October 2014 Young Member Newsletter

A message from Ruth Shilston, Chair of the Young Members Board

In the October edition of the Young Members Newsletter Ruth Shilston talks about the Young Member of the Year Awards and another successful Young Members Board Strategy Weekend.

Quarter three of the IMechE year is my favourite as the Young Members Board chair because this is when you nominate volunteers who are doing a fantastic job for the Young Member of the Year Award, and we get to reward them. So first I would like to congratulate everyone who was nominated for an award and to thank you for all of your enthusiasm and the time that you give up volunteering.You can read more about the category winners below.

Personally, I would like to congratulate Siddartha Khastgir who is this year’s overall Young Member of the Year.   Siddartha caught our attention last year when he won the Outstanding Contribution award.  For our overall winner we look for someone who has been impressive in a number of the categories. Over the past year Siddartha has been instrumental in organising the upcoming Engineering Tomorrow event, a regional meeting for young members in Sri Lanka.  He has built on his previous success with the India photo competition to organise a Southern Asia Regional competition.  Finally, we were impressed with his innovative development of an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle for Coastal Monitoring Applications.

To read more about Siddartha follow the link to our Vision Awards.

Another main focus for the Young Members Board has been our recent Strategy weekend.  This year we visited Cardiff and I would like to thank Sian Brake and the local committee for giving us such a warm welcome.

The strategy weekend is when we bring together young members from across the institution to share knowledge and to develop our plans for the future.  We are busy capturing the outputs from the weekend and will share some of our plans in the next newsletter.

Best Wishes,

Ruth

Technical Visit to CERN

Young Members and students at the University of Strathclyde undertook a trip to CERN in Switzerland, which was part funded by the James Bates Grant. Mark Goudie writes about their experience below.

Every year the Electrical and Mechanical Engineering (EME) degree has tried to broaden the industrial and engineering site exposure of the undergraduate students through various technical trips. These trips are not only great opportunities to convince prospective high school students to do an engineering degree, but can also convince them to pursue an engineering career.

Technical visits like this one can remind undergraduate students why engineering is a worthwhile career and possibly why they chose their engineering degree in the first place! With the aim of organising an inspirational, once in a lifetime technical trip, CERN was chosen.

CERN (or the European Organization for Nuclear Research) employs physicists and engineers who utilise particle accelerators and other complex scientific instruments to probe the fundamental structure of the universe. Also known as the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, the particle colliders used by CERN accelerate the particles to the speed of light. This process gives the physicists clues about how the particles interact, and provides insights into the fundamental laws of nature.

Thanks to sponsorship and a successful application to the James Bates Grant, any financial barriers that would stop some students from applying were removed.

We arrived in Switzerland on Sunday 24 August and wanted to maximise both the cultural and technical elements of the trip. For most of us, this was our first time in Switzerland and we wanted to experience Swiss culture. This involved sightseeing, enjoying Swiss chocolate and exploring the “old town” of Geneva.

The technical visit involved an introductory lecture that highlighted the basics of particle physics and the history of CERN. After that we made our way to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) B cavern for a tour of the underground facilities. 105 meters below the surface we got to see the LHCb collider and the Delphi collider. These impressive pieces of technology highlight the complex nature of the work carried out at CERN.

All of the students involved on the trip were able to experience a multinational engineering environmentand we all gained a greater appreciation of the cutting edge technologies and research carried out at CERN while expanding our knowledge about particle physics and the practical applications of such research.

Mark Goudie, a final year EME student and the organiser of the trip had this to say: 

“This experience has helped to improve my organisational skills, communication skills and has given me a healthy respect for travel agents. CERN was humbling with the complexity of the engineering involved and really opened our eyes. Another revelation was the heavy involvement of students and young engineers in the construction and design of equipment at CERN; this caught most of the group by surprise. Overall it has been a once in a lifetime trip for the students and although I cannot speak for the others: It has reaffirmed my decision to continue engineering as a career.”

Young Member of the Year Awards 2014 

Congratulations to all the category nominees and winners of the Young Member of the Years Awards 2014. The Young Members Executive write about the category winners below.

The award for ‘Inspiring the Next Generation’ went to Yun-Hang Cho from the Yorkshire region. We had a number of outstanding nominees in this category and my congratulations go to each and every one of them. Yun (as he is known) had a very strong entry into a number of different categories, but his contributions to supporting the Institutions key STEM engagement targets impressed the judges the most. As an individual STEM Ambassador he has worked with several of the Institution’s key partners to deliver a number of fun, informative events. He always receives good feedback from the delivery partners, the teaching staff and indeed the students and has been nominated for other awards for his contributions; a testament to the enthusiasm and professionalism he offers as an Ambassador. At an institutional level Yun’s efforts as an Education Officer have promoted best practice in the Yorkshire region, building relationships with other societies and institutions to deliver joint events in the region. On behalf of the YMB and the Institution, the YMB Executive team would like to congratulate Yun for this well-deserved award.

Peter Bonnington

Chris Maharaj is the Chairman Elect of the Pan-Caribbean Group and has recently been appointed as Americas Young Member Representative to the International Strategy Board. Chris was nominated for the Young Member Volunteer Awards by Tony Waters, the Americas Region Secretary, in recognition of his outstanding role in supporting the development of young engineers. As a lecturer in Mechanical Engineering at the University of the West Indies Trinidad and Tobago, Chris has reached out to students across the faculty encouraging them to become student members of the IMechE and providing help and support throughout the process. Through these efforts it has been possible to form a student chapter at the university, allowing the IMechE Young Member community to thrive. This thriving community supports the development of young engineers through its activities and events. Chris has achieved all this despite facing the many challenges associated with starting up a chapter with limited support and a low level of overall awareness amongst the student population regarding the IMechE.

Marcus Nicholls

Robert Dowdall won the award for 'Engineering Outreach.' The standout feature of Robert's application was the variety of groups, companies and institutions that he has engaged over the last year. Ranging from companies like Intel,  Ultimaker and Bord Gais, many of the universities in Ireland to grass roots events such as the Science Hack day and Maker Faire.  His approach to engaging people focuses on two things: keeping things light and fun, for example creating a cloud in a bottle to show how they are formed, and providing volunteers with simple and effective tools to allow them to spend their time volunteering not on admin. Congratulations to Robert on winning this award.

Ally Choat

The James Bates Grant provides fifty percent of the funding required for a technical visit that promotes mechanical engineering. The YMB Community and Charity Grant awards £500 for a Charitable cause. Read more about the grants below.

James Bates Grant

The James Bates Grant is administered by the YMB Executive Committee and can be used to promote mechanical engineering and the professional development of Young Members of the Institution. Any  Affiliate, Associate or Member who has been professionally registered for ten years or less can apply for the grant. This applies to both UK and International Members.

The Grant is a great way to explore elements of mechanical engineering that you may not get to in your every day activity. Technical visits can also help reinforce your passion for engineering and demonstrate why engineering is a worthwhile and rewarding career.

Significantly, the outputs from grants can be used to demonstrate the vastness and rewarding nature of a mechanical engineers profession. It is a learning opportunity not just for those involved on the trip, but for those they inform. 

To apply download the James Bates Grant application form and submit to the Governance and Engagement department.

YMB Community and Charity Grant

The YMB Community and Charity Grant supports Young Members who would like to pursue a charitable cause that is engineering related by providing £500 to fund any resources required, from travel expenses to venue hire.

The Grant can be used to fund worthwhile existing or planned projects. It is an excellent opportunity to enable members to make a difference in their local community or further afield whilst promoting the mechanical engineering and the work of the Institution. The Community and Charity Grant is an opportunity to gain funding for a worthwhile engineering project, whilst offering you additional routes through which to promote a charitable cause.

To apply for the YMB Community and Charity Grant please download the application form and submit the Governance and Engagement Department.

No idea is too big or small so submit an application today if you would like to arrange a visit or support a worthwhile charitable cause. Both grants are open for application all year round.  For further information please contact Seyi Falusi.

What do engineers and scientists have to do with fashion? A team from Threads will be posing that question to the 60,000 students and visitors attending this year’s the Clothes Show Live

From the 5 - 9 December the Clothes Show Live will be held at the Birmingham NEC. From production methods through to the manufacture of man-made fibres the Threads team will be looking at the science behind how different fabrics work, how engineers are influencing trends such as wearable fashion or sportswear and why it is important to understand the engineering properties of materials when designing clothes and accessories.

This project represents a fantastic opportunity for the engineering institutions to engage with an audience not traditionally associated with STEM subjects. In addition to running stands and demonstrations at the event, Threads will also be producing a number of short films which will be available through their website for schools to use in support of the curriculum (GCSE through to A Level).

The team from Threads are currently looking for:

• Volunteers who could spend one or more days at the event manning stands and running demonstrations.

• Experts, engineers or scientists, who have experience working in areas connected to the fashion industry (or just a keen interest)  who would design demonstrations, provide commentary and potentially appear as interviewees in the films.

• Presenters who need not be experts in their field, but an enthusiasm for the subject is essential. The team would ideally like to find young people who are comfortable in front of a camera and who can project a sense of inquisitiveness.