Systems Council Chapter and Special Interest Groups (SIGs)

Welcome to the IEEE UK and Ireland Systemic Innovation Special Interest Group (SISIG).

Innovation has been the cornerstone of engineering and a foundation for progress. Although innovation has been carried out by expert in every engineering field, its emergence and the timing of its conception is based on individuals unique background, outlook and approach.

Today, more than ever the human race needs innovation to engineer its way out of the major challenges it faces; economic development, transport, environment, etc. Adapting a structured approach by adopting systems principles could not only help training of young engineers to shorten their development into innovative engineers but also increases the collective innovative throughput of the engineering community and beyond.

The Systemic Innovation Special Interest Group (SISIG) under the UK and Ireland Systems Council Chapter focuses on systemic analysis and development of the innovation process to create a new perspective about innovation and its underlying processes. This allows the engineering society to spearhead the development of new solutions to complex problems of our time. Utilisation and adoption of the know-how developed through systemic analysis to foster and promote systemic innovation will have the potential to make major impact in helping the next generation of engineers in development of new innovative solutions. This should accelerate innovation and innovative activities and promote its spread through cross-discipline cooperation and collaboration.

Welcome to the IEEE UK and Ireland Climate Change and Environmental Technology Special Interest Group (ETSIG).

The world is changing and we are facing global environmental challenges, which act beyond borders and have long-lasting negative impacts. A prime example is climate change and the way that it affects our lives. The nature and scale of the environmental issues that we need to address require inter and multidisciplinary approaches and only such initiatives are able to lead to tangible scientific outputs.

Based on its world-class expertise, IEEE could undertake a wide range of activities to contribute to understanding the impact of climate change and development of new environmental technologies. Such initiative relies on IEEE members and the wider community to participate and deliver a number of projects for this purpose. These projects would help the public to find innovative solutions for environmental issues and also ensure that reliable evidence is available to inform policymakers.

Implementing the COP21 (Paris) accord is the last chance to curb current levels of greenhouse gases emissions, otherwise, in only 30 years we will inevitably pass the 2 C threshold. Drastic changes by all countries are required to deviate as much as possible from the current trajectory to mitigate the climate change impacts, which we still don’t know to what extent affect our plant and its ecosystems. In addition to financial support, climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts require innovation, technology transfer, development, and capacity building and IEEE is in a unique position to have a meaningful contribution to. In addition, IEEE could work with other professional institutions on green technologies and develop and resource resilience strategies and share expertise.

As the first step, the ETSIG initiative could start with organising/hosting seminars and inviting guest lecturers that their expertise reflects the importance of IEEE in addressing global environmental challenges. This would pave the way for proposing roadmaps for scientific research, education, and technology development collaboration on climate change mitigation and environmental technologies. We aim to make this initiative a platform for establishing and maintaining a sustained collaboration between IEEE members and other practitioners who are working in the environmental sustainability sector.

Welcome to the IEEE UK and Ireland Railway Technology Special Interest Group (RTSIG).

Since the earliest days of rail transportation in the 1820’s rail has undergone gradual improvement through adopting and driving new technologies including electromagnetic and subsequently electronic controls and radio communication. The pace has accelerated over the past two decades with the incorporation of advanced computing and communications enabling automation and new train control and traffic management paradigms leading to improved reliability and capacity.

The engineering of modern railways is a diverse and multi-disciplinary enterprise that goes well beyond the traditional forte of mechanical, civil and structural engineering that were key at the formative days of the industry. This is driven by the enhanced need for mobility, energy efficiency, sustainability, low carbon, and low land take alternatives to road transportation and in recent years the need for interoperability across national borders. Railways are one of the most complex ‘systems of systems’ with many complex interfaces and interactions.

The Rail Technology Special Interest Group (RTSIG) under the UK & Ireland Systems Council Chapter focuses on Modern Railway Engineering encompassing the complexity and diversity of disciplines and systems integration challenges facing the industry to provide safe, reliable, efficient and fast urban and heavy rail transportation services at a time when new competition is emerging in the form of autonomous road vehicles.

Welcome to the IEEE UK and Ireland Data Analytics Special Interest Group (DASIG).

Data is everywhere and part of our daily lives in more ways than most of us realise. From social media to healthcare to energy consumption, data is collected and analyzed to improve the efficiency and quality of service provided by companies.

In the past two decades, fast growth of IoT (Internet of Things), smart homes and social media has raised the demand for advanced data analytics for use in AI and ML.

The Data Analytics SIG aims to cover the following applied topics in data analytics:

• Statistics and Mathematics
• Software and Programming
• Artificial Intelligence
• Machine Learning
• Data Visualisation

And use cases in the following areas:

• Energy Management and Smart Grids
• Healthcare
• Social Media, Search, Advertisement and Consumer Behaviour
• Transport

Welcome to the IEEE UK and Ireland Technology Ethics Special Interest Group (TESIG).

IEEE has already embarked on an ambitious programme to develop standards and industry codes for factoring ethical concerns in the design and development of advanced technologies. The work being done in The IEEE Global Initiative for Ethical Considerations in Artificial Intelligence and Autonomous Systems (“The IEEE Global Initiative”) has fostered three new standards projects as the latest additions to the IEEE P7000™ standards family and directly reflect the IEEE publication Ethically Aligned Design: A Vision for Prioritising Human Wellbeing with Artificial Intelligence and Autonomous Systems.  This is a document that encourages technologists to prioritise ethical considerations in the creation of autonomous and intelligent technologies.

The P7000 standard on Model process for addressing Ethical concerns during System Design is also an emerging member of this evolving suite. The new standards projects include:

• IEEE P7000™—Model Process for Addressing Ethical Concerns during System Design
• IEEE P7004™—Standard for Child and Student Data Governance
• IEEE P7005™—Standard for Transparent Employer Data Governance
• IEEE P7006™ – Standard for Personal Data Artificial Intelligence (AI) Agent

The new TESIG is a committee under the Systems Council Chapter in the UK & Ireland Section and focuses on the lectures, debates, disseminating the emerging standards and raising awareness on this important front.

Welcome to the IEEE UK and Ireland Industry 4.0 and Industrial Internet of Things Special Interest Group (I4SIG).

The term “Industrie 4.0” was initially coined by the German government. It describes and encapsulates a set of technological changes in manufacturing and sets out priorities of a coherent policy framework with the aim of maintaining the global competitiveness of German industry. It is conceptual in that it sets out a way of understanding an observed phenomenon and institutional in that it provides the framework for a range of policy initiatives identified and supported by government and business representatives that drive a research and development programme.

Industry 4.0 describes the organisation of production processes based on technology and devices autonomously communicating with each other along the value chain: a model of the ‘smart’ factory of the future where computer-driven systems monitor physical processes, create a virtual copy of the physical world and make decentralised decisions based on self-organisation mechanisms. The concept takes account of the increased computerisation of the manufacturing industries where physical objects are seamlessly integrated into the information network. As a result, “manufacturing systems are vertically networked with business processes within factories and enterprises and horizontally connected to spatially dispersed value networks that can be managed in real time – from the moment an order is placed right through to outbound logistics.”

These developments make the distinction between industry and services less relevant as digital technologies are connected with industrial products and services into hybrid products which are neither goods nor services exclusively. Indeed, both the terms ‘Internet of Things’ and ‘Internet of Services’ are considered elements of Industry 4.0.  The main features of Industry 4.0 are:

• Interoperability: cyber-physical systems (work-piece carriers, assembly stations and products) allow humans and smart factories to connect and communicate with each other.
• Virtualisation: a virtual copy of the Smart Factory is created by linking sensor data with virtual plant models and simulation models
• Decentralisation: the ability of cyber-physical systems to make decisions of their own and to produce locally, thanks to technologies such as 3d printing
• Real-Time Capability: the capability to collect and analyse data and provide the derived insights immediately
• Service Orientation
• Modularity: flexible adaptation of smart factories to changing requirements by replacing or expanding individual modules

The challenge is to combine equipment with IT for a quantum change in innovation which will lead to changes in markets, processes and create new opportunities. This requires three steps:

• To adapt basic IT to the requirements of manufacturing and continue to develop IT with this in mind. To achieve effective economies of scale and scope CPS capabilities will be required at existing facilities to enable migration to Industry 4.0, and these capabilities will have to be designed-in at new sites
• Promotion of research, technology and training initiatives needs to be prioritised to achieve lasting leadership in Industry 4.0. Development of methodologies and pilot applications in automation engineering modelling and system optimisation are required
• New business models will have to be developed to create novel value networks that use the technology developed to link products with services

Delivery of Industry 4.0 will only be possible through combining the lead markets and leading supplier strategies. This would have three features:

• Inter-company value chains and networks through horizontal integration need to be developed
• End-to-end digital engineering across the entire value chain of both the product and the associated manufacturing system is required
• Development, implementation and vertical integration of flexible and reconfigurable manufacturing system

The aims for I4 will be:

• Invited Talks, Seminars, and Webinars
• Identify academic and industrial collaboration strategies
• IEEE UK and Ireland Section capacity

Welcome to the IEEE UK and Ireland Intellectual Capital Special Interest Group (ICSIG).

More details coming soon…