The future of the EngD

The annual conference of the Association of Engineering Doctorates, to be held in London on 26 November, will debate the future of the EngD qualification in light of new research into EngD impacts and recent changes in EPSRC funding (AEngD news).

New AEngD/EPSRC-funded research from Manchester Business School looking at the impact of the EngD qualification (see previous post) will be presented by Dr Fumi Kitagawa at the AEngD conference at the Building Centre.

The event will also consider the Engineering Council's view of the route from EngD to Chartered Engineer status (recent post), and recent changes to the EPSRC funding affecting various industrial doctorate centres. Details of the full impact are currently sketchy; most if not all affected centres have been informed, but an official announcement is expected from EPSRC later this month - just before the AEngD conference.

The conference also aims to stimulate discussion among current and recent EngD research engineers about what the AEngD could do to support them during their four-year research terms. If you are a current RE, this is your chance to influence and get involved with the future activities of the AEngD.

Lastly, but by no means least, finalists in the AEngD Engineering Research Writer of the Year competition (shortlist post) will also present their papers at the conference - which, with the Manchester Business School research impacts presentation, makes it ideal for existing and potential industry sponsors to learn about EngD research benefits and outcomes.

Book your place at the AEngD 2013 conference here (opens in new window).

DesigningBuildings / Development Securities ideas competition: £500 prize

DesigningBuildings (an expert wiki devoted to the built environment - and so relevant to a good number of EngD research centres, though admittedly some more than others) is running an ideas competition, in conjunction with Development Securities focused on the question: How do we keep investors interested in UK property?

It's different to our recent Engineering Research Writer of the Year award (finalists to present in London on 26 November - book your seat now) which looked for 800 word essays. Instead, short and fresh ideas are welcomed, and there is a £500 prize for innovative ideas.

Julian Barwick, Director, Development Securities says:

“We need to harness the creative thinking of practitioners if the UK is to succeed in the global market. This competition is about harvesting good ideas and a bit of crystal ball gazing. We are looking for free and lateral thought, particularly from those with a fresh view.”

Sounds like a good place for EngD researchers and alumni to show their originality....

Shortlist for 2013 Engineering Research Writer of the Year

To mark the first anniversary of the formal launch of the Association of Engineering Doctorates, we are holding a further conference - to be held at the Building Centre, London, on 26 November - and promoting the outcomes of EngD research by getting researchers to write about their studies. The Engineering Research Writer of the Year competition attracted some great entries, which were wittled down to two shortlists:

EngD graduates/alumni: actual impact (describing tangible benefits actually delivered during and/or as a result of the researcher's project):

• Javid Khan (Centre in Optics and Photonics Technologies, Heriot-Watt University) - Holographic volumetric 3D displays
• Marek Kubik (Technologies for Sustainable Built Environments, University of Reading) - The winds of change

EngD research engineers: potential impact (potential benefits that could be delivered during and/or as a result of the researcher's project):

• Laura Daniels (Technologies for Sustainable Built Environments, University of Reading) - Diesel generators and demand side management
• Christos Ellinas (EngD in Systems, University of Bristol) - An engineer imagines. Again.
• Maria Felice (Centre for Non-Destructive Evaluation, University of Bristol) - Let's get cracking!
• Rob Hughes (Centre for Non-Destructive Evaluation, University of Warwick) - Pushing the limits of materials testing

To reach the shortlists candidates have all demonstrated that they have thought about and understood their audience and can convey information about their engineering challenge, and their research response to that challenge, in a readable way. They have all been invited to deliver a short presentation (no longer than eight minutes) at the AEngD conference on the afternoon of Tuesday 26 November - if they can't make it, we may get them to summarise their research in a short video! The winners, each receiving £250, will be announced during the post-conference drinks reception immediately after the conference. To register to attend the conference, please click here.

Last call for entries for Engineering Research Writer of the Year 2013

The deadline for entries to the AEngD writing competition is midnight on Monday 30 September 2013. We want EngD research engineers and recent alumni to write short articles promoting public interest in their research. The writers of the two best articles will each win £250.

As part of its commitment to promoting the EngD qualification, the AEngD is seeking articles that address any area of engineering and would be suitable for publication in a magazine (for example, the RAEng magazine) and/or a broadsheet newspaper. Shortlisted writers, who should be current EngD research engineers or recent alumni, will be invited to present their papers at a London event in November 2013, and the writers of the two articles judged best will each win £250.

EngD in Systems now an Engineering Council-accredited degree

In case you missed the announcement in August, we thought we'd highlight the news that the EngD in Systems, delivered by the IDC in Systems at the University of Bristol and the University of Bath, has been officially accredited as providing a pathway to Chartered Engineer (CEng) status by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) and the Institution of Civil engineers (ICE).

The industrial doctorate centre (IDC) for Systems is one of the first EngD centres to be recognised by the UK regulator, the Engineering Council, as providing a route to CEng registration for future leaders in industry and academia. Professor Patrick Godfrey, director of the centre and chairman of the Association of Engineering Doctorates' steering group, says:

"Accreditation is a mark of assurance that the degree meets the standards set by the Engineering Council in the UK Standard for Professional Engineering Competence (UK-SPEC). An accredited degree will provide you with some or all of the underpinning knowledge, understanding and skills for eventual registration as Chartered Engineer (CEng). Some employers recruit preferentially from accredited degrees, and an accredited degree is likely to be recognised by other countries that are signatories to international accords".

The decision was relayed to the IDC in Systems following a visit by the Engineering Accreditation Board (EAB) in November 2012.

AEngD website update

Regular visitors to the AEngD website may know that we have been experiencing sporadic problems with its performance, with some pages being slow to load, or sometimes not loading at all (we noted this in May too).

We are now undertaking a major overhaul. The site is to be moved to a new hosting provider, the supporting content management system will be updated, and - once the migration and update are tested and found to be working satisfactorily - we will be fixing various minor issues relating to how some information is currently processed and displayed.

In the meantime, there may be occasional outages as we undertake this work, for which we apologise in advance, and we will keep users updated via Twitter, Facebook and this blog.

Improving public awareness of STEM

Many EngD researchers contribute to efforts to promote uptake of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects. Some initiatives are undertaken by industry sponsors; some are promoted by institutions - for example, the IET has supported events marking Ada Lovelace Day; and other STEM projects are undertaken by universities or by industrial doctorate centres (IDCs).

Sophie Causon-Wood of the IDC in Systems at University of Bristol has sent word of two great projects undertaken by EngD researchers this summer:

• The Systems Centre recently organised a two-day event in which students learned the skills of writing and creating a short film to communicate their research in an accessible way. The event was led by Kate Butler, a highly-experienced ex-BBC journalist and documentary producer. Read more about it here.
• The Centre also hosted two outreach sessions, welcoming local school students to the centre to introduce them to engineering and its flavour of systems thinking. Read more about it here.

For those of us engaged in research it is reminiscent of the Einstein quote: "If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself."

Let us know if you are engaged in any interesting STEM initiatives (and did you know the AEngD is currently running its own Engineering Research Writer of the Year Award to promote public understanding of EngD research projects?).