consumption In F1

    IET Tustin Lecture: Reducing Lap Times And Fuel Consumption In F1

    On the 24th November, an audience of over 100 people gathered together to watch the 2015 IET Tustin Lecture.    The lecture, entitled, Reducing lap times and fuel consumption in F1 was given by Professor David Limebeer, Professor of Control Engineering and Professorial Fellow at New College Oxford. This highly complex and technical talk focused on the control of the hybrid thermal-electric power train, and looked at, amongst other things, fuel efficient engines in cars and other vehicles. It is a general trend in the automotive industry that engines be downsized and emissions reduced and it is no different in Formula 1. It was fascinating to hear that new F1 engines have two types of energy recovery system or “ERS”: the first (ERS-K) recovers kinetic energy from the braking system much like…

    Joanne Longton
  • Nunthorpe Academy, Engineering Careers Evening

    Nunthorpe Academy, Engineering Careers Evening

    A fabulous evening at the ‘Nunthorpe Academy, Engineering Careers Event’ on the 10th of November attended by Bob North and Hugh Pilot. Great to speak to the up and coming engineers of the future, the future’s looking bright!

    Former Community Member
    Former Community Member
  • Functional Safety Made Easy

    Functional Safety Made Easy

    As you may be aware from an earlier blog, we recently had a lecture from Ron Pierce, a Safety consultant, whose lecture is titled "Functional Safety Made Easy". One of our attemdees at the event, John Lovegrove, produced a very good summary of the event which can be found here . Many thanks to John for all his efforts on our behalf.

    David S Crawford
  • Security on the Internet of Things

    Security on the Internet of Things

    Very interesting talk by Mark Comeadow of Cisco on the Security on the Internet of Things. Mark gave a relaxed but very knowledgeable presentation to an enthusiastic audience. Lots of illuminating questions from the attendees which added to the exchange of information.

    Andrew Dodd
  • Connecting Data Driving Productivity

    Connecting Data Driving Productivity

    How can the UK create a ‘data-enabled’ economy through the use of data analytics (more colloquially ‘big data’), supported by data science and advanced data connectivity? Read the report in our files section

    Joanne Longton
  • More interesting What If... Lectures from UC available on YouTube

    More interesting What If... Lectures from UC available on YouTube

    There's been a run of engineering/science based What If... lectures run by the University of Canterbury recently. I've put links to the YouTube videos below if anyone wants to watch them :) Great CPD, and interesting too! What If... We wore our computers? What If... You had solar power for your home? What If... We could make Christchurch the smartest city in the world? What If... Computers could save lifes? What If... Workplace innovation is killed by centralisation?

    Karla Smith
  • UK Exploration Of Mars – Yesterday And Tomorrow

    UK Exploration Of Mars – Yesterday And Tomorrow

    Recently the Aerospace, Robotics & Mechatronics and Satellite Systems & Applications Networks came together to organise an evening seminar as part of World Space Week. The title of the event was ‘Mars and the UK – Yesterday and Tomorrow’. Satellite Systems and Applications TPN have produced a blog - read more

  • The World Of All Electric Aircraft - Whats Out There?

    The World Of All Electric Aircraft - Whats Out There?

    Earlier this summer, the E-Fan 2.0 prototype took 36 minutes to cross the English Channel and I’ve recently come across this excellent website which gives a comprehensive update on the E-Fan project and the future of electric aircraft It got me wondering what other Electric Aircraft and solar powered ones there were and having been on the web its excellent to see that there are so many developmental and production projects out there, although far too many to list in one blog but some to note: Solar Impulse 2 The only airplane of perpetual endurance, able to fly day and night on solar power, without a drop of fuel. I like their video. Alpha Electro –and Taurus Electro developed by Pipistrel a leader in electric aircraft production and development. There’s also the first green Helicopter E-Volo…

    Deborah-Claire McKenzie
  • Introducing The IET NI Christmas Lecture- A Cosmic Voyage...in 3D

    Introducing The IET NI Christmas Lecture- A Cosmic Voyage...in 3D

    We are very pleased as a Local Network to introduce our first Christmas Lecture in Northern Ireland. We have teamed up with Robert Hill from the Northern Ireland Space Office and Ulster University to take you on a fascinating voyage through the Cosmos...in 3D! Using the latest 3D technology the audience will be transported back in time to observe the beginning of the Solar System and witness our star, The Sun, burst into life. Along the way we will travel through the Solar s ystem and learn how humanity as a species is exploring our place in space which will include a virtual flight over the surface of the Red Planet- it is an event not to be missed! To make things even better as we are running the lecture in partnership with Ulster University the event will take place once in Jordanstown and…

  • Wales North Committee Meeting

    Wales North Committee Meeting

    The Wales North IET Committee met earlier this week in the Oriel Hotel in St Asaph. We have a number of new members and they were given a brief introduction to the IET in general and the IET in North Wales in particular. Items discussed included PATW, recent and future events, involvement with other professional engineering organisations, the RAF and REME and also the IET presence at careers events for young people. Attached is a picture of the committee and if you would like to join, then please get in touch with the chairman.

    David S Crawford
  • Space Based Systems and Cities of the Future

    Space Based Systems and Cities of the Future

    The Satellite Systems & Applications Network recently organised a daytime seminar on “Space systems, Services and Applications for Cities of the Future” to consider how space systems, services and applications could address the challenges likely to be faced by cities of the future’. The main themes of the event were personal navigation and localisation, urban applications for the Internet of Things and autonomous personal transport vehicles. A programme of speakers from ESA, Google, TRL, UK Government Office for Science – Future cities, Airbus Defence and Space amongst others, delivered an excellent series of presentations: Here are some facts that popped up during the seminar: 3/5ths of 22-30 year olds in the UKs largest cities move to London – therefore how can cities influence graduate migration…

    Deborah-Claire McKenzie
  • UK Exploration of Mars – yesterday and tomorrow

    UK Exploration of Mars – yesterday and tomorrow

    Recently the Aerospace, Robotics & Mechatronics and Satellite Systems & Applications Networks came together to organise an evening seminar as part of World Space Week. The title of the event was ‘Mars and the UK – Yesterday and Tomorrow’. Speakers Abbie Hutty and Ed Chester two UK space professionals involved in Mars exploration missions outlined a number of technical challenges, including: § sending a spacecraft to Mars and landing on the surface § gave an overview of Mars exploration to date and detail the UK's contributions to it § discussed the Beagle-2 (the 2003 British Mars spacecraft thought lost but discovered in January this year to have actually landed successfully) § discussed the ExoMars (the 2018 European astrobiology mission being built in Stevenage and to which the UK is second…

    Deborah-Claire McKenzie
  • UK Exploration Of Mars – Yesterday And Tomorrow

    UK Exploration Of Mars – Yesterday And Tomorrow

    Recently the Aerospace, Robotics & Mechatronics and Satellite Systems & Applications Networks came together to organise an evening seminar as part of World Space Week. The title of the event was ‘Mars and the UK – Yesterday and Tomorrow’. Speakers Abbie Hutty and Ed Chester two UK space professionals involved in Mars exploration missions outlined a number of technical challenges, including: § sending a spacecraft to Mars and landing on the surface § gave an overview of Mars exploration to date and detail the UK's contributions to it § discussed the Beagle-2 (the 2003 British Mars spacecraft thought lost but discovered in January this year to have actually landed successfully) § discussed the ExoMars (the 2018 European astrobiology mission being built in Stevenage and to which the UK is second…

    Deborah-Claire McKenzie
  • Call for Posters for All Electric Aircraft Seminar

    Call for Posters for All Electric Aircraft Seminar

    For those of you attending the Young Professional event ‘Bringing drones closer to people’ on 28 January 2015, I’d like to highlight a special additional session that we have added to the Aerospace Network’s ‘All Electric Aircraft’ (AEA) daytime seminar on the same day. We are actively promoting the two events together, to offer delegates attending the YP event an opportunity to present a poster at the AEA seminar. There will be cash prizes for the winner and if more than four entrants a runner-up prize as well. The seminar offers networking with like-minded peers and meeting some leading speakers in the field of All Electric Aircraft development, so we hope you will pick up this one-off opportunity. We are offering a special delegate rate of £15 VAT for poster presenters. For details of the…

    Deborah-Claire McKenzie
  • IET Japan Report 2015

    IET Japan Report 2015

    IET Japan report

    Former Community Member
    Former Community Member
  • IET North Yorkshire inspiring at Otley Science Festival

    IET North Yorkshire inspiring at Otley Science Festival

    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 .

    Daniel Rozday
  • First Lego League - Scottish Tournament Dates

    First Lego League - Scottish Tournament Dates

    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…

    Lynsay Callaghan
  • Congratulations for Solent's double-win

    Congratulations for Solent's double-win

    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…

    Joe Dunn
  • PICO Project

    PICO Project

    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.

    David Blake
  • Delta Print and Packaging Tour

    Delta Print and Packaging Tour

    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…

    Eoin McGread
  • Careers Day at Llanfyllin High School

    Careers Day at Llanfyllin High School

    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!

    David S Crawford
  • 2015 Student Prize : Buckinghamshire New University

    2015 Student Prize : Buckinghamshire New University

    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.

    Andrew Dodd
  • Robogami: future of robotics?

    Robogami: future of robotics?

    BBC News - Robogami: the future of robotics? https://t.co/6KSTMqGYH5 — IET Robotics (@IETrobotics) November 18, 2015