Building a Sustainable Recovery

Each year in September the President gives a Presidential Address (click here to download Presidential Address) on an issue or issues of national engineering importance.

I gave my Address on Wednesday night on the theme Building a Sustainable Recovery. I was pleasantly surprised at the large representative crowd who came to hear what I had to say.

I focused on our Education system, which in turn fosters our Economic and Spatial Planning approach. This in turn creates the conditions for Innovation and Enterprise, which will lead to Sustainable Recovery and Job Creation - our central theme. I will let the presentation speak for itself. (Click here to download webcast)

Roadmap for Recovery

My views on the Maths issue were taken up by the media who, like ourselves, are greatly exercised with this issue in our Second Level Schools, particularly the issue of unqualified Maths teachers. As a result I was interviewed on Morning Ireland the following morning on this issue. (Click here to listen to Morning Ireland webcast)

Since the Address and the interview I'm very grateful for the kind comments of many members who attended on Wednesday night or have since heard the Morning Ireland interview.

Both are available on webcast on the Engineers Ireland website  and on RTE website  respectively. I'm also very grateful for the very professional support of John Power our Director General and Fionnuala Kilbane our Communications Director.

Official Opening of UCD Science Centre by Taoiseach

On Friday last I was invited by UCD President Hugh Brady to attend the Official Opening of Phase 1 of the new Science Centre to be performed by Taoiseach Enda Kenny. I was kindly met beforehand by Professor Gerry Byrne Incoming Dean of Engineering with whom I attended the Opening. Gerry is also a past President of Engineers Ireland (2000 - 2001).

In addition to meeting the Taoiseach Enda Kenny, I also met President Hugh Brady and Vice President of Research Des Fitzgerald.

Pictured with the Taoiseach touring the New UCD Science Centre and meeting staff together with from left Professor Hugh Brady UCD President, Professor Pat Guiry UCD Chemistry, Professor Gerry Byrne UCD Dean of Engineering (partly hidden), P J Rudden President of Engineers Ireland and Professor Des Fitzgerald UCD Vice President of Research

The new Science Centre is on the site of the old Science Block beside the lake and the Arts Block/Library where I did Physics, Chemistry, Maths and Maths Physics in First Engineering in the 1970s but has been completely transformed architecturally and internally. The new space is merely Phase 1 of what will be the single largest capital investment (€300m) in third level education in the history of the state.

We toured the new Centre for Molecular Innovation and Drug Discovery with the Taoiseach, who stopped from time to time to hear the scientific story attached to this or that piece of laboratory equipment or simply to enquire the origins of the many Irish and multicultural staff employed there.

The new Centre involved the gutting of the old Chemistry building and the construction of significant additional space with a new highly appealing architectural entrance, not at all reminiscent of the old Belfield which I once knew.

The Taoiseach appeared to be highly impressed by what he saw and heard and that was very obvious in his inspirational speech at the Official Opening afterwards.

The new Building will house three new research units - the Institute of Food and Health, the Centre for Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Centre for Nanomedicine. UCD currently have some 200 collaborative partnerships underway in the general science area and the nexus of this creative endeavour is the Science Centre.

UCD Science Centre

UCD President Hugh Brady stated

"Investment in research is a necessity not a luxury. It is the foundation for the discoveries and technology developments that will build the economy of the future. The new Science Centre highlights innovation as part of the engineering and science life cycle. The project is creating what we call a transformative resource for Ireland to spark an innovation revolution in Ireland.'

The striking thing about this visit was to see at first hand research engineers and scientists working side by side in a common purpose.

The reason was this is clear. There is no boundary between Bioscience and Bioengineering but all working together in the interest of Assisted Living.

I look forward to seeing further phases of this extremely impressive enterprise completed at UCD. Principal of the UCD College of Engineering and Architecture Gerry Byrne is equally excited about this new development. 'Obviously there are new ideas being generated across the board but often the science end of the relationship would be working on the basics and engineering on the application and transfer' he says.

September Executive Meeting

The Executive meet last Thursday to do the monthly review of Engineers Ireland finances which are relatively healthly.

We also discussed the proposed Communications Campaign for Chartered Engineer due to commence on radio and TV later this Autumn and to run for at least 2 years.

I don't wish to spoil the viewer's or the listener's fun in terms of the lyrics and theme music which will be used. Suffice it to say that it will be impactful and will showcase all the main Engineering Sectors in Ireland using some of our engineering members as role models.

This will be part of the public profile raising by Engineers Ireland to show the relevence of the Chartered Engineer in modern Irish society.

We also got an update on the Review of our Bylaws to be completed by the end of the year.

Finally we reviewed the very many thanks and compliments sent by Leaving Cert students to Engineers Ireland following receipt of their Results last month. 'Thank you for the free Maths grinds which helped me get my grades' was the general sentiment expressed. This again is Engineers Ireland doing something tangible and sustainable going forward. Better to be doing something  than simply talking about it!

Visit to Research Institutes in Galway

Last Wednesday John Power Director General and I travelled to Galway to visit the Research Institutes in NUIG and the Marine Institute in Oranmore.

This was the first of a number of planned visits to Research Institutes around Ireland to experience at first hand Research, Innovation and the Job Creation possibilities emanating from these relatively new Centres of Learning in Third Level Education. We also wanted to concentrate our visits outside of Dublin to show support for balanced regional development.

Both visits turned out to be fascinating and very worthwhile, not only in seeing what Research is happening in Third Level Institutes but also to see the appreciation of the engineers and scientists working there at our efforts to reach out to them.

From the Forfas Research Forum in Dublin the previous day I can see that there is now a 'steady hand on the tiller' nationally coordinating the research efforts to target areas of potential strategic and economic advantage for Ireland. This was one of the recommendations of the Innovation Task Force Report of March 2010 one of whose members was Chris Horn President of Engineers Ireland in 2009-2010.

Both visits were kindly organised by Prof Padraic O'Donoghue of Civil and Environmental Engineering NUIG who is also Chairman of our West Region and member of our Executive Board.

In NUIG the visits were led by Professor Terry Smith Vice President of Research and Professor of Biomedical Engineering Peter McHugh. We also visited Dr Colin Brown Director and Martina Prendergast of the Ryan Institute (Environment, Marine and Energy Research) and Michael Turley CEO and his colleagues Patrick Mulrooney Commercialisation Manager and Dr Brian Wall Operations Manager at Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI). We also met the Vice Dean of Engineering Dr Eddie Jones.

Much of what we saw in NUIG was truly impressive. In terms of Biomedical Science and Engineering there appears to have been a historical collaboration with local industry clusters commencing with Boston Scientific going back many years and more recently with Creganna and Crospon (of which our Vice President John O'Dea is CEO).

There was also a succession of visionary NUIG Presidents, starting with Prof Pat Fortrell, who had the good sense to acquire an enviable land bank along the banks of the Corrib from the Newcastle Road to well beyond the Quincentenary Bridge that enabled the new Engineering Building, the Ryan Institute and DERI. To have all of this research endeavour on a single campus including also the Institute for Business Social Science and Public Policy was also a success factor.

The DERI fascination was with newly developed 'search engine' software that is more powerful than Google!

Stent Engineering

Whatever the combination of factors a truly remarkable Biomedical and Digital capability has been built in NUIG. I found the technical and biochemical aspects of stent engineering especially fascinating where stent material is also therapeutic in addition to its structural capacity.

 

We then travelled to the Marine Institute in Oranmore where we were met by Dr Barbara Fogarty National Coordinator of the Marine Technology Programme and her colleagues Glenn Nolan, Eoin O'Grady and Paul Gaughan, who are Section Managers in Oceanographic Services, IS&D and the SmartBay Project Coordinator respectively. The Marine Institute set up in Galway in 2006 is the national agency for Marine Research, Technology, Development and Innovation. The research carried out here is central to the future development of our Ocean Resources in terms of Shipping, Oil/Gas, Renewables, Sea Fisheries and Marine Leisure/Tourism.

The Institute is made up of 7 Service Areas, inc Strategic Planning, Marine Environment and Marine Food Safety. We toured the Institute's marine laboratories, which are quite extensive.

Afterwards we attended an excellent lecture jointly organised by the West and Thomond Regions in the Marine Institute given by Barbara Fogarty and Eugene McKeown of Biospheric Ltd in Galway on the SmartBay Project in Galway Bay. This is a Research Test and Demonstration Facility for Marine Information and Communications, Technologies, ICT, inc wireless and subsea sensor networks. This monitoring infrastructure was jointly established by the Marine Institute and the EPA in 2008.

SmartBay Project

John and I returned to Dublin that night with a real sense that we had been at the coalface of national engineering innovation across a wide spectrum of specialisations in Galway, both land-based and marine and all endeavours concentrated on just two highly planned and well chosen sites both east and west of Galway city. Our thanks again to Prof Padraic O'Donoghue for organising these most interesting and worthwhile visits.

National Research Forum

Hi all! Welcome back to my Blog after the summer break!

Last Tuesday I attended the National Research Prioritisation Stakeholder Forum organised by Forfas - Ireland's policy advisory board for enterprise, trade, science, technology and innovation. The Research Strategy Group, set up by Minister Batt O'Keeffe in Sept 2010, is chaired by Jim O'Hara of Intel.



Neil Kerrigan Manager Industry Commercialisation Programmes in Enterprise Ireland and P J Rudden President of Engineers Ireland attending the Forfas National Research Forum.

This half-day event chaired by Forfas CEO Martin Shanahan was attended by over 200 experts drawn from Government Depts, Forfas, Enterprise Ireland, Third Level Colleges, Research Institutes and Research Companies.

Some 20 priority areas were examined in a broad spectrum across the Irish Economy including Food, Marine, Biomedicine, ICT, Creative Arts, Tourism, Renewable Energy, Smart Cities and Environment.

Recommendations will now be made by Forfas to the Government on Research Priorities to be underpinned by future investment. This was a very impressive exercise informed by specialist 'break out' group sessions in the main priority areas.

The Steering Group will report to Richard Bruton Minister for Employment Jobs and Innovation before the end of 2011.