Abstract
Just when the many avid followers were despairing that it might have gone for good. Just when the few not-so-avid readers thought it was safe to go back to their comfort zones…this column is back! The break was simply to leave the way clear for another columnist, eminently more regarded and qualified, to comment on the technocracy of measurement and control. But here’s ‘Gnome’ with a shiny new shovel to scratch below the surface of all matters that may seem cosy and covert.
Now, are you connected? I mean are you connected with the ‘Internet of Things’? If you’ve missed the talk – and the hype – about it, let me explain, or merely recall, that the Internet of Things (IoT) is the buzz-term for a scenario imagineered from machine-to-machine communications. Through the convergence of wireless, sensor and other technologies the ‘internet of things’ encapsulates the linking, or connecting, of countless numbers of electronic devices with each other. But it’s not this connecting that’s ground-breaking; few devices these days don’t ultimately depend on interaction with something else. It’s the technology and the application of the technology which is offering capabilities and systems engineering that go beyond supposition and pipedream.
The UK’s Milton Keynes City Council is committed to employing the smart technology of the ‘internet of things’ in reconfiguring and improving its management of systems and provision of services. The first step towards this has been to embed sensors in all the public recycling bins so that the Council can be reliably informed when they’re full and ready for collection/emptying. There are now plans to extend the use of this technology to other services and the Council is hoping that a spin-off of all this will be to attract more smart-tech industry to Milton Keynes. Forward looking manufacturers wanting to make services a significant part of their product offerings are looking at the business potential of the internet of things. What they envisage is that, because the smart technology can measure the condition of devices, maintenance in its various forms can become predictable and ultimately a better standard of support service can be provided. The supplier and the customer can make bespoke arrangements – let’s not call them binding contracts just yet – to obviate disruptions from breakdown and the associated costs.
The attention that the IoT is now attracting may come across as the hype of the digerati – Google coughs up 761 million references in 0.43 seconds on the matter – but few will challenge the contention that it presages permanent and serious changes for control and instrumentation as we currently know it. And what’s the Institute doing about this? Ah well, my word-sensor is signalling that space on this subject has run out. So I’ll have to tell you in the next column…provided you connect, of course.
In the meantime, closer to home, by which I mean our Institute, there are noticeable stirrings of activity in some of the Institute’s Local Sections. After years of relative dormancy there’s a new breath of life in our West of Scotland Section, thanks to the efforts and enthusiasm of Tom Ryan (Chairman), Lyndsay Meek (Secretary), Gordon Thallon (Treasurer), and Steven Biggs (Events Organiser). Over the past year, with Glasgow Caledonian University as a venue for some meetings, they’ve set up a programme of events starting with a visit to a local power station. A more recent ‘Meet and Greet’ night in a Glasgow pub had a turnout that was reportedly ‘excellent’. A start has been made to merge the Manchester and Chester Section with the Merseyside Section, thereby creating a ‘Central North West’ Section. As it is, the Manchester Section is currently experiencing unprecedented interest and support from local industry. Technical meetings are now attracting regular attendances of up to fifty members and guests, its Dinner is edging towards the four hundred mark and, in the words of organiser Tom Nobes, ‘a return to former times’! So there’s speculation that, of our UK Sections, the emerging Central North West Section could soon be leading the field. Abroad, the Qatar Section have started this year with a flourish. The fact that there are currently no more than forty three members in the region has not discouraged Michael Scott (Chairman), Stuart Christie (Secretary/Treasurer and Peter Robertson (Programme/Events Secretary) from putting together a plan of action for both activities and future expansion.
The accreditation of academic degree and technical diploma courses is a key part of the Institute’s activities as a professional qualifying body. Carried out either on a joint basis with other professional engineering institutions or occasionally acting alone, we currently accredit courses at twenty respected UK universities and colleges. Of the twenty one professional engineering institutions licensed by the Engineering council to accredit courses we rank in the top third, leading informed third parties to say that the Institute ‘punches above its weight’. The cost of this achievement, however, is the constant need to resource the activity through the voluntary efforts and expertise of members – drawn from academia and industry – who act as assessors. In this role they develop a conversancy with established criteria and procedures and undertake visits to the universities/colleges where the formal business includes meeting and talking with a comprehensive cross-section of ‘uni-folk’. For all the preparation and formality of the assessments and visits, contacts are made, ideas and best practices are shared and the parties from both sides invariably come away from the tables satisfied that meaningful contributions have been made to sustaining the engineering profession. So if you’re interested and would like to know more know more about academic accreditation and getting involved with it please don’t hesitate to contact me.
For the past fourteen years Dr Stephen Thompson, FInstMC, Queens University, Belfast, has shaped the editorial fortunes of Transactions, the Institute’s learned publication at the forefront of research and development in measurement and control. During this time Transactions has established its own identity as an Institute brand …a brand that now generates twelve to fourteen thousand pounds worth of royalties each year. In the past seven years its reach and readership has exceeded all expectations and this year there are to be no less than ten issues. Steve would be the first to tell you that he has not been alone in achieving this. He’s had production and marketing support from SAGE publishers and considerable editorial support from Professors John Gray, University of Manchester, and Frank Lewis, University of Texas, Arlington. Backing the trio has been an active advisory board and team of associate editors. Word on the street, though, is that Steve is now planning to call things a day. Before he does let’s give him a big hand, please.
In closing, a word, or words, about politics in the Institute. Politics in a professional body like the Institute you snort?! Don’t kid yourselves. Wherever there are egos and hidden agendas there is politics…and professional institutions provide fertile grounds for egos and hidden agendas. In this context I’ve been asked on a number of occasions in recent times if the Institute is run, or at least influenced, by a cabal and caballeros or a cavalry and cavalleros. I can categorically assert that on all counts the answers are ‘no’ and ‘none’. But if you don’t believe me just ask the Gang of Three!
Digging for you…
Gnome