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Robogals Industry Gala 2012

The inaugural Robogals Industry Gala Night was held at the York Butter Factory from 7pm to 10pm on 23 November 2012. The formal cocktail event, organized by the Melbourne Chapter, was an opportunity to thank their sponsors and volunteers, and recognize their efforts and achievements during the course of the year. Being one of the sponsors, IET Victoria was invited to the event and was ably represented by Laval Yu, Michelle Zhao and Sam Joy on the night. The event started off with an informal session where the attendees were allowed to mingle with each other, followed by a more formal Welcome presentation by the Robogals committee. Nicole Brown (Robogals Melbourne) spoke about the purpose of the organization and how it has grown since its inception. The volunteers in the organization aim to…

Rowan P
Draft Guidance on EMC and Functional Safety

The IET working group on EMC for Functional Safety has drafted some practical guidance to complement the EMC for Functional Safety Book and IEC 61000-1-2. The approach taken is to suggest techniques and measures that will improve the operational resilience of a safety system to EMI, similar to the approach taken in IEC 61508 to deal with other systematic faults and failures. In fact, many of the techniques and measures are drawn from those in IEC 61508, but presented in terms of their usefulness in mitigating the effects of EMI. The first draft intended for public comment is available in the IET Safety Community files area at https://communities.theiet.org/communities/files/47/2613 (you need to be logged in as a member of the community to access this URL - registration is free). The working…

James Inge
IgnIET : Kick-start 2013 With The IET!

The IET Victoria YPS organised its 2013 launch and volunteer recruitment event for university students on the 21st March 2013 at RMIT. The evening started with a presentation by Rowan, the YPS chairperson, about the IET and the benefits of joining. He answered the 6 W's questions: Who, What, When, Where, Why and How about the organisation. It was followed by other volunteers from the committee about their own experience and gains through volunteering and involvement with the IET such as the PATW competition, the Toyota Site Visit and Network 2011. The final part of the schedule included a list of potential events that can be run this year and in the future that the attendees can be involved with and start volunteering. After the presentation, the participants were given the opportunity to interact…

Rowan P
A mighty maze of mystic magic rays…

“I’m such a geek…” I hear myself saying it quite a lot but I really am.. I was lucky enough to be invited to a special behind the scenes tour (or a ‘behind the, behind the scenes tour ) of the new BBC Broadcasting House last week, and while some of my fellow attendees were in awe of the various celebrity newscasters and weathergirls that could be seen around the building, the highlight of the visit for me was being shown the rack of hard disks containing the music collection for the BBC’s radio stations… GkF (Geek Factor) of 3 methinks? Sooo… the conversation when I got back went a little like this: “So did you see Huw Edwards?” “Umm… nope. But I saw inside some of the sound studios! Went down to the basement to look at all the communications equipment sending audio and tv signals all over…

Lisa Miles
Victorian PATW winner creating 'sound bubbles'

Kyle Slater, past PATW winner and IET Victoria volunteer, was recently featured in The Melbourne Magazine in an article titled "City of Ideas" , to discuss a current side project of his, involving the formation of "sound bubbles" . You can read the full article on The Age's website . Kyle won the 2010 IET Victoria Present Around The World competition with his "soundBeam" invention (a device that transmits highly-directional sound waves on ultrasonic carriers) and went on to win the Australian and overall international competition at the IET's home in London. He is currently studying for a PhD in epilepsy research, as well as working on the Bionic Eye project with the Bionics Institute .

Rowan P
Photos From Asia-Pacific Community Volunteers Conference

Michael Russell and Sam Joy recently attended the first annual Asia-Pacific Community Volunteers Conference in Hong Kong on November 10 and 11, 2012. Their contributions as active volunteers in the IET Victoria and YPS committees in 2012 were rewarded with nominations to represent Victoria at the event, including an all-expenses paid flight and accommodation package to Hong Kong. The conference is an opportunity for volunteers all over the Asia-Pacific region to get together, meet each other and share experiences, as well as to get the latest updates about the new initiatives being introduced in the IET for the benefit of its members. Check out the photostreams on Flickr below... looks like a great time was had by all (including a lot of hands in the air and holding hands ) Asia Pacific Volunteers…

Rowan P
Volunteers Required for @Bristol Live Labs

The IET are currently helping to fund a project with @Bristol to develop engineering challenge activities for schools. These will take place in 'Live Lab', @Bristol's practical science space. Volunteers are now needed to piloting these challenges over National Science and Engineering Week, 18-22nd March.@Bristol are looking for engineer 'experts' to support the activities, working alongside the At-Bristol team. Activities will run on each day of the week, from 10:00-14:30ish. They aim to run sessions on the hour and half hour, from 10:00-14:30, with a max of 20 students in each, c200 students a day The activities will be aimed at KS2 (Junior School) students, poss some for KS3. They are based around the theme of flight and there are three different sessions that will look at plane design, the…

James Inge
How to Stop Data Causing Harm

This Safety Critical Systems Club seminar, held on 4 Dec 2012 in London, aimed to address the safety issues concerned with data-driven systems. Presentations from the day are now available for viewing on iet.tv . The seminar has led to a follow-on series of workshops. For more information, see the SCSC website . Read on to see the list of video presentations available. Speaker Title Alastair Faulkner, Abbeymeade Limited Introduction – Standards and Industrial Practice Paul Ensor, UK Hydrographic Office The Safety of Data and Information Systems Alan Simpson, Ebeni Aeronautical Information – How confident are we it’s correct? Ian Bingham, Logica (now part of CGI) Safety Data in National Infrastructure Projects Mark Nicholson, University of York Topics in Dataware Safety Mike Ainsworth, Altran…

James Inge
The Elevator Pitch...

Last Tuesday I was in the offices of 123 Buckingham Palace Road waiting for a meeting with the Chairman of the London Network. While sitting in their rather lovely reception area, speaking with Sarah the receptionist and looking in envy at the brightly coloured and fun offices of Google on the third floor, I found myself watching the rather nice looking glass lifts (or elevators as they are also known) in the central atrium area and wondered: "Why is it that the fundamental basics of lift mechanisms haven’t changed that much since they were first introduced?"Last Tuesday I was in the offices of 123 Buckingham Palace Road waiting for a meeting with the Chairman of the London Network. While sitting in their rather lovely reception area, speaking with Sarah the receptionist and looking in envy…

Lisa Miles
Def Stan 00-56 available for review

The MOD 00-56 Core authoring team would like to invite system safety specialists and relevant Industry organisations to review a draft version Def Stan 00-56 Issue 5 parts 1 and 2. Def Stan 00-56 review packs can only be obtained from the MOD editor. Each review pack is intended for the designated reviewer only, but a Company/Organisation can nominate a co-ordinating reviewer. The cut off date for comments is the 22nd February 2013, but early returns would be appreciated. Def Stan 00-56 is the UK Defence Standard giving Safety Management Requirements for Defence Systems. The current version was published by the Ministry of Defence in 2007. It is being updated to take into account recent developments in procurement and safety management practice. Update 4 Mar 13: Def Stan 00-56 Issue 5 Part…

James Inge in standards
Young Engineers' Competition - Western Aerospace Centre

See "more" for some info on a local competition for young engineers, closing date for abstracts is the end of this month. I've also uploaded the flyer into the Files area of this website. -- Russ. Dear All, Please can I bring to your attention an exciting opportunity to support the Professional Development of Young Engineers in the South West. The Western Aerospace Centre is running it annual prize competition for Young Engineers. The purpose of the competition is to encourage the ongoing professional development of Young Engineers by entering a competition to deliver a presentation on any aviation related topic. Selected finalists will be invited to give a 20 minute presentation at the competition evening scheduled for April 2013, in front of a panel including engineering directors from the…

Russ Haines
Soap gets in your eyes…

I’m very wary of electric showers. Water, electricity and a human body in a rather ‘vulnerable’ state, all in one space at the same time, is a recipe for disaster in my eyes… Needless to say, when my electric shower started playing up this weekend I was none too pleased and didn’t relish the thought of having to fix it. The shower came with the house and, unlike my own practice of keeping them, the previous owners did not keep the instruction manual. However a quick search on the internet came up trumps with the full installation and service manual (in 0.41 seconds to be precise by using the correct descriptive search terms) which became my Sunday afternoon reading material. A quick read of the manual and it seems that the shower simply needed a purge and a reset. The water company had just…

Lisa Miles
Out With The Old And In With The New...

You know you’re getting older when you find much joy in the simplest of things… I have a new washing machine!! Yaay! A joyous occasion but also a small tear of sadness…. My friends will tell you that this is a BIG deal in my household. Some of my IET volunteers also know all about my long lasting relationship with my old washing machine. I’ve had it since 1994 and repaired it four times now. Once when the pump broke and I replaced it, then one of the impeller blades in the pump snapped off, so I took it apart and glued it back together (it’s still working to this day), replaced the capacitor as the drum wasn’t turning with enough force (it’s an induction motor) and fixed a faulty vacuum switch as it wasn’t switching to drain the drum (it did this while I was dyeing the kitchen rug…

Lisa Miles
Present Around The World (PATW) Event Report (2013)

The IET Victoria Present Around The World (PATW) 2013 competition was held on November 22, 2012, at RMIT University in Melbourne. The event was attended by both IET members and the general public. Full event report Photos Event summary The finalists were each provided an allotted time slot of 10 minutes to present their project followed by a round of questions from the audience and judges. The criteria for the contestants included presentation skills, time management, impressions and impact on audience and clarity in delivery of the material. Congratulations to Nicholas Venables , who was adjudged to be the winner of the competition and awarded the winner's certificate and a cash prize of $225. Nicholas will now participate as the Victorian representative in the national Australian Competition…

Rowan P
Learning the Lessons from Major Accidents

Following the loss of the RAF Nimrod aircraft XV230 in 2006, with the lives of all 14 service personnel on board, Charles Haddon-Cave QC was commissioned to write an independent report. One of his recommendations for a new safety culture in the Ministry of Defence was that there should be briefings for all those in Leadership positions of the lessons to be learned from the loss of Challenger, Columbia, Nimrod XV230 and other major accidents. Haddon-Cave pointed out uncanny, and worrying, parallels between the organisational causes of the loss of Nimrod XV230 and the organisational causes of the loss of the NASA Space Shuttle ‘Columbia’, stating that the report of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board should be required reading for anyone involved in aviation safety. He also noted further…

James Inge
Interview with Nigel Fine on Talking Business with Alan Kohler

Whilst recently visiting Australia, Nigel Fine (Chief Executive and Secretary of the IET) recorded an interview with Alan Kohler for his Talking Business radio channel on Qantas Radio. It should be available to all Qantas airline passengers throughout December to listen to in-flight. However, it is also available online for you to listen to : Qantas Radio website ( direct link to Nigel's interview ) In the interview, Nigel speaks about how the IET differentiates itself from Engineers Australia, how the IET addresses the shortage of engineers around the world (by targeting younger people in schools, also the PATW competition) , why is the T in IET, etc. The interview is nine minutes long.

Rowan P
The Retired Professional Engineers' Club

The Retired Professional Engineers' Club (Bristol) was set up in 1994 with the assistance of what was then the local IEE committee. It's intended to further the aims and interests of engineers by arranging regular events for retired professional engineers. The club's still going strong now, and its events have a social aspect, to encourage both members and their partners to come to all events. Meetings are normally in St. Peters Church Hall, The Drive, Henleaze, BS9 4LD. Talks start at 1400, with tea and biscuits to follow. Engineers of all disciplines are welcome, whatever their institution, as are visitors. For more information about the club, see its website at http://www.rpec.co.uk/ .

James Inge
Dear Santa...

Can I have a pair of these for Christmas please? The Daily Mail calls them the Workaholic’s dream gadget. I, on the other hand, just like the geek factor (5) of being able to locate your friends with the 'Buddy Tracker' and view GPS statistics while on the move. However, I don’t Ski so the Airwave app will not be of any use to me. Unless they bring out one for MTBikers based on the same format of course... As you’ve probably guessed by now, I love new technology and seeing what it can do. I love the fact that everything works together and connects to eachother. Fridges that talk to your local shop to tell them what you’ve run out of, smartphones that can control the appliances in your home. I think it’s great! I'm even looking into having a smart meter installed at home so I can keep an eye…

Lisa Miles
The name's Bond...James Bond.

I’m so excited….! Today is the day of the release of the new James Bond film ‘Skyfall’. I’ve been looking forward to it for sooooo long now and today I’m just fit to burst! I’m taking the afternoon off to go to the cinema (which is just behind us at Michael Faraday House). I did want to see it at the IMax in Waterloo, London but they’re sold out for today, and the next, and the next... However, it has got me thinking about the power of Facebook.. “That’s off on a tangent!” I hear you say. Let me explain… I have 007 - James Bond as one of my ‘likes’ and for some time now (probably over 18 months or so) their PR machine has been posting regular updates on their page. Throughout the time of its filming we saw snippets of information, a few behind the scenes images (nothing too detailed to give…

Lisa Miles
More from the System Safety Conference

The IET have posted their congratulations to the conference chair, Dr Carl Sandom, on receiving the International System Safety Society's International Award. They've also put photos from conference on Flickr . We will post links here to any presentations or other material that is made available online. While the 2012 conference is over, plans are already being made for next year's event. Provisional dates for the 2013 conference are 14 – 17 October, and you can keep up to date with plans at http://conferences.theiet.org/system-safety/

James Inge
2012 Safety Conference Videos

The 7th International Conference on System Safety, incorporating the Cyber Security Conference , was held from 15 - 18 October 2012 in Edinburgh, UK. If you didn't manage to make it to the conference, you can still see many of the presentations via IET.tv . Read on to see the list of video presentations available. Session Speaker Title Keynote 1 Warren Naylor System Safety - A Glimpse into the Future Keynote 2 Peter Bernard Ladkin Some "Hot Issues" in Software-Safety Standardisation Keynote 3 Mike StJohn-Green Cyber Security - Who says we're safe? Keynote 4 Chris Elliott The safety of complex engineered products - what's changed since Haddon-Cave? 1.a.3 Jeremy Dick Evidence-based development - coupling structured argumentation with requirements development 1.b.1 Klaus McDonald-Maier A practical…

James Inge
Australian team hails bionic eye success

For those of you who attended our Network11 event last year, you may remember our keynote speakers were from the Bionics Institute , and delivered presentations outlining their work in technologies to assist the hearing and vision impaired. On the 30th of August 2012, the Bionics Institute announced the successful implant and stimulation of Australia's first prototype bionic eye! You can read an article (and see a video interview with the implant recipient) on the ABC News website .

Rowan P
....and on a clear day, you can see for miles!

I was at the John Logie Baird lecture last night, listening to Peter Heslop of Arqiva speaking about the Digital Switchover (DSO). During his presentation he showed this video of a helicopter being used during an Antenna lift (no I don’t want to be a helicopter pilot now.. ) . What amazed me were the three gentlemen climbing to the top of the antenna to facilitate its construction… To coin a well-used piece of text speak.. OMG….!

Lisa Miles
Cue Theme to Mission Impossible….

There is much fun to be had with the installation of PIR security lights… My partner and I have just installed some at our new home. A porch light for the front, one for the side driveway and one for the back garden. We spent Sunday evening trying to ‘sneak up’ on them to see how far we could get before the PIR detector spotted us… much to the amusement of our new neighbours who must have been wondering what on earth we were doing…I’m surprised our evening adventures weren’t followed by a visit from the local constabulary… Everyone is familiar with them but I wonder how many people know how they actually work and what is inside them? I don’t! So… to satisfy my inner geek I spent some time surfing the internet to find out, and came across this ‘PIR teardown and tutorial’ on youtube which was…

Lisa Miles

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