Welcome to the Community Insights blog!

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

  • Meet The Committee - Barry Mitchell, Chair

    Barry Mitchell, Chair Barry Mitchell is a Chartered Electrical Engineer who has been working in the Oil and Gas Industry since 2010. He has a MEng degree (with Distinction) in electrical and electronic engineering from Robert Gordon University and has recently gained professional registration with the engineering council as a chartered engineer at the age of just 28. Barry received a scholarship from a large oil and gas operator throughout his time as a student and has gone on to complete a graduate programme with a large global service company in the oil and gas sector, winning the Oil and Gas UK Graduate of the Year Award in 2014. Since completing his graduate scheme Barry has been promoted quickly to engineer, senior and now to principal engineer level. Barry began his career by providing…

    Lynsay Callaghan
    Lynsay Callaghan

  • And the IET ARTS TPN Technical Prize for MotoE Racing goes to…

    MotoE is an official European Championship for electric motorcycle racers, teams from the across the globe, battle each other in five rounds within Europe for the privilege to call themselves the MotoE European Cup Champions.   It has been supported by the IET Automotive & Road Transport Systems TPN for several years as it raises awareness of electric motorcycles and the profile of the IET and TPN.  Also, all members of the Technical Panel are IET members.   On recent completion of the 2016 season, the Technical Panel had a difficult time choosing a winner for the IET ARTS TPN prize and had to split the prize between two universities.    The team from Nottingham University were awarded a prize for Innovation as they consistently improved lap times across every round in the season, taking track…

    Deborah-Claire McKenzie
    Deborah-Claire McKenzie

  • North Wales Tidal Energy and Coastal Protection Lecture

    On the 24th January, a number of members and non members attended a lecture presented by Mr Henry Dixon, Chairman of North Wales Tidal Energy, who outlined his companies plans to build a tidal barrage from Great Orme to Rhyl to harness the power from tidal action. The electricity that could be generated from this scheme would be 2.5GW enough for 1.1 million homes. The length of the wall 31Km . The electricity generated could also be used to feed a pump storage scheme. Wind and solar power is variable, the wind does not always blow and days can be bright or overcast, but the tidal movement can be accurately predicted for decades into the future. The environmental impact was also discussed, using the wall to provide coastal defenses and raising it in the event of global warming causing a rise…

    David S Crawford
    David S Crawford

  • Ottawa LN And Backstreet Builders Hold Open House

    On Thursday 26th January the Backstreet Builders team of 9 to 12 year olds held an Open House for the Ottawa LN. On show were their nascent efforts with the BBC micro:bit computer boards.   This board has been a great success with the team, who expressed their thanks for the donation of a board to each of the team members.  Notice in the video the keen interaction between team members, with peer-peer teaching.  One 9-year old member demonstrated a Python program that used the magnetometer, and then a program using the BLE communications between two BBC micro:bits.  All with just one week of effort. Next was a demonstration run of the First Lego League robot challenge.  The Backstreet builders gained first prize for the robot performance in the Ottawa qualifying tournament.  This run may be…

    Former Community Member
    Former Community Member

  • Towards 5G - Event Highlights

    The 3 rd annual Towards 5G was held successfully at Savoy Place, London at the end of January. It was attended by over 100 delegates from a wide ranging set of disciplines. We were lucky to have not 1, but 2 chairs for the day. Kafil Ahmed, chair of the network, presided over the second half of the day and Mike Short oversaw the first half. As Mike opened the seminar, he described how each generation of connectivity had been described by 1 word: 3G = multimedia; 4G = broadband. He challenged each speaker to give their 1 word to describe 5G – the words are shown in the picture to the left and you can find out who said each word at the end of the blog! Our first speaker was Professor Misha Dohler, who put on his special haptic glove, to tell us about the Internet of skills. The glove is able…

    Former Staff Member
    Former Staff Member

  • Can Project Management And Cost Modelling Meet The Forthcoming Macro Technical/Social/Economic Challenges

    I had the pleasure of attending the Manufacturing 2075 Symposium in December hosted by Cranfield University during which some very thought provoking issues were raised and discussed by some of academia's and Industrial/Manufacturing  leaders. The Introduction to the event was...... " The challenges faced by manufacturing research, education and skills requirements, and our knowledge capability base in 2075 will be influenced and informed by organic and disruptive technologies and systems, new materials, changes in our life styles and values, and global political and societal developments. To be suitably prepared, we need to imagine the future to plan the present. A new global forum to discuss very long term manufacturing challenges (i.e. Manufacturing Futures) for the UK and other countries…

    Louis Redding
    Louis Redding

  • IET Glasgow: Teacher Building is Gold Standard in Customer Service.

    At the IET Teacher Building Glasgow – our customer promise is at the heart of everything we do.  We value our Team members and expect them to be customers’ champions.  We have excelled in customer service and been recognised again with the GOLD Award from BDRC (Business Development Research Consultants). Highlighting the venue with the highest score in the overall performance index category in the benchmarking programme based on customers’ event experience.   Why not have a visit and see the Members Facilities we have on offer  or find out how good the service is when you book your next event.

    Lynsay Callaghan
    Lynsay Callaghan

  • IET Young Woman Engineer Of The Year

    Three young female engineers, aged 23 to 28, have been awarded Young Woman Engineer of the Year titles by the IET, as part of its ongoing mission to promote the engineering profession among young people, especially girls. Cambridge University lecturer Jenni Sidey, Cisco network security engineer Gemma Dalziel and Rolls-Royce manufacturing systems lead Bethan Murray will now assume their roles as engineering profession ambassadors. More on the main IET site

    Timothy Wilkinson
    Timothy Wilkinson

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

    We are pleased to announce Professor Andy Sutton, Principal Network Architect from BT will be presenting at the Towards 5G Mobile Technology – Vision To Reality event. Professor Sutton is a Principal Network Architect within BT Architecture and Technology. He is responsible for RAN architecture evolution and mobile backhaul strategy and architecture. He has over 30 years of experience within the telecommunications industry, mainly in radio access, transmission and transport network strategy, architecture and design. His talk will be about " 5G Network Architecture and Design"   Prof. Sutton’s research interests include; distributed and centralised RAN architectures and protocols, RAN dimensioning, QoS and mobile backhaul (optical transmission, microwave and millimetre wave radio systems, network…

    Former Community Member
    Former Community Member

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

    We are looking forward to welcoming you to the event taking place tomorrow. Dr Nishanth Sastry will be speaking on " Who will 5G be for: Operators, or Consumers and Verticals?" Dr Nishanth Sastry is a Lecturer at King's College London. He holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge, a Master's degree from The University of Texas at Austin, and a Bachelor's degree from Bangalore University, India, all in Computer Science.   Dr Sastry worked for Cisco Systems, India and IBM Software Group, USA and Industrial Research Labs (IBM TJ Watson Research Center). His research interest includes congestion control, innovative uses of WiFi technologies, social networks, content distribution and delivery, and green networking. Do not forget to tweet us @IETCommunities #Towards5G

    Former Community Member
    Former Community Member

  • Next Antennas Event – Register Now!

    Next week is the first big Antennas network event of the year! Entitled ‘Antennas, Propagation and RF Technology for Transport and Autonomous Platforms,’ the aim of this event is to bring researchers together to provide an overview of the activities in this sector.   The event is happening on 2 February in Austin Court, Birmingham and we’re going to be lucky enough to hear from a number of prominent researchers including: Dr Alan Stocker, Dr Marina Gashinova, Anil Shukla and Dr Marta Martínez Vázquez   There are just a few places left for this event, so make sure to book your place!

    Former Staff Member
    Former Staff Member

  • IET Awards 2017

    Please download the IET Awrds Book 2017 from the link below https://communities.theiet.org/communities/files/77/12805 IET Local Network Prizes The IET supports over 100 Local Networks that exist in a number of locations around the world. Where universities or colleges do not have IET accredited programmes, IET Local Networks can offer an IET Local Network Prize to reward excellence in students. The prize winner should be nominated on the of official form by the academic establishment on the basis of having achieved excellence on a course that falls within the IET’s scope of interest. The value of the award is £250 or an amount with an equivalent purchasing power in other countries. Only one award should be offered per establishment, even where there are a number of different departments specialising…

    Chris SF Chew
    Chris SF Chew

  • Tickets available for History Network members: The evolution of television from Baird to the digital age

    THE EVOLUTION OF TELEVISION FROM BAIRD TO THE DIGITAL AGE a free-to-attend invitation-only event with sponsorship including the IEEE Life Members Affinity Group on Friday 27 th January 2017   at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, 21 Albemarle Street, London W1S 4BS   A ‘celebration’ of the first public demonstration of television in January 1926 at 22 Frith Street, Soho, London by John Logie Baird. The demonstration is recorded as being attended by some 40 members of the Royal Institution (RIGB).    Television   a Greek word τ %u1FC6 λε  (tèle) , meaning "far", and a Latin word visio , meaning "sight"   Registration, with coffee served, will be from 1030.   Welcome and Opening Introductions in the RIGB Lecture Theatre:   take seats by 1100.       The platform party will include       …

    Anne Locker
    Anne Locker

  • Smart Body Protection - recent event held by the Hammersmith Section

    On Tuesday evening this week, I attended the Hammersmith event on Smart Body Protection and what a fabulous talk it was.   The presentation was given by Dr Dan Plant who is the Founder and MD of Armourgel, Imperial College.   He began by giving an insight into the technology behind Armourgel - which is an energy absorbing material based around the synergy between a shear thickening fluid and a re-entrant or auxetic geometry. It is breathable, up to four times thinner, and more flexible than existing products.  This revolutionary energy absorbing material stiffens upon impact to provide protection, but will flex with the musculature of the body when protection is not required, thus combining safety with comfort.  Dan passed round an array of the different products including a helmet, gloves…

    Joanne Longton
    Joanne Longton

  • Lifeskill Workshops: How many Engineers does it take to build a bridge?

    The latest addition to the local network’s event calendar, Lifeskills workshops, have proven a huge hit with members locally. Two fully subscribed workshops were successfully delivered on the titles of “ The Art of Being Assertive ” and “ The Fundamentals of Project Management ”.   Lifeskills workshops are three hour interactive sessions which are designed to provide a brief introduction to key topics relevant to working life. The IET supports the delivery of Lifeskills as part of our drive to increase skills and professionalism in the engineering sectors.   The second workshop included all participants designing and building a bridge in teams from assorted materials in which one member of the team could pass under. Some photos from this challenge can be seen along with this blog or on our…

    Eoin McGread
    Eoin McGread

  • RAF Cosford Air Show 2017 - volunteers wanted

    The STEM Hangar at the RAF Cosford Air Show 2017, which is being held on Sunday 11th June 2017. The Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths Hangar has been a popular addition to the Air Show in the past couple of years with the number of visitors growing year on year.   The number of organisations benefiting from having a stand in this dedicated hangar has increased over the years from charities encouraging young men and women to enter Science fields to international companies showcasing how they benefit communities at home and around the world. Joining the expanding list of businesses taking part in this event gives you a wonderful opportunity to display the diverse opportunities within your organisation and how integrally it’s linked with the wider STEM initiative. The RAF Cosford Air…

    Julie
    Julie

  • IET WA YPS Team Building/Planning Day 2017 : )

    Review of the 2017 Team Building/ Planning day   What a way to kick start the year. The sun was blaring and the Perth weather was living up to its reputation with a whopping high of 37 degrees. The heat was turned up but that didn’t stop the IET Team Building and Planning day from being a massive success. We started the day off with rock climbing at Rockface Northbridge. What better way to forge relationships than quite literally putting your life in another person’s hands? As expected, the activity was challenging, strenuous and all the synonyms you could think of, but the satisfaction when reaching the goal outweighed it all. An abundance of food and drink was also provided to fill our stomachs and keep us hydrated. A surprise birthday cake was also organised for one of our loyal members…

    Former Community Member
    Former Community Member

  • Top 10 RISK Management Strategies For Entrepreneurs

    Risk is a part of all of our lives and risk related careers are many, but what does Risk Management mean to you?   On 23 February ,  Tony Reid will deliver a presentation on the practicalities of applying Risk Management on projects .   This has been organised by the Project Controls Network and will be at the Teacher Building in Glasgow - so if you have any plans to be in Glasgow on 23rd, why not come along and hear more? More information about the event can be found in our Events Section:   Tony is a past Chairman of the exec committee and started his career in Electricity Supply commissioning maintenance and operations and later developed into Project Controls.  He has international experience in the Process/Petrochemical contracting industry, in both operational and management positions…

  • Submit Your 2016 CPD Records

    Now is the time to  Submit your 2016 CPD return.   The window to submit your 2016 CPD returns opened on 3rd January 2017. You may be chosen to have your record reviewed as part of our CPD monitoring policy.  Find out more about what is included  and how to utilise the IET Career Manager tool.

    Lynsay Callaghan
    Lynsay Callaghan

  • Submit Your 2016 CPD Record

    Now is the time to  Submit your 2016 CPD return.   The window to submit your 2016 CPD returns opened on 3rd January 2017. You may be chosen to have your record reviewed as part of our CPD monitoring policy.  Find out more about what is included  and how to utilise the IET Career Manager tool.

    Lynsay Callaghan
    Lynsay Callaghan

  • Submit Your 2016 CPD Record

    Now is the time to  Submit your 2016 CPD return.   The window to submit your 2016 CPD returns opened on 3rd January 2017. You may be chosen to have your record reviewed as part of our CPD monitoring policy.  Find out more about what is included and how to utilise the IET Career Manager tool.

    Lynsay Callaghan
    Lynsay Callaghan

  • 2017 Upcoming Events Reminder!

    Upcoming events!  Remember these events are FREE and add to your CPD (We usually even provide refreshments!). Use the links below for more info and to register as spaces are often limited: 16th Jan:  Lifeskills- Project Management -  https://goo.gl/BV44yo   (Fully subscribed) 16th Feb:  Seagate Technology Tour  -  https://goo.gl/jDAQ85 23rd Feb:  IET/BCS Turing Lecture  (Now a permanent fixture in NI due to the continued fantastic level of interest and support) 23rd Mar:  IET NI Annual Dinner 28th Mar:  Sensata Technologies Tour  (Formerly known as Schrader) 4th April:  Professional Registration Workshop Registration links will be updated for all of the above soon!

    Brian Moorhead
    Brian Moorhead

  • A Cloud Enabled World: Growth Opportunities For Businesses And Individuals

    IET Central London Evening Lecture Savoy Place, 11-Jan-2017 Presented by: Neil Lewis and Sylvain Gaugry from Hitachi Data Systems The new year started off with this lively and informative talk on the topic of Cloud-based IT infrastructure and how to remain successful in a Cloud-enabled world. As we learnt,  Hitachi are positioning themselves as a leader in this field; they are making the difficult transition from selling boxes to providing services, with the whole company adapting to this disruption in their way of business.    An astounding revelation was that 90-95% of the total amount of digital data stored in the world has been created within the last two years. Another was that, by 2020, data will be created at a rate of 1.2 MB (equivalent to one old floppy disk) per second per person…

    David Tabor
    David Tabor

  • The Global Challenge is back

    It’s back! The second IET Young Professionals Global Challenge was launched in November 2016 at the Innovation Awards ceremony.   The competition, held in association with RedR, encourages young professionals and students to test their technical know-how by devising a solution to a real world  engineering problem. It enables young engineers to develop their technical, problem-solving and presentation skills and, as we have seen from the first competition, it can lead to some incredible opportunities within industry.In the first Global Challenge, 30 innovative ideas were submitted from all over the world for a portable, economical laptop cooling system for humanitarian aid workers to use in the field.   One solution, called hipsterIce, was the clear winner due to its sheer simplicity, low levels…

    Former Community Member
    Former Community Member

Community Rules & Guidelines