EGA Gold Medal Ceremony is Best Attended to Date

Last Monday August 31th was UCD Conferring Day for engineering and architectural graduates together with their proud parents and friends. Each year in advance of the main ceremony, the EGA host a prize winning event for the highest achievers in each discipline.

 

This was originally only involving EGA Gold Medals each sponsored by an engineering company - Civil, Chemical, Electrical, Electronic, Mechanical and Biosystems Engineering. Increasingly there is now a far greater variety of specialisms eg Biomedical, Structures with Architecture, Business and Engineering. In addition there are also scholarships, travel bursaries, prizes donated by a large host of companies who all wish to endow UCD and its best students with coveted awards.

Left to Right: John Waldron, Chemical Engineering (father of Conor), Richard Jenkinson, Structural Engineering with Architecture,
Darragh Hanlon, Civil Engineering, Professor David Fitzpatrick, UCD Dean of Engineering, Shane Gubbins, Engineering with Business,
PJ Rudden, EGA President, Irene Danti Lopez, Cathy Swanton, Biomedical Engineering and Cillian Briody, Architecture

 

This year's EGA event was the best endowed and attended event to date with a total of 18 Awards to complement the 9 Gold Medals in Architecture and the principal Engineering disciplines - Civil, Structural with Architecture, Chemical, Electrical, Electronic, Biomedical, Mechanical, Engineering with Business. These medals were awarded to Cillian Briody, Darragh Hanlon, Richard Jenkinson, Conor Waldron, Irene Danti Lopez, Cathy Swanton, Niall Donnelly, Eanna McHugh and Shane Gubbins respectively.

 

The sponsoring companies of the Gold Medals were Arup (2 awards) for Architecture and  for Structural with Architecture, RPS for Civil, BMS for Chemical and Process, SSE Airtricity for Electrical, S3 for Electronic, Crospon for Biomedical, CRH for Mechanical, FDT for Biosystems (from 2016) and new Sponsors Abbvie for Engineering with Business.
 

Other Sponsors for Scholarships, Bursaries and Prizes were Roughan and O'Donovan, Martin McAdam, PM Group, Mark Carthy, Deloitte, Institution of Mechanical Engineering, Cylon and Xilinx.

 

It was a tremendously successful event all due to the generosity of our growing cohort of Sponsors who wish to grow their corporate relationship with UCD as a centre of academic excellence.

Deloitte Master in Engineering Management Medal winner
Keith Kavanagh & David Hearn, Managing Partner Deloitte

Fionán de Barra, Architecture Graduates Association Treasurer,
Cillian Briody, winner of Arup AGA Architecture Medal &
sponsor Fergus Monaghan, Director Arup

EGA RPS Civil Engineering medal winner Darragh Hanlon
& Larry O'Toole, Director RPS Group

 



EGA SSE Airtricity Electrical Engineering medal winner
Irene Danti Lopez & Jillian Saunders, Marketing Manager at SSE Airtricity

 



EGA Crospon Biomedical Engineering medal winner
Cathy Swanton & Dr. Eoin O'Cearbhaill,
Biomedical Engineering Programme Director



EGA S3 Electronic Engineering medal winner
Ronan Scally & Mike Murray, S3 Business Manager

EGA AbbVie Engineering with business Medal Winner Shane Gubbins
& Angela Haran, AbbVie Senior Talent Acquistion Specialist

Roughan O'Donovan Prize winner Conor Lyons
& Séamus Mac Gearailt, RO'D Director

EGA CRH Mechanical Engineering medal winner
Niall Donnelly  & Jack Golden, CRH Organisation
Development Director

Norah Gallagher, mother of Pat McAdam Scholarship awardee
Colm Ó Riada & Dr. Kate McAdam





John Waldron, father of PM Group Kevin Kelly Design Awardee
Conor Waldron & Alex Sweeney, PM Group's Process Group Manager

Carthy Graduate Research Project awardee Niamh Mac Fhionnlaoich &
Prof. Eoin Casey, Head of UCD School of Chemical & Bioprocess Engineering







Carthy Travel Awardee Amy O'Keeffe & Dr. Patricia Kieran,
UCD School of Chemical & Bioprocess Engineering

Cillian Hayde, winner of Cylon Award for Excellence
(Electrical Engineering Project)
& Seán Giblin, Cylon Managing Director







Bringing the Berkeley students home

Clockwise from top left: Eimear Walsh, Olivia Burke, Ashley Donohue,
Lorcán Miller, Niccolai Schuster and Eoghan Culligan

 

'They lived and laughed and loved and left - we will not forget them' said UCD President Andrew Deeks quoting lines from Joyce's Finegans Wake at the memorial service held in Belfield last Friday for the young Dublin students who died tragically at Berkeley California while there on J1 visas for the summer.

 

I was away last Tuesday when I heard the tragic news on social media that evening and I immediately placed a message of profound sympathy on Twitter to the families and friends of the six students on behalf of UCD EGA. I could see that President Deeks was there before me clearly empathising with the entirely unexpected tragedy affecting the global UCD community. 'We lost six wonderful young people, and the lives of a generation of students were completely changed' he said and then quoting fittingly from  UCD alumnus James Joyce in Finegan's Wake as the students died tragically on Bloomsday June 16th 2015.

 

The national outpouring of grief was huge, immediate and heartfelt. Flags on Government Buildings were lowered to half mast. The Irish Government sent Diaspora Minister Jimmy Deenihan to San Francisco who having attended the scene and met grieving family and friends called the six students 'the Children of Ireland' as they had brought the Irish global community together with this sad event. Aer Lingus is kindly flying them home with their parents and relatives as a courtesy to Dublin this weekend for burial this Tuesday and Wednesday.

 

This was not the start of an exciting new life experience in Summer 2015 in a welcoming country that the students and their parents expected. All due apparently to defective timbers on an apartment block balcony with gave way to some 10 students who fell four stories to their death and terrible injury. It positively galls me as a civil engineer that the building regulatory system in California allowed these defects to go unchecked on a relatively new structure.

 

I have empathy with how their young lives were shattered as I too was a J1 student from UCD who aged 19 went to NewYork to spent the summer working and enjoying US life in Manhattan and upstate New York. I remember flying over the Statue of Liberty and landing in JFK and being met by USIT officials who brought us to a hotel off Times Square for 'an orientation course'. Then onto a job in a condo on Central Park West next to the block where John Lennon was shot and where TV detective series Kojak was filmed. Then up to the Catskills Mountains where many Irish New Yorkers had vacation homes when the August daytime humidity exceeded 90 degrees in Manhattan.

 

It was a trip in a lifetime that I could never forget and therefore I was deeply touched by the events in Berkeley. Hoping that the injured students make a good recovery and again deepest sympathy to the bereaved family and friends.

 

I will end with the most poignant but beautiful message I read on social media this weekend. It was written as a tribute from the girlfriend of 21-year-old Eoghan Culligan who died in the tragedy. Sarah McCarthy grappling for words to express how she felt, simply exclaimed : 'See you on the other side, my boy'. It was perhaps for her a message that had its own consolation.

 

 

Nine Presidents bid farewell to Director General of Engineers Ireland

Last Monday night there was a very special occasion. The current President and Director General of Engineers Ireland presented a Gold Presidential Pin to eight of his predecessors commencing with John McGowan (2006/07) up to the current President Bill Grimson (2015/16).  It was a unique occasion where nine past Presidents and current President paid tribute to John Power who has been our Director General for the past 8 years.

 

Before this event on the same evening I chaired a meeting of the EGA Board in Belfield UCD. There we discussed and agreed on a theme for the 2015 Autumn Panel Discussion 'What the Digital Economy 2020 means for Engineering in Ireland' to be led by a senior Minister and supported by a panel of 4 Irish experts drawn from the principal ICT disciplines. We hope to have this event held on campus sometime around mid October subject to availability of speakers.

 

We also set up an EGA Board Subcommittee to work on the Growing of Corporate Membership chaired by Dr Aisling Harkin together with Prof David Fitzpatrick, Tina Pittock and George Young.

 

Back to Engineers Ireland later that evening. It was a unique occasion as the photograph below shows. Unfortunately two of our recent female Presidents Anne Butler (2005/06) and Regina Moran (2014/2015) were unavoidably absent abroad on business. 

 

The former Presidents present were John McGowan (2006/07), Jack Golden (2007/08), Jim Browne (2008/09), Chris Horn (2009/10), Martin Lowery (2010/11), P J Rudden (2011/12), Michael Phillips (2012/13), John O'Dea (2013/14) and current President Bill Grimson.  John Power Director General was also present has served in that position since 2007  and has decided to step down after 8 very fruitful years. He will be replaced by Caroline Spillane current CEO of the Irish Medical Council next month.

 

 

Front Row: Bill Grimson, John Power, Michael Phillips, John O'Dea
2nd Row: Chris Horn, Martin Lowery, PJ Rudden
Back Row: Jack Golden, John McGowan and Jim Browne

 

UCD Student Scoops Prestigious European Award

Killian McKenna, a UCD PhD student from Dublin, and member of the UCD Engineering Graduates Association Board, has fought off competition from students from across Europe to win a prestigious European award in Berlin.

Killian, who is representing the all-island electricity sector at a European level, was awarded the 2015 EURELECTRIC Student Award. At the official award ceremony in Berlin, he presented his winning submission to the 400 delegates.

 

Pat O'Doherty, ESB Chief Executive, Killian McKenna, and Hans ten Berge, Secretary General of EURELECTRIC - the European Electricity Association 

Aged 25 and from Glenageary, Killian was chosen as the Electricity Association of Ireland (EAI) entrant for this year’s Award. It followed his success in the national competition sponsored by ESB in which students from Northern Ireland and Ireland participated.

Entrants to the European stage of the competition were invited to submit an essay with the title ‘Dinosaurs of the past or innovators of the future? Designing digital strategies for electricity companies to engage domestic customers.’ An expert panel judged Killian’s entry to be the overall winner from among those entered across Europe.

EAI Chief Executive Owen Wilson said: “We’re delighted to see Killian win this award. It’s a wonderful recognition of the standard of young graduates on the island, on a par with those across Europe. Delivering sustainable energy is critical for the future of all our economies and the environment and it’s wonderful that we have a new generation of people, like Killian, with the knowledge and enthusiasm to help solve some of the many challenges facing the industry.”

Killian, a PhD student at the Electricity Research Centre at University College Dublin (UCD), said: “I’m thrilled to receive this award. It’s a real pleasure to represent my island and our electricity industry in Europe. I’ve found the whole experience extremely thought provoking and enjoyable. I’ll be leaving Berlin with lots of ideas, which I hope to be able to apply to my own research.”

ESB Chief Executive, Pat O’Doherty added: “I would like to congratulate Killian on winning this coveted award. We at ESB are immensely proud to see such talent from Ireland being recognised on the international stage. The 2015 EURELECTRIC Student Award is just the beginning for Killian and we wish him enormous success in his career.”

Introducing the award Hildegarde Mueller, Secretary General of the German electricity industry association said “the finalists today are the future of the industry. They will provide the innovative solutions to the challenges of delivering a sustainable, secure and affordable energy supply”.

EURELECTRIC is the sector association which represents the common interests of the electricity industry at a pan-European level. EAI is the representative body for the electricity sector operating within the Single Electricity Market (SEM) on the island of Ireland. 

Killian’s own research looks at the potential impacts for the distribution network of customers taking greater control over their electricity demand.

UCD Vice President Orla Feely wins 2015 EGA Distinguished Graduate Award

The UCD Vice President Professor Orla Feely was a worthy winner of the 2015 EGA Distinguished Graduate Award presented at our Annual Dinner in The National Concert Hall last week. At the same event the Founder of the EGA Professor John Kelly was presented with an EGA Lifetime Achievement Award.

EGA founder Professor John Kelly, EGA President P.J. Rudden and UCD Vice President Professor Orla Feely, Winner of the 2015 Distinguished Graduate Award

The EGA Distinguished Graduate Award recognises a UCD graduate in active service who is making an outstanding contribution to Irish Society. This contribution can be in the fields of Public Policy Development or in Entrepreneurship, Manufacturing, Information Technology, Research Innovation or Job Creation with a strong public profile who can act as a role model for young members of the profession.

Orla Feely shares her memories of UCD as a student

Professor Orla Feely is UCD Vice President for Research Innovation and Impact and was Chair of the Irish Research Council from 2012 to 2015 set up by Government to support research across a broad range of scholarship in any academic discipline including Engineering, Science, Business, Law, Medicine, Humanities and Social Science. During her three years the IRC supported the work of more than 1,400 researchers and made 4,000 awards, about 3,000 of them in support of PhDs and Masters students.

Since becoming UCD Vice President Orla has supported President Andrew Deeks in the new UCD Strategy 2015 - 2020. Only last week the Taoiseach launched the latest UCD study 'Delivering Impact' showing the huge economic and educational impact of Ireland's largest university. UCD currently has 30,000 students some 13% of them international. It has a total monetary value of some €1.3 billion to the Irish economy generated by UCD and its students.

Orla qualified with an Hons BE Degree in Electronic Engineering in 1986. She then went to Berkeley University California US where she obtained an MS and PhD in electrical engineering.

EGA President P.J. Rudden, UCD Vice President Professor Orla Feely and UCD Professor Tom Brazil

She joined UCD as Lecturer in 1992 graduating to Professor of Electronic Engineering in 2010. She became a Fellow of IEEE in 2009, a Fellow of Engineers Ireland by Presidential Invitation in 2012, a Fellow of the Irish Academy of Engineering in 2013 and on the following day to this event she was formally admitted to Membership of the Royal Irish Academy - Ireland's highest academic accolade.

Also at the Annual Dinner we presented the Founder of the UCD Engineering Graduates Association Professor Emeritus John Kelly with a Lifetime Achievement Award for his achievement in setting up the EGA in 1980. He had the vision to see the benefit of closer university cooperation with industry to further research and innovation and thus set up the University Industry Centre (UIC) with funds raised from engineering graduates and firms.

John Kelly remembers his time as Dean of Engineering and the move from Merrion St. to Belfield

The UIC was officially opened by Taoiseach Garret Fitzgerald in May 1985 and this in turn contributed to the establishment of NovaUCD and NexusUCD, which now successfully incubate and nurture emerging new spin out and spin in companies which create value added products and jobs for the Irish economy.

John Kelly was UCD Dean of Engineering from 1979 until 1986 when he became UCD Registrar and was later Professor of Chemical Engineering.

The Annual Dinner in the ambiance of the John Field Room in National Concert Hall was a great success, thanks mainly to the generosity of our many Sponsors - Coillte, CRH, Energia, Engineers Ireland, ESB, RPS and Siemens.

P.J. Rudden welcomes the attendance in National Concert Hall

Also, we were delighted to be joined again by EGA Board Member Sean Murphy and friends and by a full table of the BE Class of 1983 led by former first EGA Secretary Clodagh O'Donnell and colleagues.

The Class of 1983 led by Clodagh O'Donnell (fourth from left)

Jane O'Callaghan, Sarah Lynn and Mary O'Carroll

Gary O'Callaghan and Greg Duggan from Siemens

Apart from our Founder John Kelly, we had the honour of four former EGA Presidents with us - Dr Liam Connellan, Pat Mercer, Tony O'Brien and Michael Loughnane. Indeed two of them Liam and Pat were previous recipients of the EGA Distinguished Graduate Awards.

Past and Current Presidents of EGA: Michael Loughnane, Liam Connellan, P.J. Rudden, Tony O'Brien and Pat Mercer

It was a highly social occasion as the photographs clearly show. We hope to grow this event further next year with further increased Corporate Member involvement. We are also hopeful of having the pleasure again of the lively 1983 class or and any other past BE Class who will use the event to meet old friends and colleagues while recognising an outstanding graduate of national stature.

Sarah McFarlane, Sylvia Kenna and Dee Keogh from Engineers Ireland

Ciara Murphy RPS, Anne Marie McCague EirGrid and Neasa Kane-Fine RPS

I was proud indeed opening last Saturday's Irish Times to find the photograph of our 2015 Distinguished Graduate at her induction to the Royal Irish Academy on Friday. It all seems so right and timely as we look forward to the continued leadership of Vice President Orla Feely supporting President Andrew Deeks in guiding UCD to being truly Ireland's Global University.

Majella Henchion, Ellen Diskin and Derek Hynes from ESB

President's Reception for EGA Corporate Members

We adopted a new EGA Strategy at the end of 2013 to move to a Corporate Funding model as Individual Member subscriptions at their current level could never give us a sustainable funding base.

 

In Spring 2014 we commenced approaches to Engineering Companies for a membership fee of €250 to €500 per annum depending on overall numbers of staff. In return we offer advertisement of company logos on our website and events together with 10% reduction on tables at our Annual Dinner.

 

This has been a success as we have enlisted 19 Corporate Members over the past year alone and have a target to achieve more in 2015/2016 as we still have barely enough funding to support our annual events.

Cormac Mannion Energia with Professor Andrew Deeks UCD President

 

Siemens Head of Engineering Gary O'Callaghan with
UCD Dean of Engineering Professor David Fitzpatrick

 

We also promised to seek out other opportunities for companies to get advantage in UCD for Corporate Membership as the opportunity arises. One such opportunity arose last week to have a President's Reception for Corporate Members on the same evening as the Annual Spring Lecture coincidently given this year by UCD President Andrew Deeks.

 

Andrea Ahern, Shell Senior Compliance Engineer and
John Fitzgerald, Eirgrid Director of Grid Development
 

 

Brendan Butler, Shell with Neasa Kane-Fine and Larry O'Toole, Directors with RPS

Practically all of the Corporate Members were able to attend except for 2 or 3 who had genuine business difficulties  on the same day.



President Deeks meets Yvonne Wylde NSAI, John Fingleton
and Mary White Directors of Fingleton White Consulting Engineers

 

Andrea Ahern, Senior Compliance Engineer and Brendan Butler, Deputy Project Director Shell
with Dr Aisling Harkin UCD Careers Consultant

  

At the Reception attended by one or two company representatives they were met by President Professor Andrew Deeks, Vice President Professor Orla Feely, UCD Careers Consultant Dr Aisling Harkin, EGA President PJ Rudden and as many EGA Board Members who could attend.

 

PJ Rudden, UCD Vice President Professor Orla Feely and Tina Pittock EGA Board and ESB

 

Aisling has been appointed by the Board to act as Liaison Person with the Corporate Members who can arrange for Member Companies to address the Final Year Classes at the start of the second semester with a view to Graduate Recruitment.

 

Donal Duggan and Patrick Joy of Suretank with Andrea Ahern Shell

 

President Andrew Deeks addresses the Corporate Members

 

 

President Deeks addressed the Corporate Members to tell them that the new UCD Strategy called for closer linkages between the university and industry and to make UCD into Ireland's Global University.

 

Dr Aisling Harkin, UCD Careers Consultant, PJ Rudden, EGA President
and Katie O'Neill UCD Marketing Manager outside Ardmore House

On behalf of the EGA I thanked President Deeks for fitting this event for Corporate Members into his already busy programme for the evening and also thanked the Corporate Members and UCD staff for coming to Ardmore House on this very sunny May evening.

UCD President gives 2015 Annual Spring Lecture

We were honoured that UCD President Andrew Deeks agreed to give the 2015 EGA Annual Spring Lecture. In welcoming the President I remarked how genuinely pleased we were to see an internationally acclaimed academic take the reins in UCD.

 



EGA President PJ Rudden and President  Andrew Deeks before lecture

Taking as his theme 'Challenges for Engineering Education in the 21st Century' the President covered a large number of very topical areas which are continuing areas for debate in Irish engineering circles.

 

President Deeks presents lecture

Firstly, do we educate for 'breath or technical depth'? The choices are between the 'Bologna Process' of 4 years bachelors degree and 5 year masters with technical depth or the U.S. System which gives more diversity and flexability.

 

Secondly do we educate to provide theoretical foundations or for applied skills? Professor Deeks' experience is that the larger companies favour the former while the SMEs seek the latter with the need for minimum training.

 

 

What of the Educational Fads? He asks. There's for example Outcome Based Education (OBE), Problem Based Learning (PBL), Peer Led Team Learning (PLTL) and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)! He does not regard any of them as a 'silver bullet' especially distance learning.

 

The advances in technology in the 21st century have radically altered Engineering Education in terms of computerisation, communications, globalisation, mobility and rate of change. We are now in the age of "The Internet of Things" with all the analytical and computational skills which that brings.

 

 

Professor Deeks also dealt with the issue of 'emotional intelligence' - to recognise one own and other people's intelligence and use this a guide to thinking and behaviour. People with more emotional intelligence are said to perform better.

 

EGA's first President Dr Tom Hardiman among an attentative audience

Another factor is cultural difference defined by Hofstede (from IBM HR world wide survey of employees between 1967 and 1973) based on cultural values including 'power distance' i.e. acceptance or not of hierarchy - higher acceptance in Asia and Latin America and lower in Western Europe - US is somewhere in between.

 

He spoke of 'capstone experience' where students are encouraged to take time out in the community or internships in industry. He emphasised the importance of group projects and group learning as one approaches degree stage as it better mirrors real life experience. The top universities are research intensive and must adopt this model to grow their collaborative research capability.

 

On the issue of assessment, Professor Deeks talked of models that delay exams until later years of degree courses and concentrate on continuous assessment. He has seen the issue raised now in Ireland by secondary school teachers on the issue of Second Level Reform. He was not definitive on the way forward but I sense that he agrees with the current recommendation from the Minister of Education and Skills that the optimum approach is a combination of both continuous assessment and examinations at critical junctures.

 

 

A lively Question and Answer session followed with questions from representatives of Trinity College, UCD, DIT, Higher Education Authority and many other senior retired engineers.

 

Professor Gerry Byrne, Former Dean of Engineering UCD

 

 

Dr Liam Connellan, Former Director General Confederation of Irish Industry
and UCD EGA Distinguished Graduate Awardee.

 

Dr Gerry Farrell, DIT Director and Dean of Engineering with Dr Aisling Harkin UCD

 

 

Tim Conlon, Higher Education Authority

 

Murt Coleman, Executive Board of Engineers Ireland

 

 

In fact the questions ran on so long that we were forced to bring proceedings to a close as we were well over time when I thanked President Deeks and presented him with a framed and inscribed Dublin Crystal memento of the event.

 

I presented him with very sincere thanks from the EGA and from a very appreciative audience for a highly interesting and obviously provocative lecture on a subject where he has obvious international expertise and experience.  It's no wonder he won many awards as Professor of Civil and Resource Engineering in University of Western Australia for teaching.

UCD College of Engineering staff with President Andrew Deeks and Dean of Engineering, Professor David Fitzpatrick
(L to R) Katie O'Neill Marketing Manager, Dr Aisling Harkin  Careers Consultant and Fionnuala McGowan, EGA Administrator

 

A highly social gathering of attendees enjoyed a wine reception in the atrium of the Peter Sutherland School of Law after the lecture. It was the close of a highly historic and successful day for UCD EGA.

 

Incoming President of Engineers Ireland Bill Grimson, PJ Rudden and
Professor Jane Grimson, former Vice Provost TCD

 

Tom Fitzpatrick EU Commission, Conor Fingleton and Mary White both
Fingleton White and PJ Rudden

 

 

Head of Mechanical Engineering TCD Professor Darina Murray and
Professor Jane Grimson TCD, former President Engineers Ireland

 

Dr Greg Foley, Associate Dean for Teaching and Learning DCU,
Mark Foley Managing Director Coillte Enterprise and PJ Rudden

 

UCD Lecturers Pat Connolly, Dr Aisling Ní Annaidh, Dr Vincent Hargaden and PJ Rudden

 

Professor John Kelly, Rebecca Patterson Marketing Manager (International)
UCD College of Engineering & Architecture and PJ Rudden