Influencing what we do
The School is fortunate to have key external contacts from the commercial and public sectors who are able to give valuable alternative perspectives on engineering developments and challenges. These views are important and often inform decisions we make about every aspect of the School's activities and we always welcome them on an ad hoc basis. But we also have a formal mechanism to gather and feed them into strategy or policy as appropriate: this is the Futures Advisory Board or F-AB which meets twice a year.
The current Chair of F-AB is Professor Michael Withers and the following sectors are represented by invited members:
- Finance, Law and Government
- Environment
- Information and Knowledge Management
- Transport
- Security and Defence
- Health
- Space
- Media and Lifestyle
The F-AB undertakes to:
- Be a forum for open debate and exchange of information
- Advise the School on developments and trends in commercial, industrial and government sectors which may impact on the School’s activities both in the short- but particularly in the long-term
- Identify challenges from the world at large both nationally and internationally which may inform or impact on School activities and choices.
- Inform the School on present engineering practices and best engineering practice in the workplace.
- Identify opportunities for the School to increase its market share and enhance its reputation
- Nurture relationships between the School and its present and potential customer base