North West Joint Institutions Group New Website and event listings

The Manchester IET is part of a North West initiative called the Joint Institutions Group. This Group includes a number of engineering institutions that have branches in the North West of England. Over the summer period the Joint Institutions Group has been working on two initiatives. The first one is the Engineering Your Future Initiative, which is a series of seven events across the North West that provide an opportunity for school students to see benefits of a career in engineering. The first event is in Liverpool on 16 th October 2015 and there are two events in Manchester on 6 th November 2015 and 26 th February 2016. There are also events in Preston, Burnley, West Cumbria and Warrington. The IET is looking for volunteers to help with the running of the events, if you are interested more…

Mentoring Awareness Week

Did you know that Mentoring Awareness Week starts on Monday (28th)? Do you remember someone from early in your career who supported and inspired you to become the professional you are today? Could you be that person for someone working toward Professional Registration? The IET Mentoring Service are currently seeking mentors in your area for those working toward professional registration. If you are already professionally registered, and have just a few hours a month to share with another member and feel that you could pass on your experience and support a developing engineer then the IET Mentoring Service want to hear from you. There is further information, and an application form available on the IET website or contact the team to find out more information.

Mentoring Awareness Week - starts 28th September

Do you remember someone from early in your career who supported and inspired you to become the professional you are today? Could you be that person for someone working toward Professional Registration? The IET Mentoring Service are currently seeking mentors in your area for those working toward professional registration. If you are already professionally registered, and have just a few hours a month to share with another member and feel that you could pass on your experience and support a developing engineer then the IET Mentoring Service want to hear from you. There is further information, and an application form available on the IET website or contact the team to find out more information.

Mentoring Awareness Week

Mentoring Awareness week beings on Monday, 28th September. Do you remember someone from early in your career who supported and inspired you to become the professional you are today? Could you be that person for someone working toward Professional Registration? The IET Mentoring Service are currently seeking mentors in your area for those working toward professional registration. If you are already professionally registered, and have just a few hours a month to share with another member and feel that you could pass on your experience and support a developing engineer then the IET Mentoring Service want to hear from you. There is further information, and an application form available on the IET website , or contact the team to find out more information.

It was Only a Matter of Time

In this timely presentation by Dr Leon Lobo from the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), we found out that it is definitely not a short-term nor a trivial matter. The technical issues that have been overcome through the years and the refinements now under development are mind boggling. NPL are always striving for greater accuracy and stability: They are currently developing Strontium ion optical clocks amongst others. Why couldn't we just have stayed using the sun, the moon and the stars, as had been done since the time of the Pharaohs? Well, nobody wants to miss their train and with London and Bristol differing by 11 minutes, it's tough to run a railway timetable if the time is uncertain. These days, precise time is very important for financial markets, energy load balancing, cable fault location…

"Passive Components For Power Electronics"

Plans are now well advanced for a highly topical day of presentations on passive components. The ever growing demand for higher power density and weight reduction plus the impact of faster switching WBG semiconductors brings the important role of passive components to the fore. We have assembled a group of academic and industrial speakers who are working at the forefront of this technology area - We wsill be looking at component state of the art (and future direction) as well as the way components can be best used. We will also be welcoming Md Rishad Ahmed (University of Manchester), Yoann Nauel (University of Manchester), M.I. Idris (Newcastle University), James Lawson (Imperial College and George Kkelis (Imperial College) who will be displaying their winning posters from the recent EPSRC…

Are you ready for Mentoring Awareness Week?

Mentoring Awareness Week starts on Monday, 28th September. Do you remember someone from early in your career who supported and inspired you to become the professional you are today? Could you be that person for someone working toward Professional Registration? The IET Mentoring Service are currently seeking mentors in your area for those working toward professional registration. If you are already professionally registered, and have just a few hours a month to share with another member and feel that you could pass on your experience and support a developing engineer then the IET Mentoring Service want to hear from you. There is further information, and an application form available on the IET website or contact the team to find out more information.

Mentoring Awareness Week

Did you know Mentoring Awareness Week starts on 28th September? Do you remember someone from early in your career who supported and inspired you to become the professional you are today? Could you be that person for someone working toward Professional Registration? The IET Mentoring Service are currently seeking mentors in your area for those working toward professional registration. If you are already professionally registered, and have just a few hours a month to share with another member and feel that you could pass on your experience and support a developing engineer then the IET Mentoring Service want to hear from you. There is further information, and an application form available on the IET website or contact the team to find out more information.

FI Lecture And Buffet

On Thursday 29 October there is to be a joint IET/RAeS/I Mech E lecture at CUED by Ian Greig and colleagues from the Mercedes Benz F1 team. At 1800hrs, preceeding the talk, there will be a buffet organised by the Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS) which the F1 group will attend. The buffet will be provided by external caterers and in the room next to the lecture theatre. The cost of the buffet is £15. If you wish to attend the buffet, please send a cheque for £15 to Royal Aeronautical Society, c/o Mike Hawkins, 5 Martin Close, Godmanchester, Cambs PE29 2WA. The cheque should be made out to Royal Aeronautical Society. Please include your name, address and contact details. The lecture is at 1930 hrs and entry is free of charge although a booking will be needed - http://www.theiet.org/events/local…

NASA - ISS

On 15 December, British astronaut Tim Peake is scheduled to launch into space and spend 6 months on the International Space Station - see the October 2015 edition of the IET's E&T magazine. On the same day, Dr Ravi Margasahayam from NASA will give a talk to the IET Cambridge Network on the International space station. To be at CUED at 1830 hrs. For further details and to book please go to http://www.theiet.org/events/local/226901.cfm

Committee Member 2015 - 2016

Chairman Dr Bikramjit Bhangu Honorary Secretary Ms Huang LingXi Honorary Treasurer Mr Jolyon Caplin IET Council Member, IPRA Mr Richard KT Fong Immediate Past Chair Mr David Griffiths Senior Section Chair Prof Joseph Kasser Energy and Transport Section Chair Mr Tan Teck Lee Data Protection Officer Mr Lim Meng Yong Committee Member Mr Loi Boon Toon Mr Tan Eng Hwa Mr Manoj C Abeysundara Ms Gunatilake Prasanka IET Administrator Ms Yvonne Ko

Committee Member 2015 - 2016

IET Singapore Main Committee list: Chairman : Dr Bikramjit Bhangu Imm Past Chair : Mr David Griffiths Honorary Secretary : Ms Huang Lingxi Honorary Treasurer : Mr Jolyon Caplin UK Council, IPRA : Mr Richard Fong Data Protection Officer : Mr Lim Meng Yong Committee Member :Prof Joseph Kasser, Mr Cheng Chia Loon, Mr Tan Teck Lee, Mr Loi Boon Toon, Mr Tan Eng Hwa, Mr Manoj C Abeysundara, Ms Prasanka Gunatilake IET Young Professionals Section Committee list: Chairman : Mr Cheng Chia Loon Imm Past Chair : Mr Mike Henry Council : Mr Lim Meng Yong Deputy Chair : Mr Tan Eng Hwa Vice Chair : Mr Cheng Kai Xian Honorary Secretary : Mr Sia Ren You Publicity Officer : Mr Lee Chong Wei Organising Officer : Mr Edward Ho Teck Hwa Committee Member : Mr Feng Chao, Mr Chung Man Kit, Ms Huang Lingxi, Ms.Liu YuFeng…

Technical Visit To Dreamworks Animation Photos

Highlights from the IET NorCal seminars on September 12th.

John Manville gave a very insightful talk into how IoT is really becoming the IoE, the Internet of Everything . Covering the estimates of future growth of connected devices and the problems that an ultra-connected world presents, such as bandwidth, connectivity, security, and privacy issues. Everyone knows the story of the online fridge that knows when to order milk but John showed that towns and cities are using ubiquitous connectivity to make a positive change for their inhabitants. The city of Barcelona has made multi-million dollar savings in power and water user – yeah! – and made much more from its parking meters by knowing who is there and for how long L . The talk triggered a very lively Q&A session and featured a 3D printer and a drone! Allan Casey talked about the plans for the NIF…

The Next IET NorCal Seminar: Making Smartphones Smarter

Hi all, The next seminar will be a talk titled "Making Smartphones Smarter" presented by Dr Ronjon Nag Abstract : Smartphones are now ubiquitous. Everyone has one. Often considered a recent phenomenon, actually current smartphones are the result of accumulated innovations since the first mobile phone was shipped some 30 years ago. This talk will review how innovations have built upon each other to create modern devices and the role of app ecosystems in creating more engineers and companies. Will discuss how mobiles may become smarter in the future, discussing what defines intelligence in the context of a machine, and explaining the latest trends in artificial intelligence as they pertain to mobile devices. We will see new user interfaces, machine learning techniques such as deep learning and…

Driverless Cars - are we ready?

I was reading a report this week in E&T magazine which questions whether we are ready for driverless cars. We are all probably aware by now of Google's promise that by 2020 self-driving cars will be common, and quite rightly one of the main concerns is safety. Did you know that Google actually publish monthly reports on their accidents, and it seems that of the 12 relatively minor accidents that have occured since the project began, not one was caused by the driverless car itself? There is a fascinating report in the article in E&T magazine about what it is like to ride in a self driving car Don't forget you can still view the presentations from the Control & Automation TPN's full day seminar on Autonomous Vehicles on IET.tv:

An Intro To Our New Chair- Tom Gray

Tom Gray, Group CTO of digital solutions company Kainos , has been appointed as Chairman of the Northern Ireland network of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET). One of the main aims of the IET over the next year will be to inspire and nurture the next generation of engineering talent, something he has done as vice-chair and in his role at Kainos. Gray’s year at the helm will start with the Chairman’s lecture on October 2, where Space Shuttle Endeavour pilot Greg Johnson will kick off UN Space Week. A mechanical engineer, Johnson will talk about how his engineering experience led to piloting the last flight of the iconic craft. Commenting on his appointment, Gray said: "The mission of the IET is one of fundamental importance throughout the UK and especially in Northern Ireland…

Donald Davies and DVB broadcasting

Today's Radio 4 Computing Britain programme (which aired at 13:45, Thursday September the 17th) was entitled "Connected Thinking" and described part of Donald Davies' career, ranging from his early work with Alan Turing through to his invention of packet switching, and its effect on data (and thus multimedia) communications. What the programme did not mention at all was that following his work on packet switching his interests moved into cryptology and cryptography. He worked in this area towards the end of his Civil Service career at the National Physical Laboratory and then carried on as an independent consultant. The security of pay television systems was one of the areas he worked in (another was banking security). One aspect where he made a major contribution to digital television was…

IET London All Volunteers Evening 14-Sep-2015

Many of the active volunteers from the London Network had an enjoyable and informative evening at The Phoenix Victoria, Mon 14th Sep 2015. We said thank you to our outgoing Chair, Davy Thielens, for all his hard work and great leadership, as he handed the baton over to Femi Olushola, with his vice-chair, Xenophon Christodoulou. We look forward to their shared leadership over the next three years. Governance For The Future (G4F): As it is such an important and somewhat controversial subject, we heard different views on the proposed change from: Dr. Peter Bonfield, IET Vice President, for the IET Trustees Prof. Ali Hessami, for the petitioners (GRT) This should help us all to decide how to cast our imminent vote for or against a Special General Meeting (SGM) to establish a Task Force that would…

CREST In Wales - Be Part Of Something New!

The Welsh government recently confirmed 3 years of funding for CREST Awards in Wales, making the Awards totally free for Welsh students. CREST is a UK award scheme that recognises success, and enables students to build their skills and demonstrate personal achievement in project work. As part of the funding, they are developing two new CREST Discovery challenges, based around Welsh 'Innovation and Industry', and 'Heritage and Culture'. That's where you come in: they'd love to connect to what you are doing in Wales, and get your input on the new challenges. Join them for a fun and interactive workshop. It'll be a fantastic opportunity to meet others working across the industry, heritage and education sectors in Wales, and shape 2 new Welsh CREST challenges. Feel free to invite colleagues who…

Some thoughts on IBC 2015

IBC was its usual, large, busy self, with an extensive variety of exhibitors and a huge number of visitors from all over the world. As someone who has attended the majority of IBCs over the last 25 years, it is impressive how much the badge collection facilities have improved! Although there was a very long queue when I arrived on Friday morning, it moved very quickly and I soon found myself waiting for the exhibition to open. From my own observations, both before and during the exhibition, and my discussions at IBC, it seems clear that this is a time of consolidation, and that perhaps the rate of technological change has slowed slightly. The emphasis now is on trying to move some of the new concepts, such as IP working and delivery, ultra HD (whether in the 4k first phase, or subsequently…

Use Of Dynamic Simulation In The Development Of Control Systems

On 3rd September an audience of more than 30 people got together in Teacher Building, Glasgow to hear Dr Andy Clegg and Professor Mike Grimble deliver presentations on the " Use of dynamic simulation in the development of control systems ". It was an excellent event, with a very engaged audience, if the number of questions at the end was any measure! The audience learnt that design, development and deployment of control systems can often be challenging; especially in time, cost or safety critical applications, such as in oil & gas, maritime or nuclear industries and how the use of dynamic simulation of plant/control systems can help. Dr. Andy Clegg from Industrial Systems and Control Ltd talked about his experiences with developing and using simulations within the design and deployment for…

The Friendly Face Of Robots

On 8th September, as part of TAROS 2015, Professor Tony Belpaeme of Plymouth University gave the IET Public Lecture. Professor Belpaeme delivered a fantastic presentation on the friendly face of robots and he shared with the audience an insight into research that is working towards robots that are social and can provide support in healthcare, therapeutic settings and education. Included were examples of friendly robots that have helped children with diabetes learn more about their condition and how to cope with it and a case where Riccardo the robot helped a young child who had suffered a stroke with his physiotherapy. All very fascinating and thought provoking. There's a great article online that reports on the sucess of robots and computers in schools and care home environments. Part of the…

Campaign Launched That Calls For A Ban On The Development Of Robots That Can Be Used For Sex

Yesterday I was reading a news report that highlighted a campaign that has been recently launched which calls for a ban on the development of robots that can be used for sex. It's quite an emotive subject and the relationship between humans and robots, already complex, will become more complex in the future as robots get ever more sophisticated. Could such relationships have a detrimental effect on human relationships? Dr Kathleen Richardson is leading the campaign, and this subject featured in the presentation that she gave back in June for the IET Robotics & Mechatronics Robot Ethics event. You can see Kathleens presentation here as well as presentations from Alan Winfield and Tony Prescott According to the report , Dr Richardson, wants to raise awareness of the issue and persuade those developing…