Many final-year engineering students have signed up to the website (techpedia.in). The database is available for free to many industries – including SMEs. If businesses find it suitable and useful, they can work with students who came up with the project.

The portal has also attracted interest from out-to-industry associates, asking them to submit Industry Defined Problems on which budding engineering students can work on as their final-year projects. This will help students get to grips with the engineering industry, and will allow them to forge direct links with businesses.

Here’s how it will be dished out:

£5m will go towards Siemens Wind Power, while £2m will be paid to JDR Cable Systems, who will use this money to develop high-voltage cables for the distribution of power from multi-megawatt turbines.

£1m will go to Converteam, who will build a full-scale test and technology demonstrator of its coveted DC conversion technology, and £256,250 will be given to Cooper Rolling Bearings, who will develop and demonstrate the use of split-bearing technology in large wind applications.

£300,000 has been awarded to South Boats Special Projects to develop an offshore wind farm support ship, and Blade Dynamics have been given £400,000 – which will be used to develop and demonstrate the use of modular turbine blast products.

Finally, MTL Group have been given £250,000, and NGentc – to develop a new 6MW generator – have been given £800,000.

Veronika Tomonoya, a graduate of Edwardsville High School this year, will head after a civil engineering degree at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign later this year. She was ranked top of her class in many subjects and proved strong and determined to get the results she wanted.

Chloe Howenstein, who graduated from Belleville Township High School East this year, will head on to Missouri University of Science & Technology to go after a degree in civil and architectural engineering.

Finally, Ugwem Eneyo will head on to the same University as Tomonoya to complete her bachelor’s degree in civil and environmental engineering and international relations. Eneyo, who is a member of the National Society of Black Engineers, was also a student leader at Edwardsville High School where she graduated in 2009.

According to the former IBM boss, teenagers should be provided with more information about and access to engineering that will inspire them to take it on as a career.

He said: “from all I’ve read the curriculum is pretty full, it’s probably unrealistic to expect to put more into the curriculum, but it does mean you need to take up the opportunities that are there for extra-curricular activities.”

He also commented that the UK needs to think about the sort of workforce it needs in the future.

Sir Anthony continued: “First of all there is agreement across the political spectrum that we have got to balance the economy.

“If we’re going to do that and address the major issues we face like energy, water and transport, one of the key areas is engineering.

“The problem is we have a significant shortfall in engineers at the technical level.”

Research conducted by Engineering UK, of which Sir Anthony is Chairman, found that over the next decade, 500,000 people with technical skills will be needed to support the manufacturing industry.

The oil spill, which has already claimed the lives of thousands of fish, birds and other animals, has been causing havoc around the Gulf for the past month. It is hoped ‘Whale’, which is an engineering vessel, will be able to help out.

It is believed that 2 ships have already managed to pull around 25,000 barrels of oil every day since the operation began – and people are resting their hopes on ‘Whale’ to use modern-day engineering technology to solve the situation before it gets any worse.

Unfortunately, tropical storm Alex has been making matters a little more difficult, but we’ve all got our fingers crossed the engineering vessel can do a great job.

A year earlier, engineering exports totalled $2.4bn, and growth in these areas was pretty much in line with the total Indian merchandise exports of $16.1bn in May 2010.

Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC) Executive Director, Mr. Suranjan Gutpa, commented: “We are receiving good number of orders from the US, but very few orders from the European market.”

Of the $32.5bn engineering exports in 2009-2010, the EU accounted for around 30%. Exporters believe the increasing trend will continue, but the weak European market may impact this.

To reduce the effect weaker markets may have on exporting, other options are now being explored – such as the Middle East and Latin America.

Engineering exports, as mentioned here, include heavy engineering goods (transport vehicles, capital goods, machinery), and light engineering such as forgings, castings and fasteners.

The reason for the delay is because none of the colleges had added information to the all India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) website.

This could prove a bad sign for some colleges, as the Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) now has no idea about the number of new seats needing approval/approved. The All India Council for Technical Education is still to provide this information.

Officials of the KEA, and the Directorate of Technical Education commented: “According to the rule there should be four days gap between announcement of seat and this time we have no idea about the number of seats.”

The ceremony, which took place in the University of Glasgow’s Bute Hall saw students receive their EngD degrees. The new Doctors of  Engineering bring the number of students who have graduated from the four-year course to 27.

The Engineering Doctorate (EngD) is a four-year challenging course and is academically equivalent to a Ph.D – but places focus and drive on research within an industrial context.

Graduates of the institute, how have gone on to work for such big names as Thales Optronics, ARM and Agilent, have been littered with engineering awards in the past – which is a real credit to their academic achievements.

The Institute for System Level Integration focuses quite heavily on the development of electronic systems designs all over the world, and continues to attract some of the brightest and most creative students to study under their wings – providing the engineering industry with highly-skilled graduates of the future.