Institution news
Dear Member,
And so, here in the Northern hemisphere, summer has finally arrived. The tennis at Wimbledon, cricket at Lords and the Open Golf just about to start in Portrush.
It would be nice to quote Gershwin to say the “living is easy” but the work of the Institution continues apace. We have recently completed three of our ‘Challenges’ (Unmanned Aircraft System, Railway and Home Automation) with just Formula Student waiting in the wings to start on Thursday. These challenges continue to both engage students from around the world in the value of pursuing a career in their studies, and to drive innovation through their designs. This year we have had overall winners already from Pakistan, Germany and the UK. More on those in another ‘Birdcage Walk’ but for now do take a look at the web pages that show what this year’s teams have achieved. Please do also take a chance to go along to Silverstone if you are anywhere near the centre of England next weekend. You can access tickets via our website.
This week also saw a plenary meeting of the UK’s National Engineering Policy Centre. This is a joint venture across the engineering profession which is being hosted by the Royal Academy of Engineering. To quote its website it,
“…connects policy makers with critical engineering expertise to inform and respond to policy issues of national importance, giving policymakers a route to advice from across the whole profession, and the profession a unified voice on shared challenges.”
It is very active in its own research, for example, the ethics of Artificial Intelligence and the role of digital technology in the engineering curriculum, as well as responding to the UK Government’s own consultations. Chi Onwurah MP was there encouraging every engineer to go and meet their elected representatives as a way of getting to know how to influence policy. She also encouraged us to keep an eye on relevant debates in Parliament, available free to watch live or on catch-up from around the world on parliamentlive.tv. Overall, however, the Policy Centre is just a great example of the institutions already working together for our common good.
Finally back at home, we are one year on from some major changes last summer at Birdcage Walk. The Finance, Governance and Code of Conduct Reviews have been completed and an update will shortly be available on the website. Our Review Implementation team is now in place to engage the wider membership and start to work out how to take action on the three reviews, which have so far just reported to Council and to Trustee Board. Led by President-Elect Terry Spall, the team has two Trustees and four Senior Members as well as the CEO in support. Good communication will be high on their agenda, so that the wider membership can be kept informed about their thinking and hence the reasons behind any actions they recommend. You will therefore hear from them very shortly. To call on another 1930s lyric, “Tain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it” summarises the challenge they face. We will certainly give them every support we can.
Thank you,
Colin Brown
Chief Executive