Events

During the 1930s, with the London Naval Treaty of 1930 placing limitations on heavy cruiser warship construction and characteristics, the US, Japanese and British navies attempted to circumvent the restrictions on heavy cruiser construction by building light cruisers (vessels with an armament no heavier than 6.1in / 155mm) of similar size and fighting power to conventional heavy cruisers with 8in artillery. In Britain, this resulted first in the 10 Town class vessels, and latterly the reduced Fiji (aka Crown Colony) and Minotaur classes, built to fulfill the obligations of the Second London Naval Treaty of 1936.

The use of digital survey techniques has transformed how archaeologists set about detection, recording, analysis and presentation of objects, monuments and landscapes. The exponential increase in computing power means ever more complex, detailed and accurate datasets can be collected, opening up new possibilities to the study of the historic environment. This talk will discuss some of the ways that new surveying technologies and 3D recording techniques have revolutionised field archaeology and the information that can be extracted from these new datasets.

Point to point microwave radio systems have been in operation since the 1940s however in today’s world of fibre and satellite communications these fixed radio links often go unmentioned, despite their significant usage.

The speaker, Mike Flynn, is an experienced ex RAF fighter pilot, who was probably destined to fly the TSR2. This was not to be and Mike will give his personal view on the various factors that led up to the controversial cancellation in 1965 of, arguably, the most advanced strike aircraft of its time – cost, performance, innovation, politics, in-fighting, opposing cultures, information, disinformation, missing information, speculation. Mike will discuss what is known about the unprecedented decision to order the breaking up of the prototypes, the destruction of the drawings, tooling & jigs? And why did some airframes survive?

This talk will present the journey from traditional methods to new technologies and discuss the challenges in getting from scientific theory to a product that navies can use. 

For sixty years, railways have been supplied with power by transformers connected to the public electricity supply. However, the Trans-Pennine Route Upgrade has followed a different approach, with Static Frequency Converters connecting and electronically controlling power flow.

Railway Systems Integration is a critical aspect of delivering functional, reliable railway systems.

For human space missions that extend beyond one or two years, resupply of large volumes and masses of food, water, and atmospheric gases becomes unrealistic. Therefore, long-duration future habitation of space will require bioregenerative life-support systems in which plants could play key roles, including atmosphere regeneration, wastewater recycling and food production. The use of in situ regolith as a seed germination and plant growth substrate may have several advantages over hydroponic systems, such as the immediate bioavailability of plant essential ions, low-tech mechanical support for plants, and easy access to in situ materials once on the surface. Since plants may play several key roles in long-term life support systems on the Moon or Mars, it is crucial to know how plant seeds should be stored and transported across space before being germinated and grown in such systems.

This talk will cover the decision to offer a smart meter to every household in Great Britain and explain the technology behind the meters, why sethe cond generation is behind schedule and issues related to data privacy and cyber security.

How do we prove that railway signalling is fundamentally safe? Come to this lecture to find out.