Two New EGA Board Members Elected

The EGA have appointed two new members with international experience to the Board - Brendan Butler of Shell Ireland and Tina Pittock of ESB International.

 

Brendan graduated with Honours in Electrical Engineering from UCD in 1985 and joined the Shell Group in Holland where he stayed as trainee and then project engineer in Oman on  design and installation of 132KV power lines and switching stations. In 1996 he moved onto Venezuela, then Syria, then Canada and Russia as Construction Manager on the Sakhalin Project in eastern Siberia.

 

Brendan Butler

 In 2007 he was posted to Ireland as Project Manager on design and construction of the Corrib Gas Terminal in Mayo and is now Deputy Project Director for the entire project soon to be producing its first gas into the national grid.

 

Brendan represented Ireland in the European Orienteering Championships in 1981 and is into running half marathons, skiing and hillwalking. His eldest daughter is in First Engineering in UCD and Brendan is working closely with the Chemical Engineering Dept on a UCD - Shell joint enterprise.

 

 

Tina  graduated with Honours in Mechanical Engineering in UCD in 2002, did a Diploma in Project Management in TCD and had just completed her MBA in Smurfit Business School.

 

She worked first with Powerscreen International on manufacturing processes then joined ESB as Gas Turbine Site Engineer in South Africa on the Atlantis site then moving back to Ireland as Mechanical Engineer on the Aghada CCGT power plant where she ensured codes and standards were implemented.

 

Tina then transferred to a new school project in Ghana as part of ESB's corporate social responsibility organising 33 volunteer staff from ESB to complete within time and budget.

 

Tina Pittock

She subsequently saw service on power stations in Derry, Spain, Dublin Bay and Turlough Hill in Wicklow before transferring to ESB Telecons where she managed the new Ireland Wales subsea 96 fibre optic cable. More recently she worked with ESB Innovation and ESB Vodafone on 'fibre to the building' (FTTB) broadband projects in a management capacity.

 

Tina has huge voluntary work experience as Chair/Vice Chair of Electric Aid with global budget of $1.2m in Ghana and has worked also with other charities in South Afrixa, Zambia and Ireland.

 

We welcome both Tina and Brendan to the EGA Board where no doubt they will be active members.

What Happened to the University Industry Centre?

Shortly after I was elected EGA President I was briefed on the saga of the University Industry Centre (UIC). This is the building immediately adjacent to the Engineering Building and built at the same time as part of the new Engineering Faculty complex. It was the first innovation centre to be set up in UCD or perhaps also in Ireland in pursuit of the College's new aims to have a more collaborative research approach between the University and Irish Industry.

 

UCD Engineering Building on left and University Industry Centre on the right

Both buildings were designed by the same architect and built by the same contractor - in fact the UIC was built first and then the main Engineering Building in the mid 1980s. The main building was funded by Department of Education while the UIC was funded through private donations from past graduates and their firms all pledged to UIC Educational Trust. In fact some 450 engineers and engineering companies contributed a totally audited figure of €966,444 in sums ranging from €1000 to over €2,500 each. These were considerable sums donated in personal and corporate terms during the mid 80s recessionary period.

The UIC was officially opened by An Taoiseach Garret Fitzgerald on May 20th 1985 - 30 years ago next month.

University Industry Centre (UIC)

This building was the brainchild of then UCD Dean of Engineering Professor John Kelly supported by Tom Hardiman then Chairman of the Investment Bank of Ireland and Liam Connellan Director General of the Confederation of Irish Industry.  John was also the Founder of the EGA and both Tom and Liam were later EGA Presidents.  The first Director of the UIC was Dr Pat Frain under whose guidance it went from strength to strength establishing UCD as a third level centre of excellence in research, incubation and commercialisation.

Then in 2003 and 2005 two separate events occurred:

1. Due to shortage of space and the growing cross disciplinary nature of research and technology transfer across both science and engineering UCD decided in 2003 to transfer NovaUCD from the UIC to Merville which was enlarged with very significant industrial sponsorship

2. Then UCD in 2005 decided to rename the UIC building and lecture theatre to be the John Hume Centre for Global Studies and the Clinton Auditorium respectively thus removing it from the College of Engineering.  There was no prior consultation with the UIC funders.

Let me now be honest, direct and frank. I actually agree with the transfer of NovaUCD in 2003 as the correct and proper thing to do at the time and its subsequent success in the new location is vindication of that.  I dealt with this success in great detail in my blog earlier this week.

However the transfer of the UIC Building from the Faculty of Engineering and its renaming without any consultation with the UCD Engineering Graduates Association and its 450 small and medium size funding organisations beggars belief! I was and am still astounded that UCD could act in that way without a word to the Funders of the building. I do accept that the then Dean of Engineering was consulted but not the EGA or any of the Funders even the major ones.

Let me draw an apt parallel to this. It would be akin to either Peter Sutherland or Lochlann Quinn or Denis O'Brien waking up some morning to find that one of their relatively new buildings on campus which they partly funded were renamed (say) the UCD School of Oriental or Chinese Studies! That's what happened to the UIC Building without even a phone call to the EGA or any of the Funders. Frankly it smacked of gross discourtesy even arrogance.. The UCD Governing Body did write to the former Dean of Engineering explaining what they did months later only when he complained on hearing of it after the event.  This issue has festered for the past 10 years to the detriment of UCD Engineering, has plagued my predecessors and I am now determined to resolve this issue if I possibly can in an amicable way.

 

When I first heard of this issue I thought that perhaps the events of 2005 had been exaggerated to UCD's disadvantage but no! In recent weeks I have spoken to practically all of the senior UIC personnel who were connected with these events and they all now deeply regret the manner in which all this was handled. Most of them like myself do not have a major difficulty with the transfer of NovaUCD but all feel that it was handled in a most clumsy manner.  Many are highly embarrassed that they did nothing to stop the injustice back in 2005.

 

There was also a lot of ill ease around the same time with the breakup of the Engineering Faculty into components part in association with other faculties and schools as part of UCD restructuring. Fortunately this was recognised as a bad mistake and corrected in 2012 with the reconstitution of the College of Engineering and Architecture under a new Principal and Dean.

What now of the former UIC? I simply don't know but the Clinton Auditorium remains an excellent lecture resource. The rest of the building has a number of disparate uses. The website for the John Hume Centre was last updated in 2009 so it's not currently in use for that purpose either.  A better future must now beckon for this building funded by UCD's engineers.

Clinton Auditorium

I think that regardless of the future use of the UIC that the College of Engineering and Architecture has a very bright future as it grows and may well suggest a future more efficient use for its sister building. Overall the initial success of the UIC building as the seed corn of innovation needs to be celebrated together with NovaUCD as we approach its 30th anniversary. The UIC story is part of the success of NovaUCD and UCD Innovation and we all need to celebrate the great achievements as we embark on making UCD into Ireland's Global University as part of UCD Strategy 2015 - 2020 under our new President.

 

UCD to celebrate 30 years of Innovation

 

Recently I had the pleasure of visiting NovaUCD (located on Belfield campus off Foster's Avenue) which is a purpose built state-of-the-art incubation facility for high-tech and knowledge intensive start-up industries. I very much thank its current Director, Brendan Cremen for conducting an informative tour of this impressive facility. An innovation centre for new ventures, it has been the hub of commercialisation and entrepreneurial activity in UCD since 2003. Prior to that it grew out of the University Industry Centre (UIC) set up in 1985 which was the brainchild of Professor Emeritus John Kelly,  UCD Dean of Engineering in the 1980s, later UCD Registrar/Deputy President and now a leading member of the Irish Academy of Engineering.  John was also the Founding Father of the UCD Engineering Graduates Association set up in 1984.                                                                                         (http://www.ucd.ie/eacollege/engineeringgraduatesassociation/history/)

UCD Emeritus Professor John Kelly

The University Industry Centre or UIC was the first 'innovation centre' in UCD (and perhaps nationally) implementing a new policy of closer University-industry cooperation. It was an initiative of the UCD Engineering Graduates Association funded by engineering graduates and firms organised by a Trust who raised £1 million led by Dr John Kelly, Dr Tom Hardiman former Director General RTE and former Chairman of the National Board for Science and Technology and Dr Paddy Galvin then CEO of Guinness. The UIC Building was officially opened in May 1985, some 30 years ago by then Taoiseach Garret Fitzgerald.
 

In 1988 Dr Pat Frain was appointed Director and the University Industry Programme (UIP) was established to develop innovation, technology transfer and other forms of co-operation between the University and the industrial and business community in Ireland/overseas.
 

Throughout the 1990s the UIP supported the development of a range of successful multidisciplinary courses at the UIC, a number of patents and other commercial opportunities.  In the late 1990s the scarcity of incubation space and other facilities to support the activities of the UIP became an increasing constraint to commercialisation, enterprise development and industry co-operation at UCD.


Dr Pat Frain, Director NovaUCD 2003-2012

 

In 2003, the work of the University Industry Programme was moved from the UIC Building to the Merville facility also on Belfield campus and rebranded as NovaUCD.  This new €11 million Centre for New Ventures and Entrepreneurs was opened with the support of a unique public-private partnership comprising UCD and AIB Bank, Arthur Cox, Deloitte, Enterprise Ireland, Ericsson, Goodbody Stockbrokers and Xillinx.



Dr Conor Hanley, co-founder, BiancaMed

Prof Conor Henaghan, co-founder BiancaMed

 



UCD and the entire engineering profession together with their scientific colleagues now need to celebrate the success of Nova UCD with its proud history and heritage as described.



NovaUCD at Merville House, Belfield

Since 2003, UCD has achieved phenomenal success in research and innovation.  It has provided business development support to 240 companies and early-stage projects through the incubation services and supports provided at NovaUCD.  In the 10-year period (2003-2013) over 125 companies have been direct clients of NovaUCD and availed of desk space bio-incubation units or business unit facilities within the on-campus centre.  These companies, which employ over 590 staff,  have raised €90 million in equity funding, and have a current annual turnover of €71 million.  Furthermore, these same companies expect to create over 850 new jobs by 2016.



Prof Dolores O'Riordan, Director, UCD Institute of Food & Health

 

NovaUCD supported companies contribute €34 million a year in Gross Value Added (GVA) to the Irish economy and over €7.5 million GVA to the international economy.  Between them these companies currently support 1,250 jobs, directly and indirectly, of which 1,000 are based in Ireland.  Since 2003 the University has earned €5.2 million in commercialisation income.  This includes €3 million from the sale of shareholding in spin-out companies and €2.2 million in royalty-related income, of which 12% has come from Irish-owned companies, 54% from multinational companies with a base in Ireland and 34% from multinationals with no Irish presence.


Prof Brian Glennan & Dr Mark Bennet, co-founders APC

 

As a direct result of entering into licensing agreements with UCD, businesses have been able to increase their annual turnover in Ireland by an average of €3.6 million and international turnover by €5.8 million.  Intellectual property developed at UCD currently generates an additional €2.1 million GVA for the Irish economy and an additional €3.4 million GVA for the international economy and supports a total of 89 additional jobs each year.
 

 

The scale of NovaUCD’s contribution to Ireland’s economy looks set to increase significantly in years to come.

Donal Ryan & Dr Emmeline Hill, Equinome

BiGGAR Economics estimate that, by 2016, existing supported companies will be generating €64 million GVA for the Irish economy each year and directly and indirectly supporting 1,900 jobs in Ireland, as well as contributing €18.2 million GVA and supporting 538 jobs in the international economy each year.

 

 

By 2016 total entrepreneurial and commercialisation activities at NovaUCD, assuming that the income generated by intellectual property remains in line with the trend of the past 10 years, will be generating €87.7 million GVA a year and supporting directly and indirectly some 2,527 jobs in all.  Some €66.1 million of this GVA and 1,934 of these jobs will be in Ireland.

 

Today as we approach the 30^th Anniversary of the opening of the University Industry Centre we salute its founding EGA fathers (and funders).  We congratulate UCD in growing this innovation and incubation centre into the world class facilities at NovaUCD that is under its current Director of Enterprise and Commercialisation, Brendan Cremen and UCD Vice President for Research Innovation and Impact, Professor Orla Feely.



NovaUCD Director Brendan Cremen

UCD Vice President for Research Innovation & Impact,
Prof Orla Feely

 

 

 

 



2015 Annual Spring Lecture by UCD President Professor Andrew Deeks

UCD EGA have a busy programme for the coming year including Annual Spring Lecture by UCD President Andrew Deeks on Engineering Education in mid May and presentation of the 2015 Distinguished Graduate Award at our Annual Dinner at the end of May.

Prof. Andrew Deeks

We start our Programme on Saturday February 21st with Mock Interviews for final year BE and ME undergrads preparing for internship and job interviews.   Arrangements for these interviews this year have been made by Dr. Aoife Collins College Internship Manager and Katie O'Neill College Marketing Manager.  UCD Careers and Skills Consultant Dr. Aisling Harkin will also take a leading role in conducting these interviews.

We will have our Annual Past Presidents' Dinner on March 26th next when we discuss past, current and future EGA happenings and the Past Presidents usually make very constructive suggestions for future events. The Autumn Panel Discussion 2013 on Manufacturing which was led by the Taoiseach derived out of these discussions two years ago also the need for EGA to better communicate with Members through a new Newsletter and indeed this blog.

Enda Kenny

The highlight of this year's events with be the Annual Spring Lecture by UCD President Professor Andrew Deeks on "Challenges for Engineering Education in the 21st Century". This will be held on Wednesday 13th May at 7.00pm  in the Sutherland School of Law, UCD. This should be very entertaining as while Andrew is or was a civil engineer he is now very much an educationalist.

Judging by his inaugural address he is following in the footsteps of UCD founding rector John Henry Newman's 'Idea of a University'.

'Newman’s  spirited defence of the value of a liberal education continue to have impact today and indeed have shaped the development of UCD and influenced the development of university education worldwide. I want to follow in Newman's footsteps in another way, by reflecting on the idea of a global university'.

John Henry Newman

Idea of a University
“A man may hear a thousand lectures, and read a thousand volumes, and be at the end of the process very much where he was, as regards knowledge.  It must not be passively received, but actually and actively entered into, embraces, mastered.  The mind must go half-way to meet what comes to it from without.”

“The interlinking of different societies and viewpoints clearly promotes societal advance, and a society isolated from alternative viewpoints and ways of doing things will stagnate.  Within these interconnected societies, we see that advance is through a series of incremental steps, each building on the next, with the next technical step becoming inevitable at certain points in time and then a number of individuals independently making the step” he said.

As he expressed his view on the importance of a comprehensive, research-intensive university, Professor Deeks noted that the same utilitarian arguments  which confronted Newman in his day are still put forward today.

“These utilitarian arguments say that universities should prioritise the preparation of students for careers which are seen to be in demand, and to concentrate on developing practical skills. Like Newman, I reply that we are preparing out students to take their place in society and to contribute to the flourishing of that society, both national and international.”

“In Newman’s ‘The Idea of a University’ he argues for a liberal education which develops in the  mind the ability to, through a process of looking at things from a variety of viewpoints, come to full illumination or understanding of the subject matter.  He also sees university as developing a range of generic skills in communication, teamship and leadership that we would recognise today.  He stops short suggesting that everyone should be educated in a liberal way, but suggests that as long as a university has a range of scholars in a variety of subjects, and that they converse and debate matters of interest together, that the end goal of the university would still be reached.”

“These days we see exposure to and participation in research as being a vital part of the process of training the mind of which Newman was so passionate about, and a primary goal of the university.”

But Professor Deeks added, universities need to be global in their being in order to meet the needs of students and of society.

“To prepare our students to flourish in this interconnected global society, we need to be a global university.  We must be engaged nationally and around the world.  Different points of view do not only come from within the university, but also from outside,  We must also promote international mobility of staff and students, joint research and teaching programmes with universities around the world, and mutually beneficial strategic holistic partnerships.”

We will have our Annual Dinner in the National Concert Hall on Thursday May 28^th at 6.00pm where will present the 2015 Distinguished Graduate Award.  Last year this was won by Patrick Joy of Suretank.

(L to R): PJ Rudden, Mrs Joy, Patrick Joy, Prof. Gerry Byrne

On August 31^st next, we will have presentation of the EGA Gold Medals for the best results in ME degree in each engineering discipline.

2017 EGA Strategic Targets met by the start of 2015

We had the 2014 Annual General Meeting last Monday where we assessed progress on our Strategy 2013 - 2016 and appointed a new Hon Secretary and filled a vacancy on the Board. I was also re-elected as President for a further two year (and final) term.

In my President's Statement, I assessed our Progress under the four headings of the Strategy - Education, Membership, Finance and Marketing.

Our overall Strategy was to raise our Profile with major national events and thus to grow our Membership and Funding through Marketing of these events.

In Summary our Mission Statement reads:

‘Our principal aim is to support and assist UCD Engineering to be a world class centre for the teaching and learning of the art, science and practice of engineering. We support our graduates as they continue to drive national economic and sustainable development through enterprise, research and innovation.'

Under Education we have been closely following Second Level Curriculum Reform at Second Level including Reform of the Junior Certificate.  We invited the Chief Executive of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) Dr Anne Looney to one of our Board Meetings.  She was strong in her defence of curriculum reform to date including Projects Maths and the new Junior Cycle approach which is appropriately branded ‘Innovation and Identity’.  She invited the EGA to comment on NCCA proposals as they evolve.  Another major issue in which we concern ourselves as engineers is the inadequate gender balance in Engineering – 20% female in our Colleges falling to an average of 10% in the engineering profession.  We are working with Engineers Ireland and the Second Level Schools to address this issue.  We published an EGA Report “Towards Gender Balance in Engineering” under the chairmanship of EGA Past President Michael Loughnane last October.  We have also sent UCD EGA bilingual posters “We Need More Women in Engineering” to all second level Schools with QR (quick response) code.

In terms of profile and marketing we have held events with speeches and debates with leading national figures about very relevant public issues – Banking, Bailout, Manufacturing, Water, Regulation, Energy Policy, Food Security, Climate Change etc.

In terms of Finance, the introduction of Corporate Membership has provided a stable sustainable funding model resulting in a 6-fold increase in membership funding since last year’s AGM (see President’s Statement for details).

UCD Campus

We can therefore conclude that the financial targets for the EGA under the Strategy 2013-2017 had already been all handsomely met.  In fact they were achieved by the end of 2014 - 2 years ahead of programme giving the EGA its only sustainable funding model since it was founded in 1984.  Thanks in turn to the new Strategy, our Board and now thanks to our new Corporate Members.  In addition depending on the needs and events in any one particular year the funding mechanism is both dynamic to respond to emergency situations and has resilience into the medium term. 

Our challenge now will be to maintain close contact with our Corporate members and to grow new ones in 2015.   We agreed that our priorities for 2015 would be two fold

·       To further support UCD Strategy including accommodation needs of the College of Engineering          going forward as part of new College of Engineering Development Plan.

·       To implement the recommendations of our Gender Balance Report in close association with
        Engineers Ireland.

In a thoughtful contribution, EGA past President Dr Liam Connellan thanked the President and Board for the excellent progress made by the EGA over the past few years.  He recommended that to help broaden our reach, perhaps there might be one lecture every year shared with the RDS, another organisation which promotes science, mathematics and innovation.  Finally he mentioned the importance of globalisation which aligns fully with UCD President Deeks Strategy to see UCD as “Ireland Global University” particularly as Ireland emerges from recession.

We endorsed the appointment of EGA Board Member Dr Aisling Harkin, UCD Careers Office as the EGA link with Corporate and Individual Alumni.  We also welcomed Katie O'Neill as the new Marketing Manager for the College of Engineering and Architecture. Both Aisling and Katie recently joined the EGA Board.

Katie O'Neill

Dr Aisling Harkin

We thank retiring EGA Honorary Secretary Dr Ciarán McNally who served 2 three terms and welcome Dr Vincent Hargaden to the post of EGA Honorary Secretary.  Vincent is Director of the Master of Engineering Management (MEM) programme in UCD.

Dr Vincent Hargaden

We also elected Eoin O’Cathán, Senior Engineer in the Transportation sector of Roughan & O’Donovan (one of our Corporate Members) to the EGA Board.


Mr Eoin O'Catháin

Christmas Greetings to All!

This blog is wishing Christmas Greetings to all our Corporate Members, Members, Alumni and other friends of the EGA over recent years.

Finally a word of thanks to UCD President Prof Andrew Deeks, Dean of Engineering Prof David Fitzpatrick EGA Administator Fionnuala McGowan and Post Graduate Ian Mulholland for their help, encouragement and support throughout the year. To our hard working EGA Board who assist and support me in all of the difficult decisions and challenges we face from time to time - míle buíochas daoibhse!

Nollaig Shona agus Athbhliain faoi mhaise daoibh go léir!

Inaugural Lecture by President of UCD, Professor Andrew J Deeks

Last week I was invited to the Inaugural Lecture at the start of Professor Andrew Deeks 10 year term as UCD President. He also published his new Strategy 2015 - 2020.

Andrew is the first ‘non Irish’ President of UCD since John Henry Newman was Founder and Rector in 1854. Newman only spent 4 years as Rector but was a noted educationalist and writer on the role of a university in society. From humble beginnings in UCD he foresaw 'a flourishing University, which for a while had to struggle with fortune, but which, when its first founders and servants were dead and gone, had successes far exceeding their anxieties'.

The passage of time indeed proved Newman right and Andrew Deeks is rightly proud of what UCD has achieved but as he is very ambitious for UCD he states 'we cannot rest on our laurels'. To remain competitive in every sense the new strategy calls for a new genre of interconnection globally at academic level to match the communication that exists between continents, countries and economies.

UCD Campus

Our mission is to flourish in Ireland and in the world 'through the excellence and impact of our research and scholarship'. Our values are excellence, integrity, collegiality, engagement and diversity, the strategy states ‘Our aim must be truly global in our international reach, in our engagement with all levels of society and with all regions of the world and in the quality and extent of our campus and facilities. We will bring the world to Ireland and Ireland to the world’.  This will all be achieved using 10 key objectives and 6 strategic objectives.

In his very entertaining Inaugural Address, Professor Deeks traced the voyage of discovery of mankind from the Industrial Revolution into the current age of The Internet of Things to show the need for interconnecting academic institutions geographically and virtually. This will result in maximum research and innovation impact.

He made a powerful association that made the new UCD Strategy not only an agenda for his term as President but an essential for UCD to become the global world class university he wants UCD to be. If we all pull together around this new Strategy or Growth Engine in UCD I'm sure we will succeed in raising our ambitions to compete with the best on the world stage.

Certainly we in the UCD EGA will continue our current strategy of raising our national and international profile in the issues most concerning the Irish Nation - Job Creation, Austerity, Food, Water, Energy, Economic Recovery, Diaspora, Farming and Gender. These have been the economic and social themes of our principal public events in the past two years. We hope to continue to discuss and debate the burning issues of the day in the years ahead and in that way play our part in ensuring the place of UCD as a creative innovation engine of growth in Irish and international society.

UCD President, Prof. Andrew J Deeks and Minister for Education & Skills, Jan O'Sullivan TD