Forthcoming events
Details of our 2024-2025 programme of meetings will be shown here when available.
If you need any additional information please contact Tom Purcell by email or 07306 757000.
Members and visitors are welcome at all meetings.
Meetings are held either online via Microsoft Teams, or as physical meetings. The choice will be shown here when details are available. In either case they will commence at 7:00 pm.
Wednesday 25th September 2024, at 7:00pm:-
How to build a (useful) Quantum Computer, by Artem Shesterikov, The National Physical Laboratory.
(Microsoft Teams Presentation).
The video for this event can now be found in the Anglia 'Past Events' section.
Wednesday 13th November 2024 at 7:00pm :-
Artificial Intelligence - what is it in reality, and should we be worried about it? By Dr. Graeme Philp.
In person event. Venue: Eaton Electric Ltd, Great Marlings, Luton LU2 8DL.
Abstract:
You cannot fail to have heard about AI, but actually, what is it? Are machines really becoming intelligent in the way that humans understand intelligence, or is it just marketing hype? Computers are becoming unfeasibly powerful, with Google arguably leading the way, so should we be fearful of these advances - in the short term, or in the longer term? Dr Philp will try to peel away the hype and expose the current reality and will explain why he thinks we have little to fear in the next 50 years, but why he’s not so certain beyond that.
Refreshments from 6:45pm:
The presentation will be followed by an opportunity for informal discussion and conversation over a buffet supper. A donation of £2 per person is requested as a contribution to costs.
Members, non-members and guests are most welcome.
Please click on the "About" tab for directions and map to Eaton Electric Ltd, Great Marlings, Butterfield, Luton LU2 8DL.
Wednesday 29th January 2025 at 7:00pm :-
Lord Kelvin – life and achievements, by Professor Graham Machin FREng, BSc (Hons), DPhil, DSc, HonFInstMC, FInstP, FIPEM, CPhys, CEng.
Senior NPL Fellow in Temperature Measurement.
(MS Teams presentation).
About this event:
Lord Kelvin (William Thomson) was born a little over 200 years ago in June 1824 and was arguably the greatest scientist of the 19th Century. However today, he is little known outside of the field of temperature measurement, and even then little is known about the details of his life nor the broad range of his contributions, to science, engineering and society. In this talk Professor Machin aims to bring Lord Kelvin “to life”, he will give an overview of the life of Lord Kelvin and then detail some of his outstanding achievements that have shaped the world in which we live today. It will be seen that Lord Kelvin was not only a great scientist, but also an outstanding engineer and indeed a savvy technology entrepreneur and politician.
“a love of precision in all things, and the highest virtue of an experimenter -patience”
Lord Kelvin
Lord Kelvin memorial - Glasgow.
Speaker CV:
Graham is a Senior NPL Fellow, has >30 years’ thermometry research experience, published >250 papers and given numerous keynote/plenary talks. He holds visiting/honorary professorships at Birmingham, Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities. He represents the UK on the Consultative Committee of Thermometry (CCT), was President of the Institute of Measurement and Control (2018-2019) and chair of the Euramet Technical Committee for Thermometry (2014-2018). In 2019 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, in 2021 he was awarded the InstMC Harold Hartley medal for “outstanding contributions to the technology of measurement and control” and elected Honorary Fellow in 2024. He has wide ranging research interests e.g. future kelvin, driftless practical thermometry, clinical thermometry, photonic thermometry and leads NPL’s metrology activity for nuclear decommissioning. As part of the Kelvin 200 celebrations, he is organising a Royal Society Theo Murphy discussion meeting “The redefined kelvin – progress and prospects” to be held in Glasgow 24-25 February 2025.
Wednesday 26th February 2025, at 7:00pm:-
Quantum-enabled Network Radar: Fact or Fiction?
by Dr Mohammed Jahangir, University of Birmingham.
This is a joint meeting with the Institute of Physics, London and South East.
(Venue: Lindop Building, College Lane Campus, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield,
Hertfordshire, AL10 9AB).
(Pre-Registration is required): BOOK HERE
About this event:
The University of Birmingham are leading the development of ultra-stable quantum timing devices. Accurate timing is central to most modern communication, navigation and sensing systems. For radar, these ultra-precise quantum clocks can transform radar capability for dete
cting small targets. A test bed of two commercial off the shelf radar have been set up at the Birmingham campus, which have been modified to be able to operate using a common ultra-precise timing source from a quantum oscillator. Compared with conventional radar, quantum-enabled radar are able to detect as well as track drones and other smaller targets further away, and they enable the network radar to truly work in unison. With reference to data from real trials, an assessment will be carried out of the success and challenges of using high performance oscillators for radar surveillance. Lessons learned on how quantum oscillators can be leveraged for networked radar systems to reach their full potential will be presented.
Joint meeting with the Institute of Measurement and Control
This is a physical lecture held in the Lindop Building, College Lane Campus, UoH, Hatfield, AL10 9AB.
The lecture commences 7:00pm, duration 1 hour.
Refreshments will be available from 6pm. Parking is free around the Lindop Building after 6pm.
Pre-Registration is required by clicking and following the BOOK HERE link above, directly to the IoP.
Wednesday 26th March 2025, at 7:00pm:-
The Origins of Modern Human Behaviour, by Mark Thomas, Professor of Evolutionary Genetics, UCL.
(Venue: Eaton Electric Ltd, Great Marlings, Luton LU2 8DL).
Biography:
Mark Thomas is Professor of Evolutionary Genetics at University College London and works mainly on biological and cultural aspects of human evolution. He uses computer
simulation and statistical modelling to make inferences from genetic data – includingancient DNA – and archaeological information, on processes such as past migrations and dispersals, natural selection – particularly in response to changes in diet and infectious disease loads – and how demography shapes cultural evolution.
Synopsys:
Modern human behaviour is marked by increased symbolic and technological complexity in the archaeological record. In western Eurasia this transition is termed the Upper Palaeolithic, and occurred around 45,000 years ago, but many of its features appear transiently in southern Africa about 45,000 years earlier. I will discuss how demography is a major determinant in the maintenance of cultural complexity and that variation in regional subpopulation density and/or migratory activity results in spatial structuring of cultural skill accumulation. Genetic estimates of regional population size over time show that densities in early Upper Palaeolithic Europe were similar to those in sub-Saharan Africa when modern behaviour first appeared. Demographic factors can thus explain geographic variation in the timing of the first appearance of modern behaviour without invoking increased cognitive capacity.
Diet and culture are probably the two most central and entangled sub-plots in the story of human evolution. Most if not all of the major cultural transitions over the last 3 million years had large impacts on diet, and even today, some of the strongest signatures of natural selection in our genomes are linked to dietary change. The complex relationships between diet, biology, and culture originate from the earliest stone tool use, if not earlier, and have played key roles in the evolution of many human characteristics, including large brains, reduced gut size, and tool use. Today, food ways and cuisines have strong cultural, ethnic, and geographic associations, and, in some populations, correlate with known biological adaptations. I will discuss some of the ways that diet, culture, and biology have remained entwined over the past 3 million years.
Refreshments from 6:45pm:
The presentation will be followed by an opportunity for informal discussion and conversation over a buffet supper. A donation of £2 per person is requested as a contribution to costs.
Members, non-members and guests are most welcome.
Please click on the "About" tab for directions and map to Eaton Electric Ltd, Great Marlings, Butterfield, Luton LU2 8DL.
Wednesday 30th April 2025:-
The de Havilland Aircraft Company - Hertfordshire's Contribution to Aviation History
Speaker Alistair Hodgson, Volunteer at the de Havilland Museum.
(MS Teams presentation).
Synopsis:
Alistair will look at the company and its achievements through the lifetime of its founder, Geoffrey de Havilland. Along the way we take a closer look at some of the company's most significant designs such as the Tiger Moth, Mosquito and Comet. Alistair will also discuss the activities at Hatfield in the later days of Hawker Siddeley and British Aerospace, and look at how the company's history is being commemorated in the local community on the factory site at Hatfield today.
Biography:
Alistair is an engineer by profession and worked in the energy and rail transport sectors for most of his career. A fascination with old aeroplanes led him to become a volunteer at the de Havilland Aircraft Museum in 2006, which in turn led to his becoming the Museum's first full-time Curator in 2017. Now retired, Alistair still works as a Volunteer at the DH Museum restoring a Sea Venom naval fighter.
Alistair Hodgson
AGM
The talk will be preceded by a brief InstMC Anglia Section AGM, starting at 7:00pm.
(MS Teams presentation).
Further details of our 2024-2025 programme of meetings will be shown here when available.
Please refer to 'Past Events' for presentations from previous year's programmes.