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Visit to Llangollen Railway

On the 15th October 2015, a group of ten IET members and non members visited the Llangollen Railway. The purpose of the visit was to see the engine sheds and whilst there we saw the maintenance work being carried out on "Foxcote Manor" and amongst many other things the project to restore the last remaining "Patriot class" locomotive which will be named "The Unknown Warrior". The project has been endorsed by the Royal British Legion as the new National Memorial Engine which will play a part in the events in 2018 to remember the end of the First World War.

David Crawford
Podcast By Professor Tony Belpaeme

Another one in our ocassional series of podcasts: Professor Tony Belpaeme shares how research is working towards robots that are social and can provide support in healthcare, therapeutic settings and education Professor Belpaeme's full presentation is available to view Don't forget our Noel Sharkey podcasts are still available Who would you like to see us record future podcasts with? Use the comments box below to let us know!

Joanne Longton
Award Presentation

Toronto Chair, Nigel Schofield and Treasure & Webmaster, Jenny Yu presented the Stan Thurger Award 2015 at the Sheridan College.Recipient this year is Chia-Wei Huang, in the Mechanical Engineering Technology Design & Drafting program. This annual award started when a lump sum payment was made in 2005.the funds were endowed and the interest is awarded annually. The award is not open to the public and are for Sheridan students only.

Former Community Member
The Realities Of Nuclear Cyber Security

The increasing digitisation of our national infrastructure offers many benefits to organisations and their customers. However, some fear that the systems used to control physical functions of this infrastructure, often now referred to as operational technology, could have the potential for a serious cyber-incident. The massive damage caused by a sophisticated cyber attack on a German steel mill last year illustrates the potential threat. The Financial Times recently picked up on the report published by Chatham House on Cyber Security at Civil Nuclear Facilities Understanding the Risks , which considers the major cyber threats to civil nuclear facilities. This report comes hot on the heels of a review being undertaken by The Department for Energy and Climate Change into cyber risk in the civil…

Former Community Member
Technical Visit to ABB Malaysia

A Technical visit to ABB Malaysia took place on 1st Oct 2015 (Thursday) and attended by 5 IET members and 6 non-members. The visit was organised by IET C&A TPN and IET Malaysia Network. All participants arrived at ABB Malaysia Office before 9.30 am and the visit commenced with the safety briefing and introduction about ABB Malaysia at their meeting room. During the presentation, participants learnt about ABB operation and business portfolio in Malaysia and were told that the first ABB power generator installed in Malaysia was in 1904 by MFO Oerlikon. After the presentation, Mr. Richard Yeoh, Senior Manager from ABB Malaysia took the team to visit their Low Voltage Motor Control Centre (MCC) fabrication plant at the back of their office. At the fabrication plant, Richard explained their various…

Joanne Longton
Visit to Centrilogic in Bracknell

There was a warm welcome for our members at Centrilogic last Wednesday (14th). Paul Reeve was our host for a tour of Centrilogic's modern data centre in Bracknell. Paul explained how they keep energy consumption low and how waste heat is minimised. The visit was enjoyed and valued by the attendees.

Andrew Dodd
Highlights From The IET NorCal Seminar On October 10th.

Dr Ronjon Nag gave a very enlightening talk about of the smart phone through its recent history covering the evolution of the hardware (phone size, form factor, battery), the software (features such as voice and hand writing recognition) as well as the development of the infrastructure which included the development of the app store (which was not an Apple invention!). He also touched on the future of mobile technologies and the directions which industry is exploring. One of the most interesting aspects of the talk was that Dr Nag covered why he become and engineer in the first and what drew him to the field. Like a lot of engineers, the world of science fiction was his inspiration and in particular, the idea of the Star Trek communicator. At University he made his first forays into speech…

Allan Casey
Low Pass Filters, Mutliplexers, Satellites, 5G & Beyond.

Sending a message is now done in a split second, the faster in-tune a business to the market place the quicker they can take the lead – spearhead even, typically known as first mover advantage. Consumers can also build their life around this fast information transfer, though are limited by the constraints of equipment and technologies. The ability for cable companies to provide fibre level internet speeds to homes sets the consumers expectations to be very high, when these are phased into the corporate world, we find that the license costs and technology setup costs are too high to have the latest and greatest. Sure, pure internet based companies pride themselves on this platform, for example Hutchinson Three has always focused on an IP based network thus their offers to consumers will remain…

Rimesh Patel
Dyson 360 Eye Robot Vacuum Cleaner

On Monday, 5th October (a very wet night indeed), over 100 people got together in Bristol to hear Mike Aldred, from Dyson, talk about the challenges in bringing a consumer grade robot to market. It was a fascinating insight into the project and brought home the need for companies to have clear objectives, a robust test plan, (quote from Mike: "Test, test and test"! ), and the ability to adapt in the face of challenges and failures.The Dyson 360 Eye robot vacuum cleaner has been in the making for 10 years and Mike showed a really interesting timeline which included, as a comparison, developments in mobile phones. For the Dyson 360 Eye to be ready, it had to satisfy a function first (in this case, it had to be a great vacuum cleaner); from the average user’s point of view, the robotics aspect…

Joanne Longton
Annual Young Entrepreneurs Competition

The Young Entrepreneurs Competition allows an individual or a group of individuals to present a business plan for an imaginary start-up company to an audience and a group of judges. The aim is for contestants to demonstrate their entrepreneurship skills as well as their knowledge of the product or service that they’re putting forward. Contestants aren’t necessarily judged on the innovativeness of their idea but rather on the quality of their business plan, market research and power point presentation. This year’s event took place at IET venue in Austin Court, Birmingham on the 22nd of July and had a good turnout. The competition provided an excellent opportunity for like-minded professionals to socialise, network and share ideas. You can read more in the attached report.

Joanne Longton
Naomi Climer’s interview on the Today programme (06.10.15)

For those of you that missed it... Link to the video

Former Community Member
IET Scotland South East Committee For 2015-16

The IET Scotland South East Committee for 2015-16 elected in May 2015 comprises the following office bearers. Please address questions to the secretary Robert D'Arcy . To contact others on the committee, if there is a link, click to be taken to their MyCommunity page, then "Select add as contact". This will have to be approved by the person before you can re-visit and select "Send Message" to contact them. CHAIRMAN Dr C. Marsh CEng, FIET, SIEEE, MInstP, MIACR, FWES SENIOR VICE-CHAIRMAN S Girdley BEng(Hons), MSc, MBA, CEng, MIET, MCMI JUNIOR VICE-CHAIRMAN [vacant ] HONORARY SECRETARY R. M. D'Arcy IEng, MIET, Tech IOSH ( MyCommunity ) HONORARY TREASURER B. Clarke BEng (Hons), CEng, MIET, IGEM ORDINARY MEMBERS: B. Anderson MSc, CEng, MIET Dr. J. Dempsey BSc, PhD, CEng, MIET F. Ku-Mesu R. Mbireaye…

David E Ferguson
Microsoft Windows 10 for PCs

For those who use voice recognition software, Dragon NaturallySpeaking what version should you use with Windows 10. The answer is you have to use the version 14 just released. Special offer, electronic download only, it will overwrite and destroy current installation. To place a full play to backup first. Special deal, sorry I do not know if it is available in non-English languages yet. http://shop.nuance.co.uk/store/nuanceeu/en_GB/pd/productID.324133800/pgm.95940300/offerID.45187376801/Currency.GBP?utm_source=bh&utm_medium=emea-email&utm_campaign=GB-ecom-dgn-launch_ohter-201508&utm_content=dpi. Brian Reynolds

Brian Reynolds
Request for volunteers for IET stand at FESTOMANE

This year the IET Gloucestershire Network will be supporting the Stroud Pop-Up Festival of Manufacturing and Engineering - FESTOMANE. If you feel that you're able to offer around 2 - 3 hours of your time during the day to help man the stand, your help would be greatly valued! The format is very similar to that of the Cheltenham Science Festival, albeit the stand is outside, and we expect a good crowd (weather permitting) as the Farmers’ Market will be on at the same time. For further details of the event, please see the website: Stroud FESTOMANE Date: Saturday 10th October, 9:30 am - 3 pm Venue: Stroud Subscription Rooms Volunteer: For more information or to volunteer, please contact Will Foster willfoster@theiet.org Thank you!

Former Community Member
Female engineering president calls for women in engineering boost

The new President of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) calls for quotas to boost number of women in engineering. Naomi Climer, who has become the IET’s first female President in its 144-year history, has been an engineer for almost three decades, during which time the proportion of female engineers in the UK has remained at less than one in 10, the lowest level in Europe. Naomi believes the lack of gender diversity in engineering means that the time is now right to encourage employers to ensure they employ more female engineers. Read more...

Former Community Member
September 2015 to end January 2016 MWC LN Newsletter

If you would like to view the September 2015 to end January 2016 Merseyside and Western Cheshire Local Network Newsletter on-line, please click the link Events Newsletter

Rob McDonald
The Need For SPDY - Legacy Web Protocol Gets A Boost As HTTP/2.

To serve web pages, a web-server needs work with multiple requests i.e. connections. To make the process faster, techniques such as caching and lowering image resolutions can be adopted - however this still stretches the actual reason for which HTTP was created. SPDY was created and now coming into mainstream use to help reform the original HTTP to be more suited to todays actual use of the protocol. Thus HTTP/2 now contains the ability to compress requests and headers saving on bandwidth, enables multiple multiplxed requests and push scripts/files from the web server before they are actually requested within an existing connection and uses TLS as the encryption mechanism. This is really good news for existing TCP/IP based systems - the internet is getting a little faster and secure now. With…

Rimesh Patel in Computing
1st Annual Local Network Debate: Why We Don’t Need Any More Engineers

Synopsis: Listen to the highly qualified speakers supporting and refuting the motion then add your views into the mixture. This should prove to be an entertaining evening . Bio : Prof Joseph Kasser - F or the Motion Joseph E. Kasser has been a practicing systems engineer for 40 years and an academic for about 15 years. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), an INCOSE Fellow, the author of “ Per ceptions of Systems Engineering ”, “ Holistic Thinking - creating innovating solutions to complex problems ”, “ A Framework for Understanding Systems Engineering ” and “ Applying Total Quality Management to Systems Engineering ” and many INCOSE symposia papers. H e is a recipient of NASA’s Manned Space Flight Awareness Award (Silver Snoopy) for quality and technical excellence…

Former Community Member
Joint Institutions Annual Dinner 2016

Dear Members This year the IMechE is organising the annual dinner, which they will host at the Cercle Norvégien de Paris on 22nd January 2016. The annual dinner is a great opportunity to meet and get to know engineers and guests from the other institutions who also live and work in France. The attached file gives a little detail on the Cercle Norvégien de Paris, and the menu for the evening. Kindly note that reservations for this annual dinner can only be taken until Tuesday 5th January 2016 , because the Cercle Norvégien requests this time delay to finalize the dinner, so make sure you reserve before that date. Dress code: Lounge suits. Access by metro is through place de la Concorde station and three convenient car parks are available in Place Vendome, Place de la Concorde and Place de la…

Phil Dunbar
20 Years of Eurotunnel and Eurostar

The IMechE welcomes all IET members to this event that they are hosting at Hotel Novotel Montparnasse in Paris on Friday 4th December. The event will be presented by Professor Yves Machefert-Tassin FIMechE, Honorary Director of Engineering & Research with Schneider Group, France Rail Expert and Technical Adviser for Eurotunnel Honorary Professor of Rail Traction at Ecole Spéciale des Travaux Publics in Paris. Please see the attached file for details.

Phil Dunbar
Toyota Mirai Fuel Cell Car

Members and guests of the IET in Southern California, ranging from teenagers to those over half a century older enjoyed a fantastic talk from Jackie Birdsall talking about the upcoming Toyota Mirai Fuel Cell car. As one of the engineering team who had been working on this for 12 years Jackie was able to answer every question that a room full of engineers could ask about the fuel cell technology and the innovations that Toyota had made to produce the vehicle. %u200BWhile electric cars currently have all the press, the production efficiency to generate electricity is low compared to CNG or Hydrogen, so while Electric Vehicles are more efficient and CNG is a more efficnet fuel, the total efficiency of Hydrogen production with a Fuel Cell Vehicle makes it 50% more efficent than an electric vehicle…

Richard Tregaskes
LifeSkills – Introduction to Continuous Professional Development

A blog from the IET Buckinghamshire Local:Skils/LifeSkills organsiser, Emma Wilcockson LifeSkills – Introduction to Continuous Professional Development on Tuesday was another informative and engaging workshop. I feel much more confident about the forthcoming 30 hours of CPD requirement. We discussed why CPD is required, what it is and how to record it. I was also pleasantly surprised at how much easier the new version of Career Manager is to use. www.theiet/cpd I'm looking forward to Lifeskills - Communicating for success www.theiet.org/bucks

Andrew Dodd
ETCS - European Train Control System

Fascinating lecture given by Antonio Bravo Vera of Siemens Rail Automation on Tuesday evening (29th October). Historical overview followed by a clear description of ETCS which is to be introduced on part of Thameslink and also on the East Coast Mainline. The audience enjoyed what they heard and asked a variety of searching questions.

Andrew Dodd
Cyber Insurance; The New Commodity Product.

A while back now (2011) I had the time to research the health of the cyber insurance market which had not taken a mainstream approach due to market inexperience. Since then, the myriad of cyber hacks have exponentially grown. Governments are now creating cyber insurance policies, the UK Government has created a guide on cyber insurance products and a Cyber-Essentials program whilst more and more IT staff are encouraging companies to change IT Security policies to incorporate a cyber insurance product. By the time research was completed (2013) the insurance market was still augmenting the landscape of modern cyber insurance. At that time of research, information asymmetry between customers and providers was the reason for overpricing cyber insurance products, however to help the lack-lustre…

Rimesh Patel in Cybersecurity

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