Tour to Lamma P o w e r S t a t i o n On 9th March 2013, IETSS has successfully held a technical visit to Lamma power station run by Hongkong Electric Company, Limited (HEC). The visit was conducted in the morning…

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From Skateboard to Porsche 911 With the support of over 120 students from different universities, the technical seminar “The first Chinese ever to become a car designer” was successfully held in the CityU on 30th January 2013 in huge applause. Many of the students came for a glimpse of the legendary designer of Porsche 911, Mr. Pinky Lai, and to hear him telling…

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»» Quick Glimpse

SpaceTop 3D Interface MIT graduate Jinha Lee recently presented the 3D interface SpaceTop in the TED conference which allows users to directly manipulate interface elements with their bare hands. This innovation will bring the convergence between …

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A Fruitful Semester The 1st season in 2013 has been one of the exciting seasons for the IETSS. Our flagship events, including the “Opening Ceremony of Youth Mentoring Programme” and the “Visit and Seminar season”, have been …

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Flagship Young Mentoring Programme

Lighthouse in the Sea

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“What’s the local or global prospect of engineering?” “After graduation, can I get a job related to engineering?” Many fresh engineers might feel lost in the ocean of engineering, wishing a spot of guiding light. The IET SS is honoured to announce the return of Youth Mentoring Programme (YMP) in 2013, kicked off with a successful opening ceremony on 26th January at the City University of Hong Kong. Aiming at

providing students chances to develop soft skills such as interpersonal skills and enabling students to explore and have a better understanding of engineering fields and the future outlook, this year, the YMP has selected 30 mentees and 10 mentors from various engineering disciplines to form 10 small groups for a more friendly and worthwhile mentorship experience.

h t t p s : / / w w w . f a c e b o o k . c o m / i e t s s . h k g

Career Seminar II Inspires your Future

Here comes to the second career seminar on 9th February 2013 in PolyU. This time, the IET SS was honoured to have invited Mr. Edward Lo and Miss Clara To to give a talk about chartership and working experience in MTRC.

The seminar was divided into three sessions and was successfully held under the support of PolyU and all comers. The first session was Edward’s sharing about the pathway, challenges and successes of becoming a chartered engineer. Engineering students may find it honorable to become a chartered engineer, some may even work towards it as a goal. Edward’s sharing

could be a solid guideline for the future engineers.

The second session was conducted by Clara. She shared her work experience in MTRC and gave students tips about how to become more mature in an working environment. The last session was Q&A and both guest speakers were

enthusiastic in answering all the questions the students asked, resolving all those confusions about what to do after graduation. After the talk, it is believed that students were all inspired by the speakers’ successful experience, helping them to achieve more in the future.

The opening ceremony waited for start joyfully, with mentors and mentees sitting in groups, talking to each other about their school life and career life. At start, a mini ice-breaking game was introduced to warm everybody up so the mentees are more willing to interact with each other. Following the game, the chairman of the Students Section, Ivan Lo, gave an introduction of the IETHK and the programme coordinator, Lap Chan, welcomed the mentors and mentees. Another game was then held in order to facilitate the understanding

between group members and future teamwork. Finally, the ceremony ended with some refreshments and a free chatting session between the mentees and mentors. The ceremony had been a great start for the Youth Mentoring

Programme as it provided a sound foundation of friendships between the participants. Keeping up the momentum, the YMP would be a valuable learning experience for all the participants.

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Edward W.B. Lo

BEng (Hons), MPhil, CEng, MIET

Clara P.M. To

BEng (Hons), MSc, CEng, MIET

− Software Engineer in ASM Assembly Automation Limited

−Design Consultant on Universal Integrated Training System and Main Control System in MTR

−Graduate Engineer of MTR Corporation

−Construction Engineer in Signaling of the South Island Line (East)

SPEAKER PROFILE

With the support of over 120 students from different universities, the technical seminar “The first Chinese ever to become a car designer” was successfully held in the CityU on 30th January 2013 in huge applause. Many of the students came for a glimpse of the legendary designer of Porsche 911, Mr. Pinky Lai, and to hear him telling his story of becoming a car designer.

The seminar started with the introduction of the IETHK Students Section, followed by Mr. Lai’s sharing of his experience from a Student to

the Chief Designer at Porsche R&D. Next, he shared his experience in a number of projects illustrating several car models, and then had an in-depth discussion on the Porsche 911. Delightfully, Mr. Lai had even shown some of the latest design

projects of Porsche with several breathtaking designs. Finally, in the Q&A sessions, students took the precious chance to ask questions and all got satisfactory responses. Every participants were leaving with a smile of satisfaction and appreciation.

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Legend of the First Ever Chinese Car Designer in Porsche

Technical Seminar by Pinky Lai:

From Skateboard to Porsche 911

Mr. Pinky Lai demonstrating how he drafts a car by bare hands.

賴平

Speaker Profile

Lai was born on 20th March 1951 in Hong Kong, where he finished his studies and training on shipbuilding, naval architecture and interior design. Fascinated by Italian designs, he bought himself a one way ticket to Rome in 1972, where he studied industrial design and fine arts. Lai started his career in car design at Ford in 1980, following by his times in BMW and finally Porsche, where he hit the world with his legendary Porsche 911 designs.

Story of Our Waste

Visit to Kowloon Bay Waste Recycling Center

The IETSS held a meaningful visit on 23rd February 2013 to Kowloon Bay Waste Recycling Center (KBWRC), operated by Environmental Protection Department (EPD), which has developed a pilot composting plan at KBWRC in mid-2008 to recycle food waste in Hong Kong.

On that day, participants were guided by William Liu, site supervisor of ATAL. At the beginning of the visit, Mr. Liu introduced the operation principle and procedures of food waste composting plant. After the introduction, Mr. Li took participants to visit the food waste pre-treatment area and composting plants.

Finally, participants were led to see the fertilizer, which is the final product of composting. After the visit, participants were given a pack of compost fertilizer as souvenir.

During the technical visit, 40 participants, including undergraduate students, young engineers and IETSS committees, showed their interest in the operation of composting plant. The event was a great enjoyment and everyone learnt more than they could expect before.

On 9th March 2013, IETSS has successfully held a technical visit to Lamma power station run by Hongkong Electric Company, Limited (HEC).

The visit was conducted in the morning from 9:45am to 12:20pm and was divided into two parts -- theory part and sightseeing part. Firstly, Mr. Edmund PANG, an electrical engineer in the Public Affairs Department of Hongkong Electric Company Ltd., gave a brief introduction on the operation

of plant facilities in the Visitor Centre.

Mr. Pang then brought the participants to look around the station, including some energy-generation related sites like the coal yard area, solar power system and the turbine hall of gas-fired generating unit. Not only did it help us to comprehend the process of electricity generation from coal, it also broadened our horizons by the introduction of the usage of renewable energy by HEC, i.e. solar and wind power, to

assist the government in protecting the environment, which can let us further know how to contribute to the society by some practical and technical means when we become engineers in the future.

Most of the 25 participants gave positive feedbacks after the visit. They expressed their fascination to the entertaining narrations from Mr. Pang and enjoyed acquiring some technical knowledge throughout the visit very much.

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Energetic Tour to Lamma Power Station Fostering understanding in Hong Kong’s power generation industry

Visit to CLP Black Point Power Station

Have you ever thought of what is used to generate the electricity you are using? Oil? Coal? A technical visit was held on 2nd March 2013 by the IETSS, leading 22 engineering students in the tour, to CLP Black Point Power Station, which is one of the world’s largest gas-fired combined cycle power stations. During the visit, Mr. Li, an engineer in CLP, explained the advantages of using natural gas and showed the structure of the generation unit in a gallery. A plant tour was followed which brought the students to various facilities in the plant and finally the heart of the plant -- the control room, wrapping up the tour of precious learning experience.

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ACTIVITY INFORMATION

Date: 22nd June 2013 (Saturday) Time: (TBC) Venue: Lantau Island

Fee: Free of charge Chance of including a free or 75% off round-way trip

Territory: Mechanical Engineering Signal Engineering Passenger Vehicles

Inquiry: Miss Haydee Lam (+852) 6483 1878 orlam@theiet.org

For application, please stay tuned to our page http://www.facebook.com/ietss.hkg and the promotion emails, thank you!

Technical Visit Ngong Ping 360 Cable Car Terminus

Technical Visit MTR Training Center and Operations Control Centre

ACTIVITY INFORMATION

Date: 10th August 2013 (Saturday) Time: 9am – 12nn Venue: Kowloon Bay Tsing Yi OCC

Fee: Free of charge

Territory: Mechanical Engineering Signal Engineering Passenger Vehicles

Inquiry: Miss Connie Mar (+852) 6576 2154 csmar@stu.ust.hk

For application, please stay tuned to our page http://www.facebook.com/ietss.hkg and the promotion emails, thank you!

(Image Courtesy: http://www.np360.com.hk/ and http://www.mtr.com.hk/, retrieved in May 2013)

o IETHK Dragon Boat Team p

Team Member Recruitment

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Dragon boating is one of the fastest growing and most exciting water sports you can participate in Hong Kong, and the events are widely covered by public media both locally and internationally. It’s believed that the Institution’s participation of the events will facilitate a positive interaction with the community on one hand and provides a platform to foster sportsmanship and team development among members on the other!

Established in 2005, the IET Hong Kong dragon boat team has been racing in Hong Kong waters including Stanley, Shatin, Sai Kung, Tai po and Mui Woo over the past years and is in the process of recruiting new members for races scheduled in 2013!

This year, the IET Hong Kong dragon boat team plans to participate in the Mui Woo race and the Shatin race. Land-based training is scheduled to commence on Sunday, 17th February, 2013 at Tsing Yi and waterbased training is scheduled to commence on Sunday, 17th March, 2013. Subsequent trainings will be held at Shatin on every Sunday from 9:00am to noon, gradually building up the strength, stamina and team work for this physically demanding sport!

Interested members please contact Ivan Lo by email: ivan.lo@theiet.org for registration and enquiry. Successful applicants will be further noticed. For details of the IETHK, please visit www.theiet.org/hongkong .

(Promotion Material: Picture and information provided by the IETHK. All Rights Reserved. )

Next Generation of Computer Display

SpaceTop 3D INTERFACE

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“ his makes presenting ideas in the simplest way, without any tools but with bare hands.”

T

the solution. Lee’s model is not using revolutionary technologies, but is attributed by the previously developed interaction technology and visualization technique. The most obvious difference between SpaceTop and the conventional desktop computer is the transparent screen behind which users can view graphical interface elements floating in the 3D space. Users meanwhile can use various gestures to perform defined actions, like gripping or scrolling. Two separable depth cameras are used for sensation. One depth camera faces the user and tracks the head to enable

motion parallax, so as to allow user to view graphics correctly wherein their hands are placed. Another depth camera detects position and pinch-gestures of the user’s hands for the manipulation input. A minor thing is that Lee has made Microsoft Kinect more legendary as he prioritizes Kinect as the choice of depth camera. “The gap between what the designer thinks and what

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MIT graduate Jinha Lee recently presented in the TED conference the 3D interface SpaceTop which allows users to directly manipulate interface elements with their bare hands. This innovation will bring the convergence between physical and digital world even closer than before. By Lee, “With our two hands we’re reaching into the digital world."

3D interface is no novel in Hollywood, but engineers had taken many years for

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the computer can do is huge. If you can put your hands inside the computer and handle digital content you can express ideas more completely.” Lee mentioned in a survey. Perhaps the significance of SpaceTop is that it marks the milestone in the history of I/O field. A great stride after the mouse and touchpad, SpaceTop is the first pointing device works in 3D and with no tools on hand. Users can express more spatial interactions in a 3D environment as demonstrated in Lee’s video on how to modify 3D model easily. It also reduces cognitive loads as we can ‘touch’ the interface elements instead of switching between overlapping windows. Products of engineering and design can also be more precisely modeled in a way that is the closest to the designers’ mind.

Lee believes SpaceTop will reach the popularity in a decade. Although SpaceTop is currently a prototype, a digital world with no mouse or touchpad anymore is foreseeable.

>> Continued

Lee presenting his idea on the stage of TED (top); Labelled diagram of the SpaceTop hardware system (middle); 3D GUI operated by bare hands (bottom).

(Image Courtesy for whole article: http://www.mashup.tw/?p=3871, http://www.techbang.com/posts/2936-get-to-know-how-it-works-kinect, http://leejinha.com/ and http://www.wallm.com/images/t/1440x1080/3433-the-avengers-iron-man-hd-1440x1080.jpg, retrieved in May 2013)

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“Life is and will ever remain an equation incapable of solution, but it contains certain known factors.” Nikola Tesla (1856 – 1943)

Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor, engineer, physicist and futurist, and his surname “Tesla” is the SI unit for magnetic field strength. The brushless alternating current (AC) induction motor and the modern alternating current electrical supply system both are renowned inventions by Tesla, which marked his significant contribution in history by the establishment of modern electrical system. In addition, he constructed the Tesla

Brushless alternating current induction motor (left), Tesla tower (middle) and Tesla coil (right).

tower to attempt the wireless transmission experiment, with Tesla coil as one of the inventions in the experiment. Unfortunately, Tesla Tower could not be finished due to financial problem. Nevertheless, Tesla still kept developing different inventions. His final invention in the world, the “Teleforce”, was a revolutionary directed-energy weapon (DEW). As Tesla had created many epoch-making inventions, he is often called as “The Genius Who Lit The World”.

(Image Courtesy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla and http://www.electriconwheels.com/electric-car-articles.htm, retrieved in May 2013)

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C R O S S W O R D RAZE

by answering the following question on our Facebook page! Answer the above question on our Facebook page by scanning the following QR code or searching “IETSS-HKG” and you have a chance to win a grand and fancy IET silver keyring.

Who invented the AC

electricity supply?

Across 1. One of its units is kilowatt-hours (kWh) or watt hours (Wh) 3. The ratio of force to the area over which that force is distributed 6. Major source of energy to various machines/devices, e.g. computer, television 7. A material which resists the flow of electric current and magnetism 8. A machine that converts electricity into a mechanical motion 9. A substance introduced to reduce friction between moving surfaces Down 2. A measurement of performance of engines, often calculated by dividing output by input 3. The direction of current flow in a DC circuit 4. A device that converts mechanical energy into electrical energy 5. One of its units is Joule per second (J/s)

Don’t miss the boat!!

Normality, Abnormality.

Message from the Editor .

Greetings! At this very time of a semester, I am writing this message as my entertainment on a day studying injection moulding. Yes, I have assumed that you are an engineering student like me, no matter which institution you are in. You might normally do loads of calculations and physics and CADs, and you should normally be flooded by assignments and projects during your semester,

leaving no spare time for any other activities.

I, however, have been being more than normal as an engineering student since I was a freshmen. For instance, I’ve worked on 3 CAD models, numerous assignments and projects and one newsletter in the past two months, after I came back from Romania where I enjoyed a 6-day MUN conference followed by some travelling. What many people see from these, for engineering students,

are normality and abnormality mixed together; in my mind, they are simply the same. Putting them together, it is a simple word: “life”.

One should never restrict oneself with what is so-called “normal”, as there is always a choice on what life to live. Once you’ve made a choice, no matter it is good or not, enjoy it with no regret. Last but not least…

…smile!

Olaf

A Fruitful Semester The Chairman’s Message

The 1st season in 2013 has been one of the exciting seasons for the IETSS. Our flagship events, including the “Opening Ceremony of Youth Mentoring Programme” and the “Visit and Seminar season” have been successfully held.

In particular, we are delighted to have invited Mr. Pinky Lai to be our guest speaker in the Technical Seminar titled “The first Chinese ever to become a car designer”. Mr. Lai is the mastermind who designed the Porsche 997, otherwise famously known as the Porsche 911. He is also the Hong Kong borned

designed with association with Porsche series. With his in-depth discussion of the Porsche 911, we all learn from him a lot on the design technique of the car model as well as the work experience in engineering and design fields.

Apart from the positive feedback received in the seminar, I am also glad to share with you another cheerful events organized by us. That is the Youth Mentoring Programme (YMP). The YMP is a programme which aims to help mentees build a clear goal and find their career path with the guidance from mentors. The ceremony had been a great start for the Youth

Mentoring Programme. We firmly believed that the up-coming events will definitely broaden the mentee’s horizons.

Lastly, thanks everyone supporting the IETSS. All of our events have received enormous response in this year 2013. I look forward to your continued support and I wish you all a healthy and successful semester B ahead.

Ivan W.S. LO Chairman

Students Section 2012–2013, Younger Members Section,

The Institution of Engineering and Technology Hong Kong

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Visit http://www.theiet.org/ or Contact Us: ietss2012@gmail.com

is all about easing your transition from graduation to employment; building essential knowledge, providing study tips, CV advice, job searching and introductory materials.

concentrates on developing your knowledge and experience, providing you with the tools to establish yourself in your career and build the essential skills of a professional.

focuses on achievement, preparing you for professional registration as an Incorporated or Chartered Engineer (IEng/CEng).