Issue 10	Summer 2011

Welcome to the tenth edition of SOUE News Small companies have been very much in favour recently, being hailed as just what our economy needs. And if they actually generate engineering products, so much the better. Various Oxford engineers have run or founded these in the past, so we would like some of those who have to recount their experiences in these pages. First to do so is Jim Hall, who read Eng Sci at Worcester 1964-7, and then did a DPhil. After various jobs he founded Microtrol in 1983, with the aim of "offering design engineering services to businesses not having their own electronics department". Read his story, and some of the lessons he has learnt, here. We have also last year's Jenkin lecture, by Peter Raynes on the history of liquid crystal displays, with which he was much involved, and summaries of the other two talks given on that occasion, by Rod Smith and Vilnis Vesma. And the recent Lubbock Lecture, by Thomas Hofmann of Google, is summarised too, along with the two "mini-lectures" from that day. Gordon Lewis (Pembroke 1942-4 and SOUE President 1993-2002) was surely one of our most distinguished alumni. He worked on the development of jet engines, first for the Bristol Engine Company and then with Rolls-Royce after the firms amalgamated. The Pegasus engine for the Harrier, with its tilting nozzles for vertical take-off, was his most famous masterpiece, but that was only part of it. He died in October 2010. Michael Neale, who knew him well over several decades, has written for us a very comprehensive account of his life, work and character. There is no "Head of Department's Report" in this issue. The Department is planning its own newsletter, to be sent to all alumni for whom the University has addresses, and the HOD's report will go in that. What relationship, if any, will develop between SOUE News and future issues of this newsletter, remains to be decided. This year's Jenkin Lecture (17 September) will be given by Andrew Garrad, founder and Managing Director of Garrad Hassan, world-wide consultants on wind power, based in Bristol.

• The 23rd Jenkin Lecture: Liquid Crystal Displays
• Finals and Prelims Prizes Awarded 2011
• Volcanic Ash and Aero Engines
• The 37th Maurice Lubbock Memorial Lecture: Google - 1 Billion Searches a Day
• Resource-Constrained Digital Health Care
• Running your own Business
• Tidal Stream Energy
• A Short History of the Low-Carbon Future
• Fourth-Year Project Exhibition 2011
• Obituary: Gordon Lewis
• Richard Darton FREng OBE
• The David Witt Premium Prize

Society of Oxford University Engineers
Department of Engineering Science
University of Oxford
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Oxford
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E-mail: soue@soue.org.uk
Website: www.soue.org.uk

Produced by David Witt (Magdalen 1959) and Simon Turner (Lincoln 1984)

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