Congratulations to our 125th President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers

Biography of John R Wood

125th President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers

            John Wood is the 125th President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. John read engineering at Cambridge and spent the early part of his career in the Army in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.After field appointments in BAOR and the UK, he attended Staff College and then held a number of appointments in military vehicle procurement, test and development. He retired from the Army in 1987 as a Lieutenant Colonel to join RAC Motoring Services as Technical Director and Chief Engineer.

          From there, John joined MIRA Ltd in 1991 as Managing Director and Chief Executive. MIRA grew out of the Motor Industry Research Association and is an independent company providing design, test and

development services to the automotive and other industries worldwide and has offices in the US, China, Korea and India.

          He has also been the Chairman of the Design Engineering Group of SMMT and currently chairs the Industry Advisory Panel for the Technology Strategy Board's Low Carbon Vehicle IDP and the Technical Advisory Panel of the Motor Sports Association.He is a non-executive director of CERAM Ltd and a Board member of the National Composites Network. He was Chairman of Formula Student from its inception to 2009.

          John joined the Institution in 1973, becoming a Member in 1978 and a Fellow in 1987. He served as Chairman of our Automobile Division in 1993. In 1996 John was invited to fill a casual vacancy on the

Council, prior to being elected a Member of the Council in 1998, a Vice-President in 2001 and Deputy President in 2008.

Applications for Incoming Committee

Come and be a part of the incoming committee for the 2010/2011 term. This is a way for you to set yourself apart from other graduates as you will be able to gain valuable experience, knowledge and skills.

Those of you who are interested to be part of the incoming committee for 2010/2011 please download the application form, fill it in and email it to uniten.imeche@gmail.com with the subject, "Application". The deadline for submission is 8th of March 2010.

Don't miss this opportunity!

Report on IMechE-UNITEN Student Chapter Talk Series

Title:                Optimising Product Reliability with Computational Mechanics: Applications in High Technology to Heritage Sectors

Speaker:          Prof. Chris Bailey

Venue:             DK1, College of Information Technology

Date:               10^th January 2010 (Monday

Time:               3.00 p.m. – 4.00 p.m.

By:       Wan Muhammad Djawad Wan Dzahanurin

Committee Member,

Special Task Bureau

On the 18^th of January 2010, Professor Christopher Bailey, Director of the Computational Mechanics and Reliability Group at the University of Greenwich, London, United Kingdom paid a little visit to Uniten to deliver a brief presentation on computational mechanics in technology, titled: Optimising Product Reliability with Computational Mechanics: Applications in High Technology to Heritage Sectors.

The talk was attended by a number of students from various engineering classes who were eager to explore the horizons of computational engineering application in the industrial sector and in particular, the heritage sector as how this talk was leaning towards.  Several Uniten Professor and lecturers were present as well.

Professor Chris Bailey is very involved with the maintenance and conservation of the historical, widely-recognized ship, the Cutty Sark, which is currently undergoing rehabilitation works in a dry dock in London.

This talk introduces the students to the methods of Computational Fluid Dynamics, Finite Element Analysis and Prognostic and Health Monitoring in solving problems and designing solutions before the actual physical work in order for the physical work to be carried be executed perfectly at the first try. These methods ensure that the project done would be cost effective and time saving. It is also important to know exactly what the physical work to be carried out and their accurate effect to the ship, in this case, as the subject at work is a highly vulnerable piece of historical artifact.

Besides its application in the heritage preservation and conservation sector, computational technology in engineering is widely used to design almost everything before mass production. Therefore, students could see how important computer programs are to engineers nowadays. Gone are the days where manual labor are required for every knick and turn where trial and error were always in order before finally acquiring the desired output.

We hope that such an innovative and informational talk would be carried out in the future for more students to broaden their horizon in this momentous field of engineering.

E-Challenge Competition

Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) is having their Engineering Fest from the 29th of January 2010 till the 5th of February 2010. They have invited us, UNITEN students to participate in the E-Challenge. The details are as below:

Date: 30th to 31st January 2010

Time: 9am - 5pm

Place: Batu Pahat Mall

Fees: RM30 per team of three people (transportation is not included)

Prize: RM 400 for each category

This competition aims to expose students to the real business environment in which students will apply the marketing strategies and communication skills with the community around Batu Pahat. For further information, please contact Nicholas (0163223590) or Roger (0122805451) before 25th January 2010.

IMechE Talks Series : Professor Chris Bailey