Patrick Joy wins UCD Distinguished Graduate Award

Patrick Joy native of Clonmel and Founder of Suretank in Dunleer Co. Louth is the 2014 UCD EGA Distinguished Graduate. He was presented with the award at the EGA Annual Dinner in the National Concert Hall last Thursday.

Photo left to right PJ Rudden President UCD Engineering Graduates Association, 
Mary Joy, Patrick Joy and Professor Gerry Byrne UCD Dean of Engineering 

Suretank is the world's largest supplier of cargo carrier units (CCU) with 60% of the market share. The company currently employs 750 people with a turnover of €80 million. Patrick was the 2013 overall winner of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year and represented Ireland at the international competition in Monte Carlo last week.

From ESB Pat Naughton, Ellen Diskin and David O' Connell

"Patrick was a strong winner of this years award from among 8 eminent nominees from different fields of engineering. The EGA award is strongly centered on innovation, enterprise, job creation and acting as a role model for the profession" stated PJ Rudden, President of the UCD Engineering Graduates Association.

Larry O' Toole RPS, Rory Somers, Michelle Scanlon and Aidan Toher all from Bord Gáis

"It is a significant fact that the last two consecutive E & Y Entrepreneurs of the Year have been mechanical engineers in indigenous manufacturing industry - Edmond Harty of Dairymaster and now Patrick Joy of Suretank" Rudden continued " and this theme was the focus of our UCD Panel Discussion last Autumn with the Taoiseach Enda Kenny TD. Since then we have seen the indigenous manufacturing sector go from strength to strength.

Past Presidents of Engineers Ireland Seán Wallace and Brian Kearney

Patrick Joy stated " I feel very honoured and humbled by this award from my peers. Irish industry can compete with the best on the world stage if we continue to innovate because eventually your competitor will figure out how to produce your quality at a lower price. You need to stay ahead of the niche manufacturing game through R&D"

George Yound EGA Board and Dr. Liam Connellan last year's Distinguished Graduate

The EGA Annual dinner was attended by many of Ireland's leading utilities and engineering firms including ESB, Bord Gáis, CRH and RPS. 

Róisín Bradford Irish Water, Dave Phelan RPS, Emer Colwell RPS, Warren Phelan RPS, PJ Rudden EGA President,
 Ann-Marie McCague Commission for Energy Regulation (CER), Angela Treanor RPS

Marian Regan NewEra, Aine Dunne SCFI, Peadar O'Mahony Bord Gáis, PJ Rudden EGA President

Patrick Joy gives his acceptance speech

New Style EGA Annual Lunch to announce 2014 Distinguished Graduate Award

A new style EGA Annual Lunch will be held on June 12^th next in the John Field Room in the National Concert Hall. Firstly it will be a late lunch/early dinner at 6pm - an experiment this year due to the very busy lunchtime Programme of events this year in NCH and also it is felt that an evening event may suit companies and graduates better than lunch.

 

The National Concert Hall

At the event we will also present the 2014 UCD EGA Distinguished Graduate Award. The Award will be different this year also based on four new criteria drawn up by the Board – a combination of entrepreneurial activity, job creation, engineering excellence and innovation and finally advancing the profession of engineering.

Last year's winner was Dr Liam Connellan a graduate in Mechanical Engineer who became Chief Executive of the Confederation of Irish Industry (later to become IBEC), then Chairman of the National Roads Authority and Veolia who built the Dublin LUAS. He was also in turn President of Engineers Ireland, the Irish Academy of Engineering and the Royal Dublin Society (RDS).

Dr Liam Connellan and PJ Rudden President UCD Engineering Graduates Association

The previous winner was Dr David O'Reilly a Chemical Engineering graduate who went to the US joined Chevron Inc the multinational oil company and rose up to be its CEO. He has now returned to head up the UCD Energy Institute which was launched by the Taoiseach last year and is assisting UCD in other generous ways.

 

EGA President Michael Loughnane, Professor Hugh Brady UCD President, Professor David O'Reilly 2011 EGA Distinguished Graduate and Professor Gerry Byrne UCD Dean of Engineering

This year we have a total of 8 nominations for the award. Nominations were made by UCD Heads of School or EGA Board Members. All of the nominations are for very eminent members of the profession in the public and private sections, some male, some females, some having spent their careers mostly abroad and most who have built very successful careers in Ireland. I know that decision will not be an easy one. A small Board Subcommittee is currently examining the nominations and a winner will be announced on June 12^th at the event in the National Concert Hall.

Please contact ega@ucd.ie if interested in sponsoring or attending this event.

Major Uptake in new Corporate Memberships

I'm pleased to see a major uptake in EGA Corporate Membership in the past two weeks since we launched this new grade of membership. We started with four 'pilot' members - Energia, Fingleton White, NSAI and Siemens.

This has now doubled to eight new confirmed members with many more in the application pipeline.

The four new confirmed members are EirGrid, Bord na Mona, Roughan O'Donovan and Barrett Mahony. The latter two are leading firms of consulting engineers in Ireland in infrastructural and structural engineering respectively.

More will be confirmed over the next couple of days including at least four very large international companies.

It is obvious that these firms see the EGA Corporate Membership as a 'value proposition' given the EGA growing profile in terms of events and guest speakers.

EGA welcomes first Corporate Members

The EGA yesterday welcomed its first four Corporate Members - State body NSAI, Consulting Engineers Fingleton White and international Energy companies Energia and Siemens. In recognition of their status of membership, their four corporate logos went up on the EGA website homepage and look really well in all of their respective colours.

 

 

This blog welcomes their innovative but smart competitive step in aligning themselves closer to UCD Ireland's largest university - now led by a new President of international reputation Professor Andrew Deeks who is a civil engineer and a new Vice President for Research Innovation and Impact Professor Orla Feely, an electronics engineer and UCD graduate.

Professor Andrew Deeks



Professor Orla Feely

Corporate Membership is a new category of membership created by the EGA Strategy 2013 - 2017 whereby we are dividing our future funding base between Individual Membership at €25 per year and Corporate Membership at €250 per year. Both of these are relatively modest sums but we do have to start at very competitive rates to attract membership/sponsorship in a very difficult market as the Irish economy is only starting to recover.

One of our new Corporate Members wisely remarked to me earlier this week that this new sponsorship is about the best 'value for money' proposition he signed up to this year! Smart man as I'm sure he was referring to the recent high profile association which the UCD EGA now brings to his organisation with Minister Pat Rabbitte giving our Annual Spring Lecture on Energy and the Taoiseach opening our Jobs Panel Discussion last Autumn and all the associated publicity on Government websites and Engineers Journal.

Now that we are starting to show the reputational benefits of EGA Corporate Membership through high profile events with leading national and international speakers, links with Government, interesting topics of national and indeed global importance and our topical high quality newsletters we need to extend these benefits to the wider corporate world.

Thus next week I will be writing to the CEOs of over 100 of Ireland's largest firms in the engineering and manufacturing world inviting them to become Corporate Members of UCD Engineering Graduates Association. We now profile our four new Corporate Members in alphabetical order.

Energia Group comprises of Energia Supply, Energia Renewables and Energia Generation and is a leading supplier in the Irish business energy market. Energia has powered businesses for 13 years. It has a 28% market share of the business electricity and gas market on an all–island basis, and over 65,000 customers. Energia has a 37% market share of Irish SME business, powering every third shop and 60% of schools and colleges. Energia Renewables is among Ireland's leading providers of sustainable green energy, providing 25% of Ireland’s wind power. It currently has over 300MWs of projects in development and has invested over €200m in windfarms since 2008.

Energia Generation has invested over €500m in the Irish energy generation infrastructure in Dublin, demonstrating its long term commitment to the Irish energy market and is capable of supplying 20% of Ireland’s electricity needs. Energia Group has a turnover in excess of €1 billion and employs around 260 staff. Energia Group is a member of the Viridian Group and has offices in Dublin, Galway, Cork, Belfast and Omagh.

Cormac Mannion Energia

Fingleton White was established in 1981 and since then has provided project management and engineering services for a range of infrastructural projects in the utilities sector in Ireland and the UK. From project planning through detailed design, construction supervision, commissioning, Fingleton White has extensive experience that is geared towards project delivery.

Fingleton White have been generating and selling electricity for over thirty years. Power projects include hydroelectric schemes and CHP plants. The CHP plants provide steam and electricity to industries throughout Ireland. In addition to providing project management and engineering services for these projects Fingleton White own and operate these power plants. As recognised experts in the energy field Fingleton White has been represented on a number of CER advisory committees.

John Fingleton Fingleton White

National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI) is Ireland’s official standards body. NSAI operate under the National Standards Authority of Ireland Act (1996) and is accountable to the Minister of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation.

The mission statement of NSAI is to be a dynamic organisation using measures and standards to benefit society and to give Irish enterprise a global advantage. NSAI serves the nation as an independent and impartial advocate of rigorous standards in all aspects of business and customer protection. NSAI manage one of the State’s largest networks of technical experts and facilitators.

Maurice Buckley NSAI

Siemens is a global electronics and engineering company operating in the fields of industry, energy and healthcare as well as providing infrastructure solutions, primarily for cities and metropolitan areas. Siemens’ Energy Sector is one of the world’s leading suppliers of a wide range of products, solutions and services in the field of energy technology, including renewable energy, power generation from fossil fuel power plants, and power transmission in grids. Siemens is a leading global supplier of Environmental Technologies. Many of our products help our customers lower their energy costs and protect the environment while helping to fight climate change. Our environmental portfolio features products and solutions along the entire energy conversion chain: energy produced with green technologies is transmitted at minimal loss for high-efficiency use.

For over 160 years, Siemens has stood for technological excellence, innovation, quality, reliability and internationality. Siemens employs around 600 highly skilled people in Ireland, with offices in Leeson Close, Dublin 2, Clonshaugh, Dublin 17, Letterkenny, Co. Donegal and a manufacturing diagnostics facility in Swords, Co. Dublin. Siemens’ history in Ireland dates back to 1874, when the first direct transatlantic telegraph cable was laid from Ballinskelligs Bay, County Kerry, to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Siemens Limited was formed as a registered company in Ireland in 1925 and has been involved in many key infrastructure projects, beginning with the Shannon hydroelectric power scheme in 1926-29.  Major projects include the construction of many of Ireland’s power plants, supplying the overhead catenary system equipment for the DART rail system, supplying Ireland’s first CT and MR scanners and the design and construction of the baggage handling system for Dublin Airport’s T2. Recently Siemens Limited received a major order for the construction and servicing of 42 direct-drive wind turbines to two onshore wind power plants for Bord na Móna.  

Gary O'Callaghan Siemens

I want to personally thank Cormac Mannion, John Fingleton, Maurice Buckley and Gary O'Callaghan for their generous sponsorship as Corporate Members. We wish all of our Corporate Members every success in their future endeavours and look forward to their increased links with UCD for mutual benefit.



€1 billion for ESB Energy Infrastructure investment announced at EGA Spring Lecture in UCD

The EGA were this year honoured to have Minister Pat Rabbitte as Guest Speaker for our Annual Spring Lecture. Link to full speech here. I was delighted to be joined by UCD Vice President Professor Orla Feely to welcome the Minister to UCD.

Minister is welcomed by EGA President PJ Rudden and UCD Vice President Professor Orla Feely

During the lecture he announced publicly for the first time that the Government had just that day approved a €1billion capital investment programme for ESB to be spent on transmission and distribution electricity networks.

 

Minister delivers EGA Annual Spring Lecture

In addition to that announcement - carried that night by Engineers Ireland in their eJournal ahead of the national media! - the Minister gave a wide ranging Lecture on the improvement in the Irish economy and the energy challenges we currently face resulting from that improvement.
 

Kelley Cousins Engineers Ireland and Mary Anne Carrigan
Editor Engineers Ireland attend the EGA Event

'We need to keep a strong focus on the capital investment which will support jobs and investment' the Minister said 'the Government recently drew up a list of the 20 largest projects being developed over the next 4 years. Half of these are PPPs. The projects have a combined indicative value of €3.27billion and are targeted for delivery from late 2014 to 2018'.
Turning to Energy, he stated that energy policy has a pivotal role to play in creating the conditions for economic recovery and for job creation. 'Building our energy infrastructure is becoming more challenging' he said 'yet EirGrid delivered a major project the East West Interconnector (EWIC) between UK and Ireland on time and within budget. EWIC demonstrates not only our collective commitment to necessary large scale investment, it is also a practical demonstration of Ireland's ability to complete a major European scale energy project efficiently, safely and to the highest standards'.

Minister with Fintan Slye CEO EirGrid, Marian Regan NewEra
/ National Treasury Management Agency
and Denis Cagney Director of Energy Networks and Renewables
at Commission for Energy Regulation (CER)

On continued Government support for renewable energy the Minister was unequivocal - 'transforming Ireland's economy from one based on a predominantly fossil fuel to a more indigenous low carbon economy that is centred on energy efficiency, renewable energy and smart networks offers the greatest scope to address the inter-related challenges of climate change, energy security and competitiveness'.

 Board Member Robyn Kelly with Fellow 2008 UCD Biosystems Graduates Damien Farrelly and Liam Brennan

He also spoke of the island of Ireland being 'effectively a successful live research facility especially in the Smart Grid evolution. This is because the Single Electricity Market (SEM) in north and south is relatively small yet with ambitious targets for renewable energy generation (40%). There is no other system in Europe making this possible.

ex CEO EirGrid Dermot Byrne, Mainstream Director Joe Corbett
and EGA Past President Micheal Loughnane

Regarding the strategic planning process for onshore energy infrastructure in Ireland, the Minister said 'it needs to provide a framework for ensuring that all necessary standards are met and that comprehensive consultation is built into the process... In realising our renewable energy potential, both for domestic and export purposes and realising its inherent economic benefits, we must ensure that the concerns of communities and citizens are properly addressed...(as) the environmental and economic benefits of renewable energy are real'.

Magdalena Douleva UCD Foundation and PJ Rudden EGA President

He concluded 'I want to pay tribute to the central role that UCD has in the production of great engineers and great engineering. You should be very proud to be members of this great Association.'

Siobhan Duggan, Mary White and Martin Hogan attended the event

The Q&A session which followed was very lively even robust at time as the quite well informed audience questioned the Minister on a range of issues - Copenhagen Accord, gas storage, biomass, hydrocarbon exploration, shale gas fracking, European response to US gas prices post shale gas revolution, building energy efficiency. The Minister did not have to pass any of the challenging technical questions to his Chief Technical Adviser Bob Hanna who also attended - a great credit to the Minister's wide knowledge range on energy matters and his experienced political skills also.

PJ Rudden makes EGA Presentation to Minister

As we concluded the event I presented Minister Rabbitte with Dublin Crystal with the UCD logo inscribed on it and thanked him sincerely for his open honest approach to all energy issues raised - a refreshing feature that makes Pat Rabbitte the very successful Minister that he is.

 

 

Minister Rabbitte to deliver Annual Spring Lecture

We are honoured to have Minister Pat Rabbitte to deliver the UCD Engineering Graduates Annual Spring Lecture on April 3^rd next in the Clinton Auditorium Belfield at 7pm on the topic "Meeting Ireland's Energy Challenge".

Minister Pat Rabbitte

Last year we had Regina Finn for this lecture then Chief Executive of the Water Regulation Authority for England and Wales and that was another highly timely and eventful gathering as will be this year's Lecture on a timely and critically important economic and social topic.

Pat Rabbitte TD is the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources which is a huge Government portfolio covering Energy, Telecommunications, Broadcasting, Postal Service and Oil/Gas Exploration. He is responsible for a huge number of semi-state bodies including ESB, EirGrid, Bord Gais, RTE, TG4, Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, National Oil Reserves Agency (NORA), An Post, Bord na Mona and Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI).

He is a TD for Dublin South West since 1989 and was leader of the Labour Party from 2002 to 2007. He was the Dail's longest serving member of the Public Accounts Committee. He was previously Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment with responsibility for Commerce, Science and Technology.

Energy policy traditionally concentrated on 'ensuring a secure, sustainable and competitive energy environment'. That is so but the current Government have a higher ambition and that is to ensure that energy policy also supports inward investment, growth and jobs as part of economic recovery.

It’s the same strong message we got last Autumn from the Taoiseach when he came to address us on 'Manufacturing Engineering and Job Creation' - where he said 'the Government's top priority and a strong manufacturing sector is essential to growing our exports to sustain and create jobs in innovative home grown business as well as foreign companies who locate in Ireland'.

It’s reassuring to see that in this area of Job Creation in Ireland there appears to be very strong 'joined up thinking' among the Departments at Government level.

We expect the Minister will concentrate on the 'big picture' policies that will inform the Energy Green Paper from Government later this year and make reference to the current strategies for onshore and offshore renewables. The Minister may also make some reference to the implementation of the North South Interconnector, Grid Link and Grid West projects which are at different stages of development.

Media commentators are firmly linking the roll out of new grid projects with new onshore wind projects in the Midlands and assuming that if the onshore wind export projects do not proceed that this will obviate the need for the new grid development projects. Not so - as I'm reliably informed that these projects are quite independent of each other. The new EirGrid projects are still all required whether the export wind projects proceed or not.

 

Onshore Wind Farm

The vast majority of Engineers accept the need for the new Grid Development projects as part of the Grid 25 Strategy approved by Government. The vast majority of Engineers also support the ongoing development of onshore and offshore wind as does the Government. There are a small number who don't and they are often mischievously quoted by opposition groups against wind farms and grid development as being representative of the engineering profession when they are not.

Overhead Power Line

These are primarily issues for the development organisations and not for the Minister who sets Energy Policy and an implementation framework in which the transmission projects are developed. One such framework policy was the Government Policy Statement on the Strategic Importance of Transmission and other Energy Infrastructure published in June 2012.

 

We greatly look forward to what the Minister has to say at this critical juncture in our energy infrastructure development. One thing is clear - we need ongoing energy infrastructure development to match our ambition to regrow our economy, to encourage national and international investment and to accelerate job creation.

EGA Spring Newsletter Published

The Spring issue of the new look Engineers Newsletter has just been published and circulated to all EGA Members.

 

It was fabulous to see a UCD Electronic Engineer Professor Orla Feely appointed UCD Vice President for Research, Innovation and Impact. Note the last word 'Impact'! That tells me three things - firstly that Orla's track record is one of 'impact' on all the academic and industrial roles she has occupied. Secondly it also tells me that our new President Dr Andrew Deeks clearly wants very tangible research outcomes from future UCD Research.

Professor Orla Feely

Finally and most importantly I believe that the research efforts of the UCD College of Engineering has not received the finance and support systems it deserves - from Science Foundation Ireland and from UCD. I believe that both organisations now realise that and the appointment of engineering Presidents and Vice President will ensure that the mistakes of the past will not happen again.

 

If you look over my Blogs of the past year and indeed my Blogs two years ago as President of Engineers Ireland you will find repeated complaints from me on this very issue. Even the Irish media together with IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland were rightly supporting the "Life Sciences" as driving Ireland's growth even in recession but perhaps not realising that it was Engineers and Engineering Manufacturing of products for export in IT, pharma and biomedical devices that was keeping the Irish economy barely alive for the past five years.

 

Of course the foundations sciences for this manufacturing were chemistry, physics, biology and mathematics but it was Engineering Design and Innovation that delivered the products for export. That message now also seems to have got to the Irish People as the huge surge for Engineering courses manifest themselves in this year's CAO applications.

 

Also we recorded the award of the UCD 2014 Foundation Medal to Dr David O’Reilly a 1968 Chemical Engineering Graduate who rose to become Chairman and CEO of Chevron Corporation based in US. He has been generous to UCD with setting up of the new UCD Energy Institute. Previous recipients of the Foundation Medal include Peter Sutherland, Maeve Binchy, Brian O’Driscoll and Bill Whelan.

Dr David O'Reilly

 

I was also delighted to see in the Newsletter a Memorial Symposium in honour of the late Professor ET Hanrahan. Eamon was certainly one of the 'founding fathers' of Geotechnical Engineering in Ireland. He lectured me for my Civil Engineering Degree and was fascinating to listen on the strength and behaviour of the glacial soils that overlay our bedrock in Ireland. I was also lectured on waste and wastewater by Professor Tom Casey who is also in the following photograph together with current Head of School Dr Mark Richardson and the Hanrahan family.

Pictured  (l-r): Dr Mark Richardson, Head School of Civil Structural

and Environmental Engineering; Prof. Máire Ní Annracháin, Professor of Modern Irish

Language and Literature; Emeritus Professor Tom Casey; Mrs. Deirdre Hanrahan;

Prof. Mairéad Hanrahan Department of French, University College London; Dr Tadhg

O'Hannrachain, Senior Lecturer, School of History and Archives; Dr Mike Long,

School of Civil Structural and Environmental Engineering

I was also much taken by the adventurous story of one of our most recent graduates. Fionán O'Sullivan graduated in Electronic Engineering only last year and went to work in the UK for Jaguar Land Rover. His is a story of daring manufacture having regard to 'torque control, regenerative breaking systems and management of high voltage batteries'.

 

Fionán O’Sullivan

It wasn't all 'work and no play' for our Fionán as describes the night life of Warwick a university town where he says that 'there is a fantastic after-work social scene'. He says there's also Coventry 'but there be dragons'. I can imagine.

My sincere compliments and thanks to Fionán and hope that through this edition on line his story goes far and wide to our many UCD graduates across the globe and whose happy stories we also want to hear and spread in this Newsletter.