13 Innovation Cyprus Local Network leads discussion on innovation Volunteers for the IET Cyprus Local Network organised a day-long conference on innovation in October, which was supported by the country’s Minister of Energy, Commerce, Industry and Tourism George Lakkotrypis. The conference ‘Innovation, The Challenging Way Forward’ was held in Nicosia to raise awareness of innovation in a range of sectors, from oil and gas to artificial intelligence, marine and software. Nigel Fine, IET Chief Executive and Secretary, gave a short welcome speech, followed by keynote speaker Professor Petros Ioannou, from the University of Southern California, who spoke on ‘Control and Automation in Transportation Networks’. “It was an extremely insightful presentation,” said Alkis Spyrou CEng MIET, IET Council Member and Cyprus Local Network volunteer. “It highlighted connectivity as a key technology for generating vital information and providing missing data, which is necessary for the control and optimisation of transportation systems.” Chara Andreou, another local network volunteer, said: I was impressed with the large number of professionals and academics at the event, as well as the high standard of the presentations.” Cyprus Local Network is involved in various activities that promote and support innovation, including sponsoring solar car and robotics competitions. They’ve also organised lectures on pioneering projects such as the EuroAsia Interconnector which will interconnect Greek, Cypriot, and Israeli power grids. Take a look at your local network’s upcoming events at: theiet.org/mn-ln Upcoming lecture will delve into research on microwave engineering On 18 March, Professor Mário Silveirinha will be sharing the research that won him our 2018 £350,000 A F Harvey Engineering Research Prize. He’ll be focusing on the electrodynamics of metamaterials and its applications to microwave components and devices. Local network volunteers at the innovation conference in Cyprus Member News March 2019 Professor Mário Silveirinha from University of Lisbon, Portugal In his talk at IET London: Savoy Place, Professor Silveirinha will present his vision of how the time-reversal symmetry can be broken with mechanical motion by injecting a drift electric current into material. He aims to show how such solutions may enable one way propagation of terahertz waves totally immune to the undesired effects of back-scattering by obstacles, imperfections and other deformations of the propagation path. He will also discuss the topological nature of systems with a broken time-reversal symmetry, and how they can be imitated with standard metals and dielectrics. His research could lead to more compact electromagnetic isolators, novel light sources, better waveguides and energy harvesting. Book your free place at this insightful talk and networking drinks reception by visiting theiet.org/mn-harvey