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  • North Devon Robotics Challenge 2026

    The fourth North Devon Robotics Challenge took place on Wednesday 18 th March 2026 at North Devon College in Barnstaple, Devon. Teams of Year 7 students from schools in Devon had been given a set of challenges at the start of February to work on in their schools, before presenting their work in a spirit of friendly competition at North Devon College. The teams worked in pairs on four challenges; three involving programming Edison robots to meet engineering specifications, and a fourth challenge to design a conceptual robot. Since North Devon College are working with Maritime South-West this year on maritime projects based in Devon, the conceptual robot was required to perform some task related to the maritime industry in Devon. The aim of the competition, sponsored by the Institution…

  • Supporting women into leadership in STEM starts with changing the system

    Throughout my career, one pattern has stood out. I’ve seen talented women step back from leadership opportunities, not because they lack the ability, ambition or potential, but because the environments around them weren’t built with them in mind. And for women facing additional barriers, including disabled women in STEM, these challenges can be even more pronounced. We’ve made real progress in encouraging more women into science, engineering and technology. But progression into leadership still tells a different story. Progress isn’t just about entry, it’s about what comes next Across the sector, there’s growing recognition that representation at entry level is only part of the solution. Too often, the focus is on opening doors, without asking what happens once women step through…

  • WISE (Women into Science and Engineering) Young Professionals Committee Spotlight

    For more than a decade, the WISE Young Professionals Committee (WYPC) have been driving practical change for women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM). In 2024 the committee celebrated ten years since its original formation, marking a decade of work that has challenged workplace culture and addressed the barriers women continue to face across the sector. One of the committee’s proudest achievements is the Unfiltered STEM podcast, launched in July 2023. The podcast creates a space for honest conversations about life in STEM and explores topics that resonate with early career professionals. With more than 1,700 plays and over 1,000 streams, it has reached an audience closely aligned with the committee’s mission. Most listeners are women aged between 23 and 34, reflecting the…

  • Circular Economy: Designing Aerospace Parts for Reuse, Repair, and Recycling

    Our earlier blog post outlined how Value Engineering (VE) optimizes aerospace products and systems, striking a careful balance between performance, safety, and cost over the full lifecycle. At its core lies the simple but powerful equation, Value = Function ÷ Cost. While VE focuses on delivering essential capabilities at the lowest possible expense, the industry now faces a pressing additional requirement, greater sustainability and resource efficiency. This brings us directly to the Circular Economy, an approach that builds on established VE principles. It involves designing components and systems so they can be reused, repaired, refurbished, remanufactured, or recycled. The goal is to keep materials and their inherent value in active use for as long as possible, while significantly cutting…

  • Digital Twins in Motion: Why a Multi-Disciplinary Debate Matters Now

    Digital twins have rapidly moved from a conceptual innovation to a practical engineering tool that is reshaping how we design, operate and optimise complex systems. From aerospace and manufacturing to infrastructure and media, the ability to create a dynamic, data-driven virtual representation of real-world assets is opening up new possibilities for insight, efficiency and resilience. On 24 June 2026 , the IET will bring this conversation to the forefront with the webinar Digital Twin Dynamics: A Multi-Disciplinary Debate . This online event gathers voices from across several Technical Networks to explore not just what digital twins are, but how they are evolving and where they may lead next. This blog offers a preview of that discussion, highlighting both the technical foundations of digital…

  • 5G Standalone, VoNR and Network Slicing: The Trio That Makes 5G Smarter

    Most people think 5G is about speed. And yes, faster downloads are part of the story, but speed is the easy bit. The really interesting transformation is happening underneath, in the architecture. Three technologies, 5G Standalone, Voice over New Radio, and Network Slicing, collectively change what a mobile network can be: not just faster than 4G, but fundamentally smarter. 5G Standalone: breaking free from 4G When operators first launched it, most did not build a new core network, they bolted 5G radios onto the existing 4G core, a mode called Non-Standalone (NSA). It was pragmatic and got 5G to market years earlier. But when your 5G radio is anchored to a 4G core, you inherit that core’s limitations: its latency, its rigidity, its inability to support the features 5G was actually designed…

  • Support for carers in engineering

    During Carers Week 2026, we’re recognising how vital carers are and sharing the ways we can support you. This year’s theme, ‘Building Carer Friendly Communities’, is about creating spaces where carers are understood, supported and empowered to thrive. You’re not alone Every day, around 63 million people worldwide care for someone close to them (source: carersworldwide.org ). In the UK, there are 5.8 million unpaid carers, over half of whom are also juggling care with paid work (source: carersuk.org ). Many people don’t recognise themselves in those numbers. They’re just doing what needs to be done. Caring responsibilities might begin with helping a parent after an illness, supporting a partner through a difficult time, or looking after a child with additional needs. It becomes part…

  • IET Electromagnetics and the collaboration with International Workshop on Antenna Technology (iWAT 2026)

    At the end of March, the IEEE International Workshop on Antenna Technology (iWAT 2026) came to Liverpool, bringing together researchers, industry specialists and students working at the forefront of antenna and electromagnetic design. Over three days at the University of Liverpool, the workshop offered a reminder of the value of smaller, more focused events, not just for sharing research, but for building meaningful professional connections. iWAT has a distinctive format. All oral presentations are invited talks, which keeps the programme tight and ensures a consistently high technical standard. Alongside this, poster sessions play a central role, creating space for deeper conversations and more informal exchanges. It’s a structure that encourages dialogue rather than one‑way communication…

  • Harnessing Nigeria's Wind: The Case for Vertical Axis Wind Turbines, why VAWTs could be the missing piece in Nigeria's clean energy puzzle and why this conversation starts now

    Nigeria is a country of staggering contradictions. It sits atop some of the world's largest crude oil reserves, generates enough natural gas to power a continent, and basks in some of the most abundant sunshine on earth. Yet over 85 million of its citizens wake up every morning to uncertain, unreliable, or entirely absent electricity. Businesses across Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt spend a combined $14 billion every year running diesel generators and its not because they want to, but because the grid forces them to. We have chased solar. We have debated gas. We have mourned our transmission infrastructure. But there is an energy resource sitting above every rooftop, along every highway, and offshore every coastal state in Nigeria, one that barely anyone in this country is talking about…

  • The Smart Revolution - Transforming Manufacturing with Robotics

    The smart revolution: how robotics is reshaping manufacturing and end‑of‑life processes Manufacturing is at a turning point. Across sectors, organisations are being asked to produce more sustainably, make better use of materials, and deal responsibly with what happens when products reach the end of their working life. At the same time, labour shortages, safety concerns and rising costs are putting pressure on traditional ways of working. Against this backdrop, robotics, artificial intelligence and autonomous systems are starting to move from the edges of manufacturing into the mainstream. Not as a silver bullet, but as practical tools that can help industry rethink how products are built, used, repaired and recovered. A recent IET Manufacturing Technical Network webinar explored what…

  • Strategic E-Waste Management in Modern Manufacturing: A Closed-Loop Approach

    As of mid-2026, the global manufacturing sector stands at a critical intersection between industrial growth and environmental accountability. Electronic waste, or e-waste, covers all discarded electrical and electronic devices, parts, and materials, and it has become one of the fastest growing waste streams globally, with volumes expected to exceed 78 million metric tons annually by 2030. For a long time, manufacturers viewed this material simply as an unavoidable cost of production or a waste disposal problem. Today however, it is widely recognized as a valuable secondary resource and a core component of the circular economy model. Modern manufacturing facilities are no longer just places where goods are made and waste is produced. They are evolving into integrated hubs for material recovery…

  • Celebrating Pride in the Quarter at IET London: Savoy Place

    The ‘Pride in the Quarter’ project is a public art trail across central London, featuring 17 large lion and lioness sculptures, running from June–August 2026. Each of the lions are individually designed by London-based artists and tell a unique story inspired by the city’s culture, communities and creativity. Visit the London Heritage Quarter website for more information . IET London: Savoy Place have sponsored a lion, which is situated in Embankment gardens right outside of the venue. Our lion highlights the story of Sara Josephine Baker , a formidable physician who saved the lives of thousands of children through her pioneering public health work. Today, she is also recognised as an important LGBTQ+ figure, born into a time when living authentically as a part of the community was not accepted…

  • The ZX Spectrum and Sinclair C5: A Strategyzer Perspective on Success and Failure

    What Sir Clive Sinclair's Greatest Hit and Most Famous Flop Can Teach Us About Product Strategy I have just finished Strategyzer's Mastering Business Testing course. One of the most interesting aspects of the training was its exploration of four key risks associated with a product idea: desirability, feasibility, viability, and adaptability . While re-reading my notes and thinking about how I could apply these concepts, I remembered watching The Rise and Fall of Sinclair on YouTube, a video that examines the rise of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1982) and the decline of the Sinclair C5 (1985). I often quote the Sinclair C5 as an example of a product that was ahead of its time, so I thought comparing these two brainchilds of Sir Clive Sinclair would make for an interesting exercise. This is…

  • Looking back: the 1926 launch of The Electrical Age for Women

    By Daniel Belteki, Graeme Gooday and Anne Locker Introduction What was so special about June 1926? It wasn’t just that Britain was emerging from the extraordinary near paralysis of a General Strike the previous month, nor that a Conservative government was trying – unprecedentedly – to legislate for the UK to have a National Grid for mass electricity supply. This was also the moment that saw the arrival of a brand-new magazine: The Electrical Age for Women . Under a variety of names, this stylish publication ran for another six decades, with its young parent organisation, the Electrical Association for Women vigorously campaigning for the benefits of electricity in homes and businesses. That magazine is available for all to view (see link above) as a route into a past world that many now…

  • Building More Than Robots: How ShockSoc Rebuilt a Hands-On Engineering Community

    This academic year has been one of rebuilding, growth, and hands-on engineering for ShockSoc, the Leeds Electronics and Electrical Engineering Society. From the beginning of the year, our aim was to make the society more active, accessible, and practically useful for students across the School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering. We wanted ShockSoc to become more than just a society name, we wanted it to be a place where students could learn new skills, meet others with similar interests, and apply engineering concepts outside the lecture theatre. At the start of the year, a major focus was re-establishing the society’s presence and encouraging new students to get involved. Through Freshers Fair, social media, course group chats, and direct engagement with students, we worked to make…

  • Value Engineering in the Aerospace Industry: Balancing Performance, Cost, and Innovation

    The aerospace industry is defined by extreme demands: uncompromising safety standards, high performance requirements, long operational lifecycles, and massive capital investments. Whether for commercial aircraft, defense systems, or space exploration vehicles, every component and system must deliver maximum reliability while staying within strict budget and schedule constraints. This is where Value Engineering (VE) becomes indispensable. Value Engineering is a systematic, organized approach to improve the "value" of products, systems, or processes by analyzing their functions - defined simply as: Value = Function / Cost In aerospace, value is not just about cutting costs; it means delivering the necessary performance, safety, and quality at the lowest possible total lifecycle cost. It…

    Paul Lino Galutira
    Paul Lino Galutira

  • Sustainable Transport:Mapping Accessibility in UK Cities

    Mapping Accessibility in UK Cities The lecture was presented by Duncan Smith , Associate Professor in GIS and Visualisation at the Bartlett Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA), UCL. The lecture, held on Wednesday 13th May 2026, took place at the flagship IET venue at Savoy Place, London, in the Turing Theatre. The lecture primarily covered transportation challenges that we all face on a daily basis. Transportation Challenges: Sustainability, Productivity & Health Transport is a major source of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and is also vital to the economy. The talk presented these issues effectively through the analysis of tabulated data. It provided an interesting perspective on how transport accessibility impacts our daily lives. Transport is something we all rely on every…

  • How to use Corporate Venturing (an alternative to venture capital, offering faster routes to market)

    Commercialising innovation always needs funding and venture capital is not the only answer. The new corporate venturing world now stands beside venture capital, and it offers some unique advantages. However, Corporate Venturing needs navigating and steering. Join us for a webinar on the 17 th June when we will hear from Maija Palmer of Global Corporate Venturing on How to use Corporate Venturing and how it is now beginning to augment venture capital but with the promise of better and faster routes to market. Who should attend this webinar? Start-ups who may want to reach the market faster or are unsure about raising further investments. Those who want to work in an ambitious start-up. One of the many stalled companies facing a funding gap Private Equity funded companies with no…

  • Bo Yang: A Story of Mentorship and Growth

    Mentorship is often discussed as a tool for early career development yet its value does not diminish as engineers become more senior. Bo Yang’s experience through the IET mentoring programme shows how guidance from an experienced volunteer can help established leaders sharpen their impact refine their narrative and step confidently into wider influence. “I didn’t seek a mentor to learn how to do engineering, but to refine how I position leadership and articulate impact at a systems level.” When Bo first connected with her mentor Colin, she was already operating at Director level. She was leading large teams and delivering complex engineering programmes, but her challenge was no longer technical depth. Instead, her focus had shifted to scaling impact across organisations, strategy, and…

  • From Wind, Water and Uncertainty: The Engineering Lessons of the Golden Gate Bridge

    On 27 May 1937, the Golden Gate Bridge opened to the public, completing what was then the longest suspension bridge in the world. Spanning the turbulent Golden Gate strait between San Francisco and Marin County, the bridge represented a decisive leap in structural engineering, construction safety, and aerodynamic understanding. Nearly ninety years later, it remains a working piece of infrastructure and a reference point for engineers designing at the limits of scale. The engineering problem in context Before construction began in 1933, many experts believed a bridge across the Golden Gate was infeasible. The strait is over 1.6 km wide, with depths exceeding 100 m, powerful tidal currents, persistent fog, and strong winds flowing directly in from the Pacific Ocean. The site also lies near…

  • A brief history of the Sperry 1412 Computer

    Guest blog by Peter M Hills DipEE MSc CEng MIET The Sperry 1412 computer’s design was first postulated at Sperry Gyroscope’s Bracknell R & D department in 1967. The prototype appeared in 1968. Given that computer systems of the time were nearly the size of small houses, its applications were initially thought to be in the aerospace industry where a fast, general-purpose digital computer of shoebox dimensions and low weight would appeal to system designers. In fact, most applications were for the British and French Navies. Those applications were the Exocet MM38 missile pre-launch fire control system, operational in 1974 and its later upgrade MM40 operational in 1986, the Sea Archer GSA.7 gunfire control system for the Royal Navy, operational in 1983 and project Chevaline – a secret British…

  • Ambition vs Capability: Is the UK’s Space Vision Outpacing Its Engineering Talent?

    With growing investment in sovereign capability, resilient communications, and next-generation connectivity—including Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN) and advanced Satcom—the UK’s ambition is clear. However, ambition alone does not deliver capability. The real question is whether the nation’s engineering talent base is keeping pace with the scale and complexity of these aspirations. Across industry, there is increasing concern that the UK is not producing sufficient expertise in critical domains such as radio frequency (RF) and microwave engineering, FPGA development, and digital signal processing (DSP)—skills that underpin modern satellite and defence systems. Evidence suggests this gap is both structural and persistent. According to EngineeringUK, the UK requires approximately 173,000 new…

  • Henry Gantt and the Engineering of Time, Work and Delivery

    For practising engineers, few tools are as quietly influential as the Gantt chart. It appears in project reviews, capital programmes, system integrations and infrastructure upgrades across almost every engineering discipline. Yet its origins trace back to a single engineer born on 20 May 1861: Henry Laurence Gantt. On this day, it is worth revisiting not just the chart that bears his name, but the wider engineering problem Gantt was trying to solve, how to design work itself so that complex systems could be delivered reliably, humanely and at scale. The engineering context of Gantt’s era Gantt came of age during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when engineering was being transformed by industrialisation, electrification and mass production. Factories, shipyards and railways were…

  • How are you feeling? How Foothold’s free tool can support your mental health

    "How are you feeling?" It’s a question so many of us avoid giving the real answer to. "Fine, thanks", we tend to answer. The problem is, when you live in a culture or environment where being open about your emotions is rare, it can be more difficult to work out how you actually feel. You might think, "I tell other people I’m fine, so I guess I’m fine". It’s easier. It’s quicker. It doesn’t involve exploring uncomfortable feelings, or having difficult conversations. We’re not advising you give an honest and detailed answer the next time the supermarket cashier asks you how your day is. However, it’s possible to achieve a healthy middle ground where you can allow yourself to feel your feelings, recognise them as they arise, and have strategies you can use to look after yourself. Understand…

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