Member News July 2019 IET Fellows lead and achieve! Congratulations to IET Honorary Fellow and Past President, Sir Robin Saxby, who’s received the 2019 IEEE Founders Medal for outstanding leadership in electrical and electronics engineering. Sir Robin was the founding CEO of UK startup ARM, which developed one of the world’s most prolific microprocessors. As well as introducing technology which paved the way for the smartphone revolution, Sir Robin developed an innovative business model. Rather than selling microprocessor chips, he licensed ARM’s technology to customers, so they could make their own bespoke chips. Another Fellow to achieve success in leadership is Air Marshal Sue Gray, who’s recently been appointed Director General of the Defence Safety Authority. She’s become the Royal Air Force’s first female three-star officer and the most senior female military officer in the British Armed Forces. IET Fellow Professor Sir Jim McDonald FREng FRSE, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Strathclyde, is in line for a significant leadership position. He has been nominated as the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Presidential candidate, for election by Fellows in September. Upon election, Sir Jim would become the Academy’s first Scottish President. Public affairs update Over the past few months, the IET has continued to involve politicians and parliamentarians in its events and likewise engage in their activities. In January, we welcomed Care Minister Caroline Dinenage MP to IET London: Savoy Place to address an event looking at technology to support independent living. In February, we welcomed Nusrat Ghani MP, Minister for the Year of Engineering campaign, to the UK and Ireland final of the FIRST® LEGO® League. Also on the STEM education front, Shadow Industrial Strategy Minister, Chi Onwurah MP, attended Savoy Place for the launch of our New Approaches to Engineering Higher Education report. We’ve met with officials at the UK Government’s Department for Education to raise concerns around apprenticeship end-point assessment and to understand how the IET can assist with the roll-out of T-levels, the new post-GCSE courses which will combine classroom learning with on- the-job experience. We’ve also recently joined the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Publishing, which is leading work on Open Access publishing. India’s technical talks prove popular More than 3,000 students, plus university staff, attended IET India’s technical talks in March and February. Dr David Jenkins, an IET volunteer and Senior Professor at the University of Plymouth, gave the talks at 10 Indian universities, sharing his insights on human-robot interaction and raising awareness of the IET. Focusing on ‘Human-Robot Interaction for enhanced perception and social wellbeing’, his talk appealed to various disciplines including robotics, artificial intelligence, natural language understanding, design and social sciences. Dr Jenkins also discussed industry best practice and research collaborations in the field. Dr Jenkins said: My time with IET India was so positive. We had an excellent agenda to interact with students and faculty.” For more news from India, please visit theiet.in IET headlines 5 Care Minister Caroline Dinenage MP with IET Chief Executive & Secretary Nigel Fine