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  • How a Christmas greeting changed the world

    On this day in (engineering) history… December 3, 1992 - A test engineer for Sema Group sends the world's first text message Ho, ho, ho… It is the season for Christmas office parties when a young software engineer sits at his desktop PC terminal, writing code, something that has never been done before. He is writing a Christmas greeting. At an office party, a mobile phone rings, and the owner sees a message – ‘Merry Christmas.’ The phone’s owner, who is at the company Christmas party, calls his software engineer to tell him he has succeeded in sending the world’s first SMS – or ‘text’ message. But curiously, it will take until the end of the decade for the texting revolution to really take off. The software engineer was Neil Papworth , almost 23 years old and working for Sema Group…

  • OFEME comes to Glasgow

    The Operating in Future Electromagnetic Environments (OFEME) symposium 2024 (Glasgow, 19-21st November 2024) hosted an IET Antennas and Propagation Technical Network (APTN) Antennas workshop. OFEME, now in its 5th year, was organised by the EME-Hub (https://emehub.org/) and attracted over 350 UK attendees and over 200 virtual participants from across industry, academia and government. Technical talks included: “The Electromagnetic Environment in a Post Quantum World”, “Secure and Resilient Communications – Building the U.K Ecosystem”, “Future Antennas”, “Space” and “AI-Enhanced Signal Processing, Decision Making and Assurance”. It also held over 20 workshops and supported over 80 poster presentations. The IET’s APTN workshop entitled: “ How Do You Integrate New Agile Antenna Concepts with…

  • The Role of Generative AI in Enhancing Project Cost Modelling - A Practitioner's Perspective

    Introduction Project cost determinants and their impact on project cost at the design, procurement, and construction stages assume increasing importance in project management day by day since competent cost estimation at the initial stage of a project is critical. The author suggests that although traditional models are widely used to estimate the cost of new projects, there is still a need to develop an innovative method to stay competitive in a world with ever-changing technology. This article presents an in-depth exploration of research into the use of generative artificial intelligence to estimate project cost. The author has divided this submission into five sections. Section 1 introduces generative AI and identifies the research gap (e.g. areas for future development). Section 2…

  • Meet the IET Technical Network Community Committee (TNCC) for the 2024/25 session

    Well, we have just finalised the TNCC for the 2024/25 session and just had our first big online meeting, so I wanted to introduce you to our committee. For those not in the know, what exactly is the Technical Network Community Committee (TNCC), where do we fit, what are we doing and who are we? What is the TNCC? The TNCC comprises IET volunteers who support the Technical Network (TNs) across the globe. The aim is to facilitate communication between communities and share best practice. TNCC Terms of Reference The (TNCC) is part of the IET Governance ( https://www.theiet.org/about/governance/boards-and-committees/communities-resourcing-committee-crc/technical-networks-communities-committee/ and our committee members are all IET volunteers. Where does the TNCC sit in the IET framework…

  • Rare book: Appendix to the Narrative of a second voyage in search of a north-west passage and of a residence in the Arctic regions by Sir John Ross.

    Appendix to the Narrative of a second voyage in search of a north-west passage by Sir John Ross, with reports contributed by Sir James Ross, was published in this edition in 1835. It is part of the collection of Silvanus P. Thompson purchased in 1917 by the IET. You can find out more about Thompson, his work and his association with the IET here . The appendix was printed in fewer numbers than the full narrative and few copies survive. In the early 19th century, the Northwest Passage was seen as the key to unlocking a shorter trade route between Europe and Asia. Britain invested heavily in Arctic expeditions to dominate global trade. Sir John Ross’s second voyage was funded by businessman Felix Booth after Ross’s first government-sponsored expedition ended with him failing to find the passage…

  • System Integrity: Physical & Cyber Security Integration in the Railway (Central London Network November Evening Lecture)

    #LondonBlog Does your team have a Cyber Security moment? This was the question posed by Terwase Tortiv-Ato and Duncan Hui during their presentation to the IET Central London Network at Savoy Place , on the subject of Railway Cyber Security Integration. Disclosure: as a rail professional I recognise the concept of having a Safety or Values Moment at the start of each team meeting, where we discuss a learning point to reinforce our commitment to maintain our industry position as one of the safest railways in Europe. But I confess that I have never witnessed Cyber Security being an up front topic for discussion. What followed was an interesting lecture on the need for integration and the challenges practitioners face. Why do we need Railway Cyber Security Integration? Traditionally, engineers…

  • Engineering Dreams: My journey into Motorsport Engineering

    Meet James Matraves, winner of the IET Somerset and West Wiltshire Local Network Prize My name is James Matraves , and I studied Foundation Degree Motorsport Engineering at Bridgwater and Taunton College over the last 2 years. I really enjoyed this course it had many practical aspects which I feel are lost/disregarded in most engineering courses. Prior to this I also studied two years of Motorsport Vehicle Maintenance and Repair. I took this course as I have always been interested in motorsport and I was looking to get into working for top tier motorsport teams. I am currently studying BEng (Hons) Motorsport Engineering at Oxford Brookes University. I have two more years which will consist of one placement year and one more academic/studying year. I wanted to get into engineering because…

  • Engineering solutions for a sustainable future: insights into net zero

    Did you know that global energy demand is expected to increase by 50% by 2050? With rising concerns about climate change, the need for innovative solutions to achieve net zero emissions has never been greater. Enter the upcoming Powering Net Zero Week conference... The engineering community is at the forefront of developing solutions that can lead us to a net zero future. This conference serves as a platform for critical discussions, with both industry and academia, on the engineering innovations that will shape our energy landscape. Renewable power generation and future power systems Transitioning to renewable energy is a cornerstone of any strategy aimed at achieving net zero emissions. Recent advancements, like perovskite solar cells, promise to revolutionise the solar energy landscape…

  • Reimagining Londons Public Services with Data, Technology and innovation (Central London Network September Evening Lecture).

    A leader is someone who is fed up with the status quo and has the energy to do something about it. This was the quote that Eddie Copeland, of the London Office of Technology and Innovation told a packed-out Kelvin Lecture Theatre was his inspiration, as he delivered the September IET Central London Network lecture. LOTI is London’s local government’s innovation team, established to help borough councils and the GLA use innovation, data and technology to be high-performing organisations, improve services and tackle London’s biggest challenges together. Eddie heads the LOTI central support team and he explained that, despite having a figurehead Mayor, public services in London are fragmented, governed by 33 different councils with differing party allegiances and priorities. This, coupled…

  • Wii could be heroes in our own living rooms

    On this day in Engineering History: November 19, 2006 – Nintendo launches the 'Wii' - the first motion control video game console From their earliest inception, playing computer and video games just meant pressing buttons on a keyboard or manipulating a joystick with fingers and thumbs. However realistic they looked and felt by 2005, critics could still point to their being intensely sedentary, with hours spent sitting and watching a screen. That is...until Nintendo launched a machine built around users getting up and moving to physically (as well as virtually) take part in games such as tennis, ski jumping and ten-pin bowling – the Nintendo Wii. Card games and changing times Nintendo's history goes back far further than most people realise; founded as Yamauchi Nintendo by Fusajirō…

  • Control Theory and Applications: A Shifting Paradigm

    The areas of control engineering, control theory, automatic control, and the associated technologies the automation industries, have been routed into the (IEE) and consequently the (IET) for a long while. It is with no exceptions if we indicated that, most of the revolutions of modern industries, domestic, non-domestic, household devices and other intelligent machines (the intelligent robotics) are results of such massive developments within this theme of engineering, by both the academia and the industrial sectors, and entrepreneurship in parallel. Developments of "control and automation" will not pause, this is due to the continuous efforts to adapt new theorems, analysis, modern design tools, and applications to this vital sector of engineering. The control and automation are shaping our…

  • Three Decades of Impact: IET Young Professionals Sri Lanka - Celebrating 30 Years Excellence

    Since its establishment on 1994 as the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE) Young Members Section Sri Lanka, which was the second younger members section outside the UK, IET Young Professionals Sri Lanka has become a dynamic platform for nurturing engineering talent and promoting professional growth. Evolving alongside the formation of The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) in 2006, our group has been a cornerstone for young engineers in Sri Lanka, fostering innovation and teamwork. With founding figures like Prof. JR Lucas, Prof. IJ Dayawansa, and Dr. Wijayatunga, our journey includes pivotal milestones, from the first committee in 1997 led by Eng.Dilan Walgampaya, to our recent 2021 IET Volunteer Core Value Award. Today, the IET YP Sri Lanka remains committed to empowering…

  • Giving The Gift of STEM

    T his Christmas, The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) is joining the Big Give Christmas Challenge to raise £10,000 for the FIRST® LEGO® League Explore and Challenge Division Class Packs! From 3-10 December you will have the chance for your donation to be matched, therefore doubling the impact. To donate between 3-10 December towards our Big Give matched giving campaign and to have the opportunity for your donations to be matched; please visit https://donate.biggive.org Your generosity will help the IET provide real-world STEM experiences and life skills development through FIRST® LEGO® League to children who really want to take part in an inclusive educational programme for all. Thank-you in advance. FIRST® LEGO® League supports the next generation of engineers and innovators…

  • Join our new LGBTQ+ Member Network

    Get involved in our newly-formed LGBTQ+ Member Network and learn about the other Equality, Diversity and Inclusion networks available to you. In 2019, the IET conducted a survey which found that over 1 in 4 LGBTQ+ respondents would never consider a career in engineering due to the fear of discrimination. Despite this disheartening statistic, we know that many people from the LGBTQ+ community do indeed work within the sector and have very positive as well as sometimes very challenging experiences. Regardless, it can feel isolating being part of a minority and not having other likeminded people around who you can reliably speak openly to and share experiences with. This is why we have formed a new EDI network for IET members who identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community and allies to come…

  • Unlocking the Power of Predictive Maintenance - Part 3: Assessing Predictive Maintenance Success

    In the two previous instalments of our blog series, we looked at the promises of predictive maintenance and the challenges surrounding data handling. In this third and final part, we will delve into how to assess the success of a predictive maintenance system. We will explore the key metrics for evaluating models, discuss how to gain buy in from stakeholders, consider the legal aspects and highlight additional factors to consider. Links to part 1 and part 2 are here. Measures of Success – Key Metrics Assessing the effectiveness of a predictive maintenance model is more complex than going beyond the simple definition of accuracy. It is essential to look at and evaluate how well the models predict failure without overwhelming maintenance and engineering teams with false positives. The following…

  • You name it, Loewy designed it, more or less

    On this day in (engineering) history… November 5, 1893 – Birth of Raymond Loewy, Industrial Designer Question: What do the Greyhound bus, Air Force One livery, the Fanta bottle, the Studebaker Avanti car, the Shell Oil company logo, the Sunbeam Toaster, the Pennsylvania Railroad GG1 locomotive and the Skylab space station interior all have in common? Answer: Raymond Loewy. Raymond Loewy was one of the biggest names in what became known as mid-century modern industrial design, with an influence still felt in modern design's clean, functional lines. The blank paper ‘ The Man Who Shaped America ’ was born in Paris, today in 1893. His parents were Maximilian Loewy, an Austrian Jewish business journalist, and Marie Labalme, a go-getter whose personal mantra was ‘it is better to be envied…

  • Godfrey George Bayley – the life of an electrical engineer at home and abroad

    A blog by Asha Gage, IET Archivist. This is a story about an electrical engineer, Godfrey George Bayley, who began his career on the workshop floor rising through the ranks to be so highly considered by his employers he was sent abroad to Malaya and India as head electrical engineer. Understanding the route towards this achievement and the work undertaken comes from analysis of the records his daughter donated to the IET Archives. We are grateful for donations such as these as they highlight the personal story of our members on their journey from Student to Member and everything in-between. Godfrey was born on 7 January 1901. His interest in engineering started young, with is enrolment as a student at Faraday House Electrical Engineering College, London from September 1918 to August 1922…

    IET Archives
    IET Archives

  • Celebrating Black innovators this Black History Month

    Did you know that individuals from Black and Global Ethnic Majority backgrounds currently make up 9.9% of engineers in the UK, despite making up almost 30% of qualifying students on engineering courses? This suggests that there is significant work to be done within education and within organisations to attract and retain people from GEM backgrounds, ensuring they feel safe and supported to continue working in the sector. October is Black History Month in the UK, and this year, we’re highlighting some of the incredible feats of engineering that Black people have brought to the world, emphasising the importance of having diverse thoughts and experiences represented in all stages of the engineering process. From GPS technology to sanitary products and best-selling 90’s water pistol, the Super…

  • The Six Serving Men of Functional Safety and Artificial Intelligence

    Six Honest Serving Men of AI Functional Safety Foreword: This blog focuses on UK based safety regulation and serves as a precursor to the “Safety of AI: what are its special needs?” Webinar in November. “I keep six honest serving-men (They taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When And How and Where and Who.” - Rudyard Kipling, Just So Stories (1902) One problem facing safety engineers in Artificial Intelligence (AI) is information curation. Due to a lack of centralised regulation, the speed at which information is produced, and the sheer quantity of redundant information that that leaves behind, I spent a lot of my “reading time” validating the information that I came across. When legislation is elusive, opinion seems to fill the gap. And in an emerging…

  • When the Soviets sent a mission on one of the hottest dates in the Space Race

    On this day in (engineering) history… October 22, 1975 - The Soviet unmanned space mission Venera 9 lands on Venus. A hot, overcast, though reasonably bright, October day. The sulphuric acid clouds are so thick the Sun casts no shadows. Don't worry about sulphuric acid rain because surface temperatures of 485°C (the hottest in the Solar System and easily hot enough to melt lead) evaporate it long before a drop hits the ground. All of this contained in an atmosphere thick enough to crush a submarine. This is Venus, where the Soviet Venera 9 probe is about to land. Cloud system on Venus, captured using ultra-violet observation. Source: Wikimedia Commons A hot planet in the Cold War During the Cold War, the Space Race became one of many substitutes for hot superpower confrontation…

  • Back to school isn’t so bad, after all

    Being an IET Education Volunteer can be busy, fun, and educational for more reasons than you think, says Karyn Sansom, IET Education Volunteer... I'm Karyn Sansom and I am an IET Education Volunteer , something I have been doing for the last six years. As an IET volunteer, I help promote a better understanding of engineers and the vital contribution engineering makes to society for young people aged 4-19. My Role as a Volunteer My work involves includes attending career and science fairs, engaging with students, parents, carers, and teachers. I distribute engineering leaflets covering topics such as career paths in Engineering and demystifying the various types of engineering disciplines. Alongside that, I lead hands-on activities, encouraging students to apply their classroom science…

  • Volunteering with children: STEM education and building the next generation of engineers

    At Fairfield Control Systems, our extensive work in the engineering sector places us in an excellent position to help encourage the engineers of the future. We do this by volunteering in STEM education with the IET. In our work, we specialise in designing, installing, commissioning, and servicing industrial control solutions and industry 4.0 technologies. This covers instrumentation, control and automation systems. At Fairfield Control Systems & working with our sister company, Fairfield Engineering Solutions we have recently upgraded, maintained and continue to provide support to the famous Falkirk Wheel, the only boat lift of its kind working in the world. The work we do as volunteers in STEM education is hands-on, which places us in classrooms or community settings and allows us to create…

  • Did you know IET Education has a wealth of teaching and learning resources suitable for both Primary and Secondary aged children?

    In today’s rapidly evolving educational landscape, the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) offers a treasure trove of learning resources designed to inspire and educate the next generation of engineers and technologists. These resources are not only comprehensive and engaging but also aligned with the curriculum, making them invaluable tools for both teachers and parents. A Wealth of Resources at Your Fingertips IET Education provides a wide array of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) resources suitable for various age groups. These resources include: Primary Teaching Resources: Tailored for students aged 4 to 11, these resources cover fundamental concepts in science, maths, and engineering. They include interactive activities, lesson plans, and classroom…

  • A Guide to Inspiring Young Minds: How to Give an Engaging STEM Talk to School Children

    Alexandra Knight, Founder and CEO of STEMAZING gives us her top tips on how to give an engaging STEM talk to children... In today's rapidly evolving world, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education is more critical than ever. Meeting STEM professionals in a school setting helps raise awareness and aspirations of STEM careers for young people and builds the confidence of teachers with these subjects too. This is a vital part of the solution to plug the STEM skills gap and drive greater diversity in our future STEM workforce. There is so much to be done, and we need to scale up our collective efforts to make real impact. I’m super passionate about encouraging more STEM professionals to engage young people in schools to open children’s minds to exciting career paths…

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