Robin McGill speaks on the forthcoming vision for the IET.

This is the first of a regular series of webcasts by Robin McGill on IET.tv. The next will be a live webcast on 15 March 2007. Post your questions to Robin to myvoice@theiet.org

Robin graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a BSc, 1 st Class Honours, Engineering Science in 1977 and has had a successful international business career, with BP and its joint ventures, which has seen him work in the UK and USA as well as exposing him to businesses and cultures across the globe. He is a Chartered Engineer and has served as a council member with the Scottish CBI as well as being a representative on various trade bodies. He is married with two grown up children.
Robin succeeds Dr Alf Roberts who is retiring after eight years in the role. Commenting on his appointment Robin said: “I am delighted to have the opportunity to lead the IET. I believe engineering, science and technology can provide the solutions to many of the great challenges which face the world today. It is a privilege to be able to take on the role to lead such a prestigious Institution at this exciting time and to have the opportunity to work with the members to promote the vital role they can play in shaping the future.” Welcoming the appointment, Sir Robin Saxby, President of the IET said: “I and fellow members of the Board of Trustees are delighted that Robin has agreed to join us at such exciting yet challenging times. His experience in engineering, management, business, academic and advisory arenas on a global basis will be invaluable to us in projecting our image to inspire the young, practice professionalism, and inform the public of the importance of science, engineering and technology, which is even more relevant in the 21 st century than in the days of our founding fathers in 1871.

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Within this generation, software has changed the way that individuals collaborate, organizations do business, economies operate, and cultures interact.

Software-intensive systems can amplify human intelligence, but they cannot replace human judgment; software-intensive systems can fuse, coordinate, classify, and analyze information, but they cannot create knowledge.

Although software offers seemingly limitless promise, there are some very real limits to what software can do. Not everything we want to build can be built: there exist pragmatic theoretical and technical limits that make software development hard, if not in some cases impossible.

Furthermore, not everything we want to build should be built: there exist moral, economic, social, and political limits that govern human industry.

Software-intensive systems are perhaps the most intellectually complex artifacts created by humans, and while the majority of individuals in the civilized world rely on software in their daily lives, few of them understand the essential complexity therein, the labour required to create such artifacts, and the beautiful and elegant chaos of their architecture.

In this presentation, we will examine the promise, the limits, and the beauty of software, as well as offer some conclusions that can be drawn from the last 60 years of software and some expectations and cautions for the next generation

A renowned visionary, he has devoted his life's work to improving the effectiveness of software developers worldwide. Grady served as Chief Scientist of Rational Software Corporation since its founding in 1981 and continues to serve in that capacity within IBM.

Grady is one of the original authors of the Unified Modeling Language (UML) and was also one of the original developers of several of Rational's products. Grady has served as architect and architectural mentor for numerous complex software-intensive projects around the world in just about every domain imaginable.

Grady is the author of six best-selling books, including the UML Users Guide and the seminal Object-Oriented Analysis with Applications, and has published several hundred articles on software engineering, including papers published in the early '80s that originated the term and practice of object-oriented design.

Grady is a member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR).

He is an IBM Fellow, an ACM Fellow, a World Technology Network Fellow, and a Software Development Forum Visionary. Grady was a founding board member of the Agile Alliance, the Hillside Group, and the Worldwide Institute of Software Architects, and now also serves on the board of the International Association of Software Architecture. He also serves on the boards of Newmont University and the Iliff School of Theology.

Grady received his bachelor of science from the United States Air Force Academy in 1977 and his master of science in electrical engineering from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1979.

Grady lives in Colorado. His interests include reading, traveling, singing, and playing the harp.

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Reflections and recommendations on how Europe and Asia can develop new partnerships for science and innovation

Charles Leadbeater is a leading authority on innovation and creativity. He has advised companies, cities and governments around the world on innovation strategy and drawn on that experience in writing his latest book We-think: the power of mass creativity, which charts the rise of mass, participative approaches to innovation from science and open source software, to computer games and political campaigning.
We-think, which is due to be published in 2007, is the latest in a string of acclaimed books: Living on Thin Air, a guide to living and working in the new economy; Up the Down Escalator, an attack on the culture of public pessimism accompanying globalisation and In Search of Work, published in the 1980's, which was one of the first books to predict the rise of more flexible and networked forms of employment.

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Reflections and recommendations on how Europe and Asia can develop new partnerships for science and innovation

Esko Aho has had a long and distinguished career serving Finnish society. He held the post of Prime Minister of Finland from 1991 to 1995. During this period, Finland overcame a deep economic recession and made the historic decision to join the European Union. After the 2000 presidential campaign, Aho joined Harvard University for one year as a lecturer, and following his retirement from the Finnish Parliament, he worked as a private consultant. Esko Aho was appointed President of the Finnish National Fund for Research and Development, Sitra, as of 1 July 2004.

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