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  • First Prize for Backstreet Builders FLL team sponsored by Ottawa LN

    A team of six 9 to 12 year olds designed and programmed a robot for entry into the First Lego League tournament for "Animal Allies 2016".  They achieved a score of 138 on the robot challenge, well ahead of the next team in the field of 19 high-school entries.  They were awarded the prize for the best robot performance A video of their award-winning run may be found here: http://bit.ly/BackstreetBuilders2016 Despite a wide lead (the next team only scored 89 points) on the challenge board, the Backstreet Builders were not selected to advance to the next round of the competition since their entries in the other components of the challenge were not strong enough.  Oddly the judges were unable to provide a ranked score for those other components, which could be considered unrealistic as an assessment…

    Former Community Member
    Former Community Member

  • STEM in the Kitchen

    To illustrate the breadth of enterprise of the Ottawa LN, a guide book was published on Amazon Kindle on the topic of STEM in the kitchen.  It is a reprint of a book first published 25 years ago as "The Principles of Cooking" it has been brought up to date for this electronic version.  It includes consideration of critical path management, disaster response, and Key Performance Indices.  It is a healthy alternative to using microcomputing to introduce new and budding engineers to the applications for the subject, and may assist in domestic arrangements for those more used to working at a keyboard. Details may be found at: http://bit.ly/CookingPrinciples

    Former Community Member
    Former Community Member

  • Community Manager - a look back and a look ahead

    2016 was quite a year what with Brexit,the Olympics, Zika outbreak,  American Presidential Elections, not to mention, sadly, the sheer number of celebrity deaths.  Here in the Project Controls network it was a successful year for us with two brilliant and well attended events. Our first event of 2016 was held in January on the subject of Smart Cities, after which a Techbite was produced, which is available for download : During the event a quite frightning statistic was revealed: In London alone, the population is growing by one full tube train every three days!! November saw the network deliver a fantastic event on Crossrail Learning Legacy,  with two excellent speakers, Simon Benett and Walter Macharg. The audience kept the speakers on their toes with a quite extraordinary amount of questions…

    Joanne Longton
    Joanne Longton

  • Towards 5G Mobile Technology – Looking Back And Looking Forward

    We’re only 2 weeks away from the Towards 5G Mobile Technology – Vision to Reality event at Savoy Place, London and we here at the IET are very excited. With the government pledging £740m for 5G in the budget late last year, 5G has been put on the main stage and this event is a chance to hear from those on the forefront of making it happen. In the lead up to the event, I thought I would post some of the highlights from the last one which took place just over a year ago: Andy Sutton -  End to end and top to bottom network design…   Maziar Nekovee - 5G Mobile Communications: Timelines, Key technologies, Recent R&D   Simon Saunders - Bridging the 5G gap – Can the mobile industry really reach new vertical markets? For those registered for this year’s event, we are looking forward to seeing you there…

    Former Staff Member
    Former Staff Member

  • IET Policy on CPD: CPD Return for 2016

    In October 2013, The  Engineering Council  announced an aspiration that by January 2017 all Professional Engineering Institutions will have introduced a Policy of random reviewing of Professionally Active Registrants’ CPD Returns. The IET’s Board of Trustees have now agreed that we should meet this aspiration, extending it as a benefit to all IET Members.   CPD is the ongoing process of tracking and documenting the skills, knowledge and experience that you gain both formally and informally as you work. This includes Training courses, Work experience, Academic study, Volunteering, attending Events and Self-Study (“TWAVES”).   As a Member you have already committed to keeping your knowledge and skills up-to-date through planned professional development, as explained in the  IET Rules of Conduct…

    Nouman Abid Chuhan
    Nouman Abid Chuhan

  • 2017! The Year Of The Field.

    The last 10 years has seen mainstream adoption of TCP/IP based networks. The XML/WAP stack was one of the first modern methods to introduce location based services on phones that had vendor specific OS’s. This early attempt to make mobile services to the masses had its own limitation, namely interaction. The availability of TCP/IP networks across cellular devices has changed that ( Java / Boss has helped too) . Now those cellular devices serve as computers and a phone. For the next 3 years, we are likely to see inter app collaboration within the same phone as a normal activity. Apps will help each other to function. Yes - the open stack endeavours and licensing of OS's like Andriod make development efforts more justifiable as there is an instant market waiting to use your app-based creation…

  • Can I blog?

    Frank's Videos   are both in here  so that you can access them both from within this Blog. I hope it works and I hope to get some feedback.

    David Mann
    David Mann

  • New Year, New Start? Submit Your 2016 CPD Record Now.

    Whilst December was a month for reflection on the year that had passed, January is often a time for new beginnings, and as we start a new year many of us will be making new year's resolutions for what we want to achieve in 2017.  So whilst you're thinking about your new year's resolutions for 2017, why not take a moment to reflect on your achievements from 2016 and plan the next steps in your development for 2017.   You can make a good start on this by considering your Continuing Professional Development. 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.  You can submit your CPD return via Career Manager .  If you are unsure how to use…

    Kathryn Bain
    Kathryn Bain

  • IoT At CES17

    CES17 took place in Las Vegas last week. As always, it was well attended by a multitude of tech companies, showing off their latest designs. I’ve picked out 5 of the top IoT products that were showcased during the 4 day event. 5. Fridge Cam This camera is mounted in your fridge (unsurprisingly!) and detects what’s in there, when it expires and gives relevant meal suggestions. The idea behind this is that it will help to cut down on food waste, preventing people from forgetting what they have tucked away in the back of their fridge and providing ideas on how to use those random ingredients that we all seem to find in our fridges! Food waste is a huge problem, especially in Western countries and this would be very useful for those who struggle to stay on top on sell by dates. However it does…

    Former Staff Member
    Former Staff Member

  • Two Days Workshop on PCB Designing and Fabrication at COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Abbottabad, Pakistan

    A two day workshop on "PCB Designing and Fabrication" was commenced at COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT), Abbottabad, Pakistan on 10 - 11 Dec 2016.   The Trainers were Assistant Professor Dr.Jawad Saleem and Assistant Professor Dr.Abdul Majid of CIIT Abbottabad.     Stage Projector Screen Trainer DR.Jawad Saleem Guests Pannel at Stage Audience and Participants of Workshop Trainees Designing the PCBs Female Trainees Designing PCBs PCBs Etching Process PCB Drilling Ready PCBs Soldering SMD Components mounted on PCB The Workshop contained Two Sessions:   (i) Simulation Session   In Simulation Session, there was a detailed lecture on Simulation to implement a circuit by using Proteus Software. Participants also practiced the whole learning by their own to get a handsome experience…

    Nouman Abid Chuhan
    Nouman Abid Chuhan

  • Did You Know The New Ayrshire College Has An Engineering Academy?

    Ayrshire College has joined Strathclyde University’s Engineering Academy as a partner college. The Engineering Academy is a pioneering programme that offers an alternative route into university and employment as a Strathclyde student.  The first year is an enhanced HNC programme with direct transfer into second year of one the engineering degrees.    The Academy is a collaboration between the University of Strathclyde, partner colleges and the engineering industry.  As part of the University’s outreach objective, the Academy was established to increase widening access participation by delivering various pathways to a range of engineering degrees in our leading Faculty of Engineering.  Find out how the academy works, entry requirements, key benefits and industry sponsorship and placements.

    Lynsay Callaghan
    Lynsay Callaghan

  • Innovation and Realism

    The press demand for more innovation in the rail industry may be welcomed by many but those who shout loudest rarely know what is entailed. Innovation takes many forms and so often much effort and energy is expended into what turns out to be nothing more than a pipedream. To bring some realism to the topic, the IET annual railway lecture in November 2016 invited Adrian Shooter to give his views on innovation with some practical examples of past success and failure. Adrian will be known to many, having been the mastermind in transforming the Chiltern Railways franchise and the brainchild behind the conversion of ex LU District Line stock into a low cost DMU. He is essentially a railway mechanical engineer with a long career history in both engineering and operational rail management. So what…

    Lynsay Callaghan
    Lynsay Callaghan

  • Cyber Security thoughts from CES17

    CES17 is currently taking place in Las Vegas and as ever there is an excess of companies showcasing their latest tech developments. Internet of Things is big this year, with lots of companies, big and small, launching their connected goods. All these exciting new devices got me thinking about the security of them. With cyber-attacks on the rise, the chances of people’s fridges or toasters being attacked is becoming increasingly likely. This connected shower looks like a great idea for warm showers on chilly winter mornings, but it if gets hacked and leads to a freezing cold shower – definitely not good!  So what can be done to prevent these attacks?     This infographic suggests a few basic things that consumers can do to protect themselves, including secure passwords, keeping firmware up to…

  • A Band you should know - bIaEnTd!!!

    In the autumn of 2010, there are some young people who have passion in music in an engineering society. Leaded by their chairmen(band leader), the bIaEnTd is formed! The bIaEnTd is a word formed by “band” and “IET”, which represent the band formed by the IET members. After their kick off show in the AGM of Younger Members Section (Session 2009-2010), the bIaEnTd became popular in various IET functions like the conference dinners, AGM, as well as anniversary celebration functions. The key members, band leader-drummer, pianist, guitarist, bassist and singer are the founder of the bIaEnTd, throughout the 6 years, new engin-musician had joined and the bIaEnTd will becomes stronger and stronger. President's Address 2016 in Hong Kong - bIaEnTd was our guest performer of the night (From the left:…

    Former Community Member
    Former Community Member

  • Member News Article: The Americas Round-up, 2016

    (This text has been taken from the December 2016 issue of Member News)   IET volunteers, with support from IET staff, are continually working to increase the presence of Local Networks (LNs) in the Americas.   At the heart of this work is the IET’s mission: to inspire, inform and influence the global engineering community, supporting technology innovation to meet the needs of society. Here’s a roundup of the latest activities in the Americas region. New England The New England LN recently collaborated with the local IEEE Chapter at two major events: The World Maker Faire in New York and the Women in Engineering Eastern Forum. At both events, and for the first time, the Network made IET torch kits with children. They were a huge hit, introducing engineering and the IET to the next generation…

    Former Community Member
    Former Community Member

  • IET Merseyside And Western Cheshire Events Newsletter - January 2017 To September 2017

    The latest IET MWC Newsletter is now available as an online flip book.  Please click the link! IET Merseyside and Western Cheshire Newsletter - January 17 to September 17 Edition

    Rob McDonald
    Rob McDonald

  • Expression Of Interest - Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund Engagement Workshops From Innovate UK

    This may be of interest to some of you in the Northern Ireland area - please note that the date for places to be allocated in 11th January, so register your interest quickly. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF) was  announced  by the Prime Minister at the 2016 CBI Annual Conference, and further detail of this new cross-disciplinary fund was included in the Chancellor’s  Autumn Statement  as part of the National Productivity Investment Fund. Innovate UK and the Research Councils are beginning to define a first round of challenges to be addressed by the ISCF, and will soon be in a position to seek input from industry and the research base into their development. To gather input from…

    Lynsay Callaghan
    Lynsay Callaghan

  • Expression Of Interest - Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund Engagement Workshops From Innovate UK

    This may be of interest to some of you in the Scotland South West area - please note that the date for places to be allocated in 11th January, so register your interest quickly. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF) was  announced  by the Prime Minister at the 2016 CBI Annual Conference, and further detail of this new cross-disciplinary fund was included in the Chancellor’s  Autumn Statement  as part of the National Productivity Investment Fund. Innovate UK and the Research Councils are beginning to define a first round of challenges to be addressed by the ISCF, and will soon be in a position to seek input from industry and the research base into their development.   To gather input…

    Lynsay Callaghan
    Lynsay Callaghan

  • Society Insights: December 2016 - Trains, Planes And Power

    The IET Society Insights Blog summarises some of the key areas identified by Local Networks at their events that will have an impact on society now or in the future. This month we tackle the latest from the engineering community on trains, planes and power and there is has an interesting section from the Surrey LN on Opening a new railway – a 21st Century challenge.   Opening a new railway – a 21st Century challenge Surrey Local Network   One of the most important rail projects in recent years, Crossrail will make a metamorphic difference to travel within the UK’s capital.   “London’s been growing hugely since the eighties and London Underground has been struggling for some time to cope. By building a railway that has the capacity to put a train with 1,700 people through the city’s central…

    Lynsay Callaghan
    Lynsay Callaghan

  • Getting Your Digital Self In Order...

    New Year, new you… or so the saying goes. Every year many of us (like myself) make New Year Resolutions which are usually broken by the first week of January . But this year, it’s going to be different. Firstly, my NYR’s this year are a little more generic than specific. ‘I will not drink any more coffee’ is just too specific and doomed from the start especially as my journey takes me past the coffee machine every morning as I walk through the office to my desk and I’m already drinking my second cup of the day as I type this... This year it’s going to be all about decluttering my life both physically and digitally. I’ve already made a start on clearing out the ‘physical’ with my attic and getting rid of the stuff that has accumulated up there, old ornaments, books I don’t read anymore…

  • Find out who won the 2016 IET Innovation Award for Transport

    Well done to Loughborough University, the winners of the 2016 IET Innovation Transport Award.   Repoint, a breakthrough in failsafe rail track switching -  Using safety concepts derived from aerospace and the nuclear industries, Repoint offers the potential for increased capacity through faster point setting time coupled with reduced maintenance intervention, alongside a reduced whole life cost – without the need to build new railway tracks   Please visit the Innovation Awards website for more details.

    Lynsay Callaghan
    Lynsay Callaghan

  • Technology in Retail.

    The talk on Thursday 19 January at 1830 hours will be by Paul Clarke of OCADO Plc who will explain how robots,imaging systems and technology are used to deliver goods efficiently to your home.  The talk will be held at Cambridge University Engineering Department (CUED).

    David Blake
    David Blake

  • Lynsay's Weekly Digest - Functional Safety. 12th December – 18th December

    This is my last post for 2016, so I hope you enjoy my little round ups, but please let me know if I should be focusing elsewhere of if you have other information I can add. Best wishes Lynsay  Renesas Electronics Announces Completion of Safety Microcontroller Lineup Suitable for System ... Yahoo Finance ... 26262 automotive functional safety standard ASIL-D (Note 1) to avoid fatal situations caused by system malfunction due to breakdown, and so forth.   Microcontrollers optimised for safety -critical automotive functions EETE Automotive (registration) Renesas has notified that it has added the final variants to a group of microcontrollers; these safetey MCUs are configured to be suitable for as ...   White Paper: Building Functional Safety and Security into IIoT Enterprises and Ecosystems ENGINEERING…

    Lynsay Callaghan
    Lynsay Callaghan

  • 2016 in review

    It is nearly time to say goodbye 2016 - thanks for the ride. And now for the next one !  Perhaps we need to consider 2017 in a new light, especially for the IET Radar, Sonar and Navigation TPN.   We have been quite for a few years now, but 2017 seems like a good time to review this and to start to rebuilt the TPN.  We were involved in the 2 016 IGNSS Conference which was held in Sydney at the University of New South Wales' Colombo Theatres from 6th - 8th December 2016. IGNSS runs the SE Asian region’s premier conference on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) and related Position, Navigation and Timing (PNT) technologies. This year’s IGNSS conference will be in Sydney, Australia from 6 to 8 December 2016 and will bring together leaders in GNSS and PNT to examine the latest technology…

    Lynsay Callaghan
    Lynsay Callaghan

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