Celebrating 50 Years of IEEE serving the engineering community in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland

Greenwich

The members' events to celebrate our anniversary at Greenwich, Edinburgh and Shannon turned out very positively. Each event had eminent speakers, very special technical visits and a strong social content - all of which provided a positive climate for networking.

At the Old Royal Naval College we were welcomed by our hosts the Vice Chancellor of the University of Greenwich followed by Prof. Chris Bailey who showed us the path of the meridian laser beacon at Greenwich and a particularly interesting insight to the engineering contribution of the stress analyses by his team which helped establish the supporting structure of the Cutty Sark in its new museum. The formal programme included addresses by the IEEE President Gordon Day who spelled out the positive and inventive contribution by engineers to the global community, by Marko Delimar the IEEE Director of Region 8 which is also celebrating its 50th anniversary who recognised the positive leadership contribution to the Region by volunteers from UK and Ireland, by Nihal Sinnadurai the IEEE UK&RI Chair who praised the contributions by volunteers of, briefly recounted the history of the founding of the Section (see http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/ ). The commemorative pens prepared for the 50th anniversary incorporated 2Gb USB inserts loaded with the Brief History of IEEE UK&RI and the Programme of celebratory events.

The Keynote lecture was by Mike Short, VP of Telefonica. Mike gave us an informative insight to the progress of communications technologies from hardwired to wireless and a view to how things will connect in future. As the 2012 President of the IET, Mike who has been a long-standing friend, has also established new friendships with IEEE. He confirmed a mutual desire that IET and IEEE should collaborate with a resultant greater benefit to members of both institutes.

We then navigated our way past the temporary foot bridge built to connect the Olympics Equestrian venue, to the magnificent Great Painted Hall, and by special invitation arranged by Chris Bailey, to a privileged tour of the newly reopened Cutty Sark, followed by drinks at the nearby ancient Gypsy Moth pub. There were many opportunities for both social and technical networking.

Edinburgh

IEEE has a close relationship with the Royal Society of Edinburgh, where the second event was hosted. Our hosts provided an insightful lecture on the RSE — which has a long tradition of recognising outstanding contributors in both science and the arts. The welcome address was by the Vice Principal of Heriot-Watt University who not only sponsored the event but also made a major contribution to its organisation. Not only were the IEEE addresses by Gordon Day and Marko Delimar, but also by Ricky Lee the President of CPMT Society who had travelled from Hong Kong especially to join our celebrations because of the close association of the Society with UK&RI Section.

The insightful and entertaining Keynote by Prof Kevin Warwick described the development of computing predicted by the outstanding Alan Turing who had also devised the ‘Turing Test' for machine intelligence. Kevin tested the audience's assessment of machine responses vs that by a man and a woman. The best machine fooled most of us.

There were breaks to enable the intended spirit of the celebrations, namely to enable members to meet and network. The connections of the RSE led also to the onward programme to visit the museum housed in the birth home of James Maxwell Clerk. The museum housed much information not only of the genius of James Maxwell but also other peers associated with innovation.

Shannon

Following on from a developing relationship of IEEE seniors of the Irish Aviation Authority, the IAA invited the IEEE to hold its final celebration event at their centre in Shannon. The IAAC proved to be a superb venue not only hosting our event but also being the base from which air traffic is managed off the west coast of Ireland.

The Head of Air Traffic Management welcomed us on behalf of the IAA Board and gave us an insight to the founding of the IAA. Peter Nolan described the significant IEEE relevance of technical activities of the IAA, comprising: Aerospace and Electronic Systems, Communications Systems, Computer Networks and Software, Antennas and Propagation, Reliability. Martin Bastiaans, the Director-elect of IEEE Region 8 recalled some well-preserved archives from IEEE Benelux, which showed the strong UK&RI involvement in the founding of Region 8 and went on to describe the scope and challenges of Air Traffic Management.

Jeff Voas of the National Institute of Standards and Technology focused on the need for and delivery of secure applications for mobile communications for military in the front line. The secure Apps are available as a library of parts to be loaded into parallel locations in personal mobile phones of military personnel. Jeff's attendance at Shannon required perseverance through a series of cancelled planes, an 8 hour wait and Manchester and finally arrival at Shannon with no baggage!

The visits to the live Air Traffic Control Centre manned by very disciplined management of teams and shifts was an eye-opener and the subsequent visit to back-office and equipment rooms showed the very demanding environment met by the IAA personnel.

The visits, lunch and reception hosted by the IAA were excellent opportunities for IEEE members to meet and make new acquaintances.