A YEAR IN THE LIFE by PJ Rudden President of Engineers Ireland 2011 – 2012 A collection of Speeches & Blogs during my year as President future education strategic engineering national learning public water infrastructure innovation science economic enterprise build sustainable green communications people work development skills environment energy waste school research employment planning recovery smart teaching sectors cities maths projects ireland come with me challenges economy educational colleges renewables life Contents Page Foreword Acknowledgements Speeches Inaugural Address 1 Launch of MSc Degree in Management for Sustainable Development in DCU 5 American Association of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Summer Retreat in 8 Powerscourt Wicklow Presidential Address 2011 ‘Building a Sustainable Recovery’ 13 DCU Conference on 'The University and Economic Recovery - The Role of 25 Technology Enterprise Approaches' Engineers Ireland Excellence Awards 2011 29 Response to the Institutes of Technology Report on Engineering Graduates: 31 Preparation and Progression at DIT Engineering Technology Teachers Association AGM/Awards in Carrick-on-Shannon 35 Christmas Greetings to Engineers Ireland Council 37 President’s Speech at Annual Ball 38 President’s Speech at Cork Region Annual Dinner 39 President’s Speech at the North West Annual Dinner 41 Óráid do’n Roth 43 President’s Speech at Annual Conference in Belfast 45 Opening Speech to the World Congress on Water, Climate and Energy 49 President’s Address at Annual Engineers Ireland Conferring Ceremony in Helix DCU 53 President’s Report on behalf of Council 2011 – 2012 at AGM 55 Blogs Welcome 63 Inaugural Speech as President of Engineers Ireland 64 Standing on the Shoulders of Giants 68 Page Xperience at the Helix 70 Awards for Construction Management Excellence 72 Securing Our Energy 74 NAMA and the Planning System 75 Dublin shortlisted for World Design Capital 2014 76 Innovative Student Engineer Awards 78 STEM Conference in Cork 80 June Council Meeting 82 Cloud Computing at the National Digital Research Centre (NDRC) 83 New DCU Masters in Sustainable Development 85 Meeting the Middle East Region in Abu Dhabi/Dubai 87 'The Building of the State' in Government Buildings 89 ASME Board of Governors meet at Powerscourt Co Wicklow 92 New NUIG Engineering Building Opened by An Taoiseach 94 President's Forum at Association of Consulting Engineers of Ireland 98 July Executive Meeting 100 Mizen Head Bridge Reopened 102 Biomedical engineering gives life 105 Maths Teaching Again in Focus after Leaving Cert Results 106 National Research Forum 108 Visit to Research Institutes in Galway 109 September Executive Meeting 113 Official Opening of UCD Science Centre by An Taoiseach 114 Building a Sustainable Recovery – Presidential Address 116 Civil Engineering Contractors Annual Dinner 117 Chartered Biomedical Engineer is new Trinity Provost 118 Making Dublin a Smarter City 120 September Council Meeting 122 2011 Naughton Scholars Awarded 124 New National Compost Standard IS441 launched 126 US President of Building Services Engineers visits Ireland 128 Page CPD Company of the Year Awards 129 The Answer my Friend is Blowing in the Wind 132 Royal Town Planning Institute Conference - Building Strategic Infrastructure 134 October Executive Meeting 136 YES Ball - Third Level Education Liaison 138 Annual Energy Institute Dinner 140 Farewell to a Great President of Ireland 142 Calling all Environmental Scientists 144 Will You Come With Me 146 Can Engineers Save the Economy 148 DCU Conference on Linking Education and Enterprise 150 2011 Excellence Awards 152 Institutes of Technology Lead the Way 155 Science & Industry - Working Together for Economic Recovery 157 November Executive Meeting 159 Irish Planning Institute Annual Dinner 160 Engineering and Technology Teachers in Carrick on Shannon 161 Creative Design in UCD Engineering 164 Midlands Region Annual Dinner Dance in Birr 166 Offshore Wind Conference in Dundalk 168 Civic Reception in Cavan County Council 170 Sustainability Conference in Lisbon 173 November Council Meeting 175 Presidential Address to DIT 176 ICE Annual Dinner in Belfast 178 Christmas Greetings 179 New Year at the Giants Causeway 181 Engineers Ireland Annual Ball 2012 184 Gaming Computing Excitement in Athlone IT 187 Civic Welcome to Carlow 189 Max Abrahamson lecture on Construction Law 193 Page Visit to Great Britain Region 195 Cork Region Annual Dinner 197 Growing the Success of Kerry Engineering Business 199 Visiting Tyndall Institute and Making Waves in UCC and the Naval Service 202 Visit to Limerick Tunnel and University of Limerick 205 Launching Engineers Week with Infrastructure Update Report 210 Exciting New Future beckons for UCD Engineering Schools 212 Visiting Yeats Country 'The Land of Heart's Desire' at the North West Region Ball 216 Innovation Ecosystem in CIT 220 Keynote Speaker at Green City Conference in Taipei 224 All aboard at Titanic Belfast for Annual Conference 229 Along the Liffey on a Dublinbike 232 OpenHydro Site Visit in Greenore and NE Region Social Event in Carlingford 236 Presidential Address and Conferring of Titles in Cork 239 New Strategy for Engineers Ireland 241 New Vice President Elected 243 New Engineers Ireland Byelaws adopted 245 Energy and Environment Division Lunch with Minister Rabbitte 247 Cycling the Mayo Greenway and viewing Jackie Clarke Library 249 Annual Conference opens in Titanic Belfast 253 Remarkable Annual Conference ends in Belfast 255 Visit to Donegal Region and Letterkenny IT 260 Visit to Corrib Project in Mayo 264 Visit to Kilronan Harbour and Innishmore on Aran Islands 267 Opening World Congress on Water Climate and Energy in Dublin 271 Cuairt ar An Roth 275 Visit to Limerick IT 279 Annual Conferring of Titles 283 Exploring the Burren in North Clare 288 Annual General Meeting and Goodbye 291 Foreword by Dr. Chris Horn (Chair of various technology companies and Past President of Engineers Ireland) With the rapid rise of social media, there are now new ways for leaders to further communicate and share ideas. As President of Engineers Ireland during 2011-12, PJ Rudden not only put in incredible energy to the many events and meetings he attended nationwide, but following my example the prior year he also found time to maintain a blog – an online diary of his work during his Presidential year. Unlike myself, PJ was incredibly diligent and wrote no less than 17 thoughtful speeches and 94 extensive blog posts, between May 2011 and May 2012! His was a journey meeting the many diverse and interesting faces and places of Engineers Ireland, and examining all the dedicated work of fellow Engineers in the national interest – building and maintaining our roads, water supply, power stations, electricity and gas systems, airports, railways, ports, telecommunications, computer systems and manufacturing systems. He also witnessed advanced research and product development across many different sectors - innovation which is helping Ireland's economic recovery. The broad scope is best illustrated on the TV adverts for Chartered Engineer run by Engineers Ireland on our screens since last Autumn with the byline - "Will You Come With Me? ....Chartered Engineers.... Bringing Dreams to Life for You and Me"(www.engineersireland.ie). I hope that you enjoy some of the stories in his blogs and speeches as much as I did myself. Acknowledgements My special thanks to my colleagues in RPS, Kathryn Fusco and Jackie Whelan, who assisted the design and compilation of this document and to Neasa Kane for format and editorial review. The original concept and design was inspired by another colleague Emma El-Sahn and was influenced by the example set by my predecessor Dr. Chris Horn, who introduced the first President’s Blog. Responsibility for any errors is mine alone. The views expressed are my own and not necessarily the views of Engineers Ireland. PJ Rudden Chartered Engineer Dublin August 2012 Speeches May 2011 – May 2012 26th May 2011 Inaugural Speech by PJ Rudden President of Engineers Ireland Distinguished Guests, Fellow Members of the Institution, Ladies & Gentlemen, Friends It is a great honour for me to be elected tonight as your new President. I want to pay tribute to my predecessor Martin Lowery for his guidance, his wisdom and the sheer dedication that he gave to Engineers Ireland over the past year. I look forward to working very closely with John Power and the truly excellent staff in Clyde Road throughout the year. I am very conscious that I take office at a critical time in our economic history. We have a new Government mandated by the people to effect Change in how we do Business and to bring Recovery to an ailing Economy. We all know that it is a long way back to the prosperity we once had as a nation and as engineers, we have an important part to play in getting us back on that road. Martin's presidential theme last year was Job Creation and that must continue to be our primary focus into 2011 and 2012. Engineers Ireland can and must be a roadmap to identify, to encourage and to facilitate those areas of the economy where growth is possible, to identity barriers to Government and assist in the removal of those barriers to growth and prosperity. In particular there are huge institutional barriers to the enabling of more efficient and cost effective infrastructure. For example, there are too many statutory consents for major infrastructural projects – we need to roll these into a single consent to be granted by An Bord Pleanála. I compliment the many members who helped us launch the excellent Report on the State of Ireland’s Infrastructure this evening and hope that we can find the resources, public and private, to fund and expedite that infrastructure that we deem is urgent. I am very conscious that while many of our engineering sectors are still doing relatively well (pharma, ICT, energy and biomedical in particular) the construction industry remains in crisis and will continue to do so until we stabilise our public finances to enable productive investment in infrastructure to restart again.