Recent Events
Welcome to the IET France recent events
Mulhouse Weekend
From September 10th to 13th 2009 the IET France, together with the IET History of Technology Professional Network and the SEE, organised a weekend event based in Mulhouse in eastern France.
The weekend was launched with three interesting lectures on the theme of railway engineering. A technical visit to the Ligne à Grande Vitesse Rhin-Rhône Construction site marshalling yard was accompanied by a series of presentations about this important infrastructure project.
The IET members and guests were welcomed to Mulhouse by the Maire Adjoint at a Civic Reception in the Salle des Colonnes de l'Hôtel de Ville.
A visit to the French national railway museum, Cité du Rail, gave us the opportunity to experience, by video, the breaking of the rail speed record by the Eastern TGV at 578 Km/h. This was followed by a guided tour of the EDF Electropolis centre, which also hosted our afternoon lecture programme.
Our guest lecturer, Mme Patricia Rochès, talked about the impressive Garabit Viaduct railway arch bridge, built by Gustav Eiffel and opened in 1885, on which she is a recognised authority. Lectures on the theme of Electrical Power generation in the UK (Nuclear) and Japan (Hydroelectric), Telephony in Mauritius, and wartime German developments in missile technology brought the technical programme to a close.
Making a white LED
On March 26th 2009, IET members and guests were entertained by Mr. Jean-Pascal Duchemin, an erstwhile chemical engineer with Thales. Mr Duchemin talked enthusiastically about the chemical and physical principles behind the LED, leading us to an understanding the reasons why the blue and white LED were so long coming after the red and green.He explained the explained the differences in the technologies, and the difference between the cheap and expensive white LEDs.
Annual dinner 2009
The Institutions' joint annual dinner was held on Friday 9th January at the Holiday Inn, Paris République where 41 members and guests enjoyed a social evening, a fine dinner and a joke competition won by an IET member (modesty prevents me from giving the name). We were particularly pleased to be able to welcome Frédéric Jacobée, General Secretary of the SEE, as our official guest.
IET France defends engineering as a career at the British School of Paris
At the end of September, Mohan Rao and Mike Wrigley spent their Saturday morning at the British School of Paris' Careers Festival. Manning a stand overflowing with documentation shipped out for the occasion by staff in Stevenage, they also presented their vision of engineering as a career during two interactive workshops. BSP Physics and Careers teacher Derek Lewis wrote afterwards "The overwhelming response was "please do it again".
Both students and staff felt that the quality of the workshops was excellent and the exchange of ideas between speakers and students was really worthwhile. The buzz that I felt in the Sports Hall, during the break, was really something!
The information that was passed on to the students was really first class and the students really appreciated the effort that was made by all, on their behalf. Other comments included: "I really enjoyed the Festival and it has helped me to make my choice of subjects for the Sixth Form"; "I wished that we could have had this in Year 11, it would have helped me a lot" and "this has confirmed my choice of studies".
Engineering Gold event in Grenoble
We are happy to say that the Grenoble event is now on IET.tv. If you wish to view the presentation please visit http://tv.theiet.org/technology/computing/2293.cfm
Visit to the European Synchronous Radiation Facility in Grenoble
A group of IET members and other engineers visited the European Synchronous Radiation Facility in Grenoble on the 12th of February 2008. The party were given a comprehensive tour of the facility.
The French Engineering Institutions' annual dinner
The French Engineering Institutions' annual dinner was held at the Wagon Bleu in Paris on the 11th January. The restaurant is a railway dining car from 1927 which overlooks the tracks of the Gare Saint Lazare; a setting which is really quite exceptional. Apart from some worries about leaving the bar when it was in motion, the dinner was a great success; good food, good company and entertaining after-dinner speeches.
Joint ICE / IET event at Aix en Provence
ICE Senior Vice President Jean Venables and husband Roger (FICE) were among 50 participants at the joint ICE / IET event centred at Aix en Provence on the 9th, 10th and 11th November. The first day was at Cadarache for the ITER fusion project, while the second day concentrated on a visit to Toulon for a briefing on the new Toulon motorway tunnel.
Visit to Airbus
The meeting in Toulouse over the weekend of May 26th was a great success. We knew it was a sell-out many weeks before but our expectations were fulfilled with the talk in the morning and the VIP visit in the afternoon.
On Friday morning we had an interesting lecture on the A380 in the hotel salle de reunion by Brian Endersby, including some fascinating detail on the flight control systems; this was followed in the afternoon by a visit to the final assembly buildings of both the A330/340 and the A380. In the evening we had a dinner at which the British Consul to Toulouse gave an address.
Seen from a distance the A380 looks very much like any other modern jetliner, but at close quarters, when the scale of the thing becomes apparent, only one adjective comes to mind: "mind-boggling". The same adjective applies to the scale of the production facilities - assembly jigs and the hangars that house them - and the production rates - up to one per working day from the A330/340 line.
Saturday was intended to feature a walking tour around old Toulouse, but was unfortunately cancelled due to the torrential rain.
Biometric recognition
On 24 April 2007 Dr John Daugman OBE of Cambridge University presented a paper on biometric recognition to the IET French centre. He described how people can be identified with almost zero doubt and possibly without even being aware that they are being identified.
Dr Daugman's slides
(3562 k) Updated September 2008
Biometrics & Methods of Personal Identification
Thirteen members of the French section attended a presentation on Biometrics & Methods of Personal Identification at the Hotel Mercure Montmartre in Paris on the 29th March. They heard Johann Caubergh, Founder of Biometric Service Provider QiSQi, discuss:
- Short basic introduction to Biometrics.
- Overview of Biometric applications and their Providers
- International Biometric Standards
- Biometric Issues
- Biometric Data Protection
- Search for new Biometric Technology.
Biometric service provider
(3712 k) Updated September 2008
Designing the Pegasus computer
Ian Merry drew on personal experience to tell a meeting on the 5th October about the design of the Pegasus computer.
Pegasus was the first "mass-produced" computer produced by Ferranti at Manchester. This valve-based computer involved new type of logic design which made them easy and logical to programme, and thus popular with their users. Please view the text and slides of the talk.
Two for the price of one
At the meeting on 13 May IET Trustee, Nick Baines, discussed the way forward for the IET with a select group of members from the French centre. This was followed by a short question and answer session with Mike Bridgefoot, Manager, Qualifications Support.
Notes on the meeting
(28 k) Updated September 2008
Renewable Energy from the Sea
Mike Eggleton's lecture on renewable energy from the sea was a great success. The text and slides of his presentation are available for downloading.
AGM 2005
The Annual General Meeting for the year 2005 was held on the 23rd February 2006 at the Royal British Legion Club in Paris. The Chairman's report, with notes on the associated business, is available here in PDF format.
Other Internet resources:
From the IET
