In the Spotlight -- Kim Howes LCIBSE

Kim Howes LCIBSE

Kim Howes joined CIBSE in 1999 as a Licentiate member with Engineering Technician registration through the ECUK.

Kim is Programme Director at Mid Kent College for HNC Building Services Engineering and has been teaching for four years. Prior to teaching, Kim was an electrician, and then became an M&E surveyor for an organisation called mhs.homes.

Recently Kim contributed written course work & assignment content for BTEC in a Box on behalf of Edexcel. The material is for tutors and learners to reference and use at the national certificate level.

Kim is also currently writing teacher support material for the new Level 3 Diploma for Construction and the Built Environment, which will be taught in schools.

This past year, Kim ran the London Marathon and came 213th in the open women’s race, in a time of 3.22.07 and was 43rd in her age group (W40). Her target for next year is a sub 3.20.

Why did Kim choose a career in building services engineering?

“When I was on the tools as an electrician I became bored, I missed the academic side of college so I looked for a job which challenged me academically. Mhs.homes took me on and suggested I went to college to study Building Services Engineering (BSE). I had no idea then how much I would love the subject, particularly how broad it is.

I went to Westminster College and studied my HNC and was taught by Harry Lawner who I think is a fantastic teacher (I do try to teach in his style). I then went to London South Bank University and attained the HND equivalent. I would like to study the distance learning Masters degree offered by London South Bank University in the future.”

Karen Burt Memorial Award

The Karen Burt Memorial Award is awarded annually to encourage women to aim for Chartered Engineer status and to recognize their contributions to the promotion of the engineering profession.

Further information is available on the Women's Engineering Society website and an application for nomination for this Award can be submitted to CIBSE -- Email Fiona Torrance on ftorrance@cibse.org. The application form can be downloaded on the CIBSE website under "Other Awards" on the Bursary page.

Ready Steady Light 2008

The Society of Light and Lighting’s annual Ready Steady Light competition took place at Rose Bruford College on March 19th.

A record number of entries had been received and a total of nineteen teams took part. Each team was allocated a site within the college grounds, a selection of lighting equipment and three hours to create a masterpiece.

Following on from last year’s success, the event was un-themed and the teams challenged to best interpret their site using only lighting effects.

Rose Bruford College provide the Society with tremendous support, having adopted Ready Steady Light as part of their own Lighting Design course. A team of students led by Charlotte Jobson and Chris Hirst coordinated all of the power distribution to the sites and provided key liaison with the College.

However, an event of this magnitude simply could not take place without the support of our sponsors, through both financial and logistical support by donating equipment to the event. Our heartfelt thanks go to Concord:marlin, Crescent, Holophane, iGuzzini, Lightform, Martin Architectural, Philips, Sill, Thorn, Urbis and Zumtobel.

Three hours later and the transformations were complete. There are three prizes available to the teams: Technical Merit, Artistic Impression and the Peer Prize.

The Technical Merit prize was judged by Tony Ownsworth, SLL President, Patrick Baldrey, SLL President Elect, Alan Tulla, SLL Newsletter Editor and Kevin Mansfield and Peter Raynham from the Bartlett. Judging the teams on the technical implementation of the installation, energy use and control of light pollution, they gave Highly Commended to ‘The New Courtyard’ (NDY Light), ‘Lakeside’ (Urbis) and ‘Ramps Ahead’ (Parsons Brinkerhoff). However, Tony Ownsworth explained that the unanimous winner “for its elegant nightscape, excellent control of light spillage and the great textural appearance of the subject” was ‘The Cabin’, an installation from the iGuzzini team.

The prize for Artistic Impression was sponsored by PLDA and IALD and judged by Kevin Theobald from PLDA alongside some of the great and the good from the theatre lighting world, including Paule Constable, Alex Murphy, Roger Hennigan and Tony Simpson. They gave Highly Commended to ‘Lakeside’ (Urbis) and ‘Wasteland’ (The Lighting Designers Sewing Circle). However, first prize was awarded to ‘The Old Stables’, an installation from the team from Rose Bruford College. Presenting the award, Kevin Theobald commented “Year on year the imagination of the teams and the quality of the projects continue to improve”

Finally, the Peer Prize. This prize is judged by the teams themselves and they have to judge each other’s efforts (without voting for themselves!). This prize went to the Speirs and Major team for ‘The Barn.’

CIBSE Affiliate’s Day Briefing Session – April 11th 2008

Affiliate’s Day Briefing Session – April 11th 2008

Following the success of the launch of CIBSE’s Low Carbon Energy Assessor Register, this years Affiliate’s Day will be linked with a talk on how to become an LCEA registrant.

If you are seeking help in upgrading your Affiliate membership or to fulfil the competence criteria in order to become a Low Carbon Energy Assessor then this is a day for you!

CIBSE membership is now open to all competent Building Services Engineers for the three corporate grades of membership, Fellow, Member and Associate, as well as to those entering at Licentiate level, the key to becoming a member lies in the ability to demonstrate competence, regardless of academic background.

Affiliate members are now having the chance to consider transferring to another grade through experience and or qualifications.

CIBSE Information Director Jacqueline Balian will be giving a talk on the Low Carbon Energy Assessors Register followed by information-packed session on:

- How to become a Low Carbon Energy Assessor
- What are the benefits of upgrading your CIBSE membership and why
- How to gauge which grade is appropriate to you
- What is involved to make that step
- Find out if your present qualifications are the right ones for Registration with ECUK
- Plan of action

There will be two sessions available starting at 10.00 and 2.00 - at CIBSE headquarters on the 11th April 2008.

Don’t miss this valuable opportunity to find out about how to become a Low Carbon Energy Assessor and talk to senior members of CIBSE and staff about developing your career in upgrading your membership through CIBSE. There is no charge involved, but places are limited and will be booked on a first come first serve basis.

If you would like to book a place on either of the sessions please contact Fiona Torrance, on 0208 772 3624 or email ftorrance@cibse.org or book online at www.cibse.org

Young Lighters of the Year 2008

Andrew McNeil SLL (Arup)
Vasiliki Malakasi SLL (Arup)
Sean Halpin SLL (DIT)
Matt Emery SLL (Urbis Lighting)
Daniel Lin SLL (NDY Light)
Emrah Ulas (Steenson Varming) and Martin Gratte



The ARC08 exhibition at the Business Design Centre in London played host to this year’s Society of Light & Lighting Young Lighters of the Year event.

The prestigious competition is open to anyone under the age of 30 to write and present a paper on a lighting subject of their choice. With a record number of entrants, six finalists were selected to present their papers to members of the industry together with interested guests attending the exhibition.

Arup’s Vasiliki Malakasi introduced her paper on “Urban Scene and Luminance Patterns”, exploring a method of assessing pathway lighting in an urban setting with emphasis given to the luminance patterns and the possibility of luminance becoming a vehicle for the evaluation of the lit urban environment.

This presentation was followed by Daniel Lin of NDY Light presenting his paper on “Light, Shadow and Ambiguity” comprising an intriguing mix of the use of light and shadow in architecture together with examples of the use of shadow in creating ambiguous effects and scenes.

Andrew McNeil, also from Arup, then took the stage to present his paper on “Using useful daylight illuminance to assess external louvre systems”, explaining the method of using Useful Daylight Illuminance to assess the value of external shading systems, a technique which eliminates the time during which an over abundance of daylight in a space causes additional shading such as blinds to be used by occupants, rendering the louvers irrelevant.

The fourth paper was presented by Urbis Lighting’s Matt Emery on the subject of “The effect of street lighting on bats”. Bats are a protected species in the UK and although universally recognized as nocturnal creatures, little is known of the level of sensitivity to light they possess. Whilst street lighting gives obvious benefits to humans, the very existence of bats is threatened by even a low lighting level in their habitat.

The final two papers were from international entrants, Emrah Ulas from Steenson Varming in Australia, and a little closer to home, Sean Halpin, a student at the Dublin Institute of Technology.

Emrah presented a paper on “Light and Modes of Appearance in architectural contexts”. Six visual attributes and their relationship with architectural contexts were explored with the view that lighting designers can use the parameters of the visual perception to break the constancies of the viewers and create intentionally designed illusions and experiences of the reality.

Last, but by no means least, Sean Halpin presented his paper on “Life Lighting”, an in depth analysis of the appropriate integration of natural and artificial lighting systems and the effect of daylight both on the energy performance of the building concerned, but also the well-being of the occupants of a space.

The Society of Light and Lighting’s president, Tony Ownsworth, then presented each of the finalists with their finalists’ certificates and prizes, commenting:

“This had been an exceptional year of entries and each and every one of the finalists
should be congratulated upon their achievements and I look forward to hearing more
from these fantastic young people in years to come”

Paddy Craven, President of the Institute of Lighting Engineers, presented the ILE award for the best written paper to Daniel Lin for his paper on Light, Shadow and Ambiguity.

The Worshipful Company of Lightmongers presented their prize for the best presentation on the day and this was awarded to Emrah Ulas for his presentation on “Light and Modes of Appearance in Architectural contexts” Martin Gratte, Master Lightmonger was on hand to present the prize.

Vice President of the Society, Stephen Lisk, brought the afternoon to a close by thanking the finalists and congratulating them all for the high quality of work submitted. He reflected upon the diversity of the 2008 awards, not only in terms of the papers that were presented, but also the multi-national representation of the speakers in the final.

Anyone interested in participating in the 2009 competition should contact Liz Peck on 020 8772 3622 or email her at lpeck@cibse.org for more information.

100 apprentices and trainees attend the CIBSE Lift Academy Event

Andrew Dennehy, Managing Director of PEW, pictured with the winning apprentice and the weighted car top control unit

LIFT ACADEMY

Over 100 apprentices and trainees attended the Lift Academy event in London on 13th February. This was an increase on the first event in November and many of the trainees had to stand as all of the seats were taken. David Cooper, founder of the academy, opened the event and welcomed them to the CIBSE conference centre for the second time.

Dennis Major, UK product manager of Pfeifer Drako gave a presentation about hoist ropes including different types, when to use each type, the benefits and disadvantages, lubrication requirements, common defects and how to detect them.

Plaistow Electrical Wholesalers (PEW) sponsored an event in which the apprentices were challenged to hold a weighted car top control unit at arms length. PEW presented the winning apprentice from Titan Elevators with a Dewalt Electric Drill.

Adam Scott, Chairman of the CIBSE lift group, gave a short talk about the group and its work.

David Cooper closed the meeting by thanking Pfeifer Drako for their sponsorship in providing the speaker, PEW for sponsoring the competition and CIBSE for their generous sponsorship of the event in terms of providing the conference facility and hospitality.

After the meeting David Cooper said “I am overwhelmed by the support from the industry as a whole and the increasing number of apprentices who attended. It seems that the concept of the Academy is something that the industry want and to that end I will make sure that it continues”

The event is scheduled to be repeated in Manchester during February and the following meeting will be in April where Global Lift Equipment will be presenting a talk about door gears.

----------------------------------------------------

Upcoming CIBSE Lift Group Events

20 February 2008 Evening Meeting
E1 Pariser Building, Manchester University, Sackville Street

17.30 Ropes Dennis Major, Pfeifer Drako
Wires and strands make ropes of various lays and constructions. The speaker will explain these mysterious aspects relating them to rope selection, wear and fatigue. He will finish by looking at modern trends to smaller diameters and lower D/d ratios.

18.15 Remote monitoringRichard Young, Liftstore
The correct functioning of a buildings lifts is crucial to everyday operation and key performance indicators dictate strict service availability levels. The ability to monitor a lift’s performance and be alerted to any status change is vital. The speaker will highlight the benefits and importance of lift remote monitoring.

22 April 2008 Evening Meeting
CIBSE HQ, 222 Balham High Road, London SW12 9BS

17.30 Recruitment, Training and Competency of Engineer Surveyors
Richard Hulmes, SAFed SAFed member companies with the objectives of promoting safety and reducing risk, provide safety engineering inspection and assessment services both in the UK and internationally. These staff must have appropriate knowledge and understanding and must be comprehensively trained. In the lift industry these staff are the Competent Person under LOLER. The path to competence and its continuing professional development encouraging UKAS accreditation will be described.

18.00 Communication protocols for lift remote alarms to BS-DD265
Dr Gina Barney, Gina Barney Associates All lifts put into service under the Lifts Regulations must provide a means of contacting a permanently available rescue service. The requirements are prescribed in BS EN81-28: 2003. DD265 (Draft for Development) specifies requirements for a signalling protocol for communications between a lift alarm system and a rescue centre using DTMF signals. This presentation will describe how DD265 was developed.

----------------------------------------------------

CIBSE Special Interest Groups

Membership of Groups: CIBSE special interest groups are open to all whether a member of CIBSE or not and are free of charge to join.

Visit the CIBSE website at http://www.cibse.org/ and select “Special Interest Groups”. The fourteen CIBSE Special Interest Groups are:

ASHRAE
American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers
Website: http://www.cibseashrae.org/
The ASHRAE Group is keen for the participation of all members and particularly those who have transatlantic experience in any aspect of the implementation of solutions in building services engineering.

Combined Heat & Power (CHP)
Contact: Phil Jones on phil@build.demon.co.uk or 01737 371994
The CHP Group raises awareness and disseminates knowledge about both the technical and economic aspects of CHP including both conventional equipment and new developments such as fuel cells and micro CHP.

Daylight
Contact: Graham Phillips on graham.phillips220@ntlworld.com or 01306 885787
The Daylight Group provides a forum for members and non-members of CIBSE to meet and discuss issues relating to the daylighting of buildings. A wide variety of fields is represented with the Group, notably lighting designers and researchers, architects, manufacturers and academics.
Electrical Services
Contact: Tony Sung on tony.sung@umist.ac.uk or 0161 2004237 Website: www.geocities.com/sung_tony/
The work of the Electrical Services Group falls on a small number of CIBSE members, helped by liaison members linking the Group with the Lighting Division, IT & Controls Group, Lifts Group etc, and by representatives or organisations such as the IEE, the Electrical Contractors' Association and the Electricity Association.

Energy Performance
Contact: Phil Jones on phil@build.demon.co.uk or 01737 371994
Website: http://www.cibse-epg.org
The EP Group help building professionals become aware of the opportunities for energy saving within the buildings they are involved in - both new and existing – and encourage best practice in the use of passive solutions, new and developing technologies to reduce carbon emissions as part of their objectives.

Facilities Management
Contact: Geoff Prudence on geoff.prudence@essexcc.gov.uk or 01245 435559
The FM Group's expertise relates to the dynamic components of buildings on which occupants increasingly depend for their safety and well-being and on which many organisations rely for the continuous operation of their business systems and occupant satisfaction. The Group enables us to demonstrate the true worth of building services engineers to successful FM.

Healthcare
Contact: Frank Mills on FrankMills@EDC.me.uk or 0870 855 0601
The Healthcare Group aims to improve the performance of Healthcare buildings by increasing awareness amongst all building professionals and supporting the implementation of relevant Standards and legislation aimed at improving the effective use of Healthcare Buildings.

Heritage
Contact: Brian Roberts on 01737 812914 or Mike Barber on mbarber647@aol.com
and 01978 760775
Website: http://www.hevac-heritage.org/
The Heritage Group is the oldest of the specialist groups, set up by the Institution over 36 years ago to ensure that the early days of our industry's past is recorded.

Industry, Education and Training
Contact: Nick Mead on nmead@acdp.co.uk or 01628 413000
The Industry, Education and Training group aims to act as a forum for discussion, debate and promotion on matters of building services education philosophy, theory and practice and in particular to provide links between the education world and building services employers.

Information Technology (IT) & Controls
Contact: Peter Warburton on peter.warburton@arup.com or 020 7755 5555
The Group provides a forum for ideas, discussion, and education on all aspects of the design, specification, supply, installation and servicing of IT equipment and systems and intelligent building controls equipment and systems. Education of the group members, the CIBSE organisation and the contracting market are important targets.

Intelligent Buildings
Contact: Eva D'souza on Eva.DSouza@mottmac.com or 020 8774 2705
The IB Group emphasises the importance of the building services engineer in the design, management and operation of intelligent buildings and there are opportunities for a Technical Memorandum or Briefing Notes.

Lifts
Contact: Adam Scott on a.scott@rpreston.com or 01628 623 423
Website: http://www.cibseliftsgroup.org/
The Lifts Group is formed of members who have an interest in vertical transportation. The group meets regularly to promote technical standards, training and education, publications and various aspects of the industry.

Natural Ventilation
Contact: Prof Derek Croome on d.j.clements-croome@reading.ac.uk or 0118 931 1201
Much of the work of the Natural Ventilation Group is involved in dissemination of information and this is reflected in the seminar programme. Seminar topics have included productivity; avoiding the use of air-conditioning; mixed mode ventilation; the role of natural ventilation in intelligent buildings and the history of ventilation.

School Design
Contact: Dejan Mumovic on d.mumovic@ucl.ac.uk Website: http://www.cibse-sdg.org/
The School Design Group aims to foster long-term knowledge and partnership between stakeholders working on sustainable school design, construction and maintenance.

CIBSE Training and Development, and CPD Update Feb 08

Trainees on approved employer-based training schemes are respectfully reminded to submit their objective achieved reports and covering annual overview on an annual basis (i.e. anniversary of training commencement date).

The closing date for submissions to be received in time for consideration at the next meeting of the T & D Panel is 18 April 2008 latest to ensure your documentation is reviewed by the Panel for that meeting.

Training submissions and any queries, plus employers’ enquiries and applications for approved company training schemes should be addressed to Olwen Williams, Training and Development Administrator, on 020 8772 3605 or alternatively e-mail her at owilliams@cibse.org.

Training & Development Forum - February 2008

A training and development forum was held at CIBSE HQ on 7 February 2008. This was open to all companies with training schemes leading to EngTech, IEng or CEng, whether they have, or are applying for, a CIBSE approved scheme, or have trainees following an individual employer-based scheme. Please contact Olwen Williams email owilliams@cibse.org or Direct Dial 020 8772 3605 for further details.

CPD Directory update

The Directory of CPD Course Providers is produced to assist members of the Institution in identifying suitable courses in respect of their CPD needs.

CPD Course Providers who would like to apply for an entry into the Directory of CPD Course Providers should contact Olwen Williams, Training & Development Administrator, on 020 8772 3605 or alternatively e-mail her at owilliams@cibse.org

The following organisation has recently been added to the directory:
· Building Envelope Technologies Ltd

We also accept applications for on-line courses. We will welcome more e-learning applications.

CPD course speakers

All CPD course speakers are invited to apply for CIBSE membership. For further information contact Bobby Wright, Membership Engagement Manager, on 020 8772 3639 or e-mail bwright@cibse.org