IET: Industry experts appointed to lead focus on key sectors

Thursday, 10 May 2012 9:21 AM

Europe’s largest engineers’ body has appointed five industry experts to head up new sector-focused, global communities of engineers.

Recognising that demands on engineers and technicians have changed, the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) is prioritising five key sectors: Built Environment; Design & Production; Energy; Information & Communications; and Transport.

The sectors provide a focal point for engineers and technicians from all disciplines to find relevant communities, events and information.

IET Head of Sectors and Communities, Steve Perry, said: “The work of engineers and technicians has never been more important, and it’s vital that the IET supports the good work that they do.

“The modern challenges require us, far more than ever, as engineers and technicians, to work more collaboratively together, and across sectors, disciplines and continents.

“These changes mean that we’ll be helping engineers and technicians enhance their careers, as well as working together to address the engineering and technology challenges of the 21st century.”

Built Environment
Cameron Steel has been appointed Chair of the Built Environment sector. He is Director of BK Design Associates, a building services design consultancy, where he works on healthcare, data centres and government-related projects.

He said: “Finding innovative technologies and engineering strategies to control our daily use of energy is central to our success as a society. Minimising waste saves resources for future generations.

“The Built Environment sector of the IET is looking to provide an interactive forum for all professional and technical disciplines to inform industry, academia, politicians and the general public of the practical measures needed to be more sustainable in the use of our buildings and the environment in which we all live, work and play.”

Design & Production
Morgan David has been appointed Chair of the Design & Production sector. He is Divisional Director, Research and Development with Sony Europe Ltd where he heads the Professional Solutions Technology & Engineering group, a global R&D and product development facility

Morgan said: “In taking on the role as chair for Design & Production I hope that I will be helping form a team that will stir things up a bit and causing IET members and the outside world to look at this sector in particular in a different way.

“We are focussed on the intersection of innovation and entrepreneurship and as engineers and technicians we are ideally trained to exploit this. By helping people to see how essential design and production is to the essence of our economy I hope it will inspire new people to get involved and make a contribution to strengthening our longer term design and production capability. “

Energy
Dr Phillip Cartwright has been appointed Chair of the Energy sector. He is a Director of the Laing O’Rourke, Engineering Excellence Group. Laing O’Rourke is the largest privately owned construction solutions provider in the UK.

He said: "The often conflicting challenges to achieve greater sustainability, security of supply and affordability in energy provision are driving an upsurge of innovation and investment in energy infrastructure, making this a time of huge challenge and opportunity for the profession.

“The IET's established reputation in power engineering and close collaboration with partner institutions, businesses and academia, will allow it to provide technical excellence in its publications, events and professional and policy support to meet the needs of this vibrant sector."

Information & Communications
Professor Will Stewart has been appointed Chair of the Information & Communications sector. He is also Chair of the IET Communications Policy Panel.

He said: “I am excited to be helping to co-ordinate member activities in IT and communications for the IET - this is a great opportunity to make the institution more responsive and to develop new events and services, and to better co-ordinate existing ones.

“'Globalisation' and the 'death of distance' are in many respects the result of work in our sector and we should lead the field in providing anywhere-anytime access to the tremendous resources of the IET, resources that can really help members develop their professional skills and advance their careers. And these are of global-leading standard - for example if you have not reviewed the prestige lectures available on demand on IET.tv you need to!”

Transport
Peter Sheppard has been appointed Chair of the Transport sector. He is System Safety Engineer with Bombardier Transportation working on the London Underground Sub Surface Railway project involved in the application of moving block signalling to the Underground Sub Surface Lines.

He said: “This is an opportunity to bring together the many threads of the currently diverse and dynamic transport sector. In the sector we are seeing new developments in electric vehicles from transmission systems to charging systems and in the UK alone we have large rail electrification projects as well as the CrossRail and Thameslink projects.

“In the aviation sector there are new developments in the long and medium-haul aircraft, looking for increased capacity and improving economy. I hope that not only can we share and support development across the sector, but through the Transport Sector look at ways of supporting a fully integrated transport system.”

Ends

About IET Sectors:
As the biggest engineering institution in Europe with over 150,000 members worldwide, the IET knows that the demands on the modern engineering community have changed. Professionals in engineering roles now have a very different job from 20 years ago.

In such a globalised working environment, practitioners need access to a wealth of up-to-date information that meets their needs. However, with so much information available in the engineering and technology world, it can be hard to know where to find the most relevant, reliable and quality assured resources quickly and easily.

Today’s engineering challenges require engineers and technicians to work collaboratively across sectors and disciplines. For example, if you are working as a mechanical engineer in a railway discipline within the Transport Sector we know that, as well as your own expertise, you need to have an understanding of the basic issues in areas such as electrical motors, traction and power distribution.

The Sectors provide a focal point for engineers and technicians to find relevant communities, events and information. We will also be championing the professional interests of these Sectors to Government and the wider public.

About Cameron Steel:
Cameron started his career in 1982 with the Army as an electrician with the Royal Engineers. Following eight years’ service he left HM Forces and went to college in Northampton. After completing a HND Engineering in 1993, he then worked as an electrical contractor in Scotland, before moving onto building services design consultancy, with RSP in Kent, working on large Healthcare projects.

This was followed by five years with Parsons Brinckerhoff where he was responsible for design and management of building services related projects for the education, healthcare, transportation and defence industries.

In January 2008 he moved to BK Design Associates, an SME M&E Building Services Design Consultancy, where he is now the principal and has been working on healthcare, data centres and government related projects.

He joined the IET in 1992 as a student and became a Member of the IET in and an Incorporated Engineer in 1999. During his membership, he has held numerous volunteer positions, including a three-year term on the IET Council (2008-2011).

About Morgan David:
Morgan David is Divisional Director, Research and Development with Sony Europe Ltd. a division of Sony Corp.

Morgan heads the Professional Solutions Technology & Engineering group, a global R&D and product development facility based in Basingstoke, UK. This is a centre for industry leading capabilities in professional video codecs, networking, metadata, content management and workflow. It is also an established software product and solutions development group serving regional and global markets.

Morgan has a degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Surrey and started his R&D career in the early days of professional digital video. Morgan has since had experience in many aspects of business strategy and planning at a senior level including open innovation, acquisitions and spin-outs.


About Dr Phillip Cartwright:

Dr Phillip Cartwright is a Director of the Laing O’Rourke, Engineering Excellence Group. Laing O’Rourke is the largest privately owned construction solutions provider in the UK.

Previously, Dr Cartwright was Head of Electrical Power and Control Systems with Rolls-Royce, a world-leading provider of integrated power systems and services for use on land, at sea and in the air, which operates in five global markets - civil aerospace, defence aerospace, marine, energy and nuclear.

Dr Cartwright started his career in the design of High Voltage Power Systems in the UK, India, China, Uruguay and Brazil. He has since designed and/or managed projects for safety critical systems (nuclear and aero) and many large turnkey power system applications including HVDC, Flexible AC Transmission Systems and onshore and offshore wind farms. He was previously a senior Engineering and Commercial manager with the nuclear group AREVA, working with developers, manufacturers and network operators throughout the world to progress the development and implementation of enabling technologies for energy networks.

Phillip has a PhD in the mathematical modelling of complex power systems and is a visiting Professor in Energy Systems at The University of Manchester and a visiting Professor in Power Systems at The University of Strathclyde.

About Professor Will Stewart:

Professor Stewart has also been Chair of the IET Communications Policy Panel since June 2008.

Previously the Chief Scientist at Marconi with wide interests in technologies from communications to bio sensing, he was educated at Imperial College (Physics). His personal interests have been in optical fibre communications and optoelectronics.

Recent interests include microstructured photonic materials (photonic crystals), optical slow-wave structures, nanomechanical systems and the application of various optical, semiconductor and acoustic technologies to medicine, particle physics and industrial processes.

He is a visiting Professor at UCL and at the ORC at Southampton. He is author on some 64 conference and journal papers, including many invited papers, and on 48 patents. He is a member of the editorial advisory board for the journal 'Science'.

About Peter Sheppard:

Peter is an experienced railway safety engineer in the field of signalling and systems. He started his safety career with London Underground and for the last 25 years he has worked on a number of novel projects to introduce electronic systems into the UK and international railways, including some very early cross acceptance safety cases.

Peter is also an experienced Independent Safety Assessor who has worked on many large projects including the first large scale introduction of axle counters to Network Rail as well as Chinese metro schemes.
 

Tags:
• business and industry