Christmas Greetings to EGA Members

I wish all of our members at home and abroad and your families a happy and peaceful Christmas. 

We had our 2012 AGM in November which was followed by what was a record attendance for an EGA Meeting at the subsequent Panel Discussion chaired by Pat Kenny on ‘Can we shape Ireland's recovery on the German model?’. Led by the German Ambassador to Ireland, our five Speakers were outstanding on the current EU fiscal crisis – so much so that Pat Kenny devoted an hour-long slot to relive the debate on Today with Pat Kenny last Tuesday morning. A link to the Pat Kenny programme and a summary of the original full debate are both available on the EGA website (www.ucd.ie/eacollege/enggrad).

We are planning a very full programme of work in 2013 commencing with formulation of a new EGA Strategy for the next few years which will be aimed at projecting UCD as an Engineering College of truly international reputation.

We hope to support the newly integrated College to climb even greater heights in the years ahead. All of our Members will be invited to take a view on the new Strategy to broaden our remit and profile within UCD nationally and internationally as a centre for Learning, Research, Innovation, and Enterprise. In this regard the current links between Engineering and Business will be greatly strengthened.

I take the view that the Engineering profession and our entire industry are already central to our national recovery when you see that our significant national growth is in manufacturing exports (Pharma, ICT, Biomedical). That is not always acknowledged by media and others to be the case. Our exports and job creation in these areas are often fully ascribed to the ‘Life Sciences’ with no mention of ‘Engineering’, which is not an accurate representation.

We need to be more articulate on our key contribution to society and more holistic in considering our crucial future role in rebuilding the national economy including our physical and social infrastructure. We need to do more than engineer the future; we also need to inspire the future generations of engineers in our schools.

If we do not take this opportunity to shape events now in our recovery, then surely they will shape us as unfortunately has happened over the past decade in the Irish economy.

In addition to the Annual Lecture, Presentation of Final Year Gold Medals and Lunch/Distinguished Graduate Award this year, we are hoping to have an extra event to encourage a visit home to a planned Engineering conference in September by our many graduates abroad as part of The Gathering 2013, a tourism initiative promoted and supported by Government.

Nollag Shona agus Athbhliain faoi mhaise daoibh go léir.