Burgess COMMENTARY
Peter Burgess I was very active with CUEA for a couple of years after graduating, joining groups visiting all sorts of interesting projects ... I remember going into a mine that had recently been mechanized, I remember a trip to see electrification work going on for the main rail lines and a visit to new tube construction in London. That was in the mid-1960s and nothing with CUEA since then, mainly because I have been outside the UK. I argue that it is engineering more than anything else that has made it possible to have a modern comfortable life ... and poor places are more than anything else lacking in enough appropriate engineering / infrastructure. It will be engineering more than anything else that will make it possible for the world's population to survive with both a decent standard of living and production processes that do not completely destabilize essential ecosystems. But we must make engineering that results in sustainable systems, and not merely profitable systems.Show less
Peter Burgess
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Brian Phillipson
CEO, Baycamb Ltd - Cambridge & Munich Non Executive Director, Gooch & Housego plc CUEA President
Calling all Engineering Alumni – Can you help? A new way forward for the Cambridge University Engineers’ Association
The Cambridge University Engineers’ Association (CUEA) was founded in 1928 with the aims of encouraging ‘closer relations between members past and present of the Engineering Department’ and ‘fostering the interests which they have in common’.
For many years the Association was extremely active, but in recent years some of its innovative activities such as an annual Alumni event and regular newsletters have been adopted by the University and / or by the Engineering Department, and the Association has become less and less active.
Recently a review has been carried out of the potential needs which CUEA could and perhaps should satisfy, and this has concluded that there is a real role for CUEA; but significant work is required to re-establish an appropriate organisation. That work has now begun, under the leadership of the current CUEA committee and with the support of the Engineering Department, as well as other University Departments including the Careers Service and the Alumni Relations Office.
A first step was to undertake a Strategic Roadmapping exercise supported by representatives from the CUEA Committee, the Engineering Department, various other University Groups and Offices, current students and the Student Association CUES, as well as alumni and CUEA Members. The exercise was conducted with the Institute for Manufacturing (IFM) in June, and has resulted in a detailed action plan which the Committee is now implementing. The plan includes a number of workstreams as illustrated:
There are now opportunities to join, or to work with, the CUEA Committee to help implement this strategy. If you might like to help in any way, please contact CUEA at cuea-enquiries@eng.cam.ac.uk
Calling all Engineering Alumni – Can you help? A new way forward for the Cambridge University Engineers’ Association
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