Overview

We will be hosting our elections for the advertised roles to become part of the NECC Committee. There will also be talks from two guest speakers.

The meeting will be of particular interest to students and early career members looking to gain CPD, build network connections and take opportunities of getting involved with IChemE.

Speakers

Anahita Laverack, Transatlantic Autonomous Sailboat Designer, Oshen

Whilst studying engineering at Imperial College London, Anahita has persued the Microtransat challenge - a competition for mini (<2m length) autonomous sailboats to cross the Atlantic Ocean that has never been successfully completed. After winning Imperial's Venture Catalyst Challenge, a start up competition, her and co-founder Ciaran have founded Oshen, a start-up that aims to deploy the miniature devices designed for the Microtransat at scale to collect ocean data. She is currently refining their device's control systems ahead of a Microtransat attempt in Winter 2022 and lives on a sailboat.

Neil Travers, Project Manager, Northern Gas

Neil has 20 years experience in the gas industry, predominantly within gas distribution. His career began as an apprentice field engineer working within the emergency sector. Management responsibilities then included oversight of gas mains replacement programmes, emergency activities and network repairs. His industry experience is now being utilised within hydrogen research on the H21 team. This work, assessing the feasibility of converting the existing gas distribution network to 100% hydrogen is vital in proving the case for a future move to hydrogen conversion. Neil is currently leading the H21 Phase 2b project, which has converted an existing section of the gas distribution network from natural gas to 100% hydrogen.

Committee nominations

There are a number of roles available for those interesting in joining the NECC Committee. As this committee is for people in the early stages of their career, the roles of Chair and Treasurer are open to all NECC members.