Academy in the News

• Technical staff get built into Leaders
  www.timesonline.co.uk: 1 July 2008
  BY any standards, Alan Tweedie has had a remarkable career. Some of the civil-engineering projects he has worked on have become icons. He set up the Frankfurt office of Arup that built the Commerzbank Tower, which was the tallest building in Europe on its completion in 1997.

• `Solutions for the Planet – The Great Debate´
  www.shef.ac.uk: 1 July 2008
  Pupils from four specialist science, engineering, mathematics and business schools in Yorkshire gathered at the University of Sheffield this week (Tuesday 24 June 2008), to present their ideas on how to tackle some of our planet´s problems. The presentations formed part of a heat for `Solutions for the Planet – The Great Debate´, which is a new Yorkshire competition, aimed at engaging young people in science, engineering and enterprise.

• Parasite adaptation (BBC podcast)
  news.google.co.uk: 27 June 2008

• Let’s hear it for the engineers
  www.building.co.uk: 18 June 2008
  New thinking: We’re qualified, skilled and creative, so why do even our colleagues fail to recognise the importance of engineers? Aaron Wall kicks off a series of columns by our graduate advisory board.

• Chinese Academy of Engineering president awarded RAE International Medal
  english.people.com.cn: 18 June 2008
  Xu Kuangdi, president of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, has been honored by the British Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE) with the International Medal for his outstanding achievements in engineering.

• McLaren’s Ron Dennis awarded engineering medal
  www.formula1.com: 11 June 2008
  McLaren team principal Ron Dennis has been awarded the Prince Philip Medal by HRH the Duke of Edinburgh, at a prestigious awards ceremony hosted by the UK’s Royal Academy of Engineering. The event, which took place in London on Monday night, is held annually to celebrate innovation and excellence in engineering.

• World's first commercial bionic hand
  www.telegraph.co.uk: 10 June 2008
  "As a project, it scored very highly on all three of our criteria," says Dr Geoff Robinson, Chairman of the MacRobert Award Judging Panel. "In addition to many specific innovations in the design and fabrication of the artificial hand, Touch Bionics have fundamentally changed the benchmark for what constitutes an acceptable prosthesis.

• Bionic hand wins top tech prize
  news.bbc.co.uk: 10 June 2008
  The world's most advanced, commercially available, bionic hand has clinched the UK's top engineering prize. The i-LIMB, a prosthetic device with five individually powered digits, beat three other finalists to win this year's MacRobert award.

• Let's have a smaller pilot barrage first
  www.nce.co.uk: 6 June 2008
  Recent discussions by the ICE and a seminar hosted by the Royal Academy of Engineering last month highlighted the many environmental issues surrounding the use of River Severn's tidal power to generate electricity.

• Industry plaudit for Shell power pioneer
  www.pressandjournal.co.uk: 6 June 2008
  Mechanical engineer Ken Innes, the Aberdeen-based head of rotating equipment for Shell Exploration and Production in Europe, has won a Royal Academy of Engineering silver medal for his outstanding contribution with a commercial benefit to British engineering.

• Research intelligence - Fancy coming to my place?
  www.timeshighereducation.co.uk: 6 June 2008
  The Newton International Fellowships, launched this week, will fund the most promising early-stage overseas researchers to undertake postdoctoral research at UK universities with the aim of helping UK research groups establish long-term international collaborations. There are separate postdoctoral fellowships for UK nationals. The programme is funded by the Royal Society, the British Academy and the Royal Academy of Engineering with the support of Research Councils UK.

• Rising to the Challenge
  www.telegraph.co.uk: 2 June 2008
  Engineers hold the key to solving the problems of the future, says Lord Browne of Madingley, president of the Royal Academy of Engineering

• Coleraine Student Wins National Engineering Leadership Award
  build.ie: 2 June 2008
  A Coleraine student has been named as the recipient of a national Engineering Leadership Advanced Award from The Royal Academy of Engineering.

• Engineering talent: Acknowledging the work of scientists
  www.timesonline.co.uk: 30 May 2008
  Last year the Royal Academy of Engineering elected 30 new Fellows, of whom more than half work in an industrial or applied setting. Like our colleagues in the Royal Society, we exist to promote excellence in our field and to help to foster the coming generations of achievers. Our fellowship celebrates engineers who teach, research, practise and advise on all aspects of engineering.

• Publications promote science careers
  www.engineeringtalk.com: 29 May 2008
  The science, technology, engineering and maths communities were challenged to take part in a project designed to help teachers and lecturers across the UK encourage the next generation of young scientists, engineers and mathematicians The STEM Directories project was launched in London at the STEM Partnership conference, chaired by Lord Sainsbury, former Science Minister.

• East of England corners the glory in major UK engineering competition
  www.businessweekly.co.uk: 23 May 2008
  A robotic retrieval system for the UK Biobank working at -80°C with 10 million samples, a catalytic converter set to clean up diesel car emissions and a penny-sized sensor that can de tect the tiniest hints of diseases and explosives will compete with the world's first commercially available bionic hand for the 2008 Royal Academy of Engineering MacRobert Award.

• Student scoops top engineering award
  www.gla.ac.uk: 19 May 2008
  A Glasgow student has received a prestigious Engineering Leadership Advanced Award. The award recognises the most exceptional engineering students in the UK who show impressive leadership skills. Product Design Engineering student Samuel Smith was awarded £5000 by the Royal Academy of Engineering at an awards ceremony on 11 May 2008.

• Engineering skills can build a better society
  www.ft.com: 16 May 2008
  In this country, too few engineers get involved in public life. Yet engineers have a unique set of skills and perspectives that should be used to create a better future.

• Juniors fly the UK engineering flag in the USA
  www.engineeringtalk.com: 13 May 2008
  Each has earned the right following their successes in either the Young Engineer for Britain contest, which is run annually by Young Engineers, a charitable organisation with a major role in the Royal Academy of Engineering's BEST programme, or in the CREST Awards at the UK Young Scientists' and Engineers' Fair, which is organised by the British Association for the Advancement of Science

• Human sample store is award contender
  www.telegraph.co.uk: 13 May 2008
  The Polar System can keep 10 million human blood and fluid samples at -112F (-80C) and will also allow scientists to access them at any time, without having to enter the refrigerated area. It is already being used at the UK Biobank, a medical research centre, and has now been named as one of the four inventions on the shortlist for the annual MacRobert award. advertisement The prize is given out in June by the UK’s Royal Academy of Engineering for technological and engineering innovation.

• Frigid robot eyes top tech prize
  news.bbc.co.uk: 12 May 2008
  The firm has previously won a MacRobert award for technology used to control soot emissions from trucks and buses. The team will find out if it is a winner again - along with the other finalists - at a ceremony in London on 9 June.

• 'We shouldn't believe that biofuels are a silver bullet'
  www.timeshighereducation.co.uk: 08 May 2008
  As world food prices soar to the highest levels since the Second World War, the finger is being pointed, at least in part, at Western demand for biofuels.

• Pupils engineer a bright future
  icwales.icnetwork.co.uk: 30 April 2008
  A team of engineering boffins at Neath Port Talbot College has helped Corus develop a new system for treating water at the plant. Their creation secured the A-level students runners-up place in the best working model or prototype category at the Engineering Education Scheme Wales Awards. 

• Let’s go lunar roving
  www.ballard.co.uk: 28 April 2008
  Space engineer Dr Yang Gao of the Surrey Space Centre is to develop a new generation of lunar rovers with one of China’s top engineers, funded by The Royal Academy of Engineering. The project will pave the way for future moon shots such as the UK proposed Moonraker lander mission and the second phase of China’s Chang’e programme.

• Engineering: New way forward
  www.independent.co.uk: 24 April 2008
  An exciting new engineering diploma is about to hit the classroom, says the director of education programmes at The Royal Academy of Engineering.

• 160 Sixth-formers display engineering skills at open day
  www.newsguardian.co.uk: 23 April 2008
  Sixth form students from the north east, Cumbria and Yorkshire displayed their engineering skills at an open day supported by the Institution of Civil Engineers. A total of 160 students in teams of four took part in the event, held at the University of Newcastle and organised by the Engineering Education Scheme.

• EMdot has been awarded the 2008 Royal Academy of Engineering ERA Foundation Entrepreneurs prize
  icsuttoncoldfield.icnetwork.co.uk: 22 April 2008
  The students had previously taken part in one of 15 free Airbus in-school training days which were delivered by The Smallpeice Trust, as part of the firm's partnership with the Royal Academy of Engineering's Best Programme.

• New drive to enthuse more young people about engineering
  presszoom.com: 18 April 2008
  The TH Barton Innovation Fund will support outreach work within the University's Faculty of Engineering, including a range of activities for both primary and secondary school children on campus and in local schools. Events will also be run in conjunction with charities, local and national engineering bodies and the Royal Academy of Engineering.

• Engineering Mission for the young
  www.nwemail.co.uk: 18 April 2008
  The Royal Academy of Engineering selected Barrow as the first area to start a collaborative project. It aims to help more young people experience and understand engineering and aspire to choose it as a career. The BEST Engineering Programme, Better Engineering, Science and Technology, will be run at secondary schools, Furness College and Barrow Sixth Form College.

• Prize winning electro-technology
  www.theengineer.co.uk: 11 April 2008
  Queen Mary University's newest spin out company, EMdot, has been awarded the 2008 Royal Academy of Engineering ERA Foundation Entrepreneurs prize.

• HEFCE secures physics collaboration in South East England
  www.hefce.ac.uk: 9 April 2008
  Professor Eastwood told the HEFCE conference at the University of Warwick that as well as supporting greater research collaboration, HEFCE was making impressive progress in working with partners to stimulate interest in science subjects. HEFCE had provided £15 million for demand-raising work. Four projects - Chemistry for our future, led by the Royal Society of Chemistry; Stimulating Physics, led by the Institute of Physics; the London Engineering Project, led by the Royal Academy of Engineering.

• Biotech, IT innovations compete for 2008 Millennium Technology Prize
  english.people.com.cn: 9 April 2008
  The finalists for the 2008 Millennium Technology Prize have been announced at a press conference held at the Royal Academy of Engineering in London on Tuesday.

• Manchester highly commended for 'green' education initiative
  www.manchester.ac.uk: 7 April 2008
  The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) sponsored programme in the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences (EPS) was highly commended in the course category in the Higher Education Environmental Performance Improvement (HEEPI) Green Gown Awards.

• Civil and environmental engineering – building a better world
  www.independent.co.uk: 4 April 2008
  After finishing my A-levels, I chose to take part in the Year in Industry scheme run by the Royal Academy of Engineering. This consisted of a year working for a global, multi-disciplinary engineering firm. It was really good. I got exposure to some huge projects, as well as getting a project to call my own. It was the first time that I was ever given responsibility in a job, which made me enthusiastic about getting started with my degree.

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