Four Electrical and Electronic Engineering Students from Queens University Belfast have made it through to the final 10 of the nPower Future Leaders Challenge. This competition is based on the teams developing a local green project to help reduce the carbon footprint of a local community, with the winning team going to Antarctica in March 2010 for the trip of a lifetime to witness the effects of global warming first hand.  The team from Queens University, The Enviro-Chefs, aimed their project at Elms Village.

After the introduction night with The Enviro-Chefs handed out goodie bags containing recipe booklets, energy saving light bulbs and tips on how to be more energy efficient, and encouraged the students to become Enviro-Chefs too!  The scheme benefits the students as well as the environment, for just £2.10 per person an apartment with 11 residents can buy ingredients for a hearty meal and a few bottles of wine, bringing a students food bill for the week to £10.50 (Monday – Friday).  This is considerably less than an individual would spend on feeding themselves each night and they get to socialize with the rest of the apartment at the same time.

Although the scheme was only be aimed at a limited number of apartments this year, it is easily expandable in coming years, with the intention of integrating The Enviro-Chef scheme into fresher’s week so that the students can be given recipe booklets etc from the very beginning and help them to get to know their flat mates sooner rather than later.  As first year students move into private accommodation in later years of study they will be our fellow Enviro-Chefs by passing our message onto new housemates and carrying on the practice of communal cooking.

All the teams are excited to be working with nPower in the competition. nPower are an IET accredited company and a major player in the green generation market who take promoting energy efficiency very seriously. ‘Over the next three years nPower will spend over £400 million helping customers reduce the amount of energy they use through free or energy subsided measures’ says team captain Caron, ‘so its great to be working with a company who are trying a hard as we are to make people aware that reducing energy usage is a free and simple way to make a difference’.

Present around the world 2009 was held in Lanyon Building on Tuesday 24th November.

Judy Black, a Power Academy Placement Student at NIE presented at the event:

'I really enjoyed the event, it was a real challenge to present a technical project to people so far removed from the work we are doing here at NIE on Dynamic Line Ratings. The other entrants were tough competition and the research they presented on was second to none, honestly I felt a little out of my depth. I suppose the most important thing I learnt is not to write yourself off! This sort of thing enhances your confidence, which is great now when I'm speaking to customers and colleagues at work. '

Judy won first place in the NI Regional Final and a cheque for £150 and Eyad Hamad took second place at the event.

Over 30 students attended the CV life skills session which was taken by Janette Rawlinson. Janette is an independent consultant and has provided many life skill courses for the IET.

The IET Pub Quiz 2009 was once again extremely well attended, with over 120 people helping kick start the 2009/10 IET social calendar.

Many thanks to our sponsors, Microsoft for a copy of Windows 7, Queen's University Belfast EEECS for 5 bottles of wine, and primary sponsor Thales Air Defense for a £100 Amazon gift token (to be spent wisely on books and course materials!).

The IET was treated to an informative tour of System Operator Northern Ireland's (SONI) Castlereagh House Control Centre.  We even got to see the big board!

The IET NI first annual YM formal was a great success with strong attendance from students.  Many thanks go to Judy Black for her hard work in organising this great event.

The IET Younger Members' tour of Tayto Castle, Tandragee, was well attended and enjoyed.  Mr Tayto himself greeted the IET group.  Thanks to the Tayto tour guides and staff and to Terence for organising the event.

The IET's annual formal has once again been a great success.  Many thanks go to Randal Gilbert and the organising committee for their hard work.

Students Compete for IET Megaw Memorial Lectures Prize

The IET recently hosted the Dr Eric Megaw Memorial Lectures within the School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.  Four final year electrical and electronic engineering undergraduates competed for the prize, delivering short presentations and demonstrations on their major personal projects.  These covered a very diverse range of topics, ranging from the design and fabrication of MEMs devices and the simulation of guitar strings, to a multi-band radar absorber, and the management of wind power variability with intelligent thermostats.  Judging panel on the evening included Mr Randal Gilbert, IET NI Chairperson and Plant and Technical Manager for NIE, Dr Ben Greene, Director of SAP Research Belfast and Dr John Flynn, Head of the Business Service’s Division at Asidua.  All three judges are graduates of electrical and electronic engineering at Queen’s.   

The audience was treated to four very high quality presentations but John O’Higgins won through in the end with his presentation entitled ‘Managing Wind Power Variability with Intelligent Thermostats.’  The judges cited John’s very clear and concise presentation about this very topical issue, along with a live demonstration, as the elements which put him ahead of the others.  Robin Todd came second with his talk on the radar absorber.  Siobhan Neill and Brendan Murphy shared third place.  It was obvious that a lot of preparation had gone into all four presentations.  The four finalists were all presented with cheques by Mr Randal Gilbert who chaired the judging panel.



Thanks are extended to the organisers, Dr. Maire O'Neill from QUB and Dr. Karen McMenemy on behalf of the IET, for what proved to be a very successful event.

The second year of the IET Northern Ireland Network's round of the Present Around the World competition saw another set of excellent presentations for three enthusiastic presenters.

Alison McArdle took 1st Prize with her presentation "Mathematical Investigation of a Mammal’s Healing Response" based on her PhD research at Queen's University Belfast.

Celina Xia and Adrian McKernan took 2nd Prize, both speaking on their PhD research topics.

Present Around the World also incorporates the Brennan Cup.

IET NI Chairman Randal Gilbert presents the competitors their prizes.

The IET Pub Quiz 2007 was extremely well attended, attracting over 120 people from the local universities and business.

Many thanks to the main sponsors of the event, Microsoft and Thales.  Thanks must also go to the IMechE and Institute of Materials for joining in and bringing a good crowd with them.  Harry, our quiz master, made a huge effort to ensure that everything went as smoothly on the night as it did; many many thanks.  Also, not forgetting the IET Younger Members' committee who did the marking and scoring on the night, and everyone who attended for making it a very enjoyable experience.

Congratulations to runners up "The A-Team" and the nights winners "Hey Bert, Hey Ernie".

Photos of the event are now online in our gallery.