Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Britain In Realization [12.17.14] : Engineering In Britain

Engineering In Britain

Engineering Education


"The Science Museum is hosting a new engineering exhibition -  aimed at 11-15 year olds opened today and will run for the next three years. Engineer Your Future features a variety of objects and interactive games and was described by a museum spokesperson as "an exhibition about careers that doesn't feel about careers".
The exhibition includes a game to design a Mars rover, a 3D printed city onto which a game is projected and challenges to deliver luggage in an airport and run trains on time ... advice also available about how to pursue a career in engineering or take up further studies." 

Large Scale Engineering


BBC Theme Park






"The new elevator technology, nicknamed Multi, can go sideways as well as up and down and will begin testing in 2016.
The innovative new elevator uses magnetic levitation (maglev) technology"



Engineering Prizes, Awards, Honors
"Tim Berners Lee, Louis Pouzin, Robert Kahn,Vint Cerf and Marc Andreessen have been awarded the first Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering in recognition of their work on the internet and the web."


Computer Reimagined [Architecture; UI; Materials]
"By 2008, Hawking's hand was too weak to use the clicker.  
... "cheek switch". Attached to his glasses, it could detect, via a low infrared beam, when Hawking tensed his cheek muscle.  
By 2011, he managed only about one or two words per minute 
designed by Words Plus. It provided him with a keyboard on the screen and a basic word-prediction algorithm. A cursor automatically scanned across the keyboard by row or by column and he could select a character by moving his cheek to stop the cursor. 
Hawking now uses an adaptive word predictor from London startup SwiftKey which allows him to select a word after typing a letter, whereas Hawking's previous system required him to navigate to the bottom of his user interface and select a word from a list.
But He was used to predicting his own word predictor."  

The new version of Hawking's user interface includes contextual menus that provide Hawking with various shortcuts to speak, search or email
"The idea is to have a camera pointed at Stephen's face to pick up not just his cheek movements but other facial movements," says Wood. "He could move his jaw sideways, up and down, and drive a mouse and even potentially drive his wheelchair. 
a joystick that attaches to Hawking's chin and allows him to navigate his wheelchair independently."



[I wish I could engineer a better and more suitable User Interface for Dr. Stephen Hawking.]



Education
DIY / Lego / "Automata Set"







Virtual Reality




Digital Manufacturing




Smart Car



Physical Digital Computing /
Internet of Things

"A £1 million government pot has been awarded to seven startups working on internet of things projects to help solve problems facing UK businesses.

Winners include a company working on sensors for digital farms, a compact air quality monitoring system and a project using data to make cycling safer in towns and cities. The seven companies are all based in either London or Cambridge and will share the £1m grant provided by the government-funded Innovate UK programme."


Cyber-Security




Academia
Academia - Industry Collaboration
The new UCL East campus will focus on technology and engineering
"University College London (UCL) is to build a huge campus on the Olympic Park in a bid to inspire research in technology and engineering. 
... the university says it will forge "new connections" between researchers and businesses while creating a space for "radical innovation, new insights and new industries" in the UK."


[Next: A "Silicon Valley" - "kind of" Tech & Entrepreneurial Hub - somewhere near London!]


High Speed Internet for All
"the company is taking a novel approach towards overcoming the usual need for cables. It is doing this by wirelessly connecting small mobile antennas to suitable macro sites. 
The technology has already been tested in the village of Sebergham in Cumbria. All 129 households and small businesses within the village can now receive data and voice connectivity thanks to just three meshed antennas that have been installed across the town." 


BioEngineering & Translational Medicine
"The £125 spit test kit is not a diagnostic test, but instead identifies genes that are associated with inherited conditions including cystic fibrosis, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and sickle cell anaemia." 



AeroSpace



Smart City


City of Dundee
"The title recognises the design innovations Dundee has contributed to the world, including aspirin, biomedical research which has led to hundreds of new cancer drugs, comics including the Beano and Dandy, orange marmalade, and video games including Lemmings and Grand Theft Auto. 
The city's waterfront is also undergoing a 30-year, £1bn regeneration project including the V&A Dundee museum of design."

"In order to kick-start its smart-city programme, the government ran a competition last year and the winner, Glasgow, was given £24m to spend on smart technologies. 
Some of the money (in Glasgow) may go on using big data ... energy efficiency ... solve crime ...  intelligent lighting" 



Glasgow


Bristol won the £3m runner-up prize 
Bristol plans, to open up a wealth of government data that can be turned into useful apps and services."
City of Bristol

No comments:

Post a Comment