Abstract
The InstMC Surrey & Sussex Section has again awarded its Leo James Awards to local students of Electrical/Electronic Engineering courses during September 2013.
The intention of the Leo James Award is ‘to stimulate the interest of young engineers in Control Engineering as well as in the activities of the Institute’. Leo James was a local founder member who bequeathed a donation of money to this Local Section for retention as a fund for this specific purpose.
University of Sussex undergraduate student Faisal Al-Mansour gained the highest marks for ‘System Analysis and Control’ within the second year of his Electrical/Electronic Engineering degree course. Faisal also gains 1-year of free Student Membership of the institute, to cover his third year of study, as part of his Leo James Award prize. We wish Faisal every success with his ongoing studies and would hope that he eventually decides to join the InstMC as his chosen professional institute.
Anna Woznik (now Richardson) has become the 2013 Higher Education Leo James Award recipient for gaining 12 distinctions in her Higher National Diploma (HND) Electrical/Electronic Engineering course with 4 of these units being Measurement and Control relevant, namely, Instrumentation and Control Principles, Measurement and Testing, programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and Mechatronics Systems Principles. Anna was also recognised with a special college award for the best, self-funded engineering project: ‘Controlled Current Switch Mode Power Supply’ for a new DC arc–based metal analyser, which identifies scrap metal for incoming and outgoing quality control of production. This entailed having to verify its function to comply with instrument specifications and involved many different tests, on the present design. The motivation behind this project was old parts of the design now becoming obsolete, but also a desire to shrink the size of the circuit boards and to improve design. The main part of this project involved a redesign of the Pulse Width Modulator to utilise a pulse-width modulation (PWM) controller saving both space and cost. Anna had to decline the offered student membership to the institute due to no immediate further technical studies. She already holds an MSc in Technical Physics from Poland and has been successful with her application to become a full, corporate member (MInstMC) of the institute. We hope that she will later have time to be able to assist our local section.
Anna receiving her Leo James Award, at a special Central Sussex College ceremony, from the Surrey & Sussex Section’s Mark James (Membership Officer) and Richard Brown (Programme Secretary)
What the Surrey & Sussex Section is recognising with the Higher Education derivative of the Leo James Award is that students at ‘technical college’ are mostly employed in active, full-time engineering technician roles. This year’s winner has been working as a Production Engineer at a locally based company and, as such, has been involved in the testing and calibration of manufacturing equipment. Such students are admittedly more mature in years than university undergraduates but with the advantage of having a much more practical side to their training and experience; plus, a distinctly broader scope to their Measurement and Control–related education through the Higher National Certificate/Diploma (HNC/D) course structures. We therefore feel that these students make valid candidates for institute membership albeit that their academic achievements would require enhancement either by higher study or via the Career Based Learning Option (ref. David Otterson in Measurement and Control, vol. 46, no.7, p. 191) should they wish to gain Engineering Council registration through InstMC membership.