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  • Start #EngineeringYourWay today with Foothold’s Engineering Neurodiverse Futures support programme

    Did you know that 1 in 7 people worldwide are considered to be neurodiverse, and that there are 820,000 neurodiverse engineers working in the UK alone? Like all members of our engineering community, you’ll want to ensure you have everything you need to be successful, in both your personal and professional life. But if you have been diagnosed as neurodivergent, or believe you may have a neurodiverse condition, you might feel you’re being held back from reaching your full potential. Or if you know or work with someone who is neurodivergent, perhaps you feel there’s more you can do to enhance your relationship, so that you can get along better at work or at home? Whether you’re neurodivergent or neurotypical, at Foothold we want to build a world where every member of our community has…

  • The IET Artificial Intelligence Technical Network goes live!

    Dr Elise Tapping (Inaugural AITN Chair) is excited to announce the IET AITN, has ‘gone live’ with a much awaited for series of webinars coming up in the following months. You can see details of our first webinar taking place on Thursday, 26th January , Demystifying AI on our technical webinar hub The Network's purpose is to grow a worldwide technical network to support the growth of AI, by promoting and challenging conventional approaches in businesses and society. It will encourage the AITN community to focus on the integration of AI technology with ourselves and the world we live in by understanding and expanding its limitations, evolving technologies into standalone decision-making entities and how exploring this impacts ethics. The AITN seeks to achieve three primary objectives, closely…

  • Radio TechCon available to all with announcement of bursary schemes + new sessions revealed

    Engineering is for everyone – that’s the message from the organisers of Radio TechCon – the UK radio and audio industry’s technical and engineering event. The one-day conference takes place on Monday, 28th November 2022 at IET Savoy Place, London. Full price tickets cost £175 + VAT and now there are two bursary schemes to assist delegates with the costs of attending. The organisation bursary sees free tickets being given to the Community Media Association, Student Radio Association and Sound Women Network, for these organisations to distribute to their members. The individual bursary is a free ticket scheme open to anyone who is facing a barrier to attending Radio TechCon. This could be because of financial constraints, or due to being from a group underrepresented in broadcast engineering…

  • 19th Reinventing Space conference and exhibition

    Colleagues at the British Interplanetary Society (BIS) would like to share information on their forthcoming conference. Reinventing Space will take place 28-29 November 2022 at Aerospace Bristol Museum and Conference Centre - which features the last Concorde to fly - and with the evening Gala Dinner and Sir Arthur Clarke Awards taking place on 29 November. This year the Gala Dinner and Awards will take place beneath the wings of Concorde at the Aerospace Museum, Bristol Strategic Foundations for New Space Reinventing Space is a conference and exhibition dedicated to advancing humanity’s future capabilities in space and highlights the trends that will define space enterprise a decade from now. Each year, the conference brings together a network of innovators from industry, agency, government…

    Deborah-Claire McKenzie
    Deborah-Claire McKenzie in Space

  • IET YP Summit - 12 November 2022 - London

    The IET Young Professionals Summit 2022 12 November 2022 | 6:30 – 11pm | De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms London Would you like to attend the biggest ever gathering of young professional engineers and technicians globally? Join us as we celebrate success at the IET Young Professionals Summit 2022! Spend the evening connecting with a diverse group of like-minded peers, including conference delegates and the finalists of our exciting #Presentin10 virtual competition and the IET Hackathon Challenge. Attendees will even have the opportunity to cast their vote and help decide the #Presentin10 winner in our grand final. You'll also be joined by some inspiring keynote speakers, including IET Honorary Fellow, Ruth Amos. There are only 70 spaces up for grabs, so be sure to register your…

    Lydia Vaton
    Lydia Vaton

  • What's your experience of using DevSecOps?

    Managers and engineers naturally want to adopt new approaches which can improve product quality and the efficiency of their teams. Many new practices are seeing increased use across domains - and this includes DevSecOps, a combination of development, security and operations. DevSecOps is a collection of concepts and practices designed to break down the silos between developers, security professionals and operations specialists within an organisation. It promises a more-integrated way of developing, shipping and monitoring products and services. The IET’s Engineering Safety Policy Panel has produced a short flyer highlighting the promises of DevSecOps practices, as well as considerations for its use in safety-related environments. This presents some key concepts on the subject and includes…

  • RAeS Conference: A Bright Future or Fighting for Survival - Where will Aerospace be in 2035 and Beyond?

    29 November 2022 - 30 November 2022 No.4 Hamilton Place and Virtual, 09:00 - 17:30 GMT Join the RAeS on 29-30 November in London or online for this exciting RAeS Conference: 'A Bright Future or Fighting for Survival - Where will Aerospace be in 2035 and Beyond?' They are delighted to extend their early bird ticket prices until 3 November (12:00 GMT) - book before then to secure your place at a discounted rate! The conference will address how the aerospace domain will develop over the next 10-15 years, what opportunities it must grasp and the threats it needs to overcome. The programme brings together visionaries, experts and global leaders to shine a light on the politics of the future of aviation, the new technological tools and their associated challenges, and the implications for those…

  • £2bn unused apprentice funds since 2017. Let’s use them for upskilling

    Over 20% of the funds earmarked for apprentice training are being returned to the Treasury each year. Why not allow employers to invest these funds in upskilling and reskilling? Since 2017, large employers have been required to contribute 0.5% of their total annual pay bill to the apprenticeship levy – a fund for apprentice training which remains available to the paying employer for up to two years. However, research shows that up to two thirds of entitled employers are not using these funds. (1) In fact, recently released figures reveal that over £2bn raised by the levy has been returned to the Treasury since it was introduced. (2) In other words, these funds are not being used as intended to upskill the UK labour market. This presents a great opportunity. These otherwise unspent funds…

  • Next steps for Apollo Protocol to be revealed at Live Launch Event

    The team behind The Apollo Protocol white paper, which calls for a common language across digital twins, are to reveal details of how they will begin to set up The Apollo Forum at a live streamed launch event on 25 October from 3.30pm. Since its launch last month, The Apollo Protocol has attracted critical acclaim and enthusiasm from the digital twin community in manufacturing, construction and the built environment, and the technology sector. Downloads of the white paper proposing the cross-sector approach to digital twins have exceeded expectations, and a Network for participants has been set up on the Digital Twin Hub. At a live launch later this month, the team behind the initiative will reveal details of how the Apollo Forum will begin its work. Currently, the manufacturing and built…

  • IET Bucks 2022 student prize

    IET Bucks awarded its 2022 student prize of £250 to Erik Barker. It was given in recognition of Erik's excellent academic performance on his course with a proliferation of A-grades and Outstanding Performance in his Final Year project during his BSc (Hons) Games Development degree at BUCKINGHAMSHIRE NEW UNIVERSITY. The photograph of the award ceremony shows from left to right; Dr Kevin Maher PhD (Deputy Head of School & Director of Education) John Dunn (IET Bucks LN committee member) Erik Barker (Prize Winner) Guy Walker (Course Leader for BSc (Hons) Games Development)

    Andrew Dodd
    Andrew Dodd

  • UK Gov Drops Appeal to High Court Ruling that Net Zero Plan was Unlawful!

    "Jacob Rees-Mogg has dropped plans to appeal against a High Court ruling that found the government’s plan to reach net zero was unlawful. The business secretary’s decision means the government must now draw up a new net-zero strategy by March. Campaigners said the climbdown was embarassing but welcome and urged ministers to flesh out how legally binding carbon targets would be met with more ambitious action." Government drops appeal over net-zero High Court ruling | News | The Times This comes off the back of a challenge going back to January of this year whereby the government was sued over its net zero strategy, the guardian reported: UK government sued over ‘pie-in-the-sky’ net-zero climate strategy | Climate crisis | The Guardian And a high court order which " ordered the…

  • University of Liverpool Centre for Sustainable Business Launch

    I attended the launch event for the University of Liverpool Centre for Sustainable Business last night. Details are here: University of Liverpool: Centre for Sustainable Business Launch Tickets, Tue 18 Oct 2022 at 17:00 | Eventbrite The event included an opening address by its Director Professor Jo Meehan and keynote presentations by Jeremy Nicholls of the United Nations Development Programme, and Kate Downes and Katie Dean from the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority. Jeremy Nicholls challenged current practices of building sustainability based on continuing to produce our current products, with associated consumption, rather than looking at the wider picture of how we produce and consume less. This will, indeed, be a challenge for Manufacturing! The theme of "Reimagining Business…

  • Past Event Information

    We now have our own YouTube channel - IET Swindon Network to show on-line events that have been recorded. See below for information on our past face to face events, including links to the presentation slide decks (where available). 2022 Slide pack for Short History of the London Underground - link below 2021 Go straight to the Future Rail Power Options (Joint event with IMechE) event video - click here . Go straight to the Debate on UK's 5G Supply Chain Diversification Strategy event video - click here 2020 Go straight to the Content Security event video - click here . Go straight to the Energy and Mobility - Volt or Fiction? event video - click here . 2018 Short Programme Slide pack for 18SP-05 AutoAir - Connecting Autonomous Vehicles Slide pack for 18SP…

    Walter Featherstone
    Walter Featherstone

  • Celebrate the World Cup with our new football themed STEM resources

    Can football come home twice in a year? Get your children excited and ready to celebrate the Men’s 2022 FIFA World Cup this November with our STEM (science, technology, engineering, and maths) themed football resources. We have created a series of new resources that combine sports with engineering, with lesson plans and presentations that are mapped to the curricula. Primary learners can look forward to designing their own kit, building their own football team, engineering a stadium, making international flag biscuits and more! Link to Primary sports themed resources Resources for secondary aged young people include designing and creating a pewter cast medal, using data and statistics to select the Golden Ball recipient, and others! Link to Secondary sports themed resources And…

  • Net Zero - is UK Gov doing enough? Here's your chance to have your voice heard...

    If you want to be heard, this is your chance! "The BEIS Secretary of State has commissioned a review to ensure that delivering the net zero target does not place undue burdens on businesses or consumers. The review will report at the end of 2022. As part of the review, the Chair, Chris Skidmore MP, will consult widely with a diverse range of stakeholders, including investors, industry, and experts in different fields, through a series of roundtables and direct meetings. We are supplementing this with a broad call for evidence, giving the general public, businesses and other organisations a chance to share their views on the whole economy transition, maximising net zero growth opportunities, the challenges to address in this review and the future of net zero." Review of Net Zero: call…

  • Rare live interview with Professor Ali Erdemir

    In this wide-ranging conversation, Professor Tomasz Liskiewicz, founder and director at Surface Ventures, will ask Ali, for example: • What was your favourite subject in school? • Your most cited paper is “Global energy consumption due to friction in passenger cars”, what makes this paper so impactful? • What advice would you give to your 18-year-old self? Can't join us live? Register anyway and we will send you the on-demand recording to view at your own convenience. You can attend the event directly from within the browser. No downloads required. The webinar is scheduled for one hour. Live attendees will be able to download an attendance certificate for this event. Surface Ventures is not-for-profit organisation with a mission to provide world-class Surface Engineering education for…

  • Radio TechCon 2022 - tickets now on sale

    Radio TechCon - the UK radio and audio industry’s technical and engineering event - has announced its first sessions as tickets go on sale. The one-day conference is back in person at IET London: Savoy Place on Monday, 28th November 2022. Sessions revealed so far include: ● Staying on Air ● Adding Neurodivergence to the Mix ● Pictures on the radio ● Adaptive Podcasting ● World Radio Congress Delegates will be able to meet representatives from sponsors Broadcast Bionics, Arqiva, the IET, LAWO, Broadcast Radio, RCS, CGI, Preco and Nomono during the breaks, as well as enjoying an evening drinks reception. Tickets are £175 + VAT with discounts for members of the Radio Academy (and its affiliate members such as the Community Media Association and Student Radio Association) and members…

  • Future Of Manufacturing Automation - are we only half way across the chessboard ?

    As Eric Brynjolfsson would say, we are only half way across the chessboard since Moore developed his growth predictions for microchip development 60 + years ago. This exponential growth has given rise to Improvements in video, data storage, and communications. This has enabled some real heavy load and data lifting in the Robotics sector in recent years. Future developments will give rise to much higher precision in small parts detection by using faster, deeper machine learning in computer vision systems, for instance. Increases in bandwidth will allow for transmission of haptics data for texture identification using soft robotics. These enablers will enhance factory navigation for obstacle detection and mapping. We will see much higher definition in our visualization of robotics simulations…

  • IET Built Environment Panel celebrates its projects at UK Construction Week

    To celebrate the work of the IET’s Built Environment Panel a session on the UK Construction Week main stage last week looked at how bring together disparate voices can help enable change. Chaired by Su Butcher of Just Practising Limited, the session included Patricia Massey, BEAMA’s Digital and Technology Manager, alongside Paul Surin of IBM, Neil Thompson of the Construction Leadership Council (and chair of the Built Environment Panel) and Geoffrey Brown of the UK Government’s Office for Product Safety and Standards who are forming the new construction product regulator. The aim of the IET’s expert panels is to bring together different voices across engineering and beyond, to explore ideas and solutions and share these with the industry and with government, supporting their work and…

  • Meet the winners of the IET Healthcare Technologies Student and Early Career Awards 2022!

    The Healthcare Technologies Network is delighted to announce the winners of the IET Healthcare Technologies Student and Early Career Awards 2022! Our Dennis Hill Award winner is Darcy Murphy, a PhD student studying Health Informatics at the University of Manchester. Darcy’s submission ‘‘Applying Domain Adaptation Based Unlearning to a Neural Network for ECG Classification’ really impressed the judges who commented that it was ‘very good to base the project on a well-known international competition – this intrinsically places it at the start of the art.’ The IET Dennis Hill Award is awarded to the student on an MEng or MSc programme who has, during the past year, submitted the best individual project dissertation in the general field of Biomedical Engineering and cognate subjects (including…

  • Join the IET Satellites Network for their next webinar ‘Threats to Space’ with Rob Heron from Lockheed Martin Space

    15 Nov 2022 – 12.00hrs GMT For more information/Registration. Some people will remember how Cyber emerged in the 80’s and has evolved to into a major Threat driven Industry in IT today for Governments, Industry and Academia. Space is now starting that same journey. We use and are relying more on Space for our everyday lives so the issues of Space Threats starts to determine how we can protect and defend the key Space assets. Whilst Space Threats are seen as something Governments worry about to ensure protected communications, navigation and observation to support national needs they are starting to impact us more and more. In this brief Rob Heron will cover some of the ‘overt’ Space Threats we need to consider to protect our valuable resources in Space. Rob Heron is the Chief Systems…

    Deborah-Claire McKenzie
    Deborah-Claire McKenzie in Space

  • 75th anniversary of the transistor: event

    Image by ArnoldReinhold - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=409337 Autumn 2022 will see the 75th Anniversary of a device that heralded the modern electronic age, the transistor. The IOP and IET are jointly organising an event to celebrate both the invention itself, its impact and the future of the transistor as a device. The day will take the format of a series of talks by leading historians and researchers taking us from the transistors beginnings to cutting edge research. The presentations will cover topics including the development of CMOS, organic electronics, 2D materials and spintronics. For more information please see the events page at the Insitute of Physics . This event is being supported by the IET History TPN.

  • Write your Will for FREE with Foothold this October

    Did you know that one in six of the engineers we support at Foothold is funded by a gift in a will? Of course, there’s no obligation to remember us in your will. But once the ones you care about have been provided for, we’d really appreciate it if you would support our life-changing work by pledging a gift to us. Gifts of all sizes can help make a big difference for engineers who are struggling to get by, and we really value the support that community members pledge to us in their wills – community members like Peter, IET member and Foothold supporter. “I have always valued the important work that Foothold do for our engineers like me. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, I felt very strongly about the additional efforts that Foothold would need to make to provide support for our…

    Gemma Timmis
    Gemma Timmis

  • IET Aerospace Technical Network - October 2022 Newsletter

    The Aerospace TN have had an engaging and successful number of activities over the past year and would like to share i these in the attached newsletter, which you can access at the bottom of this page. At their recent committee meeting, they presented the outgoing Chair, Ray Smith with a certificate to commemorate his term of office on the TN. However, they are pleased not to be losing Ray's valuable skills and knowledge as he's stepping onto their Technical Advisory Panel. The image below shows Arnold Gad-Briggs, Chair (left) presenting Ray (right) with his certificate. In addition to Ray, the TN would also like to record their thanks to Andy Mills, David Lindley, Nadiir Bheekhun and Ricky Liew, who have also completed a term of office on the TN Executive committee.

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