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.

  • Watts For Christmas?

    The IET London - Teddington group, together with the National Physical Laboratory and Kingston University this year collaborated to bring together "Watts for Christmas?" - a collection of Science, Engineering and Technology Lectures which took place at NPL in Teddington on 5 December 2013. Watch videos of all of the talks below, and find out how to power a car with a candle, how computers can interact with your brain and why a random guess may not be so random after all! If you attended the event, please tell us what you thought by adding your review of the lectures Christmas Candles Dr Michael de Podesta from the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) We all love to see candles burning in a window at Christmas - but did you know each flame is an astonishing world of metal-melting super-high temperatures…

    Lisa Miles
    Lisa Miles

  • Robots Like Us

    The IET Robotics and Mechatronics Technical and Professional Network sponsored a distinguished speaker public lecture presented by Murray Shanahan at the Science Museum on the 27th November 2013. Murray is professor of Cognitive Robotics with the Department of Computing at Imperial College London, respected for his advances in Artificial Intelligence, the modelling of neural networks and most recently in understanding how, and indeed if, cognitive robots can ever be said to have consciousness similar to ours. Murray's enjoyable and thought provoking lecture covered ideas of physical embodiment as the foundation to developing a "Artificial General Intelligence" and how robots might be imbued with notions of common sense by an ability to predict future outcomes, showing how a new generation of…

    Joanne Longton
    Joanne Longton

  • Call for volunteers - your community needs you!

    Are you working or studying in Robotics and Mechatronics? Are you passionate about supporting the community? Do you have 3-4 days per year that you can volunteer to attend committee meetings and organise activities? We’d love to hear from you! The IET Robotics & Mechatronics Network is seeking professional engineers working in this field to join our Executive Team. By volunteering for this role, you will be representing the interests of the community as a member of the IET and a registrant of the Network and we would like to invite you to put yourself forward for this very rewarding opportunity. What is the role of the Network? The role of the Network is to provide a platform that enables the exchange of knowledge and information amongst the community through a variety of networking opportunities…

    Joanne Longton
    Joanne Longton

  • JLB 2013 - Is The Set Top Box Dead?

    This year, the IET Multimedia Communications Network collaborated with the BBC to deliver the prestigious John Logie Baird Lecture on October 3rd 2013. The lecture brought together top industry experts to debate whether or not the set top box is dead, given the increasing use of online services by the audience and the delivery of content to all sorts of devices. Click on the speakers names below to view their presentations on IET.tv. The evening was hosted by William Cooper , CEO of informitv and a well-known industry commentator on interactive media services. Speakers included: Alix Pryde, Director of Distribution, BBC Ian Mecklenburgh, Director of Consumer Platforms at Virgin James Rosewell, Founder, 51 Degrees.mobi Efe Cakarel, CEO and Founder, MUBI Tom Cape, CEO, Capablue David Cutts, MD…

    Lisa Miles
    Lisa Miles

  • Chairman's Message 2013

    So who am I? I’m a Teaching Fellow in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Warwick where I teach Mobile Robotics. Previously I have worked for Cheltenham Science Festival and I managed an EPSRC-funded project called Walking with Robots. In 2010, Walking with Robots was awarded the Rooke Medal for the Public Promotion of Engineering by the Royal Academy of Engineering. I took over as Network Chair in October 2013 and since then my feet haven’t touched the ground. We’ve run a very successful event on Space Robotics, a ROS workshop aimed at early career roboticists, taken part in a festival of robotics at the Science Museum and supported two international conferences. But it doesn’t stop there, we’ve lots planned for the coming year including a public talk on Assistive Technology…

    Joanne Longton
    Joanne Longton

  • Chairman's Message

    I am honoured to serve you as Chairman of the Manufacturing Network. I would like to thank Lee Wood CEng, for all his hard work that he has put into this network in the past seven years as Chairman. It is reassuring to see that manufacturing continues to make positive headlines in the recent months - not only in the UK but across the globe. From the new product development to packaging and distribution, engineers play a big role in manufacturing and contribute enormously to the economy. Economic contribution whilst important, I would argue, is a by-product of manufacturing activities. Throughout decades we have seen how manufacturing has realised many of human aspirations; producing more affordable transports through lean manufacturing, micro-fabrication techniques enabling the creation of…

    Joanne Longton
    Joanne Longton

  • He's Supersonic....

    There are many people in the world who have a fear of flying, although to be honest I think it’s more a fear of crashing! I, however, am not one of these people as I adore flying!!!! Being in an aircraft at 35,000ft and looking down at the world is one of my favourite things to do. On flights I’m usually superglued to the window watching the world below go by and night flying is my absolute favourite. On a recently journey we flew over London at dusk and the view was spectacular with the city lit up! You also get a good idea of just how large London really is… One of my regrets is that I never got to fly in Concorde (although in reality I would never have been able to afford it anyway) and had to make do with watching it land and take off from Heathrow every once in a while. One of the test…

  • Five Reasons To Join The IET's CPD Monitoring Scheme

    If you’ve heard about the IET’s new Voluntary CPD Monitoring Scheme, which is open to all TMIETs, MIETs and Fellows, you may be considering whether you should join. Here I give you five reasons to go ahead and join. 1. It's simple to do As a scheme member, all you have to do is: a. Use Career Manager to record your CPD online i. Add any CPD you are planning in advance to your CPD objectives. ii Record your CPD activities (both planned and unplanned) iii. Create your CPD Activity Report at the click of a button b. Undertake a minimum of 30 hours per year (a minimum of 10 hours if you are retired). For more details, please see our CPD Policy web page c. Declare your CPD at the beginning of each year for the previous year d. You may then be selected to have your CPD records reviewed by a Volunteer…

    Former Community Member
    Former Community Member

  • Why The US STEM Initiative Shouldn't Overlook Computer Science

    NJIT Online Master of Science in Computer Science

    Former Community Member
    Former Community Member

  • Young Woman Engineer of Year announced

    A space engineer from Hertfordshire has been named Young Woman Engineer of the Year by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET). Read more...

    Former Community Member
    Former Community Member

  • View The IET YWE 2013 Award Ceremony Photos

    The YWE ceremony is for all those in the science and engineering industry. Attendees enjoyed pre-ceremony drinks and canapés whilst mingling with the best and brightest in engineering and visited the exhibition from some of the UK’s leading engineering employers. View the photos...

    Former Community Member
    Former Community Member

  • The 2014 IET Surrey Schools Christmas Lecture

    From Montgolfier to Concorde and Beyond , was the title of this years lecture held at the University of Surrey on December 4th. This described how aviation design and flight aerodynamics had evolved over the years. Our presenter Dr Paul Bruce, an aerodynamicist and lecturer at London's Imperial College, fascinated the audience with his take on the unique challenges of designing craft of all shapes and sizes to defy gravity. Starting from the early hot air balloon pioneers, Paul moved on to consider conventional aeroplanes and hightlight some key advances in their development which have enabled engineers to produce today's state-of-the-art aircraft. "Excellent presentation of a very interesting subject. It was pitched for a children's lecture, although it did become slightly complicated at time…

    Mike Prewett
    Mike Prewett

  • Virgin enters the Formula E electric racing car series

    Virgin has announced that it will be entering a team for the first FIA Formula E Championship when it gets onto the starting gird next year. The series will be hosted in city cities including Beijing, Miami, Monte Carlo, Berlin and London. Most of the technology for the cars has been provided by Williams FI and McLaren, with the tyres being developed my Michelin. Looks like it will be an interesting series to watch.

    Deborah-Claire McKenzie
    Deborah-Claire McKenzie

  • VC200 Volocopter Makes its Maiden Flight

    E-volo has successfully flown its VC200 ‘ Volocopter ’, a vibration-free flying machine driven by 18 electric rotors. The Volocopter can carry two passengers and is a vertical take-off and landing aircraft that requires no mechanical pitch control of the propellers and is claimed to be safer, simpler, and cleaner than normal helicopters.

    Deborah-Claire McKenzie
    Deborah-Claire McKenzie

  • Thunderbolts and Lightning

    Prior to the Christmas Lecture last week in Manchester, the Network Chairman, Julie Ashurst, presented Rafal Abramczyk, Manchester College Student Excellence Prize winner with his award. The Christmas Lecture entitled 'Thunderbolts and Lightning' by Rhys Phillips was excellent. I never knew there were that many songs that had the lyrics 'Lightning' and 'Frightening' in them. It was also good to see many young people at the event and I hope that some of them have been inspired by Rhy's presentation to consider engineering as a career.

    Deborah-Claire McKenzie
    Deborah-Claire McKenzie

  • RF Safe-Stop shuts down car engines with radio pulse

    E2V a British company have recently demonstrated a prototype device they are working on that is capable of stopping cars and other vehicles using electromagnetic waves. Although its early days at the moment, the machine is said to have potential. For motorcycles it looks like it could be a lot safer than the tyre deflation devices currently used by some police forces.

    Deborah-Claire McKenzie
    Deborah-Claire McKenzie

  • Australia Secures Runner-up Title At Global PATW 2013 Final

    Kelsey Kennedy from Western Australia has been awarded the runner-up prize in the 2013 Global Final of the IET's annual Present Around The World (PATW) competition in London. Her presentation, titled "Imaging the mechanical properties of breast tissue" , was second only to the overall winner - Christopher Bellamy (UK) , whose presentation was titled "Suspending Disbelief - The Design, Manufacture and Testing of Carabiners" . Kelsey has been travelling all over the globe on behalf of the IET, representing Australia for the PATW competition. After winning her local final in Perth, she travelled to Brisbane to compete in (and eventually win) the 2013 PATW Australia Final . From there, she travelled to Brunei and won the 2013 PATW Asia-Pacific Regional Final , which secured her place secured her…

    Rowan P
    Rowan P

  • Kelsey Kennedy (WA) wins PATW Australia 2013 Final

    The results of the 2013 PATW Australia Final are as follows : Winner Kelsey Kennedy (University of Western Australia) "Imaging the mechanical properties of breast tissue" Runner-up Nicholas Venables (University of Melbourne) "Bionic vision simulator" You can view photos from the awards dinner by clicking here . Kelsey will now represent Australia in the IET Asia-Pacific Regional PATW Final in Brunei (tentatively to be held in August 2013) . We wish her the best of luck!

    Rowan P
    Rowan P

  • Christmas Tree Lights

    Each year, people are injured through handling poorly maintained or poorly designed Christmas tree lights and unfortunately it is likely to happen again this year. Until the introduction of LED Christmas lights which run at low voltages such as 12 or 24V, most Christmas tree lights were series wired and supplied at mains voltage (230V). Series wiring means that the voltage is divided across the number of individual lights, so 20 lights on the tree means each light operates at 11.5 volts. Whilst each light is running at a low voltage, the wiring has the full mains voltage applied so any contact with the copper conductors in the cable could result in a serious electric shock. Each January we pack away our decorations including the Christmas tree lights and typically we coil the cable before storing…

    Sarah-Jane Travi
    Sarah-Jane Travi

  • Professional Registration Question & Answer Session

    As part of the support and information we provide as part of the IPD service and in support of IET Advantage members, we are running a series of Q&A Sessions to answer your questions about professional registration and the process of working towards it. The sessions are designed to be informal so we can answer general queries about the process or requirements for professional registration. The first session will be run through the IET early career twitter acco unt @ietearlycareer. Please send your questions to @ietearlycareer using #IETAdvantage . We will be answering tweets from 17:00 to 18:00 on 5th December but feel free to tweet in earlier if you have a question you want answered. If you’re not on twitter then you can follow the queries and responses on the IET Advantage Community page…

    Kathryn Bain
    Kathryn Bain

  • The Life and Work of Michael Faraday

    The Life and Work of Michael Faraday Cardiff University 03 December 2013 18:30 - 20:30 A final reminder for this event, organised by the Wales South East Local Network with the History of Technology TPN. Michael Faraday (1791-1867) is one of the major scientific figures of all time. His discoveries of electro-magnetic rotations and induction laid the foundations for electrical engineering. His discoveries of the magneto-optical effect and diamagnetism paved the way for his enunciation of the field theory of electro-magnetism which became and remains one of the cornerstones of modern physics. But Faraday was also heavily involved with the practical application of science and in communicating science to a wide audience. Frank James is Professor of the History of Science at the Royal Institution…

    Anne Locker
    Anne Locker

  • The Enfield Thunderbolt: An electric car before its time

    Found this article on the web, looks as if someone designed and mass produced an electric car 40 years ago before Nissan started producing the Leaf. Reminds me in some ways of my parents old Bubble car.

    Deborah-Claire McKenzie
    Deborah-Claire McKenzie

  • IMechE Aerospace Division Newsletter

    Here's a copy of the latest IMechE Aerospace Division's newsletter which has some interesting articles in it. See here for further information.

    Deborah-Claire McKenzie
    Deborah-Claire McKenzie

  • Professional Registration Question & Answer session

    As part of the support and information we IPD and in support of IET Advantage, we are running a series of Q&A Sessions to answer your questions about professional registration and the process of working towards it. The sessions are designed to be informal so we can answer general queries about the process or requirements for professional registration. The first session will be run through the IET early career twitter acco ... unt @ietearlycareer. Please send your questions to @ietearlycareer using #IETAdvantage . We will be answering tweets from 17:00 to 18:00 on 5th December but feel free to tweet in earlier if you have a question you want answered. If you’re not on twitter then you can follow the queries and responses on the IET Advantage Community page which contains a live feed direct from…

    Former Community Member
    Former Community Member

Community Rules & Guidelines