Date

Venue / Time

Title

Speaker

Thursday,

17th January

2008

Lecture Theatre 0, Engineering Department. Trumpington Street, 7pm (tea 6.30pm)

Alan Wiltshire

(Cambridge Consultants Ltd)

Thursday

7th February

2008

Wolfson Lecture Theatre, Churchill College, Cambridge 6:30pm (tea 6.00pm)

Professor Chris Lowe

(University of Cambridge)

Thursday,

21st February

2008

Lecture Theatre 0, Engineering Department. Trumpington Street, 7pm (tea 6.30pm)

John Frankham

(Pi Research)

Thursday

6th March

2008

Lecture Theatre 1, Computer Lab, William Gates Building, JJ Thomson Avenue, 7pm (tea 6.30pm)

IET, BCS & ACM Joint Lecture: Searching for Evil

**Note - new talk***

Dr Richard Clayton

(Security Group, Computer Labs, Cambridge )

Thursday,

27th March

2008

Lecture Theatre 0, Engineering Department. Trumpington Street, 7pm (tea 6.30pm)

IET/IMechE Joint Lecture: Future Transportation Fuels: A Vision of a Viable Negative CO2 Energy Economy

Jamie Turner

(Lotus Engineering)

Thursday,

3rd April

2008

Lecture Theatre 1, Computer Lab, William Gates Building, JJ Thomson Avenue, 7pm (tea 6.30pm)

Dominic Plunkett, CTO (XJTAG)

Thursday,

17th April

2008

Lecture Theatre 0, Engineering Department. Trumpington Street, 7pm (tea 6.30pm)

Cambridgeshire

SETPoint

Thursday,

8th May

2008

Lecture Theatre 0, Engineering Department. Trumpington Street, 7pm (tea 6.30pm)

GFS Projects Ltd

Tuesday

24th June

2008

Emmanuel College

From 6:20pm

Tour of gardens and building by Dr Neil Dodgson

Synopsis

Over the last 5 years Cambridge Consultants Ltd has developed a Through Wall Radar - Prism 200 that is designed to track the movement of people the other side of walls.  Over that time many diverse challenges have had to be dealt with.  Some of these have been technical and others more associated with dealing with human nature.  This paper explores the process that has lead to the introduction of a successful product into a new market and what had to be done to ensure that operational advantage is delivered to demanding end users from diverse backgrounds.  Along the way many interesting situations have been experienced.

Professor Chris Lowe -  University of Cambridge

Christopher R. Lowe received his B.Sc and Ph.D degrees in biochemistry from the University of Birmingham in 1967 and 1970 respectively. He has conducted post-doctoral research in Liverpool and Sweden and held a lectureship/senior lectureship at the University of Southampton. He is currently Director of the Institute of Biotechnology and Professor of Biotechnology at the University of Cambridge. He is a fellow of Trinity College.

Synopsis

The principal focus of his biotechnology research programme over the last 30 years has been the high value - low volume sectors of pharmaceuticals, fine chemicals and diagnostics. The work not only covers aspects of biochemistry, microbiology, chemistry, electrochemistry, physics, electronics and chemical engineering, but also the entire range from pure science to strategic applied science, some of which has significant commercial applications and had led to the establishment of seven spin-out companies.

Dr John Frankham - PI Research

John Frankham is a Programme Manager at Pi Research Ltd in Cottenham. He graduated from Queen Mary College, University of London in 1980 with a degree in Electronics with Computer Science. He was determined to use his new found knowledge to aid in the enlightenment of the human race, the alleviation of poverty, and the creation of a more just and more egalitarian society. However, in 1995, he decided it would be more fun to help motorsport teams around the world (a) spend a lot of money on electronics and (b) win races. Prior to his time at Pi Research, John spent many years working for various branches of the electronic security company, Chubb, including a short time at their head office and design office just outside of Toronto, Ontario. During his time at Pi Research, John has held a number of posts, but throughout has been fortunate to be able to call some of the most successful racing teams in the world his customers and business associates. He is currently the manager of the “Mistral” business unit, which, amongst other things, supplies electronics and software to the wind tunnel departments of five Formula 1 race teams.

Synopsis

The last 15 years has seen a gradual and inexorable rise in the importance of aerodynamics in all forms of motor racing, and particularly in Formula 1. Because of this, there has been a corresponding rise in the importance of wind tunnel testing, and in the complexity and sophistication of the systems employed in the wind tunnels. In recent years, as restrictions have been brought into place by the FIA on the development of tyres, engines, and electronic driver aids, aerodynamics remains the last bastion of team independence, and where precious seconds can still be won or lost by the back room boys and their inspired technical leaders. Recent attempts by the FIA to limit wind tunnel testing in the name of reducing costs were dismissed by almost all of the teams, so for now, at least, the wind tunnel is still king. This talk aims to describe the systems to be found in a modern motorsport wind tunnel, and to outline the factors which drive their technological development. You will not learn how to design a championship winning race car, but you will hopefully know a bit more about how the top teams go about doing it.

Dr Richard Clayton - Security Group, Computer Labs, Cambridge

Dr Richard Clayton is part of the Security group based at the Computer Labs at the University of Cambridge. He is also a consultant for LINX member, THUS plc, incorporating founding LINX member, Demon Internet.

Synopsis

Computer security has recently imported a lot of ideas from economics, psychology and sociology, leading to fresh insights and new tools. Dr Clayton will describe one thread of research that draws together techniques from fields as diverse as signals intelligence and sociology to search for artificial communities.
 
Evildoers online divide roughly into two categories - those who don't want their websites to be found, such as phishermen, and those who do. The latter category runs from fake escrow sites through dodgy stores postmodern Ponzi (pyramid) schemes. A few of them buy ads, but many set up fake communities in the hope of having victims driven to their sites for free. How can these reputation thieves be detected?
 
Some of Dr Clayton's work in security economics and social networking may give an insight into the practical effects of network topology. These tie up in various ways with traffic analysis, long used by the signals intelligence agencies which trawl the airwaves and networks looking for interesting targets. The speaker describes a number of dubious business enterprises that he has unearthed. Recent advances in algorithms, such as Newman's modularity matrix, have increased the robustness of covert community detection. Much scope remains for wrongdoers to hide themselves better as they become topologically aware; we can expect attack and defence to go through several rounds of co-evolution. We will therefore end up by talking about some strategic issues, such as the extent to which search engines and other service providers could, or should, share information in the interests of wickedness detection.

Jamie Turner - Chief Engineer - Powertrain Research SI Combustion and Charging Specialist, Lotus Engineering

Synopsis

The presentation takes the form of a review of CO2 output by vehicle manufacturer and their likelihood of meeting upcoming CO2 targets, then discusses hydrogen as a means of reducing anthropogenic CO2, together with the not inconsiderable challenges that this represents particularly in respect of storage and distribution. It then reviews renewable alcohol fuels as an alternative, before discussing a methanol-based energy economy as a long-term alternative to the hydrogen economy. A novel means of producing methanol which reduces atmospheric levels of CO2 is then discussed. Finally, what we think of as a fully joined-up approach to implementation is put forward - gasoline to flex-fuel gasoline/ethanol to the introduction of methanol which can all go into a single fuel tank in the vehicle. This approach bypasses any massive design changes in the fuel system for road vehicles as well as keeping the distribution and supply side similar to that which is used at the moment with gasoline.

Matt Lee - XJTAG

Matt Lee has been in the Computing Industry since he graduated in Computing and Cybernetics in 1978. He worked in Advanced R&D for Acorn, Cambridge; set up Olivetti Research Lab in Cambridge with Prof. Andy Hopper CBE; co-founded Active Book Company with Hermann Hauser CBE; worked for ARM for 10 years, retired, got bored, stopped retiring and consulted for a couple of years whilst doing some Business Angel Investing. He is now growing business for XJTAG as European Business Development Manager. XJTAG specialise in boundary scan test.

Synopsis

Boundary scan based on the JTAG 1149.1 IEEE standard has been around a long time - so have test engineers. Following the usual pressures to shrink, further integrate and 'make re-programmable' new designs; we are now seeing a renewed interest in test using JTAG.  XJTAG, my company, has added a suite of test tools on top of the 1149.1 standard. These are based around a high-level language, XJEASE. It is this 'language' which has proved invaluable for reasons you probably will not guess.   This talk will explain how JTAG Boundary Scan works and you'll see some examples of it in action from its basic use to advanced on-silicon diagnosis.

Cambridgeshire SETPoint

Synopsis

A short talk about SEA activities, plenty of time for questions, the opportunity to sign up as a SEA, and probably a chance to have a go at the kind of hands-on activity you could run in a local school.

Date

Venue / Time

Title

Speaker

Thursday,

18th January

2007

Lecture Theatre 0, Engineering Department, Trumpington Street. 7pm (tea 6.30pm)

John Dawson

(President, ARCAM)

Thursday,

1st February

2007

Wolfson Lecture Theatre, Churchill College, Cambridge 6:30pm (tea 6.00pm)

Sir Richard Friend

University of Cambridge)

Thursday,

15th February

2007

Lecture Theatre 0, Engineering Department. Trumpington Street, 7pm (tea 6.30pm)

Thursday

1st March

2007

Lecture Theatre 1, Computer Lab, William Gates Building, JJ Thomson Avenue, 7pm (tea 6.30pm)

Thursday,

15th March

2007

Lecture Theatre 0, University of Cambridge Engineering Dept., 7pm (tea 6.30pm)

IET / IMechE Joint Lecture: Ultra Precision Surfaces - for finding new planets, helping us enjoy earth and maybe to even save it! - Poster.

Thursday,

29th March

2007

Lecture Theatre 1, Computer Lab, William Gates Building, JJ Thomson Avenue, 7pm (tea 6.30pm)

Peter White,

(YTKO)

Thursday

26th April

2007

Lecture Theatre 1, Computer Lab, William Gates Building, JJ Thomson Avenue, 7pm (tea 6.30pm)

Sound Reinforcement Systems in Hostile Environments - Poster

John Mordaunt

Thursday,

10th May

2007

Lecture Theatre 0, University of Cambridge

Engineering Dept., 7:30pm (tea 7pm)

RAES Joint Lecture: Cambridge University Spaceflight - Details Poster

Monday,

4th June

2007

ARM - Main Lecture Theatre, 110 Fulbourn Road, Cambridge, 7pm (refreshments 6pm)

An Evening with Sir Robin Saxby - Poster

Thursday

21st June

2007

Trinity College, Cambridge, from 6:20pm

Saturday

7th July

2007

Greenwich

10am

Thursday,

11th October

2007

Lecture Theatre 1, Computer Lab, William Gates Building, JJ Thomson Avenue, 7pm (tea 6.30pm)

(Broadcom Europe Ltd)

Wednesday,

17th October

2007

Wolfson Lecture Theatre, Churchill College, Cambridge 6:30pm (tea 6.00pm)

Professor Bill Milne

(University of Cambridge)

Thursday,

1st November

2007

Lecture Theatre 0, Engineering Department. Trumpington Street, 7pm (tea 6.30pm)

(Bolt Wade
Tennant)

Thursday

15th November

2007

Lecture Theatre 1, Computer Lab, William Gates Building, JJ Thomson Avenue, 7pm (tea 6.30pm)

Thursday,

6th December

2007

Lecture Theatre 1, Computer Lab, William Gates Building, JJ Thomson Avenue, (9am - 5pm)

Steve Furber
(University of
Manchester)

John Dawson studied Natural Sciences at Trinity College, Cambridge in the early 1970s. He is the President and founder of A & R Cambridge Ltd, which has designed and manufactured high quality consumer hi-fi audio-video products in Cambridge for the past 30 years under the brand name ARCAM. He is a member of the Audio Engineering Society and is currently its UK group's vice chairman.

Synopsis

If it's digital it must be good - right? Whilst there is no doubt that digital audio done right can be acoustically transparent, the reality is that there are infinite ways to screw up the final sound. These range all the way from fundamental misunderstandings, leading to careless processing, all the way through to deliberate and often unpleasant distortions inflicted on the final customer. We plan to demonstrate some of the fundamentals of sampling, quantising, data conversion and data reduction as applied to audio and to illustrate this with examples of real recordings and transmissions, both good and bad.

Professor Sir Richard Friend FRS, FREng Cavendish Professor of Physics, University of Cambridge

Sir Richard Friend has been on the Faculty in the Department of Physics, University of Cambridge, since 1980, where he is the Cavendish Professor of Physics. Professor Friend has pioneered the study of organic polymers as semiconductors, and his research group has demonstrated that these materials can be used in a wide range of semiconductor devices, including light-emitting diodes and transistors. He has been very active in the process of technology transfer of this research to development for products. He co-founded Cambridge Display Technology Ltd in 1994. Light-emitting polymer displays developed by Cambridge Display Technology are now being manufactured under licence and are now used in a number of consumer products. He co-founded Plastic Logic Ltd in 2000 to develop directly-printed polymer transistor circuits. He is currently working on the use of polymer and related materials for thin-film photovoltaic diode applications.

Synopsis

Plastics (or, more correctly, polymers), are traditionally used within the electronics industry as 'passive' materials, for encapsulation or for their electrically-insulating properties. However, there is now a class of polymers which can behave as semiconductors or as metals. Our understanding of the semiconductor physics of these materials has enabled us to use them as the active components in a range of devices. Polymer light-emitting diodes, LEDs, show particular promise, providing full colour range and high efficiency.

Sir Richard will discuss how the chemical bonding in molecules and polymers allows useful semiconducting properties to be obtained, and how these must be harnessed in novel semiconductor device architectures. In some respects, these strategies resemble those already adopted by biology, for example in photosynthesis, and examples will be shown where the interfaces control charge separation (in solar cells) or combination (in LEDs).

Richard Catlow, Senior Electrification & Plant Testing & Commissioning Engineer, Network Rail

Richard Catlow joined BR as a technical apprentice in 1987 and specialised in Electrification & Plant where he worked on a number of renewal and enhancement projects. Upon privatisation he left and spent time with both Mott MacDonald in the UK and Parson Brinckerhoff in Malaysia working on general T&D projects. Upon his return to the UK he joined Railtrack in 1997 as the Head of E&P for the Thameslink 2000 project and latterly as Professional Head of E&P for the Channel Tunnel Rail Link with Union Railways. In early 2002 he was asked to lead the system design aspects of the Southern Region New Trains Programme. Since 2005 he has managed Network Rail's Electrification & Plant Test Section, undertaking investigations and tests of all the company's E&P assets.

Synopsis

In 1999, Her Majestey's Government enacted the RailwaysSafety Regulations which required the replacement of 1976 "Mk1" based rail vehicle by December 2005.

This presentation will examine this project, which saw the delivery of 2120 new rail vehicles and the reinforcement of the world's largest interconnected private HV network

In all, the project required a £2.5 billion investment by the Government and industry. Three suppliers of trains, two government departments, the national railway infrastructure company, four train operators, twenty seven different equipment providers and six installation contractors came together to make this project a success in little less than three and a half years. In that time remarkably little disruption was caused to passenger operations and the success of the project was gauged by the fact that the public didn't realise it was happening.

Steve Furber, ICL Professor of Computer Engineering, University of Manchester

Steve Furber is ICL Professor of Computer Engineering in the School of Computer Science at the University of Manchester. He received his B.A. degree in Mathematics in 1974 and his Ph.D. in Aerodynamics in 1980 from the University of Cambridge. Working at Acorn Computers Ltd he was a principal designer of the BBC Microcomputer and the ARM 32-bit RISC microprocessor. At the University of Manchester in 1990 he established the Amulet research group which merged with the Parallel Architectures and Languages group in 2000 to form the Advanced Processor Technologies group. Steve is a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Royal Academy of Engineering, the BCS, the IET and the IEEE, and a Chartered Engineer. In 2003 he was awarded a Royal Academy of Engineering Silver Medal. In 2004 he became the holder of a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award.

Synopsis

The real-time modelling of large systems of spiking neurons is computationally very demanding in terms of processing power, synaptic weight memory requirements and communication throughput. We propose to build a high-performance computer for this purpose with a multicast communications infrastructure inspired by neurobiology. The core component will be a chip multiprocessor incorporating some tens of small embedded processors, interconnected by an NoC (Network on Chip) that carries spike events between processors on the same or different chips. The design emphasizes modelling flexibility, power-efficiency, and fault-tolerance, and is intended to yield a general-purpose platform for the real-time simulation of large-scale spiking neural systems.

Prof. Paul Shore, Cranfield Institute of Technology

Synopsis

Peter White, YTKO

Peter White of YTKO has worked with technologists starting new companies for many years.

Synopsis

In this entertaining lecture he suggests the best - and worst - ways that engineers and their colleagues can use money, time, ideas and effort to get products and services to market, and to success.

John Mordaunt M Istsce, Acoustic Consultant

John Mordaunt was educated at Guildford technical college studying electrical & electronic engineering and has spent more than 45 years in the sound business. John spent the early years of his career with Decca record company setting and maintaining standards in the manufacture of record discs. Later he joined Philips sound division in the field of sound system design of products and systems where he was involved with many types of sound system installations. He has designed systems for nuclear power installations, shipping, industrial complexes, commerce, cathedrals, churches, theatres and leisure complexes to name but a few.

Synopsis

John's presentation is on 'Sound reinforcement systems in hostile environments' where he will discuss factors affecting the production of intelligible speech in hostile environments. John addresses the adverse environmental issues and applies the latest technology to assess and improve speech performance.

Robert Fryers, Henry Halam, Daniel Strange and Iain Waugh, Cambridge University Engineering Department.

Robert Fryers, Henry Hallam, Daniel Strange and Iain Waugh are second year undergraduates in Engineering at the University of Cambridge and are some of the students involved in CUSpaceflight. Robert is an Engineering Award holder from the Royal Academy of Engineering and is a scholar of Christ's College. He intends to specialise in micro and nano technology. Henry has been selected for the prestigious Cambridge-Massachusetts Exchange. He will be studying Aerospace Engineering at MIT and is at Pembroke College. Daniel is a scholar of Christ's College, he intends to specialise in Aerothermal Engineering. Iain is a scholar of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers and of Emmanuel College. He intends to specialise in Aerospace Engineering

Synopsis

The financial and technical entry barriers to putting small payloads into space are enormous. For all but the best funded projects these are prohibitive, but this need not be the case. Cambridge University Spaceflight is a student run organization committed to developing, constructing and flying low cost sub-orbital spacecraft. By approaching the problem with the classic "how much can I achieve from my shed" (or college room in this case) they hope to show that space need not be unattainable. They will discuss the ups and downs so far and what they are planning for future flights. Click here for more details

Sir Robin Saxby, President of the IET and Emeritus Chairman, ARM

Sir Robin Saxby FREng BEng CEng HonFIET was involved in the founding of ARM and served as Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer since joining the company full-time in February 1991. Besides directing ARM, Sir Robin was also appointed to the board of Glotel plc as a non-executive director in April 1999. Sir Robin has also served as Chairman of the Open Microprocessor Initiative Advisory Group, a European Union panel set up to advise on collaborative R&D activity in Europe.

In 2000, Sir Robin was awarded an honorary Doctorate D.Eng from Liverpool University. He was also appointed a visiting professor to his old department of electronics at the University. In July 2001, he was awarded an honorary Doctorate D.Tech from Loughborough University. He was awarded a Knighthood in the 2002 New Year Honours for services to the Information Technology industry and in July 2002, Sir Robin was awarded the 2002 IEE Faraday Medal in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the electronic engineering industry. In November 2002, Sir Robin was made a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng) and in July 2003, he was awarded an honorary Doctorate from the University of Essex. He is currently President of the IET.

Synopsis

Come along and network from 6pm in the airy surroundings of the Atrium at ARM's headquarters building in Cambridge and enjoy a glass of wine or a soft drink, together with a selection of canapes. The proceedings proper will begin at 7pm, when Peter Day from the BBC's In Business programme will be interviewing Sir Robin on a variety of topics - expect some searching questioning and some straight and pragmatic answers from Sir Robin. After the interview there will be ample opportunity for you to pose your own questions. The IET Cambridge committee look forward to welcoming you to what promises to be an enjoyable evening.

Click here for directions to ARM

Dr Neil Johnson is a Principal Engineer in Broadcom's Mobile Multimedia Business Unit, working in mobile digital TV. He is the Software Architect for Broadcom's next generation mobile digital TV middleware, supporting a wide range of mobile digital TV standards, demodulators, and applications. He previously held positions at Thompson Thorn Missile Electronics and at Cambridge Consultants Ltd (CCL) in its Embedded Digital Systems and Sensor ASICs groups. While at CCL he developed the hardware and software for a range of embedded systems based on 8-, 16- and 32-bit low-power processors, and worked on the development of compilers and tools for CCL's leading 16- and 32-bit XAP(TM) RISC processors.

Neil holds BEng(Hons) and MSc degrees from Surrey University, and a PhD from the University of Cambridge. He is a Chartered Electrical Engineer, and member of the IET and the IEEE.

Synopsis

The world today is full of embedded systems, from electronic keyfobs, toasters, washing machines and sex toys, to home entertainment systems, factory automation, trains, planes and automobiles. But how are they designed, how are they created? What thought processes go through the minds of the engineers as these systems evolve from a notepad sketch to a final product?

This talk offers a personal perspective on the process of embedded systems design, covering 8-, 16- and 32-bit processors, primarily for low-power handheld devices. A number of key design points are raised, both as a guide to other engineers, and also to encourage discussion and debate!

This talk, from the leader of one of the world's top nanotechnology research centres, will highlight recent advances in the carbon-based nanotechnology.

Synopsis

Prof. Bill Milne is the Head of the Electronic Devices and Materials Group at the University of Cambridge in UK. He obtained his PhD from Imperial College London in 1973 and joined the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge in 1976 after spending 3 years working at the Plessey Co. Research Laboratory, Caswell. He was appointed to the 1944 Chair in Electrical Engineering in 1996. His research interests include the application of amorphous silicon and microcrystalline silicon to large area electronics specifically for displays/solar cells and the deposition, characterisation and application of carbon based materials for electronic applications. He has published/presented over 400 papers in these areas.

Dr. Alex Frost is a chartered patent attorney specialising in physics, high tech and electrical technologies. His work focuses on elemental, molecular and surface analysis equipment involving spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. He also prosecutes and advises on applications in the fields of digital and analogue electronics and communications engineering. Alex has particular experience in digital video compression techniques, wireless LAN technology and optical disc technology.

Dr. Frost has been a partner of Boult Wade Tennant since 2001. He holds MA and DPhil degrees in Physics from Oxford University, is a Chartered Physicist, and a European and Chartered Patent Attorney.

Synopsis

The topics covered will include "what is IP?", "how do I obtain it and what will it cost?" and "why do I need IP?". Some stories will be included to back up the last question in particular..

From 1966 to 1977 Roger Scantlebury was in charge of the NPL Data Communication research team, reporting initially to DLA Barber and later directly to D W Davies, Superintendent of Computer Science Division. D W Davies is generally regarded as the father of Packet Switching, and Roger's team built the pioneering network at the NPL. Their ideas were adopted (and expanded upon) by the ARPA network project (Department of Defence, USA). The ARPA network expanded to cover the USA during the 1970s, and ultimately connected to other research networks internationally (including the NPL network). It was during this period that the idea of connecting together computers, attached to different networks, was pioneered, and theterm 'an inter-network' was coined.

Paul Shreve - Cisco

Having been in the Internet business for 20 years, Paul joined Cisco in 1994 as a consultant to Cisco's European organisation.  In this role Paul was responsible for designing major European Internets and the supervision of Systems Engineering on a project basis. Currently Paul is on the University of Texas Engineering Advisory Board (EAB).  The council meets twice a year to review Engineering curriculum and advice the University on technology trends and developments.

Prior to joining Cisco Paul spent nine years with Advanced Computer Communications (ACC) whom he joined in 1984.  Initially holding the role of Principle Systems Engineer working on a number of projects ranging from IP and IBM implementation to IP satellite technology, Paul became Director of Marketing before leaving in 1994. Paul graduated from the University of California Santa Barbara in 1978, becoming the Technical Manager for the University working with the implementation of IP protocols throughout the campus.

Synopsis

The Internet was born about 40 years ago out of early attempts to switch and route data. The first of two talks will look at those early steps, covering the evolution of the various elements such as packet switching, the ISO 7 layer model, Internet Protocols and the world wide web. The second talk will describe the Internet we know today, and conclude with some ideas on its future direction.