Welcome readers to our newsletter updating you on the work of the Lloyd’s Register Foundation. The Foundation strives to make a real impact in line with its charitable purpose of enhancing the safety of life and property and advancing engineering-related public education. As a global charity we also have a wide base of friends, colleagues, grantees and wider stakeholders to communicate with. We only send this newsletter out to people that have subscribed and asked to be put on our mailing list, but if you know somebody that would also like to receive it and hear about the innovative work of the Foundation, then please forward this on to them as ask them to subscribe as well.
In this edition we’ve got lots to update you on ranging from feedback on our first international conference, through to publication of our updated five year plan, and announcements of forthcoming events.
The highlights in this newsletter reflect the outputs from our grants community and the direct charitable activities we fund.
Best regards,
Richard Clegg, Managing Director
International Flagship Conference
We would like to thank all those who joined us at our first international conference on 13 and 14 October 2016. The event was a great success, with over 200 members of our grant holder community, academia, and industry from all over the world joining us over the two days. If you were unable to attend the conference, videos of all the presentations made by speakers are now available to view online. #bringingsafetytolife
Seven goals in five years: our plan to 2021
The Foundation has set out a five year plan to deliver our strategy. There are seven goals in the 2016-2021 five year plan which articulates our focus and priorities going forward. We will report regularly on our progress and the plan will be reviewed and refreshed annually to factor in experience and new opportunities.
Public understanding of risk institute in Singapore
The institute is now making plans to convene an international expert panel to advise on its specific programmes of work and projects where it can add maximum value. This will be published by the Foundation as part of its Foresight Review documents. See more about the institute here.
Robotics and autonomous systems: Serving a safer world
The latest Foundation foresight review looks at how robotics and autonomous systems (RAS) might impact the safety and performance of the engineered assets and the infrastructures on which modern society relies. The Foundation is considering developing a programme in this area and welcomes approaches from potential funding partners. For more information contact Ruth Boumphrey .
Distributed ledger technologies: Applications for engineering
The Foundation, in partnership with the Alan Turing Institute, is reviewing how distributed ledger technologies and systems (for example blockchain) can play a role in the assurance and safety of engineered systems. If you are interested in participating in the review, or in learning more, please contact Gary Pogson.
Impact that our funding can achieve
Our work with the Educational Volunteers Foundation of Turkey (TEGV) has allowed the creation of a mobile science education unit that is targeting schools in disadvantaged areas of Turkey, that lack a robust infrastructure for science education. See some early reactions from school pupils that have been using the mobile centre here (it’s in Turkish; English subtitles are available via the video’s settings).
At our conference, Lewis Wilde suggested that he would be “on the dole eating beans” if it wasn't for the support of the Lloyd’s Register Foundation. You can learn much more about his engineering apprenticeship with Island Ribs here.
Welcome to the newly appointed Foundation members
Tim Slingsby has recently joined as Director of Skills and Education. He is developing our plan for inspiring the next generation of engineers, enhancing the skills of the workforce and bringing engineering-related education to disadvantaged or under-represented groups. Tim is very willing to discuss good ideas in this area and is particularly keen to identify programmes that have a distinctive, long-term impact so do contact him here.
Fauziya Ahmed-Idris, team secretary, provides support to the foundation team and diary management support to Professor Richard Clegg.
Heritage and Education Centre newsletter
Our heritage and education centre now have a newsletter. If you would like to subscribe to see all the fantastic work they are doing please subscribe here
Upcoming
Data study workshop with industry at Alan Turing Institute (ATI)
12 to 16 December: ATI is hosting a week-long event bringing together researchers and industry to work on real data science problems posed by industry. Six companies (Siemens, Airbus, Tata, Shell, Syngenta and National Grid) will present a real world problem to data scientists who then form groups to work on and start designing solutions. You can apply to join the workshop here, or alternatively contact Darren Grey the Foundation’s Programme Manager. Darren would also like to hear from you if you work in industry and would like to suggest topics and data sets for future workshops.
Safety Grand Challenges
The Foundation needs your help - complete our online 'Safety Grand Challenges: Where is safety challenged?' survey. We are asking you to share your experiences of where safety is challenged when people interact with critical infrastructure and how the safety of critical infrastructure itself can be challenged. Identifying these challenges will enable the Foundation and the wider society to promote solutions that increase safety. We will be publishing what is discovered during this process and seeing what role the Foundation can play in addressing some of these issues. Read more here.