Events in February 2008

IET London, Kingston Section

5th February 2008 - Operation and Control of the National Grid

Lecture by Matthew Magill

The National Grid, amongst many other roles, is responsible for the safe and secure operation of the Electricity Transmission system in England, Scotland and Wales. This involves balancing supply with demand on a minute by minute basis across a system with 313 substations, connected with 14,000 km of Overhead lines that last year delivered 303,721 GWh of energy to consumers. This is done with a system that was primarily designed and built in the 1960 and 1970’s where there is now a requirement to manage the replacement of strategically identified parts of this system. This large volume of work combined with the constant requirement to give access to the system for new renewable generation connections makes a system that is incredibly hard to operate in the real-time and plan in the longer timescales. This talk will give an insight into some of the factors and some of the decisions that are involved in running and planning the Electricity System.

Matthew Magill is a fairly recent Graduate (University of Bristol 2003 – Masters in Electrical and Electronic Engineering). He has worked through the accredited National Grid Graduate scheme and now works full time within Network Operations for National Grid. Within his current role he is responsible for delivering the System plan for running the Transmission system to the Electricity National Control Centre. Within his talk he will discuss the factors and issues that affect Controlling and Planning the Electricity Transmission system.

Please make sure you get to "The Swan" to enjoy an interesting evening and to give the speaker lots of support.

Lecture: Operation and Control of the National Grid
Date & Time: 5th February 2008, 7:30pm
Cost: Free
Venue: "The Swan", 22 High St. Hampton Wick, Kingston upon Thames, KT1 4DB
Registration:For us to plan numbers, please register with Philip Brabazon brabazon@iee.org

For more infomation about lectures at Kingston go to the Kingston Homepage

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IET London & IET Kent, Bromley Section

6th February 2008 - Building a Power Station in China with a Multinational Team

Lecture by Fred Kirkby

Lecture:Building a Power Station in China with a Multinational Team
Date & Time: 6th February 2008, 10:00am for 10:30am Talk
Cost: Free
Venue: The Large Hall, Bromley Central Library, Kent.
The Library is adjacent to The Churchill Theatre in Bromley High Street and a short walk from Bromley South Station. Access to the Hall is via a lift or stairs to the 4th floor in the Library entrance

Registration: Further details from Ron Holmes, Email: rfholmes@theiet.org , Tel: 01689 832323 For more infomation about lectures at Bromley go to the Bromley Homepage
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IET London, Savoy Place Section

13th February 2008 - Engineered Minds?

Lecture by Igor Aleksander, Professor Emeritus at Imperial College, London

It is now reasonably well accepted that " ..there is no fundamental law or principle operating in this universe that forbids the existence of subjective feelings in artefacts designed or evolved by humans (Francis Crick, Christof Koch, 2001)." I shall review the work of those (including myself) who are attempting to design such artefacts. I shall describe the principles that take such systems well beyond that which can be achieved with traditional Artificial Intelligence techniques. These include creating machine representations which have the property of "a self in an out-there world". Examples of neural architectures which achieve this are given as part of a decomposition of 'consciousness' into constituent components such as 'presence', 'imagination', attention, volition and emotion. The aims of this work are twofold: understanding what is meant by "consciousness" through design and the design of systems that that through having 'subjective feelings' may achieve a degree of autonomy hitherto only associated with living organisms.

Lecture:Engineered Minds?
Date & Time: 13th February 2008
Networking and refreshments 17:30 - 18:30.
Lecture: 18:30 - 20:00
Networking and Wine reception 20:00 - 22:00
Cost: Free
Registration: For us to plan numbers, please register click on the link: Register (Opens in a new window)

Venue: The IET, Savoy Place, London, WC2R 0BL

For more infomation about lectures at Savoy Place go to the Savoy Place Homepage

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IET London, Hammersmith Section

19th February 2008 - The Mysteries of Inter-Urban Traffic Management Systems Explained

Talk by Tom Bennett CEng MIET (Mouchel Group)

The talk will examine how and why Inter-Urban Traffic Management Systems such as Controlled Motorways, Active Traffic Management and Ramp Metering have been developed and implemented, and explain some of the core technical components that make up these systems. The talk will cover four distinct areas;

Why? - A brief overview of some of the problems that the UK faces as the Strategic Road Network feels the strain of massive increases in traffic density.

Where & When? - An explanation of some of the key Traffic Management Systems in use in the UK today. An overview will be given of CM, ATM and RM, and where these systems are applied.

How? - This is the main focus of the talk, and will cover;

MIDAS, Signalling, Communications Systems, Enforcement, Surveillance, Control Rooms

What Next? - A brief look at the possible future for Inter-Urban Traffic Management Systems, with some insights into the challenges associated with developing and deploying new technology while supporting legacy devices in a continual cycle of technical evolution (and sometimes revolution).

Tom Bennett is a Project Engineer in the Traffic Operations & Technology division of Mouchel Group. Since joining Mouchel in 2005, Tom has worked on a number of high profile projects, including the M42 Active Traffic Management Pilot Project, M25 Controlled Motorway, Ramp Metering, and development contracts for Enforcement and Signalling Systems. Tom now manages the Systems Workstream for the next phase of deployment of the Active Traffic Management System around the Birmingham Motorway Box. Tom graduated with 1st Class Honours in Electronics & Communications Engineering from Nottingham Trent University in 2003 and recently received his chartership from The IET

Lecture: The Mysteries of Inter-Urban Traffic Management Systems Explained
Date & Time: 19th February 2008, Doors open 7:30pm for 8pm talk
Cost: Free
Venue: 'Novotel', One Shortlands, Hammersmith, London W6 8DR
Registration: For us to plan numbers, please register click on the link: Register (Opens in a new window)

For more infomation about lectures at Hammersmith and direction to the new venue go to the Hammersmith Homepage

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IET London & IET Kent, Bromley Section

27th February 2008 - Linux - a Rival for Windows?

Lecture by TBC

Lecture:Linux - a Rival for Windows?
Date & Time: 27th February 2008, 19:00
Cost: Free
Venue: The Large Hall, Bromley Central Library, Kent.
The Library is adjacent to The Churchill Theatre in Bromley High Street and a short walk from Bromley South Station. Access to the Hall is via a lift or stairs to the 4th floor in the Library entrance Registration: Further details from Ron Holmes, Email: rfholmes@theiet.org , Tel: 01689 832323 For more infomation about lectures at Bromley go to the Bromley Homepage
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IET London, Savoy Place Lunch Event

29th February 2008- London Rail Tunnels Past, Present and Future

Lecture by Lecture by Dr. Keith Bowers

Lunch & Lecture: London Rail Tunnels Past, Present and Future
Date & Time: 29th February 2008, 12:30 for lunch, lecture starts at 1:45 pm
Time: Lunch at 12.30pm followed by the lecture at approximately 1.45pm.
Venue: The IET, Savoy Place, London, WC2R 0BL.

Lunch at a cost of £11.50 each, payable to staff at Savoy Place on the day by cash or credit card, to be booked at least a week in advance with Mike Ward, email: m.r.ward@btinternet.com  Phone 020 8508 7116
The lecture is free.

Lunches at Savoy Place are held on the last Friday of each month except July and August ( Bank Holidays etc. permitting).

For more infomation about lectures at Savoy Place go to the Savoy Place Homepage

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