Welcome to the Wessex Region This site is used to update you on events and activities being organised by the IMechE Wessex Area. I hope you find something of interest in your area and if you need any further information please contact one of the committee members whose details can be found under the Contacts link.
Recent Wessex AGM followed by social lunch & drink - member, committee & HQ representation
Recent visit to members Eco-house & summer hog roast
If you have any ideas for future events please get in contact.
Andy Armstrong
Wessex Hon Secretary
Nick Cole
Wessex Chairman
07 September 2010 | 17:15 - 18:30
23 September 2010 | 19:00 - 21:00
Dr Kieron O'Hara has been looking at various issues to do with the invasion of our privacy by technology, as recorded in such terms as the 'database state' or the 'surveillance society'. He has been investigating the balance between unwarranted storing and use of information, and the great value that can be achieved by collecting and analysing data, so that we don't throw the scientific baby out with the political bathwater. But there is no doubt our traditional notions of privacy are coming under great strain, and the battle is currently being lost.
He has also been looking into the increase in the use of technology to store records, photographs, videos, blogs, facebook, twitter etc. The result is in effect a huge outsourcing of memory, analogous to the changes in society and personal psychology that followed the coming of writing and the development of a literate society. He will propose that we have not really thought very deeply about the social changes that we might expect when we will be leaving these enormous and semi-permanent footprints behind us.
Dr O’Hara will report on research by Southampton University with students to develop devices for recording our daily lives, based on Microsoft's Sensecam.
12 October 2010 | 18:00 - 20:00
Tuesday evening joint IMechE/IET lecture. The speaker will be Paul Stevens from Qinetiq Boscombe Down.
11 November 2010 | 19:00 - 21:00
Look at your computer setup. Imagine that you hooked up a 3D printer. Instead of printing on bits of paper this 3D printer makes real, robust, mechanical parts. To give you an idea of how robust, think of Lego bricks and you're in the right area. You could make lots of useful stuff, but interestingly you could also make most of the parts to make another 3D printer. That would be a machine that could copy itself.
This talk will be about RepRap - the Replicating Rapid-prototyper. This 3D printer makes components by building them up in layers of plastic. This technology already exists, but the cheapest commercial machine would set you back £12,000. And it isn't even designed so that it can make itself. So what the RepRap team are doing is to develop
and to give away the designs for a much cheaper machine with the novel capability of being able to self-copy (material costs are about £300).
That way it's accessible to small communities in the developing world as well as individuals in the developed world. We are distributing the RepRap machine entirely free to everyone using open-source - so, if you have one, you can make another and give it to a friend... http://reprap.org
16 November 2010 | 18:00 - 20:00
Tuesday evening joint IET/IMechE lecture.
"World-first Formula 3 racing car" which is powered by chocolate, steered by carrots, has bodywork made from potatoes and can still do 125mph round corners.
The speaker will be Dr James Meredith from the International Manufacturing Centre at the University of Warwick.
Light refreshments will be available from 6pm with the lecture starting at 6.30pm.
08 December 2010 | 14:00 - 16:00
This schools lecture will be given by the Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Dalton.
08 December 2010 | 19:00 - 20:00
This prestigious lecture will be given by Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Dalton.
Following the Strategic Defence Review and the public sector spending review, the Chief of the Air Staff (CAS) will give his audience a view of the future of engineering in the Armed Forces in the current financial climate. Sir Stephen started his career in the RAF by gaining a degree in aeronautical engineering at the University of Bath before attending the RAF College at Cranwell. Graduating as a pilot, his career has included several command appointments before becoming Air Member Personnel (AMP) and CAS. He is uniquely positioned to set out the importance of engineers and engineering to the Armed Forces.
