ECS final-year student Tom Bell is already sharing the benefits of his undergraduate degree. Tom has written a beginners guide to practical programming, now available on Amazon as a Kindle e-book, and in paperback.

Programming for Everyday Life provides the basics of programming in Python; programming for the Web and how to use technology to create applications, services and tools that transform lives.

Tom hopes that his book will be particularly useful for Physics, Maths and Chemistry students who could benefit from understanding more about practical computation, and who already possess the procedural thinking that programmers need. ‘It’s not about dumbing it down,’ he says, ‘but rather it's about making programming accessible to all who want to learn, create and reinvent.’

Currently in the final year of the MEng course in Electronic Engineering with Mobile and Secure Systems at the University of Southampton, Tom is passionate about getting the essential skills of programming into the hands of students, professionals and those out of work, in order to provide them with the tools to achieve more in everyday life.

In addition to the skills gained on his degree programme, Tom has worked as a freelance developer and within a range of companies, taking ideas and making them a reality for customers. He founded his own software development consulting company, Eminode Software and is actively involved in delivering software solutions and advice to start-ups.

During Freshers Week, Tom also launched a new online platform called Uni Media Mash Southampton, which enables students to list textbooks, CDs, DVDs, games, consoles, screens and more for sale and to link with prospective buyers.

Hugh Davis, Professor of Learning Technologies in the Web and Internet Science Research Group (WAIS) and Director of the Institute for Innovation, Learning and Development (ILIaD), will be giving an inaugural lecture, “Breaking the Mould: how technologies change the way we learnâ€?, on Monday November 3rd 2014. His lecture will form part of the ILIaD inaugural conference, which will take place on the same day.

Professor Davis’ talk will take an affectionate tour through the evolution of technology-enhanced learning from the perspective of a teacher, academic and lifelong learner, and will consider the questions: has technology changed the way we go about learning and what we actually need to learn? Finally the talk will address the question of what 21st century higher education might look like.

A full abstract can be downloaded here.

The lecture will take place 18.15-19.30, Building 46 (Physics), Lecture Theatre A (Room 3001). Teas and coffees will be available beforehand.

All are welcome: if you wish to attend, please register in advance via Eventbrite, here. For more information on the ILIaD inaugural conference, please visit iliadconf.eventbrite.co.uk

Many congratulations to Professor William Webb, ECS graduate and Visiting Professor, who began his term of office this month as President of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET).

Professor Webb, who is the youngest President of the IET for over 100 years, has held a number of senior positions in the IT and telecommunications sectors. He is currently CEO of the Weightless SIG, the standards body developing a new global M2M technology. He is also a Director at Webb Search, an independent wireless communications consultancy.

His President’s Address, delivered in London on 2 October, was entitled ‘From the iPhone to the IET’. Professor Webb explored the way that engineers have changed the world - with the iPhone providing a key tipping point for this transformation - and considered how their institutions can make the most of the new world they have brought about to build a platform fit for the next 150 years.

He said: 'It is an honour to become President of the IET, an organisation that I have been involved with for many years. As one of the world’s largest organisations for engineers and technicians, with nearly 160,000 members in 127 countries around the world, the IET is the UK’s most multidisciplinary engineering institution. This puts us in a strong position to deliver our vision of working to engineer a better world.'

Professor Webb was one of the founding directors of Neul, a company developing machine-to-machine technologies and networks, which was formed at the start of 2011. Prior to this he was a Director at Ofcom where he managed a team providing technical advice and performing research across all areas of Ofcom’s regulatory remit. He also led some of the major reviews conducted by Ofcom including the Spectrum Framework Review, the development of Spectrum Usage Rights and most recently cognitive or white space (refers to frequencies allocated to a broadcasting service but not used locally) policy. He worked for a range of communications consultancies in the UK in the fields of hardware design, computer simulation, propagation modelling, spectrum management and strategy development, as well as spending three years providing strategic management across Motorola’s entire communications portfolio, based in Chicago.

Outside of work, Professor Webb is a keen cyclist and has completed the Cent Cols Challenge in the Alps in 2010 and the Dolomites in 2012, and this summer a tougher version in the Alps involving an average of 130 miles a day, 16,000 feet of ascent and up to 8,000 calories of effort. He has published 13 books, over 100 papers, and 18 patents. He is a Visiting Professor at Surrey University and the University of Southampton, a Board member of Cambridge Wireless, a member of multiple oversight Boards and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the IEEE and the IET.

Professor Web began his engineering career at Southampton in 1986 and after completing his undergraduate degree in Electronic Engineering, he embarked on a PhD with Professor Ray Steele and also worked for his consultancy company part-time. He says on his University alumni profile: ‘That was the perfect start for me on a career in wireless communications, and my entire career direction can be traced back to my third-year Communications Module. Since then I’ve worked with some of the professors and lecturers on books and other initiatives. Some of the alumni in my year also continue to be pivotal – I ended up working with two at various times in my career and right now that first consulting company is a close partner in a current venture I’m leading.’

Asked about his future ambitions, he replied: ‘Becoming President of the Institute of Engineering & Technology has been a key ambition for many years. The IET is the largest engineering institution in the UK with over 160,000 members. It provides a professional home for life for engineers and influences key policy decisions on engineering matters.

‘I want to use my time there to update the Institution from one that looks back at its nearly 150-year heritage to one that embraces the new world of LinkedIn, Google Groups and open-source publications. I’d love to be seen as a President that helped re-define the role of Institutions such that they could play an increasingly major part in our world and become much more relevant to younger members. Being President will be so all-encompassing (especially as I’ll still have all my other roles) that I find it hard to focus on what my ambitions might be beyond that. I’d like to bridge the gap more between academia, Government and Industry. I’d like to continue pioneering the Weightless technology until it is well-established and there are plenty of cycling challenges still out there.’

Professor Neil White, Head of Electronics and Computer Science, paid tribute to Williams’s achievements. ‘It is a great honour for the University to have a Southampton graduate leading the UK’s leading professional body for engineering. William has already contributed a great deal to the communications industry, an area of research which is particularly important to ECS, and we wish him a great year in office, and look forward to his future achievements, not only at the IET, but to the world of engineering and education.’

A student from Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton has achieved third place – and best in the UK – in the ninth annual International Microelectronics Olympiad.

Zoltán Beck, a PhD student in the Agents, Interaction and Complexity research group, was one of 856 participants from 22 countries to take part in the two-stage competition testing the skills of young microelectronics engineers. The first stage involved a written test establishing a baseline understanding of electronic design concepts and techniques. From this, Zoltán was among 42 successful candidates to qualify for an all-expenses paid trip to Synopsys’ headquarters Armenia in October to participate in the final stage of the competition.

Olympiad topics for 2014 included Digital IC Design and Test, Analog and Mixed-Signal IC Design and Test, Semiconductor Devices and Technology, and Mathematic and Algorithmic Issues of Electronic Design Automation (EDA). The final stage of the competition involved a challenging contest consisting of advanced engineering tasks requiring complex solutions.

The event is held in cooperation with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Test Technology Technical Council and its mains sponsors are Synopsys Armenia and VivaCell-MTS. Zoltán Beck’s prize was sponsored by the Enterprise Incubator Foundation.

For the fourth year in succession, a student in Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton has been named as a finalist for the title ‘United Kingdom Electronic Skills Foundation Scholar of the Year’.

Josh Oldfield, third-year student on the MEng Electronic Engineering programme, is one of two finalists in this year’s competition, which has involved students from all the UK’s leading engineering departments. The winner will be announced at the National Microelectronics Institute annual dinner in London on Thursday 20 November.

Josh has held a UKESF Scholarship since 2013 and this summer completed a placement with ARM as part of his programme, working with the Verification Intellectual Property Team in Sheffield.

He is positive about the opportunities created by the UKESF programme. 'The UKESF programme has really helped my development as an engineer,' he said. ‘It gave me a chance to develop and test my skills in the engineering workplace, as well as developing my interpersonal skills, and helping the next generation of students start their engineering careers.’

Josh is the fifth ECS student to reach the final of the Scholar of the Year competition since it was instituted in 2011. In that year two ECS students were named as finalists, with the title won by Adam Malpass, with Tom Dell runner-up; in 2012 Samuel Hipkin was runner-up, and last year the title was won by Ashley Robinson, who graduated from ECS earlier this year.

‘We are very proud of our students’ achievements in UKESF,’ said Professor Neil White, Head of ECS. ‘They have an excellent record in achieving Scholarships, and to have five students reach the finals of Scholar of the Year is outstanding recognition of their ability to transfer their skills from the classroom to the industrial context.

'As a department with close links to the UK electronics industry, we thoroughly support the aspirations of UKESF in highlighting the outstanding career opportunities that are open to electronic engineering graduates. We work closely with the leading companies in the UK and worldwide, and are extremely proud of the contribution that our graduates continue to make to the development of electronics.'

UKESF is a collaboration between industry, universities and the public sector, which promotes the electronics industry and its value to society and the economy, and aims to secure a sustainable supply of quality and industry-prepared graduates. It offers a sector-specific programme for employers in the electronics sector to engage with young people at school and university through to graduate employment.

The University of Southampton’s goFIT activity and movement challenge has been recognised as an example of best practice by the European Network of Academic Sport Services (ENAS).

goFIT formed a central component of the ‘One Big Thing’ project from Imperial College London, which won the BEST Practice Award at the 2014 ENAS Conference in Lille, France this week.

The goFIT software platform and movement challenge aims to increase the well-being and physical activity of staff and students. The goal is to increase minutes of physical activity each week, which can be as easy as taking the stairs instead of the lift or getting off at a further bus stop and walking a bit more into work.

Professor m.c. schraefel from Electronics and Computer Science, who designed goFIT, said: “Our research is all about how we can design technology to help people connect with each other, and connect with better wellbeing practices. We’d be overjoyed to see every university in the UK and EU running a goFIT challenge - let’s make it happen.â€?

Following a successful trial at Southampton, Imperial College London, was the first institution to implement the initiative and incorporated it into their own wellbeing activities, which culminated with the One Big Thing ‘5K anyway’ event.

Neil Mosley, Director of Sport at Imperial College London, said: “We love goFIT - we support m.c.’s aspiration to have goFIT help create a health practice data picture of wellbeing in the UK. There’s not just the challenge; there’s great content there too - from how to videos to first person accounts of getting more fit. For us, we love how we can customise goFIT to promote our events and how it gives our movement events a real target to get people together.

“At the recent ENAS conference, with people who run sport programs from all over Europe, there was tremendous interest in using the goFIT platform to run challenges from Ireland to Portugal.â€?

goFIT connected with hundreds of Southampton students and some staff last year and it will be running again January 2015 at Southampton, Imperial College London and City University London. If your institution or organisation is interested in participating, please visit gofit.ac.uk or contact Professor schraefel at mc+gofit@ecs.soton.ac.uk and follow her on Twitter @mcphoo

The top three performing students from Year One, Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Southampton Malaysia Campus (USMC) have each been awarded prestigious Lloyd’s Register Foundation scholarships.

Receiving these industry-sponsored scholarships in Electrical and Electronic Engineering for students at its Malaysian campus is a first for the University. In 2013, the Lloyd’s Register Foundation inaugurated scholarships for Southampton’s Mechanical Engineering students based in Malaysia.

Mark Darley, South Asia Area Manager of Lloyd’s Register, presented the scholarships to Stephen Chai Ming Han, (20), Aaron Pang Ken Soon, (20), and Yiqian Hui (20) following their excellent performance in both academic and personal aspects throughout their first year. The scholarships cover each scholar’s tuition and academic fees for the academic year.

A further seven students at Southampton’s Malaysia Campus were also honoured with University of Southampton ‘Top Achiever Awards’, for achieving three A* or higher grades in their A levels. These students – Aaron Teo Yii How, Aastik Malhotra, Ho You Wei, Lim Jin Wei, Ng Guo Hseng, Tan Kim Meng Ronson and Teh Jin Xuan – each received 100% scholarships from the University of Southampton, to cover their tuition and academic fees in their first year of study.

Professor John McBride, Chief Executive Officer, University of Southampton Malaysia Campus, said: “A big congratulations to our students for their achievement in being awarded these scholarships and to the Lloyd’s Register Foundation for their generosity and for maintaining their bond with us. These scholarships will give students, who have the aptitude and enthusiasm, an opportunity to maximise their potential and create the pathways to pursue their dreams."

Mark Darley, South Asia Area Manager of Lloyd’s Register, commented: “We congratulate each recipient of these scholarships offered by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation which allows these deserving students the opportunity to focus on developing their skills and preparing for their careers. We look forward to continuing our ties with the University of Southampton Malaysia Campus and to providing continued support for tomorrow’s engineers to enter the workforce and redefine the industry through their ingenuity."

Southampton Professor Dame Wendy Hall has been named as a founding member of a new International Council on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (iCAIR).

Dame Wendy joins leading researchers and innovators from the world’s best universities, companies and organisations to pioneer the new iCAIR council that has just been launched in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The Council was inspired by the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics and will offer advice on the best ways to use robotics and artificial intelligence to improve people’s lives.

It will also create educational materials, draw up a global action plan, be managed by the UAE Prime Minister’s Office and will meet annually to pursue a broad range of initiatives.

His Excellency Mohammad Al Gergawi, Minister of Cabinet Affairs for the Federal Government of the UAE, said: “Humanity is on a journey. There are milestones on this journey – from the discovery of fire, to the invention of agriculture, to the industrial revolution. Robotics, automation and artificial intelligence are the next major steps in this journey.

“There is no limit to the imagination. There is no limit to hope. In the UAE, we believe in giving opportunity to everyone, and in using technology to help people achieve their dreams.â€?

Dame Wendy is Director of the Web Science Institute and Managing Director of the Web Science Trust, both based at the University of Southampton. As one of the first computer scientists to undertake serious research in multimedia and hypermedia, she has been at its forefront ever since. The influence of her work has been significant in many areas including digital libraries, the development of the Semantic Web, and the emerging research discipline of Web Science. Her current research includes applications of the Semantic Web and exploring the interface between the life sciences and the physical sciences.

As well as playing a prominent role in the development of her subject, she also helps shape science and engineering policy and education. Through her leadership roles on national and international bodies, she has shattered many glass ceilings, readily deploying her position on numerous national and international bodies to promote the role of women in Science, Engineering and Technology, and acting as an important role model for others.

She said: “I’m delighted to be part of this initiative which reflects the increasingly significant role that automated systems will play in all our lives and the need to harness the benefits for society as well as recognise the challenges. The vision and leadership shown by the government of the UAE to inaugurate this Council will be an inspiration to the world.â€?

iCAIR’s first initiative is the UAE Robots for Good Award that will build on the successful UAE Drones for Good Award that received 800 submissions from 62 countries around the world.

The awards will encourage research and application of innovative solutions to challenges in health, education and social services.

Winning submissions will provide real services that improve people’s lives, ranging from hardware to software intelligence and artificial agents.

Other initiatives of the Council will include educational conferences, the use of robotics in UAE schools and universities, and leading policies on the humanitarian and positive uses of robotics and artificial intelligence.

Dr Corinna E Lathan, Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, said: “We are pleased to collaborate with the UAE to develop a test bed and global action plan that will have measurable economic and policy impact, as well as to encourage public understanding and awareness of the positive potentials of artificial intelligence and robotics.â€?

An innovative University of Southampton project to open up access to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects for students with learning disabilities and print disabilities such as visual impairments and dyslexia has proved such a success that it has been awarded further funding to develop the idea from concept to prototype or demonstrator.

ECS Partners’ STEMReader project is one of five around the UK to share in a further £500,000 of funding from the Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) that is sponsored by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) and Innovate UK.

STEMReader was originally one of eight projects that received a total of £500,000 of BIS funding at the beginning of the year to explore proof of concept of their ideas.

The new money will allow the team, based in Electronics and Computer Science at Southampton, to develop a tool to assist with reading aloud and comprehending mathematical symbols and notations.

Project leader Professor Mike Wald said: “We are delighted to have been awarded this further funding for STEMReader. It is recognition of the hard work we have done so far in developing the proof of concept and we look forward to taking this forward to the next stage and translating that concept into a prototype.

“Currently it is extremely difficult for a student with a print impairment, such as a visual impairment, dyslexia or dyscalculia, to read aloud a maths notation using a computer or mobile device.

“STEMReader will enable students to open, reformat into large fonts, and hear aloud maths content. It will make a significant step forward in reading aloud maths for learners at all levels from basics, to people in the workplace, to students at university.â€?

Over the next 18 months the team at ECS Partners will provide learners in colleges with the opportunity to contribute to the development of the STEMReader.

Up to 10 million individuals in the UK are estimated to be affected by print disabilities or dyscalculia, and people that face these barriers to reading and comprehending maths can struggle with STEM subjects. Having a tool to read aloud mathematical symbols becomes one of the most helpful coping strategies when manipulating mathematical concepts.

“By developing the STEMReader tool we will enable for the first time a broader range of publishers and educators to easily share accessible STEM materials that can be read and understood by all types of users,â€? added Mike.

ECS Partners is working with colleagues in other collages and workplace learning providers to investigate how STEMReader can be used to help learners struggling to understand maths and help them to develop their functional numeracy skills.

The funding is Phase 2 of the SBRI project that encourages the development of life changing assistive technologies sponsored by BIS and Innovate UK and managed by Jisc TechDis, a leading UK advisory service on technology and inclusion for people with disabilities or learning difficulties.

Sal Cooke, Jisc TechDis Director, said: “The companies made amazing progress in the first phase. It was an absolute joy watching them work directly with disabled learners and employers using their feedback to adapt the designs.â€?

Greg Clark, Universities, Science and Cities Minister, said: “I believe that education and employment should be open to everyone who has the ambition to get on. I am proud that the government is supporting innovative British companies to make more opportunities available for disabled people.â€?

Students from the University of Southampton are aiming to put the first life on Mars.

LettuceOnMars, a student project from the Mars One, to land experiments on Mars. It is now one of the ten short-listed university projects, and the only UK entry, that was selected for technical feasibility and popularity. The winning payload will arrive on Mars in 2018 together with the official Mars One experiments.

The aim of the Southampton project is to send a small greenhouse to Mars in which lettuce will be grown using the atmosphere and sunlight on Mars.

The team now need the votes of the general public to be chosen as the winner and realise their plan to grow lettuce on Mars. Voting is open now and closes on 31 December 2014.

The Spaceflight Society is an interdisciplinary team of under and postgraduate students including Hector Hamilton, a third year MEng student in Electronics and Computer Science, studying Electronic Engineering with Nanotechnology.

Lettuce on Mars’ Project leader Suzanna Lucarotti, says: “To live on other planets we need to grow food there. No-one has ever actually done this and we intend to be the first. This plan is both technically feasible and incredibly ambitious in its scope, for we will be bringing the first complex life to another planet. Growing plants on other planets is something that needs to be done, and will lead to a wealth of research and industrial opportunities that our plan aims to bring to the University of Southampton.

“We have tackled diverse sets of engineering challenges, including aeroponic systems, bio filters, low power gas pressurisation systems and failsafe planetary protection systems and then integrated them all into one payload on a tight mass, power and cost budget. We can build this here and now, the only step now is to win the public vote.â€?

To vote for the team, vote #LettuceOnMars - details are on the team website www.lettuceonmars.com

You can also follow them on twitter @MarsOneProject or @lettuceonmars, on Facebook www.facebook.com/lettuceonmars and on Google+.