» Issue 1: Autumn 2004

Into the future together

CGCA and RSMA secretaries Bill McAuley and Paul Holmes introduce a joint venture

WELCOME to this inaugural edition of Imperial Engineer. This is the first collaborative enterprise between CGCA and RSMA and has been inspired, as many of you know, by the amalgamation of Guilds and RSM into the Imperial College Faculty of Engineering.

For the last 500 years, science has shaped technology and technology has shaped society. Our RCS colleagues are educated to do the science bit and we have been educated to do the technology.

Even if we now make a living farming turtles or running unit trusts, none of us ever forgets this, particularly in a world where the fruits of technology abound amid a spectacular public ignorance of how things actually work.

So, if Imperial Engineer has a theme, it is to try to connect technology to its wider context and to help the associations play their part in promoting technical education and careers and in improving scientific literacy in general.

Additionally, one of our primary aims for this publication is to maintain the news content that both Update and Imperial College Engineer provided its readership. We hope that we have achieved this. We also hope that members of each association will enjoy the other’s input.

This is the first cooperation between CGCA and RSMA. It will not be the last. As IC has amalgamated its engineering and technical activities, so we, in the two alumni organisations, will seek common ways to promote our common interests.