Bicentennial of Robert Mallet, the father of seismology

This evening,  I had the pleasure of chairing a meeting of the Heritage Society at Clyde Rd,  and also streamed to the internet and will soon be available for playback on Engineers TV.

The presentation was by Dr Ron Cox,  historical author and former Dean of the TCD Engineering School. His subject,  Robert Mallet,  1810-1881,  was an observationalist, experimentalist,  polymath and engineering scientist.  Amongst his many achievements, he is widely internationally regarded as the father of seismology,  writing his seminal work on the dynamics of earthquakes in 1846 and coining both the terms "sesimology" and "epicentre".  Three of his descendants travelled from the UK this evening to join us.

Launch of HSE Medical Device & Equipment Management Policy

I attended by invitation and spoke at the launch this morning at the HSE Phoenix house building, of the HSE's new policy document on medical device and equipment, covering procurement, operation and maintenance. The event was hosted by Brian Gilroy of the HSE. Minister Mary Harney was the guest of honour and spoke of the importance of the new policy.

I used the opportunity to highlight the role of engineers in the medical profession, and how engineering mistakes can be more dangerous than medical ones. This of course gave me a segue to talk about registration and licensing of Chartered Engineers in Ireland.

Annual Conference

Well,  the dust has settled after a great annual conference in Cork last thursday and friday.  Well over 300 people attended,  and I suspect the final figure may be as high as 350.

Last monday (19th),  I was very concerned since we had lost four featured speakers due to Eyjafjallajökull - Minister Conor Lenihan, Craig Barrett, Ian Quinn and Bertrand Barré. Conor was stuck in Dubai;  Craig on US east coast;  Ian on US west coast and Bertrand in Paris.  Bertrand very kindly agreed to do a video conference instead.  I approached Ian's CEO,  Helen Ryan who happened to be in the country, and she very kindly agreed to take his place.  But both Conor and Craig were completely unavailable.

ICE Presidential Address

On Friday 16th last,  we were honoured to have Prof. Paul Jowitt of the Institution of Civil Engineers,  visit us and deliver his presidential address.  I had previously met Paul in Belfast and he was kind enough to attend my own presidential address in London.

Paul and his wife June had a challenging time reaching us,  leaving Glasgow at 9.30am,  and travelling via Stranraer,  Larne and Belfast,  to reach us by 7pm.  I am very grateful for their determination!

Joint Council & Executive Meeting

This morning we held a scheduled joint meeting of Executive and Council at Clyde Rd,  from 10am-1pm.

Finance Committee Meeting

Yesterday evening,  we held a scheduled meeting of the Finance Committee at Clyde Rd.

Tadhg Walshe

It was with great sadness that I attended the funeral mass for Tadhg Walshe this morning,  along with other members of Executive and Council.   Tadhg attended our Executive meeting just last Thursday evening and was in fine form as usual!   He died suddenly,  and completely unexpectedly,  the next afternoon and as a relatively young man.

He is survived by his partner Pauline,  daughter Mary-Liz and son-in-law JP,  together with his large family of brothers and sisters.

He served Engineers Ireland,  and his colleagues and students at Bolton St. extraordinarily well.

May his soul rest in gentle peace.

Finance Committee Meeting; Executive Committee Meeting

This evening, we held our regular Finance Committee Meeting,  followed by Executive,  at Clyde Road.

Presidential Address - London

I gave my Presidential Address as a guest of our GB region this evening under the leadership of Catherine O'Sullivan,  at the Institution of Civil Engineers headquarters in Westminster.  About 50 people attended.  In my presentation,  which I have previously given in Clyde Road,  I consciously try to address both non software specialists in the audience as well as software practitioners - in the event,  only 2 of the 50 were software engineers.

Smart Futures Seminar

This evening,  I spoke at the Smart Futures Seminar being hosted at Clyde Rd,  in conjunction with our STEPS team,  ICT Ireland,  Discover Science and Engineering,  and Fasttrack to IT.   The main purpose of the evening was to launch the Irish participation in the European wide eSkills week,  and in particular to brief and assist new volunteers from the Engineering profession who are interested in participating in our schools outreach programme via STEPS.  About 80 people attended.