Kids take to social media for advice from role models 17th December 2018

Following the Office for National Statistic’s announcement that the number of unfilled positions in the information and communication technology sector rose by 24.3% last quarter compared with a year ago, Iain Brown, head of data science at analytics leader SAS UK & Ireland highlights that there is collective responsibility across the government, businesses and schools to ensure the next generation is fully equipped to deal with the shortage of skilled staff in the tech industry.

A new poll of SMEs shows nearly half of practices in the engineering and manufacturing sectors are still confused by or even unaware of GDPR rules, and only around one in ten see cyber attacks as a leading risk to their business. The poll comes on the back of a survey earlier this year from the National Cyber Security Programme that revealed nearly half of UK businesses experienced at least one cyber security breach or attack in 2017, with 66% of SMEs and 45% of micro businesses shown to have been victims.

A team from the University of Southampton working on submarine technology is receiving engineer support and engineering-grade plastic bearings through the igus’ YES (Young Engineers Support) programme. The Southampton University Human Powered Submarine Society (SUHPS) is a group of students that design, build and test human-powered submarines to compete internationally.

It has been announced by Qualtera, that MediaTek’s deployment of Qualtera’s Silicondash Smart Manufacturing Platform went live in June 2018 and is now handling the manufacturing operations. Silicondash is used as MediaTek’s primary corporate data analytics solution with data integration across the global supply chain of worldwide manufacturing and test suppliers.

There is only less than a month left until UK companies which sell goods to Germany have to comply with the country’s updated packaging laws or face fines of up to €200,000. Businesses could also be prohibited from selling goods on the German market if they fail to adhere to the new legislation.

According to a new research report by Global Market Insights, Structural Steel Market size is set to surpass $420bn by 2024. Growing awareness among consumers owing to benefits including design flexibility, faster completion and energy efficiency of prefabricated building projects using heavy and light sized products is anticipated to drive demand of structural steel products.

A Yorkshire-based engineering firm, operating in the print industry, has invested £110,000 in its digital marketing strategy. Absolute, based in Huddersfield, has appointed Leeds-based creative agency, Tall to strengthen its online presence. The two businesses first worked together on the development of Absolute’s ‘Sono’, the world’s first and only ultrasonic on-press cleaner.  

Christmas has come early for three school children from Lancashire, Buckinghamshire and Yorkshire after they became the first children to engineer a professional music video, bringing pop trio, New Hope Club’s new video to life. The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) teamed up with Blue Peter to help inspire the next generation of British engineers.