IET EngX

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.

Grid

List

From Baird To The Digital Age

On the 27th of January the IEEE held a whole day event "From Baird to the Digital Age" at the Royal Institution. The previous day, the 26th, they had unveiled a plaque outside 22 Frith Street to commemorate John Logie Baird's first public demonstration of his television system there on the 26th of January 1926. The session on the 27th comprised a number of talks, preceded by introductions by Ali Hessami the Chair of the UK and Ireland Section and Karen Bartleson the current President of the IEEE. The talks started with Donald McLean discussing Baird's achievements, followed by Iain Logie Baird (JLB's grandson) who talked about Baird the person, and the morning session was completed by a short video showing the plaque unveiling the previous day. In the afternoon there were four talks. The…

Graham Turner
Your community needs your help!

The volunteers in Barcelona are looking for ideas and suggestions for activities to organise in the future. For a flavour of the sorts of events that have been organised in the past, please do take a look at our blog section We'd very much appreciate your help by completing a short survey, which should take no longer than 10 minutes. This will help us with our forward plans, and we look forward to seeing the results! Link to the survey If you have any questions at all, please email me direct Joanne Longton Community Manager

Joanne Longton
What Is Happening In The Districts - Aberdeen

After the first Scotland North meeting of 2017, I thought I would give you an insight into what happens behind the activities that you see advertised – and there is a lot. For those that don’t know the layout of the Scotland North Committee, the area is split into districts that each have a representative on the Scotland North Committee. The Committee pulls together the event plans for the year and submits the budget. The Scotland North Committee organises events in Aberdeen, Dundee, Inverness, Perth, Thurso, Orkney, Shetland, Stornoway. These events cover a range of engineering, management and general interest. So, what has been happening in the districts over the past few months, what happens behind the scenes? This week I have focused on the Aberdeen district. Bit of background for those…

Lynsay Callaghan
Challenges of Ageing Aircraft and how to address them

A short while ago I attended a seminar organised by the Aerospace Network on the issues of ‘Addressing Ageing Aircraft Sustainment’ . There were a good number of delegates at the event, who had the opportunity to hear from several different speakers on the various challenges around this topic and how they were addressing them. The keynote speaker was Air Marshal Julian Young CB OBE, who during his presentation covered the RAF’s awareness of airworthiness and the challenges presented by Ageing Aircraft. He highlighted the RAF’s fleet composition and some of their examples of Ageing Aircraft such as the Tornado from 1980-2019, Puma 1973-2025 and the Boeing 707 which was originally supposed to last from 1964-2014, but has now been extended to 2042 in its Rivet Joint guise. Julian also discussed…

Deborah-Claire McKenzie
Meet The Committee - Iain King, Past Chair

Iain King, Past Chair With a strong background in Further and Higher Education, Iain is currently Programme and Development Manager for Engineering and Building Technology area at Inverness College UHI. He has curriculum responsibilities that include Foundation Apprentices, Technician Apprentices and the emerging Graduate Apprentices and cover a range of academic areas including: Architectural Technology, Civil Engineering, Electrical Installation, and Electrical and Mechanical Engineering. A member of the IET Scotland North LN Committee for 9 years, his current role being Past Chair.

Lynsay Callaghan
Meet The Committee - John Blacklock, Caithness & Orkney District

John is a member of IET Caithness & Orkney District committee as part of IET Scotland North Local Network. He actively promotes the engineering profession to the public through organising events and to schools and colleges by delivering STEM initiatives with organisation such as IET, IMechE, British Science Association, Bloodhound Educational Project. He develops other engineers through being a Professional Interview Assessor with IMechE and IMarEST as well as being an IMechE; Academic Assessor, Industrial Advisor, MPDS mentor & scheme assessor. John works for Jacobs from their Scrabster Offices and is embedded within Dounreay Site Restoration Limited to advise and deliver Nuclear Decommissioning projects. His experience and qualifications earned from previous positions with Ministry…

Lynsay Callaghan
Meet The Committee - Prof Andrew Rae, Perth District

Andrew Rae Andrew Rae graduated from Imperial College in 1987 and joined the High-Lift Section of the Aerodynamics Department at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough. His activities there concentrated on the physics of multi-element aerofoils, largely but not exclusively for civil aircraft, including Reynolds number effects and wake vorticity. Based at the 5m Pressurised Wind Tunnel at Farnborough he was involved in the development and application of wind tunnel corrections and test techniques. He has managed tests at over 30 other major facilities in seven countries and worked on projects for Airbus, Boeing and several Formula 1 teams. He was Deputy Chairman of the Technical & Scientific Board of the European Wind Tunnel Association (EWA) and within this framework was the focus for…

Lynsay Callaghan
Meet the Committee - Kenneth Laing, Hon Treasurer

Kenneth Laing, Hon Treasurer I have been associated with the IET and IEE serving on the Scotland North committee as an ordinary committee member, Honorary Secretary and currently Honorary Treasurer. Too many years ago, I chaired the Aberdeen Younger Members section and served on the national Younger Members Committee. I worked in the oil and gas industry in operations, engineering and major projects. My background is in instrumentation including major control and safety systems, fiscal metering, integrity management and project engineering.

Lynsay Callaghan
Meet The Committee - Andrew Mackenzie, Vice Chair & Hon Secretary

Andrew Mackenzie, Hon Secretary and Vice Chair Andrew Mackenzie is a Chartered Electrical Engineer with a degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering and a PGCE (FE). He worked for 26 years with Comhairle nan Eilean Siar and before retirement reported directly to the Chief Executive as Head of Strategy dealing with Best Value, Internal Audit, Performance Management and Strategic Risk. He chaired the Strategic Risk Committee, was a member of and Clerked the Senior Management Team. Since retiring he lectures in Advance Electrical Engineering and Renewable Energy Technology at the University of the Highlands and Islands and is actively involved in the Western Isles’ STEM issues. He is Hon Secretary and Vice Chair of IET Scotland North Local Network – as well as being an active crofter…

Lynsay Callaghan
Meet The Committee - Barry Mitchell, Chair

Barry Mitchell, Chair Barry Mitchell is a Chartered Electrical Engineer who has been working in the Oil and Gas Industry since 2010. He has a MEng degree (with Distinction) in electrical and electronic engineering from Robert Gordon University and has recently gained professional registration with the engineering council as a chartered engineer at the age of just 28. Barry received a scholarship from a large oil and gas operator throughout his time as a student and has gone on to complete a graduate programme with a large global service company in the oil and gas sector, winning the Oil and Gas UK Graduate of the Year Award in 2014. Since completing his graduate scheme Barry has been promoted quickly to engineer, senior and now to principal engineer level. Barry began his career by providing…

Lynsay Callaghan
And the IET ARTS TPN Technical Prize for MotoE Racing goes to…

MotoE is an official European Championship for electric motorcycle racers, teams from the across the globe, battle each other in five rounds within Europe for the privilege to call themselves the MotoE European Cup Champions. It has been supported by the IET Automotive & Road Transport Systems TPN for several years as it raises awareness of electric motorcycles and the profile of the IET and TPN. Also, all members of the Technical Panel are IET members. On recent completion of the 2016 season, the Technical Panel had a difficult time choosing a winner for the IET ARTS TPN prize and had to split the prize between two universities. The team from Nottingham University were awarded a prize for Innovation as they consistently improved lap times across every round in the season, taking track…

Deborah-Claire McKenzie
North Wales Tidal Energy and Coastal Protection Lecture

On the 24th January, a number of members and non members attended a lecture presented by Mr Henry Dixon, Chairman of North Wales Tidal Energy, who outlined his companies plans to build a tidal barrage from Great Orme to Rhyl to harness the power from tidal action. The electricity that could be generated from this scheme would be 2.5GW enough for 1.1 million homes. The length of the wall 31Km . The electricity generated could also be used to feed a pump storage scheme. Wind and solar power is variable, the wind does not always blow and days can be bright or overcast, but the tidal movement can be accurately predicted for decades into the future. The environmental impact was also discussed, using the wall to provide coastal defenses and raising it in the event of global warming causing a rise…

David Crawford
Ottawa LN And Backstreet Builders Hold Open House

On Thursday 26th January the Backstreet Builders team of 9 to 12 year olds held an Open House for the Ottawa LN. On show were their nascent efforts with the BBC micro:bit computer boards. This board has been a great success with the team, who expressed their thanks for the donation of a board to each of the team members. Notice in the video the keen interaction between team members, with peer-peer teaching. One 9-year old member demonstrated a Python program that used the magnetometer, and then a program using the BLE communications between two BBC micro:bits. All with just one week of effort. Next was a demonstration run of the First Lego League robot challenge. The Backstreet builders gained first prize for the robot performance in the Ottawa qualifying tournament. This run may be…

Former Community Member
Towards 5G - Event Highlights

The 3 rd annual Towards 5G was held successfully at Savoy Place, London at the end of January. It was attended by over 100 delegates from a wide ranging set of disciplines. We were lucky to have not 1, but 2 chairs for the day. Kafil Ahmed, chair of the network, presided over the second half of the day and Mike Short oversaw the first half. As Mike opened the seminar, he described how each generation of connectivity had been described by 1 word: 3G = multimedia; 4G = broadband. He challenged each speaker to give their 1 word to describe 5G – the words are shown in the picture to the left and you can find out who said each word at the end of the blog! Our first speaker was Professor Misha Dohler, who put on his special haptic glove, to tell us about the Internet of skills. The glove is able…

Former Staff Member
Can Project Management And Cost Modelling Meet The Forthcoming Macro Technical/Social/Economic Challenges

I had the pleasure of attending the Manufacturing 2075 Symposium in December hosted by Cranfield University during which some very thought provoking issues were raised and discussed by some of academia's and Industrial/Manufacturing leaders. The Introduction to the event was...... " The challenges faced by manufacturing research, education and skills requirements, and our knowledge capability base in 2075 will be influenced and informed by organic and disruptive technologies and systems, new materials, changes in our life styles and values, and global political and societal developments. To be suitably prepared, we need to imagine the future to plan the present. A new global forum to discuss very long term manufacturing challenges (i.e. Manufacturing Futures) for the UK and other countries…

Louis Redding
IET Glasgow: Teacher Building is Gold Standard in Customer Service.

At the IET Teacher Building Glasgow – our customer promise is at the heart of everything we do. We value our Team members and expect them to be customers’ champions. We have excelled in customer service and been recognised again with the GOLD Award from BDRC (Business Development Research Consultants). Highlighting the venue with the highest score in the overall performance index category in the benchmarking programme based on customers’ event experience. Why not have a visit and see the Members Facilities we have on offer or find out how good the service is when you book your next event.

Lynsay Callaghan
IET Young Woman Engineer Of The Year

Three young female engineers, aged 23 to 28, have been awarded Young Woman Engineer of the Year titles by the IET, as part of its ongoing mission to promote the engineering profession among young people, especially girls. Cambridge University lecturer Jenni Sidey, Cisco network security engineer Gemma Dalziel and Rolls-Royce manufacturing systems lead Bethan Murray will now assume their roles as engineering profession ambassadors. More on the main IET site

Timothy Wilkinson
Speaker Highlight - Towards 5G Mobile Technology – Vision To Reality

We are pleased to announce Professor Andy Sutton, Principal Network Architect from BT will be presenting at the Towards 5G Mobile Technology – Vision To Reality event. Professor Sutton is a Principal Network Architect within BT Architecture and Technology. He is responsible for RAN architecture evolution and mobile backhaul strategy and architecture. He has over 30 years of experience within the telecommunications industry, mainly in radio access, transmission and transport network strategy, architecture and design. His talk will be about " 5G Network Architecture and Design" Prof. Sutton’s research interests include; distributed and centralised RAN architectures and protocols, RAN dimensioning, QoS and mobile backhaul (optical transmission, microwave and millimetre wave radio systems, network…

Former Community Member
Speaker Highlight - Towards 5G Mobile Technology – Vision To Reality

We are looking forward to welcoming you to the event taking place tomorrow. Dr Nishanth Sastry will be speaking on " Who will 5G be for: Operators, or Consumers and Verticals?" Dr Nishanth Sastry is a Lecturer at King's College London. He holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge, a Master's degree from The University of Texas at Austin, and a Bachelor's degree from Bangalore University, India, all in Computer Science. Dr Sastry worked for Cisco Systems, India and IBM Software Group, USA and Industrial Research Labs (IBM TJ Watson Research Center). His research interest includes congestion control, innovative uses of WiFi technologies, social networks, content distribution and delivery, and green networking. Do not forget to tweet us @IETCommunities #Towards5G

Former Community Member
Next Antennas Event – Register Now!

Next week is the first big Antennas network event of the year! Entitled ‘Antennas, Propagation and RF Technology for Transport and Autonomous Platforms,’ the aim of this event is to bring researchers together to provide an overview of the activities in this sector. The event is happening on 2 February in Austin Court, Birmingham and we’re going to be lucky enough to hear from a number of prominent researchers including: Dr Alan Stocker, Dr Marina Gashinova, Anil Shukla and Dr Marta Martínez Vázquez There are just a few places left for this event, so make sure to book your place!

Former Staff Member
IET Awards 2017

Please download the IET Awrds Book 2017 from the link below https://communities.theiet.org/communities/files/77/12805 IET Local Network Prizes The IET supports over 100 Local Networks that exist in a number of locations around the world. Where universities or colleges do not have IET accredited programmes, IET Local Networks can offer an IET Local Network Prize to reward excellence in students. The prize winner should be nominated on the of official form by the academic establishment on the basis of having achieved excellence on a course that falls within the IET’s scope of interest. The value of the award is £250 or an amount with an equivalent purchasing power in other countries. Only one award should be offered per establishment, even where there are a number of different departments specialising…

Chris SF Chew
Tickets available for History Network members: The evolution of television from Baird to the digital age

THE EVOLUTION OF TELEVISION FROM BAIRD TO THE DIGITAL AGE a free-to-attend invitation-only event with sponsorship including the IEEE Life Members Affinity Group on Friday 27 th January 2017 at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, 21 Albemarle Street, London W1S 4BS A ‘celebration’ of the first public demonstration of television in January 1926 at 22 Frith Street, Soho, London by John Logie Baird. The demonstration is recorded as being attended by some 40 members of the Royal Institution (RIGB). Television a Greek word τ %u1FC6 λε (tèle) , meaning "far", and a Latin word visio , meaning "sight" Registration, with coffee served, will be from 1030. Welcome and Opening Introductions in the RIGB Lecture Theatre: take seats by 1100. The platform party will include …

Anne Locker
Smart Body Protection - recent event held by the Hammersmith Section

On Tuesday evening this week, I attended the Hammersmith event on Smart Body Protection and what a fabulous talk it was. The presentation was given by Dr Dan Plant who is the Founder and MD of Armourgel, Imperial College. He began by giving an insight into the technology behind Armourgel - which is an energy absorbing material based around the synergy between a shear thickening fluid and a re-entrant or auxetic geometry. It is breathable, up to four times thinner, and more flexible than existing products. This revolutionary energy absorbing material stiffens upon impact to provide protection, but will flex with the musculature of the body when protection is not required, thus combining safety with comfort. Dan passed round an array of the different products including a helmet, gloves…

Joanne Longton
Lifeskill Workshops: How many Engineers does it take to build a bridge?

The latest addition to the local network’s event calendar, Lifeskills workshops, have proven a huge hit with members locally. Two fully subscribed workshops were successfully delivered on the titles of “ The Art of Being Assertive ” and “ The Fundamentals of Project Management ”. Lifeskills workshops are three hour interactive sessions which are designed to provide a brief introduction to key topics relevant to working life. The IET supports the delivery of Lifeskills as part of our drive to increase skills and professionalism in the engineering sectors. The second workshop included all participants designing and building a bridge in teams from assorted materials in which one member of the team could pass under. Some photos from this challenge can be seen along with this blog or on our…

Eoin McGread

Welcome to the Community Insights blog!

Join us to get the best from IET EngX.

Community Rules & Guidelines