Issue 7	Summer 2008

Welcome to the seventh issue of SOUE News This issue of the News is the longest ever (56 pages), since we have a very full report of the Department's Centenary celebrations, by Alistair Borthwick who master-minded the year's events. One of the big events was the publication of Alastair Howatson's history of engineering at Oxford, "Mechanicks in the Universitie", of which signed copies sold like hot cakes (or ice-cream cornets perhaps?) at the well-attended Garden Party in June. It is reviewed by Rod Smith in this issue. The topics of our technical articles are mostly of major significance to the world we live in, e.g. water treatment, cancer therapy and tidal power, but we are allowed a little bit of fun too, in this case a robotic dog on which one of the editors worked a few years ago. The Jenkin Lecture by Sir Vivian Ramsey and the Lubbock Lecture by Lord Browne are reported on, as is the other Jenkin Day lecture, by Martin Oldfield, on 38 years of gas-turbine research at Osney. The Faculty has completed its revision of the course structure. The new course has public exams at the end of each year, including the second, which may set old-timers muttering, but the changes (the first of any significance since the introduction of the four-year MEng about 20 years ago), and the reasons for them, are summarised by Richard Stone. That some of this issue of SOUE News is in colour is due to a generous (and anonymous) donation by a member towards printing expenses. He thought that perhaps others might follow his example in future years. If they do we shall of course be delighted and grateful! Jenkin Day this year will be on Saturday 20 September, and the Jenkin Lecture will be given by Professor David Clarke, who is on the point of retirement. Details elsewhere on the site.

• Head of Department's Report 2007-2008
• The 20th Jenkin Lecture: Law and Engineering: Resolution of Technology Disputes
• Changes to the Engineering Science Course
• Water, Water, Everywhere?
• The Centenary Maurice Lubbock Memorial Lecture: On Being an Engineer
• Engineering a New Approach to the Treatment of Cancer
• Mechanicks in the Universitie
• The Leaves We Write On
• Project Exhibition 2008
• Tidal Turbines
• Keep it Cool! 38 Years of Gas-Turbine Research
• Motor Racing Meets Robotic Pets
• One Hundred Years of Engineering Science at Oxford, 1908-2008
• The Winning Entry in the Centenary Photographic Competition

We regret that the list of prizes awarded by the Examiners, which we have included in recent years, was not available at the time of publication.

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Website: www.soue.org.uk

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

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