ENGINEERS IRELANDYEARBOOK 2018

A COMMUNITY OF CREATIVE PROFESSIONALS DELIVERING SOLUTIONS FOR SOCIETYwww.engineersireland.ie

ENGINEERS IRELANDYEARBOOK 2018

www.engineersireland.ieA COMMUNITY OF CREATIVE PROFESSIONALS DELIVERING SOLUTIONS FOR SOCIETY

The most popular Engineers Journalarticles from the past year

Reference set of key engineeringrelated data of value to practitioners

Invited thought-leadership articlesfrom our academic stakeholders

FOREWORD

Welcome to the Engineers Ireland Digital Yearbook 2018, an exclusive publication for members of EngineersIreland.

We have selected the most popular articles from the Engineers Journal across all engineering sectors from thelast 12 months, compiling them in one publication to keep you informed of the very best engineering ideasand innovation. From ocean power and performance statistics to biopharmaceuticals and the redevelopmentof Páirc Uí Chaoimh (which won Project of the Year at the Engineers Ireland Excellence Awards 2017), there’ssure to be something for everybody.

Continued economic growth depends on third-level institutions securing a talent pipeline of engineers withsuitable skill sets to bring about, maintain and operate engineering projects. To this end, we have alsospecially commissioned leading academics from all around this island to offer their expert views on the futureof engineering education in Ireland.

The yearbook also features a handy reference guide, in which we have collated the latest data on engineeringeducation and skills, with the aim of quantifying this crucial pipeline.

The Engineers Ireland Digital Yearbook is our exclusive gift to members as part of our membership-renewalcorrespondence with you, as a small way of expressing our sincere thanks. Here in Clyde Road, we greatlyappreciate your engagement with both the Engineers Journal and, of course, with the organisation.

We hope that you will enjoy reading this publication. Do let us know what you think about the contents or,indeed, what you would like to see in future issues. The Engineers Journal is your opportunity to read aboutdevelopments made by your peers – and also to let them know about your own projects and progress. It isyour Journal.

With many thanks again for your continued support,

Caroline Spillane,Director General, Engineers Ireland

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CONTENTS

FEATURESHarnessing the power of Ireland's waves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Solar energy could provide a bright future for Ireland’s 2020 targets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

The science of statistics: sports performance analytics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

Regulatory compliance and cyber threats in the pharma sector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14

New tube-cutting technology meets next-generation production needs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

Trinity bridges humanitarianism and medical-device design with 3D printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21

Process-safety case studies: failures of heat exchangers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25

Bioburden control in biopharmaceuticals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29

Legend on the Lee: redevelopment of Páirc Uí Chaoimh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33

Mapping the abandoned medieval Wexford town of Bannow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39

William Dargan: the engineer who rejuvenated a nation on its knees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43

CE marking of structural steel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47

Irish Naval Service restores a 1922 Vickers Petters engine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51

Engineering in the Air Corps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56

ACADEMICCreating holistic engineers to solve the grand challenges of the future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60

Electronic engineering for the future digital society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62

Harnessing the opportunities from the low-carbon transition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64

Chemical engineering education and industrial developments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .66

Maximising the talent pool to meet future needs of Ireland’s medtech sector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .68

Engineering an undergraduate multi-disciplinary student innovation eco-system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71

Mechanical and manufacturing engineers to drive the Fourth Industrial Revolution . . . . . . . . . . . . .73

SKILLSEducating the next generation of engineers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75

Editor: Mary Anne CarriganEngineers Ireland, 22 Clyde Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin D04 R3N2

T: +353(0) 1 665 1388 | E: mcarrigan@engineersireland.ie

Earlier this year, a small Irish engineering company,Sea Power Ltd, launched its 1:4 scale wave-energyconverter (WEC) test platform in open-water seatrials in Galway Bay (see Figure 1). The Sea PowerPlatform has been under development since itsinception in 2008 and has received over €1 millionin R&D funding support from the Sustainable EnergyAuthority of Ireland (SEAI).

Directors Tom Lyne and Joe Murtagh have beenpioneers in the wave-energy industry and havebeen involved with other wave-energy projectssince the 1990s. The Sea Power Platform itself hashad an Irish patent granted for some time, but hasnow been recently patented in a number ofcountries where there is also great wave-energyresource.

The WEC has gone through many rigorous levels ofnumerical analysis and small-scale tank testing. It isdesigned to harness the energy in deep waterwaves, and the company is committed to achievingthis at the lowest levelised cost of energy (LCOE)possible, making it more competitive than otherrenewable, and non-renewable, energy sources.

The Sea Power Platform is a stable, hinged platformthat is ideal for development of onboard powertake-off (PTO) systems, and for accessibility duringtesting. It is a long machine with a low visual profileand further optimisation work will lead to machineswith even lower visual profile. Pontoon-sizeoptimisation is due in later stages to optimise thepontoon draughts and add curved features where

hydro-dynamicallyappropriate, all aimed tofurther lower capitalexpenditure levels.

Relative angular motionand high torque isdeveloped around thehinge (see Figure 2) andthe machine tends topitch and heave in thisdegree of freedom in awide range of sea states.This hinge suits theintegration of a rotaryPTO, which is underdevelopment with anumber of Sea Power’spartners including Limerick Wave Ltd and RomaxTechnologies. The WEC has a good power curve thathas been established by a third party in tank-testing environments.

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Harnessing the power of Ireland's wavesTesting ocean-energy devices

Cian Murtagh outlines the engineering behind Sea Power's scale wave-energy converter platform, as the company progresses to quarter-scaletesting in open-water trials in Galway Bay, with support from SEAI

Sea Power's wave-energy convertor bein

Figure 2: The hinge

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Figure 1: The Sea Power Platform

Sea Power: testing forsuccessThis medium-scale Sea Power Platform was towedfrom Foynes Port in Limerick, where it wasconstructed, to Galway Harbour. There, the Cork-based marine operations company Atlantic TowageLtd hooked up with and installed the WEC and hermooring system into the Smartbay test site. Thistook place at the start of November 2016, whichdemonstrated a winter deployment. SmartBay offers

multidisciplinary expertise to wave-energydevelopers and Sea Power Ltd has benefitedtremendously from this. The site is pre-fitted withweather- and wave-measuring equipment, sub-seadata and power cables and a dedicated radiotelemetry, which facilitates data capture back toshore.

The WEC is built from steel pontoons, which aresupported by a beam or lattice chassis structure. Itis known as a wave-following attenuator and itsperformance is influenced mainly by its overalllength. The pontoons can be removed and newcurved pontoons can be fitted if these prove to bebetter during the tank-testing campaigns that arealso ongoing.

Cylindrical pontoons are currently being tested inScotland. Overall length variation is also somethingthat the engineers are keen to investigate. Slowadjustments in pontoon positions may shift the

power-curve peak response and, in doing so, allowthe bandwidth of the WEC’s power curve to widenfurther.

Power is measured by mechanical means such as anonboard rectilinear dynamometer (see Figure 3).The mechanical power is measured across a widerange of sea states, which enables the power curveto be plotted. In the safe and small-scaleenvironment of the wave tank, these mean waveperiods typically range between one and twoseconds. For the medium-scale device, thesecorrespond to a range between 2.25 seconds and4.5 seconds for Galway Bay. For full-scale systems,these correspond to approximately five- and nine-second mean periods, which typically occur off thecoast of Mayo.

Since the launch date, the WEC has alreadydemonstrated survival in extreme conditions. Forthis 1:4 scale of device, it has already survivedmaximum instantaneous wave heights in excess ofof four metres (Hs=2.05m at the test site). For anequivalent full-scale Sea Power Platform, this issurvival in Hs=8.2 metres conditions – or 16.4metres instantaneous wave heights.

Sea Power expects even larger seas at the test siteduring winter months. Wave conditions aremonitored using the Marine Institute’s digital oceanportal and accurate sea-state predictions are alsoavailable, which has proved to be invaluable.

Throughout the testing period in Galway Bay, anumber of onboard parameters are beingcontinuously measured. These are: tension forces inthe front mooring lines, bow panel pressures due towave slapping and wave slam events, multi-axishinge load in both hinge pins, accelerations of eachbody and, of course, mechanical power in therepresentative PTO system. The WEC also has anumber of condition monitoring systems in place -including temperature monitoring of the control

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ng towed from Foynes Harbour to Galway Bay in advance of its testing

Figure 3: The onboard brake dynamometer

system and brake, water ingress sensors and GPSlocation.

The engineers at Sea Power also monitor theirdevice using a remote camera located on the mast(see Figure 4). So far, all mechanical, electrical andcontrol systems are performing exactly as expectedand the data is streaming from the onboard DAQ ata very high rate. Post processing of this data isongoing and the Marine Institute and MaREI are alsoassisting in this regard.

Learning for futuredevelopmentThe onboard parameters being measured candirectly inform future structural and mechanicaldesign calculations for optimised full-scaleplatforms. For example, mooring loads in survivalconditions at the medium scale can be scaled up tofull-scale loads. These loads are the main driver forcost. This means that design loads at full scaledetermine the size of mooring components and,hence, determine the capital cost involved.

Once these costs are established, they are inputtedinto a detailed LCOE calculation to determine thefeasibility of the platform as a method of convertingocean energy. Sea Power needs to target cost ofenergy in the 15c to 20c range per kWh for now,and despite seeing a way forward to such levels, thecompany is under no illusion that it is there yet.

In parallel with all this, Sea Power Ltd is alsodesigning a water-hydraulic energy delivery systemthat can deliver non-electric products such asenergy storage of sea water in elevated reservoirs ordrinking water from pressurised reverse-osmosisdesalination.

Apart from aims to lower LCOE to suitable levels,another key challenge will be the quality of thepower that is being produced and how the end user(grid or energy storage facility) will accept thepower quality. At the moment, the Sea PowerPlatform is demonstrating that mechanical power isbeing produced from incident wave power at thesite. Even 2kW of power measured at this scale canequate to 43.5 times this amount at full scale(=512kW).

Larger devices produce even more power. The nextstep will be to demonstrate that efficient electricalpower production at this scale is also possible, andthis will be done by installing the rotary PTO on thehinge mid way through the project.

Sea Power plans to remain testing at the site for aninitial six-month continuous period, with additionaltrials to follow should this be successful. Wecontinue to watch this space!

Author:

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Figure 4: Remote IP camera monitoringCian Murtagh MEng MIEI is the project engineer forSea Power Ltd. For more information, visitwww.seapower.ie.

All eyes are on the renewable energy sector as 2020approaches, to see whether the Irish Governmentcan meet its renewable energy targets of 16 percent of all energy generated from renewablesources. These targets include contributions fromtransport (RES-T), electricity (RES-E) and heat (RES-H).

Industry and Government experts expect that thesetargets will not be met, due to the lack ofdevelopment in the transport and heat sectors.Consequently, the renewable electricity generationsector must contribute more to achieve the overallobjective of reducing CO2 emissions.

'Ireland's Environment: An Assessment 2016', areport from the Environmental Protection Agency,says that more needs to be done at a policy level toensure Ireland transitions to a low carbon economy.Solar energy will prove essential in diversifying ourenergy portfolio. In 2014, wind contributed 19 per

cent to the electricity generation portfolio; however,wind alone will not enable the country to movetowards a low-carbon future. Tidal and wavetechnologies are currently developing commercialoperating platforms, but with limited success.

Photovoltaic (PV) technology has been in existencesince its development by NASA in the space race inthe 1950s. However, it is only now that utility-scaleprojects are commercially viable, due to thereduction in costs from $70/watt in the 1970s to$0.45/watt today.

Successful solar projects are currently beingdeveloped by our neighbours in Scotland andNorthern Ireland and the time is now to seize theopportunity to deploy this extremely versatile andproven technology.

There have been over 500 applications submitted toESB Networks for connection of solar farms in the

Solar energy could provide a brightfuture for Ireland’s 2020 targets

The solar industry in Ireland is calling on the Government to commitfinancial support to solar projects to ensure we avoid fines in the regionof €300 million a year should we fail to reach our 2020 renewable-energy targets, writes Michael Moore

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Solar photovoltaic panels

Republic of Ireland, totalling over 4,000MW sinceMay 2015. It is estimated that 1500MW isachievable by 2022, which equates to 5 per cent ofIreland’s electricity demand.

Land options (solar lease agreements) are beingsigned across the country from Cork to Leitrim and,with the continued submission of planningapplications, all elements with the exception of oneare in place to see a thriving new industry. The solarindustry in Ireland is now calling on the Governmentto commit financial support to solar projects toensure we avoid fines in the region of €300 milliona year should our renewable energy targets not bemet.

Solar market worldwide –how Ireland comparesThe worldwide total installed capacity of 229GW atthe end of 2015, up from 1.2GW in the year 2000[1], shows a significant increase in the deploymentof solar. Between 2014 and 2015, there was a 30per cent increase alone and by 2020, it is expectedthat there will be in excess of 700GW installed [2].

European projections show increases from 80GW in2014 to 170GW by 2020. The graph (below) showsthe phenomenal increase in solar PV installations inthe UK over the last five years due to governmentincentives.

The total installed capacity in the UK now stands at11.3GW [3] as of July 2016. Domestic rooftopinstallations (<4kw) accounted for 2.5GW across890k installations and utility scale (>5MW) accountsfor 5.4 GW across 3,300 installations.

The rapid deployment of solar PV throughout theworld in the last few years can be attributed tomany factors, but two of the main factors include a

drop in module price from $70/watt in 1970 to$0.45/watt today and also government subsidies.

Government subsidies are common place forrenewable energy to help compete againstestablished gas, oil and coal plants which over thedecades have themselves benefited fromgovernment subsidies. Ireland has a total peakdemand of approximately 5,000 MW (or 29TWHannually) and is highly dependent on importedfossil fuels. Last year, Ireland imported over 90 percent of its energy supply.

The country spent €6.9 billion [4] internationally in2013 to supply the fuel required to power our coal-and gas-burning stations, as well as importingbiomass fuels to assist in the burning of peat atpower stations around the country.

The demand for electricity is concentrated on the eastcoast, with its large population and increasingindustrial output. The emergence of data centres onthe periphery of the M50 and the proposed facility inAthenry will put further pressure on the systemoperators to meet electricity demand with generation.

The Apple data centre in Galway, if it goes ahead,will have a demand three times the size of Intel,which to date has been the largest user of electricityin the country. These data centres and foreigndirect investment are leading the way by ensuringthat large portions of their energy demand comesfrom renewable-energy sources and havecontracted with large energy suppliers throughpower purchase agreements (PPAs).

Another avenue for these larger energy users is adirect connection between these plants and solarprojects, which is currently prohibited under currentIrish legislation. This connection method issuccessfully used in Northern Ireland, where BelfastAirport is now connected directly to a nearby solarfarm.

Incentives for solartechnology in IrelandShould this type of arrangement be implemented inIreland, many more projects and sites will becomeviable. The added advantage of this arrangement isthat it would reduce pressure on the nationalelectricity grid by allowing large-demand customersto reduce their requirement to import energy fromthe grid network and effectively produce on-site ornearby electricity.

Ireland’s legislators need to consider alternatives tothe status quo and look at alternative ways ofsupporting the decarbonising of our electricitysystem.

Increase in solar PV installations in the UK over the last five years

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It is envisioned that the future for electricitygeneration in Ireland and Europe is a blended mixof thermal plant, wind, solar and storagetechnologies supported by European and IrishGovernment.

Recent calls on the Government to close largefossil-burning stations are welcomed by therenewable industry and could facilitate the diversionof the €136 million of annual subsidies paid tothese plants to more sustainable sources ofelectricity supplies such as solar.

A typical solar farm will be made up of thefollowing:

1. Solar array: series of solar panels laid out inlines across a field;

2. Inverters: the inverter will take the electricalenergy from the panels and convert it from directcurrent to alternating current;

3. Transformers: these can be contained within thehousing of the inverter and will convert the energyto a voltage which the grid operators can use;

4. Substation: the substation is the point ofconnection between ESB/EirGrid and the solarfarm and will contain a series of switches anddisconnects to isolate the farm from the mainelectricity network; and

5. Grid connection: the substation is thenconnected to the national grid via anunderground cable or an overhead line.

Panel, inverters andsupport structuresSolar panels are made of either silicon or thin filmtechnology. Silicon panels are categorised into twotypes: monocrystalline and polycrystalline, whichdiffer on account of the manufacturing process.

Monocrystalline panels are created by cutting ingotsof silicon while polycrystalline panels are producedby melting raw silicon into square moulds.Monocrystalline panels are more efficient, but tendto be more expensive. The majority of panels usedlast year in the UK were polycrystalline panels.

Thin film technology involves using a material suchas cadium telluride (CdTe) as the semiconductormounted on a substrate of coated glass, metal orplastic. The light absorbing layer typically has athickness of 1 micron as opposed to 350 micronsfor a silicon layer.

The selection of panel type will come down tocost/m2 vs output. There is strong competition inthe market with companies such as First Solar in theUS vying for position against Chinese siliconmanufacturers. Both technologies will likely be

widely deployed across Ireland in the coming years.Electricity produced by PV panels is in the form ofdirect current and inverters are necessary to changethe current to alternating so that it can be used onthe Irish electricity grid.

Larger or central inverters typically the size of 20-foot containers will convert 1MW of energy. Analternative smaller device mounted to the back ofthe support structures is now emerging in recentyears. These smaller devices are known as stringinverters and allow for more control over the solarfarm’s output.

This will become very useful in Ireland, where landparcels are smaller and shading from trees will be agreater issue than on projects in the UK.

Central inverters are favoured by operating andmaintenance teams. However, more technical staffare required to service them. String inverters can bechanged out with less down time with the potentialfor greater output as a result.

The support structures for solar farms are verystraightforward and are the reason why solar farmscan typically be built in under three months. Agalvanised steel post is driven into the ground everythree to five metres, with either an aluminium orsteel frame bolted on to allow the panels be fitted.Systems are deployed depending on theconfiguration of panels, two in portrait versus fourin landscape.

PlanningOver 90 applications have now been submitted tolocal authorities for planning consents for solarfarms. A number have now achieved full grant ofplanning, while others are being requested foradditional information prior to a decision beingmade. An Bord Pleanála has decided in favour of thefour projects decided to date and provided clearguidance on relevant and immaterial issues.

Typical applications are for 20-30 acre farms.However, some larger ones, including a 250-acresite in Offaly, will be of interest to many in theindustry in the months ahead.

Key aspects of the planning applications includelandscape and visual assessments, which haveproven to be minor, as solar farms typically will beno taller than 3m and can be well screened usingexisting hedge rows. Other key elements of theapplications are glint and glare assessments whichdetail the potential impact on nearby receptorsalong with ecology and archaeological assessments.

An important consideration in the selection of sitesis the proximity to the local substation, as currentrequirements necessitate the direct connection to

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the local grid network. This is unlike the UK andGermany, where access can be provided by directconnection to an overhead line that crosses a site.The result of such policy is that sites need to besited within close proximity to towns with thepotential risk for greater objection fromcommunities.

Planning permission for solar farms has been verypositive. In general, local authorities look to supportsolar projects, as part of their overall objective is tosupport renewable-energy projects across thevarious counties.

Opportunity in IrelandThe solar resource in Ireland is very similar toNorthern Germany and the UK, where over 52GWhas been installed since 2005. Uncertainty of thesuitability of the Irish climate for solar project cannow be quashed, following the successfuloperational project in Scotland near Perth developedby Elgin Energy. Further developments are inconstruction in Northern Ireland were set to beoperational by the end of Q1 2017.

Access to the grid is key to succeeding in thismarket and, although there are numerous projectsproposed for the south of the country, many willnever be developed due to grid constraints. In oneexample, some 11 projects have been proposed tobe connected to a single 38kV substation inWexford when in reality, only one or two will get aviable grid-connection offer from ESB.

Installations of solar PV in Ireland have been limiteduntil now to small-scale domestic installations, withonly a small number of medium-sized installationslocated around the country. Ireland can generate1,500MW [5] of solar in advance of 2020, provideda suitable feed in tariff rate is ratified by mid-2017.

Ireland has set a target of 40 per cent of allelectricity consumed by end of 2020 must be metby renewable sources. The Commission for EnergyRegulation (CER) directed ESB and EirGrid in 2009under Gate 3 to issue 4000MW of connections towindfarm applications.

Many of these connections will now not be realised,due to planning restrictions and also the lack oftransmission infrastructure in place to transport theenergy to the east coast where the electricitydemand exists.

Solar-energy projects have proven over the lastyear, that they can achieve planning closer to pointsof connection to the electricity grid and cantherefore be deployed across the country, utilisingthe existing network and without significantupgrades to the electricity system and associatedcosts to the end user.

Solar Resource in Ireland and Europe

Location Solar Resource (kwh/m2)Athy, Kildare 1,110Midlton, Cork 1,160Carrick on Shannon, Leitrim 1,040Berlin, Germany 1,140Bristol, UK 1,170

Elgin Energy 13MW Solar Farm – Errol Estate, Perth, Scotland

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Government subsidyIt is expected that the Irish Government willannounce a support structure for all futurerenewable-energy projects soon, following theDepartment of Energy’s consultation process on afuture support structure that commenced inSeptember 2015.

A second round of consultation was expected in late2016 to early 2017, to help clarify the structure ofsupport and provide certainty to investors who arelooking to support solar-energy projects. Followingthe publication of the Government’s White Paper onEnergy, there is now a realistic expectation that solarenergy will be supported in Ireland in the nearfuture.

Ireland is now in a unique position to take advantageof solar technology, following on from the successfuldeployment of over 12GW in the UK in the past fewyears. The industry has matured across Europe andinstallations are becoming more sophisticated.

With looming deadlines and the need to seekalternatives, solar PV can provide a much needed

boost to the renewable industry and assist thecountry in meeting and exceeding its commitment tomeet climate change.

Author:Michael Moore is a charted engineer with ElginEnergy, an Irish-based solar development companywith experience in developing 200MW of solar PVprojects in the UK. Elgin Energy is a leading solar-development company in Ireland, with proposals todevelop in excess of 700MW across the island. Seewww.elgin-energy.com for more.

References:• [1] Solar Power Europe -

Global Market Outlook 2014• [2] GTM Research• [3] Department of Business, Energy and Industrial

Strategy UK• [4] SEAI Energy Ireland 2013 Highlights• [5] Ireland consumed 2081ktoe of electricity in

2013. 1ktoe equates to 1,163,000kwh.Typically 1kwp installation will produce915kwh in Ireland.

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The word ‘statistics’ can be considered either as acollection of numbers or as an active science. In thecase of the collection of numbers, ‘stats’ (i.e. data)are now ubiquitously, inexpensively and quicklycollected in every walk of life: in health, in business,in sports. In terms of the active science, statistics(or data analytics, as it is becoming more popularlyknown) encapsulates collecting, modelling,visualising and drawing inference from data, whileaccounting for uncertainty.

While data collection is ubiquitous, appropriatestatistical analysis often lags behind. In the current`big data’ era, the need for appropriate statisticalanalysis is lauded, but appropriate statisticalanalysis relates to big and `not-so-big’ data alike.

Most engineers and scientists are familiar with theconcepts of regression or statistical testing, havingtaken some introductory statistical education. Suchstatistical methods are typically appropriate only forthe analysis of univariate data, i.e. data consistingof a single response variable (perhaps regressedagainst some explanatory variables).

However, the world in which we live is multivariate:data are collected simultaneously on many variables(which are typically strongly related to each other),often across space and time. In order toappropriately analyse such data, their structuredmultivariate nature (and their associateduncertainty) must be modelled correctly.

Getting good data from'big data'To use a cooking analogy, where eggs areconsidered as data and the aim is make a meringue

for dessert: if you use the eggs incorrectly, you getscrambled eggs. Dr Chris Horn’s article (June 2016)on EngineersJournal.ie, 'Predictions using big data:a hot theme for the tech sector’, touches on arelated issue within the context of `big data’ withthe heading that `big data is not always good data’.

The science of statisticsIts application in sports performance analytics

While the prevalence of performance analysts in sport is increasing,there is a lack of tools to analyse performance data. Game Changer isfounded on statistical analysis tools for sports-performance statisticsand offers user-friendly and quick performance analysis performanceanalysis, writes Dr Claire Gormley

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From left: Dr Claire Gormley and Em

In a similar vein, good data with incorrect statisticalanalysis may as well be bad data. With good eggs,you can simply get very nice scrambled eggs, butthey are not much use as a dessert. Employingappropriate statistical models, and accounting foruncertainty, is the key to making principled, data-driven decisions.

Much of statistical research aims to developstatistical methods or models that will providesuitable tools for analysis of data in varied settings.Further, many research statisticians focus ondeveloping fast and accurate computationalalgorithms to estimate such statistical models.

Much of the research conducted by the statisticsresearch group in the School of Mathematics and

Statistics at University College Dublin, and in theScience Foundation Ireland-funded Insight Centrefor Data Analytics, focuses on the development ofstatistical models for analysing multivariate dataand on considering such models within the Bayesianframework.

Bayesian statistics, founded on Bayes’ Theorem(arguably the most important statistics theorem inexistence), is a burgeoning area of research instatistics, which has also been adopted by themachine learning and computer-sciencecommunities. Bayesian methods consider priorinformation that the analyst may have inconjunction with the appropriate statistical model,while providing a natural environment in which toquantify uncertainty. While perhaps soundingsomewhat complex, Bayesian statistics is practicallyapplicable in every day life.

Those regression models you learned of in yourintroductory statistics courses can equally beestimated within a Bayesian setting. Working in theBayesian paradigm typically involves usingcomputationally heavy Monte Carlo-based samplingalgorithms, which itself is an active area of currentstatistical research.

Many statistical researchers draw heavily on parallelcomputing resources, or supercomputers; the Rproject for statistical computing is an excellent freesoftware environment for statistical computing andgraphics, which is attracting increased attentionfrom industry.

Game Changer: for stats insportsCurrently, a popular setting for statistical analysis isthe area of `stats in sports’. It is not uncommon foramateur Gaelic football teams to now have aperformance analyst, while professional rugby andsoccer teams have (perhaps several of) them bydefault.

Performance statistics, such as number of kicks,number of tackles etc, are collected on everytraining session and match. These data areinherently multivariate, as an individual’sperformance stats may be related to each other andare often structured in terms of time and space.

The aim of having such data is, presumably, to aiddecision making at a management level or perhapsto highlight areas for improvement at a player level.Even though such performance data are typically`not-so-big’, it is no less important to model thedata appropriately. Thus, visualising and modellingsuch data in an appropriate statistical manner is thekey to making good data-driven decisions.

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mily Duffy, founders of Game Changer

Game Changer, an early-stage venture that recentlywon a University College Dublin commercialisationaward at NovaUCD, is founded on appropriatestatistical analysis tools for sports-performancestatistics. Game Changer resulted from the final-year research project of Emily Duffy, a BSc Statisticsstudent, under my supervision, throughcollaboration with Leinster Rugby’s chief analyst.Game Changer is a software platform that offerssimple, user-friendly and fast performance analysis.

Currently, Game Changer consists of two products:DigiCoach and Talent Tracker. DigiCoach providespost-match performance analytics for individuals,teams and organisations. The software, easily andsecurely accessible on mobile device, tablet orpersonal computer, allows team management andplayers to instantly and visually examine theirmatch performance statistics, and compare theirperformance to that of previous games.

The simplicity of DigiCoach is its key to success: itcan easily be ported to a wide range of sports andhas already garnered interest from otherinternational rugby, GAA and NBA clubs.

One of the beauties of being a statistician is thatthe problems with which you work varycontinuously in terms of difficulty and field ofapplication. In the words of the famous Americanstatistician John Tukey, "The best thing aboutstatistics is that you get to play in everyone else'sbackyard." A great example of this trait is thesecond product available through Game Changercalled Talent Tracker.

Talent TrackerTalent Tracker is a bespoke product, motivated bythe specific needs of an Irish professional provincialrugby club. It is in such a situation that statistics,like engineering, excels: a bespoke, mathematicallycorrect, statistical analysis of data needs to beappropriately conducted to solve a very specificproblem. Talent Tracker can be used by teammanagement to help solve the problem ofidentifying key players for team selection,promotion to the next squad or potentialrecruitment.

Talent Tracker is underpinned by a multivariatestatistical modelling tool that appropriately modelsthe available data in a joint manner, taking accountof dependencies between performance statistics.While Talent Tracker has been motivated by aspecific sports club’s need, it is demonstrative of

the flexibility and feasibility of using mathematicallyprincipled statistical models when making data-driven decisions.

The Game Changer software platform is nowundergoing further development, to include otherscalable tools similar to DigiCoach, and to developadditional bespoke sports club specific tools.Whether the data are sports performance stats,genomic data, survey data, the joy of the science ofstatistics is its utility anywhere there are data, nomatter how big or not-so-big those data may be.

Author

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Dr Claire Gormley is assistant professor in statisticsin the School of Mathematics and Statistics,University College Dublin and a funded investigatorwith the Insight Centre for Data Analytics.

Emily Duffy is a BSc Statistics graduate fromUniversity College Dublin.

In 2010, the first digitalweapon aimed at industrialautomation equipmentchanged the realm of securityforever. Rather than targetingIT infrastructure like mostviruses at the time, themalicious computer wormStuxnet compromisedprogrammable logiccontrollers (PLCs), collectedinformation on industrialsystems and damaged thecentrifuges of the Natanzuranium enrichment plant inIran. Stuxnet was the alarmbell that made industry awareof cyber securityvulnerabilities.

Today, more industries areseeing an increasing numberof cyber security threats. Totackle these issues, companies have to change theway they operate and put cyber security at the veryheart of the business. We are already seeing thisshift in the rise of the chief information securityofficer and in an increasing awareness of bestindustry practice when it comes to cyber security.According to the Global State of InformationSecurity Survey 2016, respondents increased theirinformation security budgets by 24 per cent withinthe past year, which reflects a greater willingness toinvest in keeping facilities secure.

The pharmaceutical industry is no different. As anattractive target for cyber attacks, pharmaceuticalcompanies need to understand cyber security,assess weak points and implement the appropriatesecurity measures. This article describes some ofthe most effective industrial security toolspharmaceutical companies have at their disposal inthe era of Industry 4.0.

Pharmaceutical production:the riskControl systems for pharmaceutical productionused to be proprietary and limited to the individualresearch and production facility. This meant atypical industrial control system would not bedirectly connected to the internet and thereforecould not be easily accessed externally. However, anincreasing need for automation and robotics,remote access and factory-wide connectivity hasmeant pharmaceutical production and controlsystems have changed significantly in the lastdecade.

The wide scale introduction of the IndustrialInternet of Things (IIoT) is the next major steptowards a fully connected smart factory. Thebenefits of the IIoT-enabled pharmaceutical

Regulatory compliance and cyber threatsIndustrial security in the pharmaceutical sector

Martyn Williams looks at why the pharmaceutical and biotech industryis vulnerable to cyber security attacks and examines some of the mosteffective security tools that companies have at their disposal in the eraof Industry 4.0

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production facility are clear for anyone to see.Collecting and strategically interpreting productiondata using analytics and turning this informationinto insight can create a basis for enhancingproductivity and reducing errors, in line withindustry regulations and key business goals.So how can pharmaceutical companies leverage thebenefits of these new technologies while minimisingthe security risks?

Bitsight, an organisation that measures howvulnerable companies and industries are to cyberattacks, reported that cyber security attacks on thehealthcare and pharmaceutical industries haveworsened at a faster rate than other industrysectors. With the average ‘clean up’ time for thesesectors following a cyber attack at just over fivedays, there is certainly some cause for concern.

Similarly, a report by the UK's Office of CyberSecurity and Information Assurance, in collaborationwith information intelligence experts BAE SystemsDetica, estimated the cost of cybercrime to the UKeconomy to be around £27 billion annually. Thereport named the pharmaceutical and biotechsectors amongst the hardest-hit industries.

In the eyes of a cyber criminal, the pharmaceuticalindustry provides a treasure trove of valuableinformation. Organisations within the sector – fromdrug distribution companies to research anddevelopment units – can hold highly sensitivematerial, from personal patient data to confidentialresearch on drug development and testing. Thismakes the pharmaceutical industry an attractivetarget for cyber attacks.

However, it is important to remember that there aresecurity risks involved in any manufacturing facility,particularly a smart one. An increased amount ofsensors collecting production data might helpmonitor and understand the process better, but thistype of connectivity also provides moreopportunities for hackers to infiltrate the system.

However, to better protect themselves from cyberattacks, pharmaceutical companies can useregulatory compliance as the first defence againstcyber security.

Protection throughcomplianceWhen operating in one of the most heavily regulatedindustries in the world, pharmaceutical companiesneed to abide by complex laws, regulations andguidelines. Sometimes, these can become the basisfor an effective industrial security strategy.

Laws within the pharmaceutical industry are oftendeliberately vague. Published in general terms tomeet the current and future needs of the industry,pharmaceutical laws are vastly different to theguidelines that accompany them. Passing a new lawis a lengthy process; regulatory guidelines on theother hand, can be implemented and adoptedrelatively quickly.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 21 CFRPart 11 is one of the most established regulationswithin the industry. The regulation requiresorganisations to implement controls, electronicaudit trails and systems validations. It establishesthe standard expectations for industrial securitythrough reliable electronic documentation of thepharmaceutical manufacturing process.

Since its introduction, there have been concernsthat FDA 21 CFR Part 11 could discourageinnovation and technological advances in theindustry. However, compliance with this regulationis not just about ticking boxes. For the most part,the requirements of FDA 21 CFR Part 11 go hand inhand with the security necessities of modernmanufacturing facilities.

By reviewing historical documentation and records,organisations can detect where security breacheshave occurred and in turn, identify and protect themore vulnerable points in the system better. Thisway, engineering and manufacturing data isprotected against unauthorised access, modificationor deletion to ensure accuracy, consistency, andcompleteness.

Ultimately, successful FDA 21 CFR Part 11compliance will result in a more organised, efficientand secure production process.In basic terms, Electronic Records provide securedata. Authenticated electronic signatures ensureboth operators and supervisors can identifythemselves in a safe and secure way when makingany changes in the production process.

Combined with the implementation of smartmachines and the resulting influx of big data,achieving regulatory compliance in the industry is

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“Cloud computing, IIoT and bigdata are certainly beneficial,but they also generate new

challenges for industrialsecurity and data protection”

not an easy task. To fulfil the requirements of thesecomplex regulations and protect their facilities,smart pharmaceutical manufacturers are turning tovalidation-friendly applications and industrialsoftware.

Smart SCADA securityIntelligent SCADA software ensures a HMI/SCADAsystem is compliant with industry regulations, andprovides built-in cyber security capabilities. This‘security by design’ approach means the softwareand its components are specifically designed toguarantee secure operations.

Built-in software security features that protectcompanies against data loss and unauthorisedaccess include a file signature functionality thatrecognises manipulated program files, strongencryption, secure authentication and automaticsynchronisation of files in the network with ‘clickand forget’ technology.

Integrated user administration, for example,ensures unauthorised users cannot gain control ofequipment. It means most user operations can belocked, even access to Windows Desktop. This way,if a security breach does occur, it can be easilycontained and access to other applications can beprevented. Best practice also dictates thatpharmaceutical manufacturers should encryptvaluable data.

This could mean compressing production data andsending it through the network and to web clientsin an encrypted form, as well as ensuring passwordsare encrypted to protect project data and expertise.

Some HMI/SCADA software uses its own networkprotocol to communicate between the individualsoftware products. This way, data can betransferred to separate binary data packages andmachine-readable information in plain text is nevercommunicated in the complete communicationconcept. Further client authentication at theconnection set up stage also prevents access to thenetwork.

This ensures attackers need to overcome a numberof barriers before they get to the core of theproduction system. The overall strategy is topped

off with open dialogue and documentation aboutsecurity. A HMI/SCADA software provider shouldwork closely with its customers to strengthensecurity guidelines and build on its industryexperience.

Update and communicateKnowledge and understanding of cyber securityrisks should not end with engineering and IT staff.In fact, according to respondents of the Global Stateof Information Security Survey 2016, the most citedsource of security compromise lies with employees.

Internal security compromises may not beintentional, but could prove just as damaging as anexternal attack. To begin, organisations shouldconsider how much the average employee actuallyknows about keeping industrial systems secure.This could be as simple as encouraging staff to usestrong passwords, delete unwarranted e-mails andupdate computers regularly. These basic measuresgo beyond the IT and engineering departments andshould include other departments; even seniormanagement.

After a thorough assessment of the system’spotential vulnerabilities, creating a procedure andthen training members of staff on industrial securityshould be the next step. Larger organisations mightfind it helpful to appoint a Chief InformationSecurity Officer to manage all industrial securityissues and communicate the importance of cybersecurity, thus creating an engaged workforce and acompany culture built on safety and security.

Industrial technology is evolving at an incrediblerate. While upcoming trends such as cloudcomputing, IIoT and big data are certainly beneficialfor the manufacturing industry, they also generateentirely new challenges for those managing theindustrial security and data protection oforganisations.

The days of Stuxnet may be behind us, butpharmaceutical manufacturers need to stay aheadof the industrial security game if they want to avoidsecurity breaches and the negative consequencesthey entail. The best way of doing this is by workingwith experienced, reliable partners that understandyour industry and are leading the way in cybersecurity.

Author:

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“In the eyes of a cyber criminal,the pharmaceutical industryprovides a treasure trove of

valuable information”

Martyn Williams,manager director at COPA-DATA UK

Stents and tubes are used in countless medicaldevices and this number looks set to keep growing,fuelled in part by the growth of minimally invasivesurgery and the commonplace use of stents.

The sheer number and diversity of devices is rapidlyincreasing and with it, the demand for more andmore laser-cut stents: flexible tubing, cannulas andmicro cannulas, needles, biopsy devices and otherminimally invasive tools (see Figure 1).

While legacy stent and tube cutting systems haveperformed well during recent decades, new cuttingtechnologies coming onto the market offer fasterand better cuts, with higher production rates andnew and unique cutting capabilities. The pulsedneodymium-doped yttrium aluminium garnet(Nd:YAG) lasers used in the past two decades havedefinitely been great workhorses. They haveperformed well and been excellent manufacturingcentres for many companies.

Unfortunately, the original integrated pulsedNd:YAG lasers that remain in operation are now

obsolete and difficult to service. While many ofthese systems have been upgraded to fibre lasers,they still have old stage sets that are a number ofgenerations behind current technology. In addition,they are running on slow and ageing controllerswith legacy software.

Simply put, the laser, stages, controller, software,water systems and automated tube-loadertechnology have all moved on. Here is a briefoverview of improvements in these components thatenable faster and better cuts with higher productionrates and less downtime.

Laser cuttingThe pulsed Nd:YAG lasers used in the past havebeen superseded by fibre lasers with better beam

New tube-cutting technology meetsnext-generation production needs

System design and cutting performance of the latest stent and tube-cutting systems offer significant advantages and capability overlegacy machines for improved productivity and product innovation.Geoff Shannon and David Van de Wall report

Figure 1: Common features in modern stents

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quality that does not change with pulse energy andaverage power. This provides a smaller and moreconsistent focused spot size, which offers tightercutting tolerances and, with spot sizes down to 10microns, the ability to cut much finer detailfeatures.

These lasers provide pulse frequencies up to andbeyond 5 kilohertz (kHz) and pulse widths down to20 microseconds (µ) to enable energy inputoptimisation for a wide variety of tube materials andwall thicknesses. Higher frequencies can beimplemented to maximise acceleration and speedfor a range of part thicknesses.

From an operational standpoint, the fibre lasershave a number of advantages. They are air-cooled,run off single-phase 240-volt electrical power, andhave diodes with lifetimes that are greater than70,000 hours, which equates to minimal operationalcosts. Figure 2 shows an example of a tubeproduced by one of the new laser tube-cutters onthe market (left) and a close-up of laser tubecutting (right).

Fibre lasers use microsecond pulses and offer acutting speed and edge quality that is sufficient formany applications. The femtosecond (fs) laser offerslaser pulses that are under 400×10-15seconds (s),or about one million times shorter than the fibrelaser. The very short pulse duration, combined withpeak powers into the gigawattlevel, offer a uniquecutting capability.

The fibre laser has a fusion cutting mechanism,whereby the laser pulse melts the metal, which isthen ejected from the part by a coaxial high-pressure gas.

The very high peak power of the fs laser and a pulseduration that is shorter than the material’sconduction time creates a very nearly purevaporisation mechanism. Since there is no meltcreation during the cutting process, there is noburr, which is very beneficial for such materials asnitinol.

Take the example of the ubiquitous coronary stent,one of the first devices manufactured with bothNd:YAG and fibre lasers. First, the part has to bemachined, then honed, or cleaned out inside with amechanical tool, and finally deburred. Then achemical etch process must be performed to cleanup around the edges, followed by an electro-polishing step.

These steps are quite time consuming. They canalso cause the part to become brittle or deformedand may result in micro cracks. Yields tend to be inthe 70 per cent range, which means the loss of asignificant amount of end product, which is asignificant material cost in the case of nitinol.

By contrast, the fs laser produces a burr-free cutthat drastically reduces the number of time-consuming post-processing steps; the part ismachined and then undergoes an electrochemicalprocess to round the edges. The integrity of thepart is improved and yields can be closer to 95 percent.

In addition, using a fs laser can be an attractiveproposition for end users who may be looking tobring the cutting process in-house, but do not wantto go through the arduous red tape exercise of alsobringing in house the necessary chemical post-processing materials and processes needed for fibrelaser cutting. Table 1 shows an ROI comparison of afemtosecond laser and a fibre laser cutting a nitinolcoronary stent.Figure 2: Fibre laser ‘wet’ tube cutting

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The fs laser with minimal heat input andexceptional heat input control is a very good toolfor cutting small features in small parts withexcellent edge quality and feature definition. Figure3 shows some examples of fs laser cutting.

The majority of stents and tubing are metal.However, FDA-approved polymer stents andscaffolds are now on the market, which can only becut with a femtosecond laser. The fibre laser doesnot absorb sufficiently well enough in the polymerto make quality cuts.

The femtosecond laser has such great photon densitythat it is absorbed by the polymer material through aprocess known as multi photon absorption, whichmakes cutting possible. This cutting can be furtherenhanced by using a green wavelength over onemicron, which provides better cut quality, fasterspeeds and a larger processing window.

Software, controllers andstagesNew digital motion controllers and improved stageaccelerations enable users to follow theprogrammed tooling path with reduced followingerrors and faster accelerations and speeds,resulting in faster cycle times.

In most tube cutting applications, the limiting factorfor cycle time is the motion, specifically the rotaryaxes, and so stages and controller performanceimprovements are a key part of maximisingproduction.

As part of day-to-day operation, the interaction ofthe operator with the control software user interfacecan optimise efficiency in setup, process monitoring

and reduce operator errors. The use of large screenmonitors has facilitated single screen operator-orientated interfaces.

Using the space on screen to organise areas ofusage clearly, operators no longer have to battle thecontrol software. Instead, they can become verycomfortable with it, and even use it to streamlineprocesses for operational efficiency.

In addition, in-line sensors, gauges, digital flowmeters, and valves can report on the status of allprocess-critical parameters, including assist gaspressure, water flow, and pressure. Not only arethese vital process conditions monitored, values canbe set with alarms and error states for low levels toavoid wasted material stock and, more importantly,equipment damage and down time.

Water system andautomated tube loadersIn many legacy-system designs, the water systemwas a weak point, requiring constant attention andmaintenance to keep the machine running. Suchissues as small water tank sizes, short lifetimepumps and lack of internal flow monitoring, alladded up to an unreliable system.

Compounding these issues is the fact that it wasdifficult to access the, even to simply change waterfilters. Fast forward to newer systems, which have a10-gallon tank size, four-level debris filtering,intelligent programmable flow valves, multiplesolenoid switches to prevent large water leaks, anddrawer-mounted hardware that enables filterchanging in seconds.

The user interface provides the operator allnecessary information, along with pre-cuttingsafeguards and go/no go limits to ensure that all iswell.

The standard stent and tube cutter is loadedmanually with tubing that is typically up to 3m long.The cutter then cuts parts and advances the tubeaccording to the program. At some point, theamount of tube remaining is of insufficient length to

Table 1: ROI comparison of a femtosecond laser and a fibre laser cutting a nitinol coronary stent

Femtolaser FibrePost-processing cost per unit $2.08 $11.01Post-processing cost per annum $214,892 $1,158,588Number of systems required 3 2System unit price $550,000 $300,000Capital outlay $1,650,000 $600,000Payback period in months 12 Not applicable

Figure 3: Examples of femtosecond laser cutting of finefeatures. (Left) 50 micron slot in 250 micron OD nitinol tubing.(Centre) 50 micron relief holes for flexible tubing. (Right) Edge

quality of nitinol stent with only ultra-sonic bath cleaning

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make the cut, and the remainder is removed and anew tube loaded.

With more pressure to improve productivity andminimise labour costs, many are now usingautomated tube loaders to feed the cutter tubes.While this is not new, there is now an increasedpotential for using these tube loaders for automatedwet connect on tube diameters larger than 1.5mm.Although one should not operate the tube cutter in atotally ‘lights out’ mode, using the automated loadercan significantly reduce labour allocated to themachine.

A key part of any system is making the hardwareusable for the operator on an everyday basis. Onefeature that contributes to this is using compositeover granite with better vibration damping. Becausethe composite has a uniform internal structure, itcan be mechanically modeled and so optimised forvibration isolation, load bearing capacity anddeflection under load.

This enables a cantilever arm to support the focusoptics and z and cross axes stages, providing a veryopen machine from an operator accessibilityperspective.

Figure 4 shows examples of convenient machineaccess, including equipment placed on pull outdrawers that makes changing water filters verystraightforward, along with any other necessaryservice items. It all adds up to increased throughputand better quality parts.

Whether using the fibre or femtosecond laser,improvements to motion, controller and controlsoftware make the latest stent and tube cuttingsystem superior to legacy systems or provide newcapability for future manufacturing needs.

Author:

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Geoff Shannon, Amada Miyachi America andDavid Van de Wall, Amada Miyachi Europe

Figure 4: Convenient operator access features. Sigma stent andtube cutter has large open workspace access. Operators can

access all equipment from large pullout drawers

Three-dimensional printing (3DP) and additivemanufacturing (AM) have evolved rapidly, enablingengineers, researchers, clinicians and medical-device specialists to develop new innovations andapproaches to biomedical engineering.

To keep pace with the extraordinary developmentsin the global phenomenon that is 3D printing, andto ensure that our biomedical-engineering studentswere being trained for the future, Prof ConorBuckley, assistant professor in biomedicalengineering in Trinity College Dublin,conceptualised and established Med3DP in 2015.

Med3DP is a student-led initiative creating on-demand medical devices using 3DP technology.Embedded as part of the Design and InnovationModule within the MSc in Bioengineering, whichtrains and educates engineers to enter the medicaldevice and biomedical sciences industry, theprogram spans both engineering and medicine andis inventive in its multidisciplinarity.

Med3DP is unique in its educational ethos. At itscore is the belief that engineers can make a globalimpact on humanitarian healthcare. Inspired by anarticle highlighting the work of Dr Tarek Loubani,who was 3D printing stethoscopes to alleviatemedical supply shortages caused by blockade in the

Gaza strip, Buckley believed that this aspect ofengineering was something all engineers shouldexperience and embrace.

As an engineering academic accustomed toincorporating cutting-edge technology into hisresearch, merging 3D printing with his teachingmodules was a logical and exciting step. The firststep in this initiative was to establish a 3D-printingfacility for the students to work together and bringtheir ideas forward.

Together with Prof Kevin Kelly, approximately€18,000 in support was raised by the generouscontributions from the Head of Department andcolleagues in mechanical and manufacturing

Trinity bridges humanitarianism andmedical-device design with 3D printing

Trinity College's MED3DP initiative is using 3D-printing technology toproduce on-demand medical devices, with huge potential benefits fordeveloping countries. Michael Monaghan reports

Back row: L-R: Susan Gunbay, Padraig Irwin, Michael O’CLaura Taboada, Alice Brettle,

Front Row: L-R: Pedro Díaz Payno (TCD teaching assistDorina Birsanu, Elvira Ruiz Jimenez, Pooja Mandal,

L-R: Susan Gunbay, Laura Perez-Denia, Michael O'Connor andDorina Birsanu at Dublin Maker 2017

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engineering, which allowed the purchase of anumber of desktop printers, basic tooling andsupplies.

This prototyping facility officially became known asBuildBase, which provided the platform that wasneeded to bring Med3DP to fruition.

The project briefFrom the outset, the brief for Med3DP was quiteopen for the students to interpret and determinehow they wished to proceed. Buckley provided anoverview of different activities by various

organisations and laboratories from around theglobe.

These included the work being pioneered by DrJulielynn Wong, who uses cutting-edge technologyto deliver healthcare solutions in diverseenvironments from outer space to remotecommunities with limited access to healthcareresources, as well as FieldReady, which addressesmany humanitarian needs through technology,design and engaging people in new ways.

For Med3DP, students were tasked with developingengineering solutions to enable rapid 3D printing ofsingle use, disposable medical devices to alleviate

medical difficulties and logistical challengesassociated with remote areas and disaster zones.In addition, students were tasked with developing awebsite with instructional videos and all designswere to made publicly available for download.

In the first year, students successfully designed andfabricated a number of instruments including forexample a finger-splint kit, umbilical-cord clips,tweezers, surgical kits and stethoscopes.

In 2016, Michael Monaghan, Ussher assistantprofessor in biomedical engineering, joined thefaculty of the Mechanical and ManufacturingEngineering Department at TCD and took the reinsof co-ordinating the Design and Innovation Modulein the 2016/2017 academic year.

As new faculty and being at a stage of his careerthat is critical in establishing his own researchgroup – and balancing the role of educator, mentorand administrator – he looked to his fellowcolleagues in engineering for advice in the new role.

“I was already aware of Med3DP during my researchcareer in Germany through Twitter and pressreleases and found it a very innovative approach toteaching and learning,” he said. “When asked totake Med3DP into the approaching academic year, Ijumped at the chance, applying some tweaks to fitwith his style of teaching and to accommodate thenew cohort of students enrolled in the Design andInnovation Module.”

For that new cohort of students, originality wasagain keenly pushed and, as Monaghan points out,even if the students were inspired by a pre-existingdesign, they had to modify it. Each student receivedan anonymous survey, seeking out those withdesign skills, leadership skills and medical students.

Connor, Prof. Michael Monaghan (MED3DP co-ordinator),Katelyn Genoud, Bruce McKee

ant), Surbhi Hablani, Caroline Patel, Laura Perez-Denia, , John Duffy, Paola Aprile (TCD teaching assistant)

Padraig Irwin and Katelyn Genoud at Dublin Maker 2017

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Monaghan and his teaching assistants then createdfour teams composed of members fromcomplimentary backgrounds. The final assessmentmode was a presentation of each group’s project,with students explaining why it was designed insuch a way, why it cost so much and how anaverage person who may not have the technicaltraining would use it.

Focus on invention andmodification

The focus on both invention and modification isclearly represented in the devices produced byMed3DP, with each one showing a remarkableattention to detail. A breast-pump design, forexample, with multiple printed parts including anattachment for generic plastic bottles, wasrepeatedly rejected until the final iterated designworked. Another team produced an otoscopeattachment to enable inner ear investigation using aconventional smartphone.

Attention was always paid to practicality, as “there’sa difference between functionality and usability”,according to Monaghan. Some devices are entirelyinnovative, such as the fetoscope, designed toobserve the foetal heartbeat – something that theMed3DP team seem confident does not yet exist ina 3D printing design sense. Even their website isoriginal in open-sourcing their designs to the publicand offering instructions on how to assemble anduse them.

Monaghan explained: “The website design andconstruction is completely spearheaded by thestudents. Collectively, the MSc students wereresponsible for website design and maintenance aswell as uploading of current projects, whilepreserving an already increasing repertoire ofmedical-device designs that Med3DP hasaccumulated in the past years.”

A particularly noteworthy past project is thestethoscope, comprised of two orange 3D-printedparts connected by generic tubing, surprisinglyelegant and lightweight and just as functional as astandard model though only a fraction of the €200price, coming in at around €1.50.

Buckley pointed out that even the GPs theyconsulted with agreed that the comparison withcommercial stethoscopes was extremely impressive,with Buckley noting, “Some of the consultantsbargained with students for a few stethoscopes inlieu of their advice.”

To enable successful collaborations, creativeteaching methods were necessary as well astechnological invention. “A lot of the traditionalengineering that we do involves going to lectures,reading from textbooks, labs and exams,” Buckleysaid. “There’s no exam in this. The exam was beinga team, being [continually] assessed andpresenting.”

It was a model welcomed by the students, who tookthe initiative to present their devices at the DublinMaker Fair and InspireFest in the first year ofMed3DP, which has now become an annual event.

“The community outreach and public engagementhas been a wonderful experience for the students,”added Monaghan. “The MSc students had toorganise their exhibition booths, explain theconcepts of 3D printing to non-experts and theoverall goal of Med3DP. It reinforced their ownunderstanding and deep learning of the project andhoned on their communication skills. It also led togreater exposure of the program through studentinterviews and media outputs and invitations toother fairs taking place in the country.”

Multidisciplinary work tobenefit medical industryAs evident in the project’s name, benefiting themedical industry is already closely linked to thetechnology it centres on, but it is only one learningoutcome that Buckley envisaged from the beginningof the project. Feeling that universities train

2017 MED3DP students showcasing the initiative atInspireFest 2017

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engineers for industry rather than society, he saw agap in the knowledge and skill sets of currentstudents and understood that it had to beaddressed.

“We had core biologist who had never been exposedto 3D printing,” said Buckley. “We had engineeringstudents who’d never seen it before. So, I wanted togive them exposure to it and this was a goodmethodology for that. I wanted teamwork; I wantedmultidisciplinary work; I wanted people withmedical backgrounds working with engineers anddesigners, so they could understand and startcommunicating with one another.

“For me, the nicest thing to see were the differentdimensions that different students brought to theprogram. You had medical students suggesting theyvisit doctors for feedback, and then designers goingout and meeting with them and working together.That’s how real life works.”

Monaghan agreed, saying, “A certain level of[supervised] autonomy was given to the studentsthroughout the Med3DP process. As mentioned,they ran and operated the Med3DP website but alsohad access to the @Med3DP Twitter handle andwere strongly encouraged to engage with clinicians,radiologists, healthcare workers and humanitarians.This has led to a lot of worthwhile collaborations inMed3DP and also gave the students ownership oftheir work.”

Monaghan also added that he kept a weekly diary ofthe students’ developments and the advice issuedto them at each clinic. “At the end of the project, Icould see that 95 per cent of my advice wasincorporated,” he added.

The project has certainly achieved its initialobjectives: to train biomedical engineers in the use

of 3D printing, to foster a culture of teamwork andmultidisciplinarity, and to instil the belief thatengineering innovative solutions can help make aglobal impact.

The project has far exceed expectations of bothacademics with students going beyond theclassroom with their work, giving up their weekendsto showcase at maker fairs, exhibitions and engagewith the general public and potential studentsinterested in pursuing engineering studies.

Developing the engineers’toolkitMonaghan and Buckley will continue to driveforward this exciting teaching initiative, which willcontinually evolve while ensuring to teach thefundamentals of engineering science, and designiterations. Central to this project is anunderstanding of failure as a necessary and usefultool in the engineer’s toolkit.

Over the course of the module, students workedwith multiple iterations of their devices, and eachweek refined and reworked their designs based onthe advice of the teaching assistants and academic.

With this approach, Buckley and Monaghan areproviding their students an opportunity rarely foundin the engineering classroom: courage to succeedand the experience of failure.

In addition, establishing integrated self-directedand problem oriented learning approaches inengineering curricula will no doubt inspire the nextgeneration of engineers who will continue toadvance this exciting technology.

Authors:

MED3DP projects from 2016 MED3DP projects

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Prof Conor Buckley, Department of Mechanical andManufacturing Engineering, School of Engineering;Trinity Centre for Bioengineering, TrinityBiomedical Sciences Institute; and AdvancedMaterials and Bioengineering Research (AMBER)Centre, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland &Trinity College Dublin

Michael Monaghan, Department of Mechanical andManufacturing Engineering, School of Engineering;Trinity Centre for Bioengineering, TrinityBiomedical Sciences Institute; and AdvancedMaterials and Bioengineering Research (AMBER)Centre, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland &Trinity College Dublin

Process-safety accidents can be prevented ifhazards are recognised and appropriately managed.This article is intended to raise awareness of someless-common hazards. It describes three incidentsinvolving temperature related, catastrophic failuresof shell and tube heat exchangers in the gasprocessing and oil-refining industries.

It also examines their root causes and highlightslessons to be learned. Company names have beenomitted from the main text because the focus isintended to be on the respective hazards and theirmitigation methods. The organisational failings thatcreated the conditions in which these incidentsoccurred are widely applicable to numerousorganisations.

Incident #1 – cold metalembrittlement

IncidentAn operational upset on a gas-processing plantreceiving natural gas from offshore gas fieldsresulted in loss of warm lean flow to the rich oil de-ethaniser (ROD) reboiler in the lean oil absorptionsection of the plant.

The absence of warm lean oilflow resulted inchilling of equipment to abnormally lowtemperatures in that section of the plant. Whenwarm lean oilflow was re-started, the ROD reboilerfailed catastrophically, releasing more than 10tonnes of hydrocarbon vapour to atmosphere.

Process-safety case studiesCatastrophic failures of heat exchangers

Peter Marsh analyses three temperature-related failures of shell andtube heat exchangers in gas processing and oil-refining plants fromaround the world, resulting in substantial loss of business and,tragically, the deaths of nine employees

Incident #1 – Cold Metal Embrittlement

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The vapour cloud was ignited by a fired heatersome 170m away. The flame front from theresulting deflagration burned through the cloudand, when it reached the ruptured exchanger, afierce jet fire developed beneath an elevatedpiperack junction where flame impingement causedthree more leaks.

The resulting fire burned for more than two days.Two employees were killed and eight more wereinjured. Supplies of natural gas to domestic andindustrial users were halted for more than twoweeks causing substantial losses to industry andmassive inconvenience to people in their homes.

Causes (1)The immediate cause of the initial fire was a loss ofprimary containment (LOPC) due to cold metalembrittlement, which led to brittle fracture of theROD reboiler channel end. Critical factors includedloss of lean oilflow for an extended period andabsence of remote-operated valves to isolateinterconnected process units.

Root causes included inadequate hazardidentification (low temperature hazard not known),inadequate operating procedures (due toinadequate hazard identification), inadequate

training (how to respond to loss of lean oil),inadequate alarm management (poor prioritisation),inadequate monitoring by experienced engineers(located remotely) and inadequate safetymanagement (Safety Case methodology notmandated or adopted).

LessonsCold metal embrittlement of carbon/low alloy steelsis a low probability, high consequence hazard thatis sometimes overlooked. Risk assessment can onlybe conducted against known hazards, so it isimperative that comprehensive process hazardanalysis studies (e.g. Hazop) are conducted onmajor hazardous facilities.

However, even if this is done, some hazards maystill be overlooked. Therefore, organisations shouldensure their workforces always remain mindful ofthe possibility of disaster and are diligent inreporting incidents and their root causes(organisational learning) (2).

Incident #2 – hightemperature hydrogenattack

IncidentThe middle shell in one of two parallel trains ofthree feed/effluent exchangers on a naphthahydrotreating unit failed catastrophically, resultingin an explosion and intense fire which burned formore than three hours. Seven employees working inthe immediate vicinity of the ruptured exchanger atthe time of the incident were killed.

The failed shell was fabricated from carbon steeland partially clad with 316 stainless steel (316 SS)liner. It had been in service approximately 38 years.The shellside fluid was reactor effluent (a relatively

Incident #2 – High Temperature Hydrogen AttackIncident #2 – High Temperature Hydrogen Attack

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clean service) while the tubeside fluid was reactorfeed (prone to fouling by corrosion deposits).

Causes (4)The immediate cause of the explosion and fire wasan LOPC due to high temperature hydrogen attack(HTHA) of the carbon steel shell at a point justdownstream of the 316 SS partial lining. Criticalfactors were high residual stresses in shell seamwelds due to lack of post-weld heat treatment andpresence of additional personnel assisting withrestreaming the exchanger train after off-linecleaning.

Root causes included inaccurate Nelson curve (3) forcarbon steel (this empirical curve predictssusceptibility to HTHA as a function of processtemperature and hydrogen partial pressure),ineffective hazard identification (HTHA susceptibilityassessed using design rather than actualconditions) and failure to apply inherently saferdesign principles.

LessonsHTHA occurs when carbon and low alloy steels areexposed to high hydrogen partial pressures at hightemperature (service exposure time is cumulative).The hydrogen reacts with carbides in the steel toform methane which cannot diffuse through thesteel. The loss of carbide weakens the steel andaccumulation of methane pressure in the steelcreates cavities and fissures which eventuallycombine to form cracks. HTHA damage is mostlikely to occur in highly stressed areas and heat-affected zones around welds.

It is critically important for new and existing units inhydrogen service that equipment is checked againstthe relevant Nelson curve for startup, shutdown andtransient conditions to identify appropriatemitigation strategies against HTHA.

Mitigations may include 1) selection of inherentlysafer (more HTHA-resistant) materials such as Cr-Mo steels, 2) imposition of strict operating limits, 3)provision of appropriate instrumentation to enableproper monitoring and 4) rigorous enforcement ofstartup, shutdown and emergency procedures. Notethat transient conditions include gradual changes tooperating conditions due to fouling of equipment ordeactivation of catalysts.

Incident #3 – temperembrittlementIncidentThe 40mm-thick 2.25 Cr/1.0 Mo channel head of a

combined feed exchanger on a semi-regenerativecatalytic reforming unit failed catastrophically whilstundergoing hydrostatic testing (‘hydrotesting’)during turnaround.

The exchanger had been in service forapproximately 23 years and had strength-weldedtube-to-tubesheet joints. The tubeside fluid wasreactor effluent and service conditions weretypically 25.5 barg and 480-530 oC. The intendedhydrotest pressure was 140 barg, but the ruptureoccurred at approximately 93.0 barg even thoughthe hydrotest water temperature was well above theminimum allowable 6°C.

Fortunately, no one was injured, but the turnaroundduration was extended by 20 days while the plantwas modified to allow startup of the unit with thisexchanger bypassed (the original exchanger trainhad no bypasses on either shellside or tubeside).

CausesThe immediate cause of the channel head failurewas brittle fracture due to temper embrittlement.Critical factors included the age, composition andthermal history of the steel (susceptibility to temperembrittlement) and inappropriate selection of thehydrotest pressure (too high for intended purpose).

The root cause was inadequate job knowledge (fullhydrotest pressure not required to comply withdesign codes and verify integrity of tube-to-tubesheet joints and external pressure envelope).

LessonsTemper embrittlement is a degradation mechanismthat causes a loss of toughness in low alloy Cr-Mosteels after extended exposure to temperatures inthe range 327-593 °C. The effect is mostpronounced in the range 427-510 °C and mostcommon in 2.25 Cr/1.0 Mo steels. It is caused bysegregation of tramp elements (P, Sn, Sb and As)and alloying elements (Mn and Si) along grainboundaries in the steel.

The loss of toughness is not evident at operatingtemperature and only affects the material whenexposed to relatively low temperatures (e.g. startupand shutdown). It can cause catastrophic brittlefracture.

Temper embrittlement cannot by detected bynormal non-destructive testing (NDT) inspectiontechniques so it should be assumed that all lowalloy Cr-Mo equipment is at risk of brittle fractureuntil the ductile-to-brittle transition temperaturehas been exceeded.

Internal pressures in susceptible equipment should

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not be allowed to exceed 25% of design pressureuntil the metal temperature exceeds the MinimumPressurisation Temperature (MPT) for thatequipment (MPT is a function of metal compositionand service history).

Summary• Most pressure equipment in gas processing/oil

refining is constructed from carbon or low alloysteels.

• Carbon and low alloy steels are susceptible tocold metal embrittlement when exposed to lowtemperatures (depressurisation/auto-refrigeration).

• Carbon and low alloy steels lose strength whenexposed to hydrogen at elevated temperaturesand pressures (high temperature hydrogenattack).

• Some low alloy Cr/Mo steels are susceptible totemper embrittlement after extended exposureto high temperatures but the effect is onlyevident when cool (startup, shutdown orhydrotest conditions).

• Gradual changes to operating conditions due toequipment fouling or catalyst deactivation maylead to accidental breach of operating limits.

References1) ‘The Esso Longford Gas Plant Accident’, Report

of the Longford Royal Commission, Parliament ofVictoria (1999)

2) ‘Lessons from Esso’s Gas Plant Explosion atLongford’, Andrew Hopkins PhD, CCH Australia(2000)

3) ‘API RP 941 Steels for Hydrogen Service atElevated Temperatures and Pressures inPetroleum Refineries and Petrochemical Plants”(2016)

4) ‘Catastrophic Rupture of Heat Exchanger (TesoroAnacortes Refinery)’, Report of the US ChemicalSafety and Hazard Investigation Board (2014)

Author:

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Peter Marsh, director of XBP Refining ConsultantsLtd, is a consultant process engineer working in theoil refining industry. He has experience in processtechnology training, process safety, processreliability, process optimisation, processtroubleshooting, project development andturnaround planning. He has over 30 years’experience working in senior technical roles withBP. He also spent three years with Davy McKeePacific Pty Ltd. He founded XBP RefiningConsultants Ltd in 2015.

The last twenty years has seen significantinvestments in biopharmaceutical manufacturing inIreland and this is set to continue with the likes ofBMS, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Regeneron, Shire and Alexionall undertaking major biopharmaceutical capitalprojects in Ireland.

Adequate bioburden control is of paramountimportance to the production of biopharmaceuticalsand this is achieved through proper equipmentpreparation, a combination of cleaning, steaming-in-place (SIP) and hot water sanitisation and carefulcontrol of process additions.

Whilst the industry has seen a move away from theblanket use of SIP across all areas of the processthis is still a common approach. The removal of SIPfrom process steps can provide significant capitaland plant complexity reductions. However thesanitisation activities need to be carefully managed,as part of a holistic contamination control strategy,

in order to ensure the integrity of the process is notcompromised.

The increased use of single-use systems, perhapslimited by processing scale, can offer significantbenefits.

This article is based on a presentation given at arecent Engineers Ireland seminar on ‘NewApproaches and Technologies inBiopharmaceuticals’. Before examining bioburdencontrol itself, however, one must define whatconstitutes biopharmaceutical products and hencethe importance of bioburden control, in order toplace it context.

A biopharmaceutical is typically defined as ‘anymedicinal product manufactured in, extracted from,or semi-synthesised from biological sources’. Theycan be composed of proteins, sugars, nucleic acids,living cells or tissues.

Bioburden control in biopharmaceuticalsManaging the risks

Chris Davis defines biopharmaceutical products, outlines the risksinherent in biopharmaceutical processes and examines how to preventmicrobial contamination

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Biopharmaceuticals can also be defined by referenceto their method of manufacture (generally isolatedfrom natural sources: micro-organisms, humans,plants or animals). They include a wide range ofproducts such as:

• Recombinant proteins, e.g. erythropoietin (usedto treat anaemia) and insulin (used to treatdiabetes);

• Monoclonal antibodies, e.g. etanercept (used totreat autoimmune diseases) and trastuzumab(used to treat breast cancer);

• Vaccines and• Advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMP),

which are being developed to treat a wide rangeof conditions.

Biopharmaceuticals are a huge market with anestimated market value of over $500 billion (€445billion) within the next five years.

Chemical and biologicalpharmaceuticalsUp until the latter stages of the 20th century, mostpharmaceutical products (active pharmaceuticalingredients, or API) were relatively small moleculesproduced by chemical synthesis. The differencesbetween chemical and biological API(biopharmaceuticals) are outlined in Table 1 and itis these differences that require the differentproduction methods and drive the regulatoryrequirements particularly with respect to bioburdencontrol.

Biopharmaceuticals are large complex moleculeswhose biological activity is dependent on the threedimensional structure and therefore they have to besynthesised by biological systems. This is illustratedin Figure 1 (above), showing a monoclonal antibodyand two small molecules and contrasting thedifferences in size and molecular complexity.

Generally, biopharmaceutical processes consist offive functional steps, with each step including anumber of different unit operations (as illustrated inFig 2):

• Fermentation/cell culture – at the start of theprocess, the cells are cultivated in thefermentation (microbial cell systems) or cellculture (mammalian cell systems) stages;

• Harvest and recovery – the cells, or cell debris (ifthe cells have to be broken to release theproduct) are separated from the product stream;

• Purification – the product is then purified in aseries of process steps, includingchromatography and ultrafiltration;

• Final purification – where the product stream isconcentrated; and

• Bulk filling – where the bulk drug substance isfilled into containers for transfer and furtherprocessing into the final dosage form.

Table 1: Comparison between chemical and biological API

Feature Chemical BiologicalMolecule Small, Large, complex

Well-characterised Difficult to characteriseReaction and process Well-defined chemical process ComplexProcess conditions Organic solvent based, elevated Aqueous based, ambient

temperatures and pressures (room/body) temperature and pressure

Product stability Good PoorSusceptible to microbial contamination No YesRoute of administration Oral (tablet, liquid), Injected

InjectedProduct sterilisation Terminal, thermal Aseptic processing,

filtration

Figure 1: Biological and chemical API

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Why arebiopharmaceuticals atrisk?Biological systems operate in aqueous-basedenvironments at ambient temperatures andpressures and therefore are often unstable tosolvents and extremes of pH or temperature. Thisdefines the processing conditions forbiopharmaceuticals and is why they are susceptibleto microbial contamination.

The biological molecules are a food source formicrobes and the processing conditions aregenerally ideal for microbial growth. The elevatedtemperatures and pressures, and the absence ofwater in the solvent-based chemical processes,effectively protects the products from microbialcontamination.

In addition, the stability of chemical API means that,if required, they can be heat sterilised in the finalcontainer to produce a sterile product. BiologicalAPI need to be filter sterilised into sterilecontainers, thus requiring processing in a mannerthat maintains a sterile product.

If a process or product becomes contaminated withmicroorganisms the ensuing microbial growth may

destroy the product and/or may produce metabolicby-products that will not be removed bysubsequent processing and could be toxic to thepatient. Thus bioburden control ofbiopharmaceutical processes is of paramountimportance.

Bioburden control of the process is achieved byensuring that the process equipment is clean andsanitary before processing starts, controlling thebioburden of all process contact raw materials andutilities, including in-process bioburden reductionsteps (primarily filtration) where required, and thenensuring contact between the process and theenvironment is minimised to prevent adventitiouscontamination.

In order to have bioburden control, one needsbioburden limits and specifications. Bioburdenlimits are set by the requirements of the productand the ability of the process to remove orinactivate bioburden. In most biopharmaceuticalprocesses, the final product will be sterile andimpact of bioburden contamination of the processwill be significant.

Whilst the bulk drug substance will be defined as‘low bioburden’ there is, in reality, zero tolerance ofbioburden contamination.

In terms of the process requirements for bioburdenspecifications the upstream process (fermentation

Figure 2: Typical biopharmaceutical process

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or cell culture) will be axenic (free from livingorganisms other than the species required), withbioburden free media and additives, with thesubsequent process steps, and associated solutions,defined as low bioburden.

Prevention of microbialcontaminationIn order to prevent microbial contamination of theprocess, the equipment must be sanitary (free fromcontamination) and the process protected fromadventitious environmental contamination.Therefore it is necessary to:

• Ensure the equipment is designed such that itcan be easily cleaned without dismantling;

• Ensure the process equipment is clean andsanitary before use;

• Ensure the process stream is not exposed to theenvironment;

• Ensure any process additions (gas/liquid/solid)do not compromise the bioburden specifications;

• Include specific bioburden reduction steps whereappropriate;

• Document and validate the above.

Before processing, equipment must be cleaned andthen sanitised. Cleaning is required to removeresidual process material that could cause cross-contamination or could prevent effectivesanitisation. In order to clean and sanitiseequipment it must be designed for hygienicoperations. This means smooth internal surfaceswith no dead-legs or cervices that could harbourmaterial.

It is important to understand, in terms ofbiopharmaceutical API, the difference betweensanitisation and sterilisation:

• Sterilisation is defined as the absence of livingorganisms (1) and, in terms of pharmaceuticalregulations, must be validated as such. Generallyit is based on thermal processes that willinactivate heat-resistant bacterial spores andrequires exposure to saturated steam at >121°Cfor at least 15 minutes.

• Sanitisation is the reduction of microbial levels tobelow acceptable levels and can be carried outwith either heat or chemical processes.

As bulk biopharmaceutical production is a lowbioburden process, sanitisation is generallytherefore the defined end point. However, as thereis a zero tolerance of bioburden in the process,steaming-in-place (SIP) with sterilising conditions iscommonly used as the sanitisation method ofchoice.

Author:

Acknowledgements:The author would like to thank Thakur Rathi (JacobsIreland) and Shane Breslin (Jacobs Ireland) for theirhelp in preparing this article.

References:(1) Rules and Guidance for Pharmaceutical

Manufacturers and Distributors 2002. Sixth Edition. HMSO

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Chris J. A. Davis CEng FIChemE, Jacobs EngineeringIreland

The reopening of Páirc Uí Chaoimh on 22 July 2017realised a long-held ambition by the Cork CountyBoard (CCB) of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA)to upgrade and redevelop the stadium, providingenhanced facilities, capable of serving the 14

county teams and clubs, colleges and schools inhurling, Gaelic football, camogie and ladies football.Malachy Walsh and Partners was appointed asdesign project manager in January 2012, withresponsibility for managing the project through to

Legend on the LeeThe redevelopment of Cork’s Páirc Uí Chaoimh stadium

Séamus Kelly outlines the structural design and constructionconsiderations behind the spectacular €80 million redevelopment ofPáirc Uí Chaoimh, which will be the first stadium in Ireland to be setwithin an unenclosed municipal park

Fig 1: 1. Stadium Central Street 2. Marina Park between Centre Park Road and Atlantic Pond 3. Centre Park Road 4. Monahan Road 5. TheMarina 6. River Lee 7. Atlantic Pond 8. Second playing pitch 9. 13m-wide walkway 10. Event Control Centre 11. South Stand 12. North

Stand 13. City Terrace 14. Blackrock Terrace 15. Podium walkway with seating tier to second playing pitch (image: MWP)

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construction completion. The firm also hadresponsibility for all engineering disciplines, fireengineering, disability access and environmentalassessment. The other project members were:

• Architect: Scott Tallon Walker• Planning: Cunnane, Stratton, Reynolds• Archaeologist: Lane Purcell• Quantity surveyors: Michael Barrett Partnership

CCB appointed a steering group of five personnelwho were Frank Murphy, Bob Ryan, Ger Lane,Christy Cooney and Pearse Murphy. Part of their rolewas to direct the project and to advise and liaisewith the design team on all matters.

Páirc Uí Chaoimh will be the first stadium in Irelandto be set within an unenclosed municipal park,called Marina Park, currently being developed byCork City Council (CCC). It is understood that Phase 1 of the park, extending between Centre ParkRoad and the Atlantic Pond (Fig 1), will becompleted in 2019.

The section of the park incorporating the provisionof access and exit to and from the stadium wasincluded in the planning development from theoutset, to ensure that the stadium construction wasself sufficient in all aspects. This was necessarybecause the timetable for Marina Park was laterthan the planned stadium completion of June 2017.

History of Páirc UíChaoimhPáirc Uí Chaoimh is a long-established sportsground and has been the headquarters for Cork cityand county GAA activities since it was established in1898. It was constructed on reclaimed land,originally existing as mudflats of the River Lee, inclose proximity to and north of the stadium. It islocated 2km from Cork city centre, within the citydocklands, and is part of the scenic area of theMarina.

The ground was redeveloped in June 1976 toprovide for a single storey, part seated/partstanding bowl-shaped stadium, with a capacity of50,000.

Revised stadium safety criteria and theimplementation of the Irish Code of Practice forSafety at Sports Grounds in January 1996 (The BlueBook), and later other codes (including the UK Guideto Safety at Sports Grounds 2008 (Green Guide) andthe Northern Ireland Guide to Safety in SportsGrounds 2007 (Red Book)) and guidelines, resultedin a progressive reduction of the stadium capacityto 40,000 by 2013. If left intact, the stadium couldno longer attract major games because ofinsufficient capacity.

In addition, player and spectator requirements forenhanced facilities and levels of comfort meant that

Photo: Dennis Horgan

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the stadium was no longer fit for purpose. However,CCB’s ambition could not be realised without theacquisition of land.

Planning of the stadiumredevelopmentExtensive discussions were held between CCC andCCB to discuss how the objectives and requirementsof each party would be achieved. The key issueswere:

• Floodlit stadium provision with a capacity of45,300 for games, and up to 47,000 forconcerts;

• A full-size 4G synthetic floodlit second playingpitch with viewing accommodation;

• Connectivity between the stadium and MarinaPark, which will be a linear west-east wetlands-style development;

• Need to provide for a 13m-wide public walkwaybetween the stadium and the second playingpitch;

• Cork City Council requirement to provide floodrelief storage for Cork South Docklands throughan enlarged Atlantic Pond and for 5,300m3 of anattenuated surface water storage volumeunderneath the second playing pitch, achievedby storm cell storage;

• Safeguarding the stadium perimeter to a level of0.7m OD, consequent to the decision to providefor flood relief storage to the south of thestadium;

• Providing for the diverse usage that would allowfor access and egress for spectator attendanceon match days and for meeting the needs of theusers of the Marina Park on match days, andnon-match days.

Agreement was reached for the purchase of 2.59hectares (6.39 acres) by CCB from CCC, realisingthe ambition to redevelop the stadium. The way wascleared for the submission of a Planningapplication, made in November 2013 to CCC. Keyrequirements in the project, other than thosealready mentioned, were:

• Creation of a venue that was multipurpose, withflexibility in the south-stand layout whereneeded to provide for functions, seminars andmeetings, realising a layout that could not beconstrained by column obstructions due to theneed for large open-plan space at differentlevels;

• Need for a premium level with 2,200 seats in anopen-plan arrangement. A decision had beenmade by CCB not to provide corporate boxes;

• Traffic management;• Environmental protection to the Atlantic Pond,

streams and nearby housing.

The stadium playing area was retained as hadexisted and the stadium design provided for self-contained sectors with seated accommodation of21,300 and terraced accommodation of 24,000.The original covered south stand and the uncoverednorth stand were demolished in their entirety, andwere replaced by a three-tier covered south stand,the principal stand and facilities area,accommodating 13,300 and a single-tier coverednorth stand, accommodating 8,000.

The existing precast concrete frames to the terraceswere retained and extended to support a new singleprecast concrete tier, accommodating anunchanged capacity from that previously existing of12,000 at each of the west (city end) and east(Blackrock end).

Mention has been made previously of ongoingregulatory change to stadium design. The adoptionof the European Code of Practice BSEN 13,200:2012by Ireland in 2012 included the requirementhenceforth that for all new stadia, the exit capacityon level surfaces was reduced from 109persons/minute to 83 persons/minute. On steppedsurfaces, this was reduced from 73 person/minuteto 66 persons/minute. Páirc Uí Chaoimh is the firststadium in Ireland designed to this more onerousrequirement. A key design factor also was theimplementation of an emergency evacuation time of6.5 minutes from the entire stadium.

The design of the south stand retained the bowlconcept of the previous stadium by the matching ofthe perimeter parapet level around the single-tiersection with the middle-floor premium level of thesouth stand.

Fig 2: Revit model (image: MWP)

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A key requirement also was the separation of theplayers and officials from spectators. Accordingly,all players, officials’ facilities and associatedservices were provided at ground-floor level, servedby a central ‘street’ (Fig 2.) This enables team busesto enter the stadium and deliveries to be madewithout interaction with spectators.

Design featuresAccess on designated match days is from MonahanRoad and otherwise is from the Marina. This is toensure that the area within the Marina Park, southof the stadium, functions as a public park free fromtraffic on non-designated match days. Outside-broadcasting (OB) vehicles are catered for withinand outside the stadium.

A fourth level, a BMS-controlled plant room level,above the level of spectator accommodation in thesouth stand, was designed to accommodate allequipment and services, facilitating the stadiumoperation.

The architectural design of the south standprovided for separate stairs access to each of thethree suspended spectator levels. Two ‘scissors’staircases were used either side of the southelevation to provide for separate access to themiddle premium and upper levels.

The lower level is accessed through externalstaircases, using an external podium that alsoprovides access to the stand that serves the secondplaying pitch. The podium can also accommodatethe public who may wish to stop and have a snackon their walk through the Marina Park.

The staircase are complemented by ‘book end’staircases at either end of the south stand elevation,facilitating also the availability of additional exitsfor emergency evacuation in addition to the primaryprovision of access to the CCB offices at the westernside and to the proposed museum at the easternside.

A major factor in the terraces design was the desireto relocate the vomotries from the positions asexisting to a higher level, thereby ensuring greaterdispersion of spectators on entering the terracesand alleviating the problem arising from spectatorsentering at a relatively low level within the terrace.The tendency has been for spectators to remain inclose proximity to the entry point, promotingcongestion and inhibiting other patrons fromaccessing higher levels within the terrace.Some 220 spaces each for wheelchair users andtheir companions were provided incorporating all

levels, all sectors. Each level of the south stand isserved by four passenger lifts, in addition to thekitchen and waste goods lift.The planning application accompanied by anEnvironmental Impact Assessment was approved byCork City Council in April 2014. Subsequently, itwas appealed by third parties to An Bord Pleanála,which conducted an oral hearing in September2014. Permission to proceed was issued at the endof November 2014.

Spectator facilitiesThere was a requirement that each level would beserviced by self-contained facilities and also bybars, shops and hot-food kiosks. There had beenmany complaints from spectators about stadiumdesign, such as inadequate concourses and thequeuing time required to access facilities duringgames. Particular attention was paid to this aspectand concourses provide for between 40-60% of thesector capacity at each level, with a space allowanceof 0.5m2/person.

Space requirements for spectators were a keyfactor. A width of 800mm was provided for allseating at all levels in the south stand and 760mmwidth was provided in the north stand.Measurement of the ease of viewing is obtainedthrough what is known as a C Factor. C60 wasadopted as a minimum requirement.

There are 14 bars, seven hot-food kiosks and tenconfectionary shops throughout the stadium. Thereis also a central restaurant at premium level,capable of accommodating up to 450 persons atany time, serving carvery food on match days.Smoking areas for spectators were provided inopen-air sections of the concourses at each level.Alcohol is not permitted in spectator viewing areas.

View from the redeveloped Pairc Ui Chaoimh City End Terrace.Pic: Jim Coughlan

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Structural design andconstructionconsiderationsSubsoils consist of impermeable silt/clay overlyinggravels at a depth of 3m varying, below surfacelevel, influenced by artesian water. It dictated theuse of bored piling and suspended slabsthroughout. CFA piles of average depth of 16-18mwere used and varied in diameter from 450-900mm.

A decision was made that the stadium would bepredominantly a reinforced concrete structure,incorporating precast elements where possible. Thefire resistance required for the structure was 60minutes. The architectural and engineering detailingwas carried out using three-dimensional revit,generating views of every aspect of the stadium andenhancing clash detection.

Roofs

The cantilevered roof over the main south stand is40m long and consists of structural steel trusses ina latticed tower arrangement with a topmost level of43.15m above ground level. A key requirement wasthat there would be no internal columns obstructingspectators’ viewing.

The trusses were fabricated by Zeman, the Austrianfirm, and transported to site, assembled in pairscomplete with purlins and bracing and then paintedprior to erection, all to reduce erection assembly atan elevated level. A 750t crane was used to lift eachassembly, weighing 67.3t.

Counterbalance to the trussed structure wasprovided by a tower arrangement and by acolonnade of columns at the south elevationaccommodating the compressive and tensile forcesarising in a tied structure, transmitting these forcesto the supporting reinforced concrete columns andfoundations.

The north single-tier stand roof was constructedusing castellated steel cantilevered beams, 21mlong, supported by reinforced concrete columnsalong the north elevation.

South stand transfer truss

The design brief for the south stand required twoareas of column free space. This significantlyinterrupted the otherwise uniform 7.6m structuralgrid.

The first area was within the 590m2 conferenceroom at the middle premium level two, requiring acompletely unobstructed space. Achieving thismeant omitting structural columns, thereby creatinga clear span of 22.8m that had to be bridged.

The solution that was adopted was a form ofreinforced concrete vierendeel-type truss. Thisutilised all of the available height from the upperlevel to the underside of the roof, approximately12m. This concept provided a stiffer solutionthereby eliminating excessive load shedding to theremote edge columns.

The second column free area was at ground level,within the service road, where one column was tobe omitted to provide a parking area for the busesand OB vehicles. This created a clear span of 15.2mwhere the loads of the lower level concourse floorslab had to be transferred to other columns.Furthermore, height restrictions allowed only a400mm structural zone beneath the slab soffit.

Incoming services

Particular features were:

• ElectricalThe incoming electrical supply is 150 KVA andsuffices for non-match-day event activity. Whenthe electrical level exceeds this threshold, fourgenerators, capacity of 3.2 MW, serve thestadium. These are located in the fourth-floorplant room.

• Surface waterAll roof surface-water is collected and dischargedto storage tanks, used to service the stadiumplaying-pitch sprinkler system, installed as partof the project. Attenuated water is discharged toan underground holding tank to the Atlantic Pondand, ultimately, through controlled conditions tothe River Lee.

• FloodlightingFloodlighting of 1500 lux in the stadium playingpitch was provided. This is the first time that LEDlighting has been provided in a stadium in Irelandand significantly reduces glare and eliminatesflicker in comparison with the more frequentcurrent use of metal halide lighting. The latter isbeing used in the second playing pitch with a luxlevel of 500. Particular care was taken in thedesign to ensure control of light spill levels to theadjoining roads and nearby housing.

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• Traffic and transportationA detailed study was carried out by MWP intoimproving the spectator use of availabletransport, parking at appropriately designatedareas. A mobility management plan was preparedand is considered as an ongoing live document.

Construction and conclusion

Demolition of the Stadium commenced on 25 March2015 and was carried out by Loftus Recycling andDemolition Ltd. Piling of the south and northstands, as a separate contract, advanced during theperiod June-October 2015 and was carried out by PJEdwards Ltd during the main contract tender period,which culminated with the appointment of John Sisk& Son (Holdings) Ltd as main contractor. Theycommenced on 7 December, 2015.

The grassed stadium playing pitch was retained,provided with new drainage, a sprinkler system andreseeded, other than a 6m perimeter width, whichaccommodated craneage during the constructionperiod. Incessant rain fell during the period

December 2015 to April 2016, within which timeover 30 days of rainfall – in excess of 2 x 5 yearaverage – was recorded.

The redevelopment of Páirc Uí Chaoimh provides fora stadium within public parkland. It had beendesignated as a hub venue for the Rugby World Cupin 2023, in Ireland’s sadly unsuccessful application.

The playing pitch is the focus of activity within thestadium, enhanced by the facilities provided in thenew stands and terraces, creating a wonderfulplayer and spectator experience on the banks of theRiver Lee.

Author:

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Séamus Kelly, BE, CEng, FIEI, Malachy Walsh and Partners

The ruined church of St Mary’s of Bannow stands ona grassy headland at the mouth of Bannow Bay, inthe south-east corner of Ireland. Cows graze up tothe low stone walls of the graveyard that surroundsthe roofless church. This is all that now remains ofthe once-thriving medieval town of Bannow.

The location, the extent and the layout of the townhave been the subject of speculation. It has beendescribed variously, and erroneously, as havingsunk under the sea – an Irish Heracleion or, havingbeen buried under the sand, an Irish Pompeii.

There are no known maps of Bannow to show eitherthe exact location or the layout of the town. Thegeneral layout of the town can, however, beestablished by studying the written descriptionscontained in the surveys carried out in during theyears following the uprising of 1641 and byreferring to the descriptions of what little remainedof the town in the mid 1800s, as contained inarticles written in the Dublin Penny Journal, theJournal of the Archaeological Society of Kilkennyand Samuel Lewis’ Topographical Dictionary ofIreland of 1837.

In the years following the Irish Rebellion of 1641,various surveys of landholdings and landholderswere carried out in order that land, owned by theCatholic Irish involved or considered complicit inthe rebellion, could be transferred to those loyal tothe English Parliament and those who backed thesuppression, including the Cromwellian soldiers.

The document categorised in the National Library ofIreland as The Cromwellian survey of the towns ofWexford, Fethard and Bannow giving the valuationand proprietors in 1641 was transcribed in 1875 bythe historian Philip Hore from “books in the PublicRecord”. It was subsequently published in hisseminal work, History of the Town and County ofWexford.

The manuscript version refers in detail to the townsof Wexford, Bannow and Fethard. It includes a

written description ofthe landholdings andbuildings within thetown of Bannow,giving a descriptionof each plot orbuilding, the streeton which it islocated, its area andthetenants/possessorsat the date of thesurvey, and theproprietors of thesame in 1641.

Rebuilding BannowMapping the abandoned medieval Wexford town

Bannow has disappeared from maps and the landscape, but charteredengineer Ian Magahy has ‘virtually rebuilt’ the settlement from medievalland surveys

Fig 1: Map of Wexford and Bannow

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Exploring Bannow on footIt is reasonable to assume that the surveyordescribes the various streets in the order he comesupon them, walking. This assumption is supportedby the fact that, upon approaching junctions, hedescribes the final house plots as facing the nextstreet listed in the survey.

Therefore, High Street follows and joins LackeyStreet, which joins at “the Cross” with New Streetand Little Street etc. It is also highly probable thatthe sequence of the various holdings as describedindicates that each is proximate to the next.

Gardens and house plots are occasionally givenapproximate locations, for example “at the Northend of the Street”, “South of the Graveyard”, “East ofthe church”, etc. As the locations of the church, thegraveyard and the castle are known; this givesvaluable information.

One of the houses is described as adjoining thecastle and lands of Nicholas Loftus. The “lands” are,therefore, adjacent to the castle. As the location ofthe castle is known, the lands around the castledefine the extent of the town locally.

The areas of each plot are given. These are roundedto within one tenth of an acre, one fifth of an acreor half an acre. It is clear from these broadmeasurements that the plots were guessed at,

probably by eye, and most likely rounded up to aconsiderable degree. The plots, therefore, can onlybe approximate.

The street referred to as Lackey Street is probablyoriginally La Quay, being along the quay of thetown. A similar-named street fronts onto theBarrow estuary at Ballyhack.

“The Cross” referred tomay be the confluenceof the four streets, ormay be a physicalcross, as suggested byHore (Hore 1910-11,449). The “burgess”plots (plots leased tothe town’s occupants)are generally inmultiples of one tenthof an acre. This area isthe same as thatknown to have beenallocated to eachburgess in New Ross.

Furthermore, it ties in with the areas of the BannowSurvey, the smallest of which is one-tenth of anacre, the larger plots probably being amalgamationsof earlier smaller ones.

Church featuresThe Dublin Penny Journal (Vol 2, No 55 p18 – July20, 1833) describes, in a somewhat fanciful fashion,the area around the church as it pertained at thetime. The author describes “heights (of sand) placedparallel and crossed at right angles” and “thesummit of an ancient steeple rising in the midst ofthis solitude”.

This steeple is probably the tall chimney referred toin the subsequent article. The article continues,“The parallel lines clearly indicate the direction ofthe streets…in following the course of one of thestreets…one sees where the sea originallyapproached it: for on slightly digging, wediscovered the remains of an old quay made ofbricks.”

The author would have approached the churchfollowing the road that currently leads to it.Therefore, the “street” the author took down to the“quay” is another, and is High Street. This streetruns down to the location where the old quaystarted and where a stone structure (not brick asdescribed) can be seen today, under the vegetation.

Artist's impression of Bannow in medieval times

Fig 2: Extract from Hore’stranscription of the Bannow

survey as published

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The Dublin Penny Journal (Vol 2, No 56, p32 – July27 1833) is more detailed and is ascribed by theeditor to a Rev Robert Walsh, probably the Waterford-born antiquarian and Trinity College Dublin graduatewho lived from circa 1772 to 1852. The authordescribes entering onto the church yard by an oldstile (currently existing) and being advised by hiscompanion that he was “now in the High Street, in themidst of it”.

The west wall of the graveyard may correspond withthe east side of High Street and the east wall of thegraveyard demarcates Lady Street (possibly OurLady’s Street originally, changed for Cromwelliansensibilities).

The author describes a “square mass of solidmasonry, about seven feet high” rising from thesandy hillocks where blown sand had built up it andasserts that it is “the chimney of the town-housepeeping above the soil, while the rest of the edificewas buried beneath it”.

He goes on to confirm that there were “several widestreets, crossing one another… One of them randown to the sea at the mouth of the harbour” (HighStreet). He found there “a fine quay at the edge ofthe water two hundred yards in length and higherup the foundation of a very extensive edificeevidently some public building”.

Derivation of saints’ names

Rev Walshe also writes that “from the Quit rent rollsI examined at Wexford”, the town’s streets included“among others, High Street, Weaver Street, StGeorge’s Street, Upper Street, St Toolock’s street, StMary’s Street, St Ivory’s Street, Lady Street and LittleStreet”. The Bannow Survey makes no reference toSt George’s Street, Upper Street, St Toolock’s Street,St Ivory’s Street or even St Mary’s Street.

There are no such saints as ‘Ivory’ or ‘Toolock’, butSt Ivory may be a rendering of St Ibar (also knownas St Ivor or St Iberius). Similarly, St Toolock may bea variation of St Tullogue, the name ascribed bySamuel Lewis to St Doologue’s church in Wexford.

Two further pieces appeared in The Transactions ofthe Kilkenny Archeological Society (Vol 1, No 2,1850) ‘The Bay and the Town of Bannow’ Nos I andII. From the second of these, further informationcan be gleaned. JC Tuomey describes the remains ofthe town around the same time comprising “smallsand hills varying from five to fifteen feet in height”.He also mentions the ongoing removal of the sandfor use a fertiliser.

He describes the foundations of the houses andwalls of houses as being a few feet high and beingbuilt of a green flag or slate “to be found up thecoast a half mile to the south-east” (presumablyaround Clammers Point), and also of rounded beachstone.

Tuomey formed the erroneous opinion that thehouses around the church were suburbs of a townlocated further north around an old coastguardstation, facing north into the bay (aroundBrandane). He went on to describe the chimney atthe south-west side of the graveyard as “a funnel ofeighteen inches square” and “the sides of it beingthe same dimensions”; you could “trace its lengthfor twelve feet (fallen) where a gravestone cuts it”and that locals recall it being “thirty to forty feet inlength its stones having been used to build this (thegraveyard) walls”.

This chimney was used to post election notices on,but Tuomey states that he saw no reason to considerthat it may have been a tholsel (town hall). TheBannow Survey, however, describes one particularbuilding as “the stone walls of a house before thecross” measuring 60 feet x 24 feet: a sizeablestructure. Its location is consistent with Toumey’sdescription of it in the south-west corner of thegraveyard.

It is probable that this building, of which thechimney formed part, was indeed the town hall.This is further supported by the fact that legalnotices in respect of elections were fixed to thischimney.

Layout at time of BannowSurveyFigure 4 shows how the town would have appearedat the time of the Bannow Survey. Every plot of land

Figure 3: Conjectural reconstruction of the town (looking north) inthe late seventeenth century based on documentary sources

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and housedescribed (inruins orotherwise) hasbeen plottedand ‘best fitted’into the overallplan. The size ofthe town is,therefore,broadlyaccurate, beinga sum of thevariouslandholdingsdescribed.

The locations ofthe castle and thechurch are certain.The location of the town hall is approximate and islocated near the Cross. The location of LackeyStreet (almost certainly La Quay originally) is nearthe obvious location for the Quay, and is the firststreet surveyed arriving from the north.

High Street definitely ran north to south, and waslocated west of the church as shown. An area offHigh Street, north of the church, remainsunaccounted for. It is possible that some of the landholdings that have been presumed to lie west of thestreet in fact lay in this area. This would modify theplan somewhat though not substantially. It is morelikely that some or all of this area was commonage,Little Street and New Street converge at the Crossand Little Street ran east-west as shown. The Cross(where markets would have been held) is locatednear the town hall, which is logical.

The location of Lady’s Street is the most difficult toestimate. The location shown is a ‘best fit’ and issupported by the presumption that it ran to theChurch of St Mary (being originally possibly OurLady’s Street) and with the fact that it runs past thelocation of Lady’s Well. Weaver Street meets Lady’sStreet and Little Street and is, therefore, probably as

shown. The convergence of these streets is difficultto map with a level of certainty.

Having established, with a reasonable degree ofconfidence, the layout of the town at the time of theBannow Survey in 1655, and finding it consistentwith the general morphology of planned Anglo-Norman towns of the period, the writer feels that itis reasonable to take it that this morphology orlayout originated during the 13th century.

Bannow possessed a quay, a church and a castle, atown hall and market square, and comprisedperhaps 50 to 75 burgage plots. Taking themultiple of at least five persons per burgage, thissuggests a population of 250-400 inhabitants. Sucha layout is shown in Figure 4, providing views of thetown as it may broadly have appeared in the late-medieval period.

Figure 5 shows a view northward of the location ofthe town today. Figure 6 shows the town as it mayhave looked in the 1300s. The causeway whichformed the dam for a tidal mill can be seen (still) inthe top (centre) of the picture. The channel thatexisted in the middle ages between the town andBannow Island can has now become solid land,which silting up led to the decline of the town, as itno longer served as an effective port and trademoved to New Ross.

Author:

Figure 4: Conjectural plan of Bannow inthe late medieval period

Figure 5: The view northward of the location of the town today

Figure 6: Image of the town as it may have looked in the 14th century

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Ian Magahy, chartered engineer, BE, MBA, CDip. AF,CEng, MIEI, qualified from University College Corkin 1984 and worked in Ove Arup & Partners inIreland and the UK. Having graduated with a MBAfrom Trinity College, Dublin in 1990 he joined NJO’Gorman & Associates Ltd Consulting Engineersand worked as an associate director until 1998,when he set up his own practice, Ian MagahyAssociates – now Magahy Broderick Associates withpartner Kieron Broderick.

In 1867, a great Irishman was laid to rest. Anhonour guard of 700 rail-workers and a funeralcortege of 230 carriages mournfully processed toGlasnevin Cemetery and his mortal remains werereverentially placed beside that of another greatIrishman, the ‘Great Emancipator’ himself, DanielO’Connell.

But who was this man who was so greatlyhonoured? An important man obviously, a greatindustrialist certainly, but many an importantemployer has died without being laid to rest in suchpride. William Dargan was all these but what manyhave forgotten is that he helped to save thousandsof lives and rejuvenate a country on the brink oftotal collapse.

Born into a tenant farming family in 1799 inKilleshin on the Laois/Carlow border, WilliamDargan showed promise in maths and accounting atthe local hedge school. While working in a localsurveyor’s office, his talent was noticed bybusinessman John Alexander. As a result, he andlocal MP Henry Parnell wrangled Dargan a positionwith renowned Scottish engineer Thomas Telford.

It was here that he spent his apprenticeship, firstlyas a works inspector, then engineering ancillaryprojects such as embankments and finally tosections of railway. He impressed Telford so muchthat in 1824, he asked Dargan to survey andconstruct a road in Dublin between Raheny andSutton. When it was completed it was described as“a model for other roads” and established hisreputation as a major public-works contractor.

Over the next few years, Dargan began to specialisein canals, completing sections of the Grand Canaland the Ulster Canal. With these, Dargan gained a

William DarganThe engineer who rejuvenated a nation on its knees

Kenneth Mitchell's ancestors were employed by William Dargan onIreland’s railways and canals, which saved their lives during the Famine.He writes that Dargan was not just Ireland’s greatest engineer, he wasone of history's greatest Irishmen

Dublin-Kingstown Railway 1834. Drawn by A Nicholl, Engravedby J Harris, Malton Press 1974 (National Gallery of Ireland)

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reputation as a versatile civil engineer able toovercome any obstacle; it was railways, however,that would make the man.

In 1831, he won the prestigious contract to buildIrelands’ first railway, travelling from Dublin toKingstown (Dún Laoghaire). This coastal route facedstiff opposition from landowners, mostly onaesthetic grounds. Dargan turned this into anopportunity, however, showcasing his talent bybuilding Italian-style ornate and finely finishedgranite towers, piers, bridges, bathing places andtunnels.

Improving pay andconditions for employeesDargan paid the best but he also expected the bestfrom his employees, paying more for better qualitywork and increased productivity, as opposed fromthe normal flat rate. This new policy caused somestrikes initially, but was eventually accepted.

In addition, his 1,800 employees were paid in hardcash and not ‘in kind’ (food and alcohol). This

upped morale, the money circulated locally and thelocal economy took a boost. The only other issuethat materialised was objections to workers bathingnaked in the sea on their breaks!

The Dublin-Kingstown railway line was finallyopened in December 1834, becoming the world’sfirst dedicated commuter railway and beingdescribed as “a triumph of engineering andconstructive ability”. After this resounding success,Dargan was the obvious choice when the building ofIreland’s second railway, running from Belfast toLisburn, experienced long delays and its ownerslost trust in its engineer.

Dargan was contracted to extend this line toPortadown and subsequently Armagh, which he didsuccessfully. Based in the north-east of Ireland forthis and other projects, Dargan used hisaccumulating wealth to branch out into the shippingindustry, running ships between Newry, Enniskillen,Belfast, Loughs Neagh and Erne and cargo ships toLiverpool.

To facilitate these, he excavated deep shippingchannels in Belfast, enabling it to become a majorport, using the soil deposits to build an island onwhich the Harland & Wolff shipyards are nowsituated.

Dargan’s mobile office, the ‘Dargan Saloon’,became a familiar site to many as it travelled therailways en route to his projects. Like most greatbusinessmen, Dargan surrounded himself withtalented people who were as equally competent anddedicated as he was; this enabled him to delegateand supervise multiple jobs simultaneously. Thesemen subsequently forged their own reputations andthe names of Killeen, Moore, Edwards and, mostfamously, Sir John MacNeill can still be seen onmany of Ireland’s civil-engineering projects.With such a talented team behind him, multiplerailway contracts followed; the Dublin to Drogheda

Dargan’s mobile office, the ‘Dargan Saloon’,in the Ulster Folk & Transport Museum, Cultra, Co Down

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The statue of William Dargan outside theNational Gallery of Ireland

line, the Great Southern and Western Line and theMidland Great Western Line were all built by Dargan,making him the largest railway constructor inIreland with a reputation of hitting deadlines,producing quality work and paying the best wagesto his employees.

Humanitarian work duringthe Great FamineDargan lived during the biggest disaster in Irishhistory, the Great Famine (1845-52), in which acombination of potato blight and BritishGovernment inaction resulted in one million peoplestarving to death and another million emigrating. Itwas during this period that Dargan establishedhimself as a humanitarian.

Money and resources were scarce, even to Dargan,but he managed to keep his multiple projects goingby getting credit from those suppliers who trustedhim and paying them with bonds and shares in lieuof cash. This did not stop him handing out hardcash to his employees, however. Indeed, onoccasion, he gave new workers a week’s advancewages with the instructions to turn up for workwhen they got their strength back.

By 1853, he employed over 50,000 men, paying outover £4 million in wages. Almost single handedly,he was revitalising the Irish economy.

Later in life, Dargan’s focus was not just on buildingIrelands infrastructure, he was determined to dragIreland into the industrial age and make it self-sufficient. Using his influence within the RoyalDublin Society, he proposed and organised theGreat Exhibition of Art & Industry exhibition inDublin in 1853.

A large building of iron and glass was constructedon the front lawn of Leinster House, whichshowcased the best of Irish industry and art. Dargancontributed a lot of his own wealth into theexhibition and also solicited contributions fromFrench, Belgian, Dutch and Prussian royalty. Over amillion people visited it, many travelling to it via thenewly completed Dublin-Belfast railway.

With this, he gave confidence to a nation stillsuffering after the Great Famine. In 1864, at thatspot, a statue of him was unveiled, a token from agrateful nation to which he had helped restorehope.

The exhibition lay the groundwork for a permanentexhibition of Irish art at that spot. Indeed, behind

Dargan’s statue, the National Gallery of Ireland wasestablished. The Dargan Wing within the Galleryhonours the great man.

Other enterprises andtown development

Dargan decided to expand into other enterprises,such as establishing a flax industry in Cork, but hewas unsuccessful. He had better luck with a flax-thread mill he acquired in Chapelizod in Dublin,employing 900 people and winning an award for itsquality product at the 1855 Paris Exhibition.

Other enterprises were a distillery in Belturbet, CoCavan; a sugar-beet plant at Mountmellick, CoLaois; reclaiming wetlands in Wexford and Derry;and several farms. Despite these other enterprises,it was still the railways that attracted him most andhe returned to them with the construction anddirectorship of the Dublin, Wicklow and WexfordRailway in 1856.

The Dargan Wing in the National Gallery of Ireland

Belfast’s Dargan Bridge spans the River Lagan

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It was thus to his financial advantage to develop thesmall fishing-village of Bray into a seaside resorttown. Building hotels, Turkish baths, greens and astreetscape, he remodelled the town. In a similarfashion, he would transform Portrush in NorthernIsland. For over a century, both towns wouldbecome popular holiday destinations for Irishpeople.

As a nationalist, Dargan resisted all attempts togentrify him by the British establishment, firstlyturning down a knighthood and then a baronet fromQueen Victoria when she visited him at his home inMount Anville, Dublin, in 1853. His political viewswere no doubt moulded by the Famine and by thelack of investment in Ireland – a case in point beingthat out of the £18 million invested in Irish railinfrastructure, only £3 million came from the Britishadministration.

He wanted to prove that Ireland could stand on itsown two feet, saying: “Since I was ten years old, Ihave been hearing that we are unable to doanything …. for our own prosperity … that we musthave English capital, English judgment, Englishenterprise. English everything. Why I bring thisforward is with the knowledge that there is onegreat interest in which that doctrine is disproved.”

This was a rare statement by Dargan, as hepreferred to keep his politics and religious beliefsintensely private, perhaps knowing that his Catholicfaith, his mixed-faith marriage (his wife Jane wasAnglican) and his political views would make himunpopular with his mainly Unionist and Protestantbackers.

A fall from his horse in 1865 ignited a period of illhealth from which he would never recover, dyingtwo years later aged 68 years. The nation mournedthe loss of one of its greatest sons. Dargan’saccomplishments were unprecedented; he had

constructed over 1,300km of railway throughoutIreland, linking it up like never before. Hisreputation would be enhanced by his patriotism,philanthropy, fairness and decency to hisemployees.

Dargan’s legacy

Dargan’s legacy can still today be seen the lengthand breadth of Ireland. Few people in ireland havenot crossed a bridge, walked along a canal ortravelled a railway line built by him. Be it Cork’srailway tunnel, Newry’s viaduct, the train to Galway,Belfast port or the DART along Dublin’s coast,William Dargan is part of the DNA of this island.

He has been honoured in many ways: bridges inBelfast and Dublin (right) are named after him, andthe aforementioned statue and wing in the NationalGallery are testaments to his greatness. TheInstitute of Technology Carlow’s enterprise andresearch centre, which opened in 2013, is alsocalled the Dargan Centre after its local hero.

Perhaps his greatest legacy, however, is thatemployment by Dargan put food on tables whenpeople needed it most. There are a lot of peoplealive today because he employed their ancestorsduring the Famine.

My own ancestors helped build the railways andcanals. I am here, writing this, because of WilliamDargan. He gave this country much-needed hopeand a belief that it could one day stand up for itselfas a nation. William Dargan was not just one ofIreland’s greatest engineers; he was one of Ireland’sgreatest.

Dedicated to my friend Philip Preston, TallaghtPerson of the Year and another great Irishman. RIP.

The Institute of Technology Carlow's Dargan Institute

William Dargan Bridge: a cable-stayed bridge in Dundrum, Dublin

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Since 1 July 2014, CE Marking of structuralsteelwork has become mandatory for fabricatedstructural steelwork in accordance with EN 1090-1.It is essential that all parties to the steelconstruction supply-chain learn and understand thenew requirements in order to ensure compliance.

Non-compliance is clearly catered for within theRegulations, with fines up to €500,000 and/orimprisonment. However, the implications for theend user are also significant and not so obvious. If abuilding is handed over to the client and it isdetermined that the steelwork has not beenfabricated in accordance with the harmonisedstandard and engineers specification, then it cannotbe put into service until the steelwork has beenreplaced.

In this case, any claims or penalties imposed on theowner or builder by the Health & Safety Authoritywould not be covered by insurance and thesteelwork contractor (along with whoever else had arole in building the structure) could be foundnegligent.

Alternatively, if a building collapsed (in the winter of2010-11, more than 5,000 buildings collapsed aftera heavy snowfall in the UK) and someone wasinjured, and a claim was subsequently made forthese injuries, the owners’ insurance companycould be liable for the losses under the third-partyliability section of their insurance which covers theowners legal liability as property owner.

The insurances of any other contractors involved inthe build are also likely to be called on.

The Construction Products Regulation (CPR) cameinto force on 1 July 2013 and has direct legalapplication across the entire European Union sincethen, but each Member State is responsible forregulating for its own market surveillance activities inaccordance with the specific requirements of the CPR.

In Ireland, the CPR provides for:

• The market surveillance of construction productshaving regard to the requirements of the CPRand Regulation (EU) No. 765/2008;

• The establishment of building control authoritiesas the market surveillance authorities forconstruction products (although the Minister haspower to appoint other competent authorities toundertake market surveillance in respect ofspecific products areas);

• The appointment of authorised officers and theirpowers in respect of market surveillance;

• Offences, penalties and prosecutions.

CE marking of structural steelAn update for engineers

Gerry McCarthy outlines the technical requirements regarding CEMarking of structural steel and offers guidance on ensuring contractsare constructed in line with the Construction Products Regulation

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Correct CE Marking ofstructural steelIn order to satisfy the general assumptions stated inI.S. EN 1990, relating to the execution of structuresdesigned to the Eurocodes, all structural steelworkshall be undertaken by a steelwork contractor whohas the necessary technical capability andcompetence for the type of work to beundertaken.

These requirements would be satisfied byregistration and audit through a notified body such

as the Steel Construction Certification Scheme(SCCS), National Standards Authority of Ireland(NSAI), TÜV Nord Group or similar reputable notifiedbodies, to the levels appropriate for the technicalcomplexity of the structural steelwork.

It should be noted that not all notified bodies areauditing to the same level and there is an onus onthe engineer or main contractor engaging thesteelwork contractor to carry out due diligencebefore appointing any steelwork contractor who willbe delivering fabricated structural steelwork to site.

Contractors should only appoint a steelwork

contractor with an Execution Class equal to (orhigher than) that required for the project and hasthe necessary technical capability and competencefor the type of work to be undertaken asdetermined by the designer.

Depending on the criticality of the structure, andspecifically for Execution Class 3 & 4 contracts, itmay be prudent to appoint an independentinspection authority whose role is to ensure thefabrication is completed in accordance with I.S. EN1090 and the project specification.

The steelwork contractor should undertake a reviewto confirm that their technical capability andcompetence is sufficient for the execution of theworks. The review should be documented and besubmitted for the approval of the Employer’sRepresentative in advance of execution.

The review should include supporting evidence thatincludes but not be limited to:

• Details demonstrating compliance with I.S. EN 1090-2;

• Type and size of construction works;• Product forms and thicknesses;• Material grades;• Welding processes;• Welding procedure specifications and welder

qualifications;• Painting processes;• Level of welding control in accordance with the

relevant part of I.S. EN ISO 3834;• Qualifications of the responsible welding co-

ordinator;• Qualifications of visual weld inspector.

In order to satisfy the requirements the steelworkcontractor should have an independently certifiedquality management system complying with I.S. ENISO 9001 in place for all structural steelwork. Aquality plan setting out all specified qualitypractices, resources and sequences of activitiesrelevant to the contract should be submitted to thedesigner for approval. The quality plan shall bedeveloped using the list of recommended items inAnnex C of I.S. EN 1090-2 for guidance.

Responsible welding co-ordinators and weldingquality-managementsystemThe manufacturer shall implement a writteninspection and test plan for checking and recording

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that manufactured components conform to theircomponent specification and this shall be submittedto the designer for approval.

There are two key elements which relate to weldingactivities. These are the appointment of aresponsible welding co-ordinator (RWC) and theimplementation of a welding quality-managementsystem (WQMS).

The RWC is the person who is competent to controland supervise the fabricator’s welding activities.Fabricators need to appoint at least one RWC withthe technical knowledge and experience appropriatefor the range of steelwork being manufactured.

I.S. EN 1090-2 sets out the technical knowledgerequirements for the RWC based on the fabricator’sdeclared execution class and materials used. Itmakes reference to the International Standard forWelding Co-ordination (I.S. EN ISO 14731), whichspecifies three categories of technical knowledgei.e. comprehensive, specific and basic.

For Execution Class 2, the RWC shall have beentrained and assessed by a qualified internationalwelding engineer (IWE). For Execution Class 3 & 4,the RWC should be a qualified IWE. It is importantfor main contractors and engineers to check thesequalifications meet the requirements of theproject specification.

Due to the requirement of these qualifications, thisposition is more likely to be a sub-contractedposition for Execution Class 3 & 4 structures. Thereis no requirement for an RWC for fabricatorsworking to Execution Class 1.

The implementation of a welding qualitymanagement system (WQMS) in accordance with therelevant part of I.S. EN ISO 3834 is a majorrequirement of I.S. EN 1090-2. The relevant part ofI.S. EN ISO 3834 is determined by the ExecutionClass declared by the fabricator for its fabricatedsteel.

Specifier selects theExecution Class requiredFor any project, the required quality of fabricationor Execution Class (EXC) must be specified. Theprocedure to determine the EXC must bedetermined according to the requirements of AnnexC of I.S. EN 1993-1-1 and its associated NationalAnnex.The EXC must be specified for:

• The works as a whole;• An individual component;• A detail of a component.

The engineer is responsible for specifying the EXCfor the structure (the works as a whole) and forcomponents and details where it is appropriate tospecify an Execution Class different to that specifiedfor the structure.

Where different, the Execution Class for acomponent or detail should not be lower than thatspecified for the works as a whole. The EXC for acomponent or detail should be clearly identified inthe execution specification if it is different to theExecution Class for the structure.

There are four execution classes which range fromEXC 1 (e.g. farm buildings) which is the leastonerous through to EXC 4 (e.g. stadia and long-span bridges) which is the most onerous. Designersand specifiers should amend their projectspecifications to include references to the newstandards.

The procedure for determining the EXC forbuildings is a straightforward two-step process:

• Determine the Consequences Class;• Select the Execution Class.

Whilst each building needs to be considered on itsown merits, EXC 2 will be appropriate for themajority of buildings constructed in Ireland.Designers need to fully familiarise themselves withthe requirements of I.S. EN 1090 and should amendtheir project specifications to include references tothe new standards. They should employ the servicesof an independent inspection authority to ensurecompliance with the project specification when thestructure is in the higher execution classes.

The following steel and aluminium products arecovered by the scope of EN 1090-1, when theintended use comprises a structural function. Thislist of structural components is indicative and non-exhaustive:

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“Engineers need to gaintechnical knowledge on

how to assess thecompetencies of

steelwork contractors”

• Balconies and balustrades (barrier/edgeprotection), fire escapes, handrails(barriers/edge protection), walkways, includingopen mesh flooring (if integral part of the load-bearing structure of the construction works);

• Bridges, sign and gantry girders;• Buildings, mezzanine floors, canopy framing,

carports and catwalks, structural frames forshelters, winter gardens and green houses;

• Bended products from hot rolled beams and steelplates, cellular beams, curved and bent beamsand girders, plate girders;

• Crane-supporting structures including cranerunway beams and crane rails;

• Grandstands and stadia;• Machinery supports, pipeline supporting

structures and pipe supporting structures;• Structural frames for buildings, warehouses,

schools, hospitals, dwellings, industrial andagricultural sheds;

• Silos and tanks that are not covered by EN12285-2;

• Towers and masts.

How to ensure steelwork islegally CE MarkedSince 1 July 2014, it has been a legal requirementfor all fabricated structural steelwork delivered tosite to be CE Marked. It is now unlawful to placestructural steel products or fabricated structuralsteel on the market if they are not CE Marked.

Placing structural steelwork the market that is notCE marked (or incorrectly CE marked) is catered forwithin the regulations with fines up to €500,000and/or imprisonment. Building control officersshould perform market surveillance of constructionproducts having regard to the requirements of theCPR and Regulation (EU) No. 765/2008.

Clients and main contractors should only considersteelwork contractors with the execution class andtechnical competence required for the project.Existence of a Factory Production Control Certificateand Welding Certificate does not guaranteecompetence or compliance for a project. Thisshould be done by audit prior to contract award andsubsequent surveillance audits by competentpersonnel depending on the criticality of thestructure/execution class.

Clients, contracting authorities, designers andspecifiers should amend their project specificationsto include references to the new standards. Asstructural steelwork is a safety critical productclients, main contractors and engineers should also

ensure that the work is performed in accordancewith EN 1090-2 and the project specification. Incertain cases, an independent inspection authorityshould be appointed to verify compliance with thetechnical requirements.

Engineers, main contractors, building controlofficers and farm building inspectors need to gaintechnical knowledge on how to assess thecompetencies of steelwork contractors, specificallyrelating to welding of structural steelwork.

Insurance companies that insure suppliers ofstructural steel should ensure that these suppliersare fully compliant with the required standards andare working within their technical capability andcorrectly CE Marking their products.

Author:Gerry McCarthy, BEng, MSc, IWE, CEng, MIEI,MWeldI, international welding engineer. Seewww.wqms.ie.

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Haulbowline Island, located in the centre of thesecond-largest natural harbour in the world, wherethe River Lee flows down to meet the sea, is a placeof rich history. Tucked away in an unassumingcorner of a disused building, a historical gem hadbeing waiting rediscovery.

In 2012, while passing the Seamanship Bay in theisland’s Naval Base, Petty Officer/Engine RoomArticifer (PO/ERA) Alan Duggan chanced upon anold collection of engineering parts and machineryduring some renovation works. These has beenabandoned many years ago and, being an avid old-engine enthusiast, he recognised that there justmight be gem or two of historical value tucked awayin the rusting jumble.

He spotted what he thought might be a type of ‘hotbulb’ stationary engine, which looked veryinteresting, and he began to seek out informationas to how it came to be there.

How was he able to identify this so readily by justpassing by? Well, because he has a similar engine ofhis own, which he overhauled and currentlymaintains. PO/ERA Duggan is the proud owner ofmany historical engines and he has in his collectiona ‘Blackstone, Type W 1920, hot bulb stationaryengine’ in full running condition.

There was a hiatus of nearly two years in PO/ERADuggan’s interest and there were a lot of nauticalmiles under the hull before he rotated ashore to theFleet Support Group from his seagoing unit.

Investigating the treasuretroveNever a man to stay still, PO/ERA Duggan renewedhis investigations of this treasure trove. When hewas selected to serve as an engineering instructor

with the Technical Training School (TTS) of theNaval College – now co-located in Ringaskiddy, Co

An engine as old as IrelandIrish Naval Service restores a 1922 Vickers Petters

Ruairí de Barra outlines how members of the Irish Naval Service inHaulbowline brought a rare 1922 Vickers Petters Model VE2 engineback to life, so that future generations of sailors can experience a livingpiece of history

Seamanship Bay, Haulbowline

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Cork, with the National Maritime College of Ireland(NMCI) – he considered that “the classes of technicaltrainees would benefit from some hands-oninstruction in two-stroke technology, as well as theopportunity to instil in them some appreciation ofthe historical engineering involved”.

The TTS and the NMCI have a wide range of bothrunning and ‘cut away’ or ‘sectioned’ engines onwhich the young civilian and military, bothtradesmen and engineers, learn operations, watch-keeping and maintenance. However, these areprimarily four-stroke engines and PO/ERA Dugganthought that this old engine would provide a ‘livingclassroom’, where the two stroke could be broughtto life and used as a classroom aid.

In fact, it was not just an engine that was to bebrought back to life, but it also provided a link backto a rich history back. The hands of the youngesttradesmen in the Naval Service would work on amachine installed by skilled craftsmen in 1922,when Haulbowline had yet to fully throw off theyoke of British rule and in what modern sailors callthe ‘Old Seamanship Bay’ (then called Storehouse13).

Having sought sanction and approval fromLieutenant Commander Clodagh McConnell OiCTTS, and from the officer commanding the NavalCollege and Associate Head of the NMCI (CNC)Commander Steve Walsh, this project was broughtto Support Command HQ to Captain (NS) MickMalone to help PO/ERA Duggan gain access to theengine. Commander William Roberts visited and

gained assistance from Naval Dockyard’s civilianemployees, which was of huge benefit.

Singular example of aVickers Petters engine

The first part of the task was to correctly identifywhat was in front of the TTS staff. Having had itsnameplate removed at some point, the casted blockrevealed that it was a Vickers Petters engine. Usingthe power of Google and his contacts in therestoration world, PO/ERA Duggan reached out tothe curator of the Internal Fire Museum in NorthWales, Paul Evans, who directed PO/ERA Duggan tolocate the maker’s marks on the crankshaft, headand bearing caps.

These vital pieces of information lead to theidentification of the engine; a Vickers Petters ModelVE2, two stroke, hot bulb, semi-diesel. It is markedas being rated to 70 horsepower and is a rarehistorical item indeed. In fact, it may well be theonly one of this model still in existence; certainly, itis the only one of its kind in Ireland and the EU.

Trolling through the tomes of information in thearchives of the Internal Fire Museum was a journeyback in time and efforts were rewarded by the

The Vickers Petters engine

PO/ERA Alan Duggan, PO/ERA David O'Hara and Paul Evans

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successful location of a manual for the engine andsome records of its manufacture and delivery toIreland. On 29 June 1922, the Cork Electric Tram &Lighting company took delivery of the VickersPeters Model VE2 onto the dockyard side ofHaulbowline.

Haulbowline had been spilt by the British in half,with a dockyard on the east and a military side onthe western half. The dockyard side was handedover to the Board of Works in 1923 and the militaryside and Spike Island remained in British handsunder the handover of the Treaty ports in 1938.

This is the only written record located and PO/ERADuggan was unable to glean much informationabout the following years. Naval draftsman NeilRasmussen has said that when he investigated someof the drawings from many years ago, “the ModelVE2 stationary engine was driving a dynamo whichsupplied electrical current to the massive capstanslocated at the head of the slipways that run adjacentto the long stone buildings”.

It was by this means that the small boats wereremoved from the waters and were used to haul theboats up the slips for maintenance and repair. Onthis southern side of the island, the sea bays werethe long workshops where generations of craftsmen

of many trades worked to keep all the smaller boatsthat did not require dry-docking in ‘ship shape andBristol fashion’.

The last known report of the engine being fired upwas discovered by Senior Chief Petty Officer/EngineRoom Articifer (SCPO/ERA) Mick Kennedy who, onhearing that the project was under way, put out acall on social media via the ‘Irish Navy FriendsConnection’ page on Facebook. Reports backindicated that the engine had possibly been run aslate as the 1970s by Naval Dockyard personnel fromtime to time.

SCPO/ERA Kennedy led the restoration of a cannonin 2015, which was cast between 1700-1715. This6/9lbs cannon is thought to be one of the oldestitems on Haulbowline Island. “The Naval Servicewider Defence Forces should invest more inpreservation project of this nature,” he said.

“A future project might be the restoration of theLister engine and generator from one of the FlowerClass Corvettes, which is installed in the buildingacross the slipway in which the Vickers Pettersengine is currently located.”

How the engine worksThis engine is known as a semi-diesel engine dueto the method of its operation. It starts off its theinternal combustion process by the use ofkerosene-fuelled burners to heat the ‘hot bulb’ or‘vaporiser’ mounted on the cylinder head, intowhich fuel is sprayed. This bulb is connected to thecylinder by a narrow passage called the ‘hot tube’.

This kerosene is pressured and mixed with air sothe burner acts as a heating torch, which raises thetemperature of the hot bulb and hot bulb tube untilthe iron is red hot. The fuel is ignited by cominginto contact with a red-hot metal surface inside a

Close-up of the engine at work

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bulb, followed by the introduction of air (oxygen)compressed by the rising piston.

There is some ignition when the fuel is introduced,but it quickly uses up the available oxygen in thebulb. Vigorous ignition takes place only whensufficient oxygen is supplied to the hot-bulbchamber on the compression stroke of the engine.The control of the gases produced by the internalcombustion is where the major difference in powerproduction takes place.

In four-stroke engines, the flow of gases iscontrolled by valves and in two strokes, these arecontrolled by the covering and uncovering of portsin the cylinder wall.

A heavy oil-fuelled engine would have acompression ratio of 3:1 or 5:1, where a moretypical diesel engine compression ratio would bebetween 15:1 or 20:1. Most hot-bulb engines wereproduced as one-cylinder, low-speed two-strokecrankcase-scavenged units, while this VickersPetters Model VE2 is a two-cylinderconfiguration.

Then it is turned over bycompressed air supplied at 150-170 lbs per sq inch, which isdirected into the cylinders while asprayer is used to introduce dieselfuel into the chamber once theengine is rotating. The correcttiming of this fuel spray being veryimportant so it is as the pistonapproaches 10º before top deadcentre.

Once combustion is achieved, theengine will run with great reliabilityonce fuel is continuously supplied.Connected to the engine is fuel oilstorage tank which is separated intwo, one 20-gallon chamber ofKerosene and one 35-gallonchamber of diesel oil.

Of course, getting the engine backinto running condition took a hugeeffort and no small amount of skill. The engine wasseized, it had parts missing and even all its bolts(which were old imperial Whitworth sizes) had tohave the correct spanners located.

Putting it all back togetherMany long days were spent and hundreds of hourswhere logged in the process. PO/ERA Dugganintroduced many TT/ERA or mechanicians classes to

the engine for practical classes. The trainees helpedstrip the engine down, learning valuable lessons inbasic skills and the importance of respectingheritage.

The various classes tackled all the different jobsrequired, from cleaning back years of exterior grimeto helping to fabricate guardrails for around theflywheel. The massive exposed flywheel would belethal if an unsuspecting student was to getsnagged on it while running. All the while, studentswere learning about the mystery of the two-strokecycle.

The skills and knowledge acquired in therestoration of a two stroke have commonality withnearly all internal combustion engines, as they havethe same basic components and layouts. Insidemost engines, you typically find a piston within acylinder, connected to a crankshaft via connectingrod and, located at one end of the crankshaft, aflywheel.

PO/ERA Duggan managed to get a loan of a suitableperiod air-compressor and air receiver from acivilian fellow enthusiast, which goes to show thathanging on to old that item in your shed (which ‘willcome in handy some day’) could be the key piece ofthe puzzle for someone else’s restoration project.

The project was a major success and the noise ofthis museum piece must be appreciated at closequarters for full effect. A traditionalist when itcomes to restoration, PO/ERA Duggan feels that the

Paul Evans (left), CPO/ERA Brian Attridge, PO/ERA David O’Hara, PO/ERA Alan Duggan andTechnical Trainee Class A/ERA Shane O’Shaughnessy, A/ERA Sean Kennedy, A/ERA Ian

Quilligan, A/ERA Mark Gilligan, A/ERA Michael Hickey

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original surface finishes and patinas should be leftin place, if they need not be removed forengineering purposes.

Having cleaned the engine overall, a special oil wasapplied to the exterior parts to keep them the waythey would have looked. The brasswork and coppertubes are now clean and shine brightly against thedark cast surfaces.

Paul Evans and wife travelled to Haulbowline inFebruary 2017 to view this masterpiece and theywere amazed at its condition, re-iterating itshistorical importance to no end. A token ofappreciation was presented to them (see photo).

Preserving the past for thefutureOIC TTS is very proud of PO/ERA Duggan’s personalachievements in this project and is grateful to histeam members PO/ERA Dave O’Hara and TT/ERAclasses (class of 2013) for their hard work anddedication. The Internal Museum of Fire hasconsiderable queries regarding this engine since

Paul Evans’ visit and even suggested a new projectfor the Technical Training School.

BEng Marine Engineering students from NMCI haverequested a tour also, so we hope that this legendlives on – whether it be in the classroom or theenthusiasts’ school. The official opening willhappen in late March/April – DF PO are welcome toattend.

PO/ERA Duggan hopes that many more generationsof ERAs will come in contact with this old workhorseand develop their knowledge while receiving anappreciation for the skills of those who will haveworked here in the past.

There is still some work to be done and let us hopethat the Vickers Petters Model VE2 is kept runningand that the facility around it continues to improvewith extra investment of interest and hard work, sothat future generations of sailors can help maintaina living piece of history.

Author:Ruairí de Barra is chief petty officer/engine roomartificer, Fleet Operational Readiness Standards andTraining, Irish Naval Service

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“The Defence Forces are made up of three separateelements – the Army, the Navy and the Air Corps. Asthe names suggest, the first is land-focused, thesecond is sea-focused and the last is air-focused.The ‘establishment’, which is the ceiling on thenumber of personnel we’re allowed to recruit, is886 for the Air Corps. We’re not at that strength –we’re down to 692 at the moment [September2017],” Lieutenant Colonel Michael Moran of the OCNo 4 Support Wing, Irish Air Corps, toldEngineersJournal.ie.

“There are different methods by which personnelcan enter the Air Corps. You can come in as anofficer (a cadetship) or as a non-officer (traineetechnician or a recruit),” explained Moran, who isaircraft engineering director with the Air Corps.

“The cadetship is normally for pilot officers and wegenerally take in about ten cadets a year. We

advertise the Air Corps positions nationally and thesuccessful applicants start their initial training withother Defence Forces cadets in the Curragh, CoKildare before returning to Baldonnel to completetheir Wings course. Last year, the full cadet intakewas increased significantly to over one hundredpersonnel across the three branches, and they’regoing for a similar number this year again.”

But that is only one method for officer intakes. Thesecond is direct entry, which is less common than itused to be. This is where the Air Corps recruitqualified engineers from the civilian population towork as engineers in the Air Corps. “Our method ofselection has changed somewhat. We don’t nowtake as many direct entries from the publicanymore,” said Moran.

“We now canvas for qualified personnel within theofficer corps of the entire Defence Forces. We

Engineering in the Air CorpsUnique ethos and opportunities

Engineers play a crucial role in the Air Corps and the other branches ofthe Defence Forces – the Army and the Navy. Lieutenant Colonel MichaelMoran tells James Harrington about the role of engineers in the AirCorps and the opportunities ahead

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The Air Corps is based in Casement Aerodrome outside Dublin

recently took in six engineers into the Air Corps andthey were all officers in the Defence Forces already.Three of them were graduates, but weren’t workingas engineers. The other three were working asengineers.”

The former is the most common type of transfer byfar – members who are qualified engineers but notpractising in their current roles, according to Moran.At that time, vacancies were advertised and peopleworking in the other branches of the Defence Forcesapplied for the job.

The greater people’s experience, the less common itwould be to see a transfer like that betweenbranches, he noted.

“In October 2015, we took on those six people sothey’re currently in year two of a three-year program.The establishment, or ceiling, for engineers within theAir Corps is 24 – that’s made up of 18 aeronauticalengineers, two corps of engineers who look after thestructural maintenance on the airbase and then fourCIS [computer and information services] engineers.

“We’re currently short oneaeronautical engineer. Ofcourse, it’s difficult to puta programme together forjust one person. The AirCorps recruits engineerswhen the need arises.”

A unique ethosAn engineering role in the Air Corps is exciting anddiverse but it is not your typical engineering role.Moran explained: “Engineers in the Air Corps mustwear two separate hats: they must be engineers, butthey also must be capable of being officers in theDefence Forces. The have to demonstrate theirleadership ability as well as firing weapons, beingmedically and physically fit and have a willingnessto serve overseas.

“There are a number of criteria that are peculiar tothis job and your commission as an officer in theDefence Forces is a legally binding document. Wehave a whole set of legal requirements of militarylaw above and beyond the civil law under whichyou’re required to operate.

“There’s a whole different ethos. So when we’reselecting, we very much have in mind the fact theevery engineer is an officer first and foremost. Sothat’s what we’re looking for – technicallycompetent engineers who can be officers.”

The Air Corps primarily looks for mechanical,electronic, electrical and aeronautical engineers.They also accept a mechatronics qualification.Applicants for the Defence Forces need to meet oneof the following criteria:

• Irish citizens;• A refugee under the Refugee Act 1996;• Nationals of EEA States, i.e. the European

Economic Area, which consists of the memberstates of the European Union along with Iceland,Liechtenstein and Norway; or

• Nationals of any other state who are lawfullypresent in Ireland and have had five years lawfuland unbroken residency in the State.

The Air Corps recently dedicated a stained-glass window in the chapel in Casement Aerodrome to Defence Forces

Engineers who passed away

Aircraft maintenance at the Casement Aerodrome

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“We’re actively trying to promote diversity and agender balance within the Defence Forces,”explained Moran. “A number of pilots are graduateengineers as well. Some have been here on workplacements while studying engineering and thenapplied to become cadet pilots.”

Over the last ten years, cadet selection has givenextra selection points to graduates, but for the pasttwo years that has not been the case – where schoolleavers and graduates are now marked equally.

Engineers are needed throughout the DefenceForces. The Navy has a bigger cadre of engineeringrequirements – electrical and mechanical engineers– than the Air Corps and the Army has threeseparate engineering disciplines:

• The corps of engineers, which requires civil andstructural engineers who are deployed inbattlefield engineering including mine clearingand building pontoon bridges as well as themaintenance of buildings and services;

• CIS (communications and information services);and

• Ordnance, which deals with weapons and bombdisposal.

“The engineering expertise built up by ordnanceengineers has made Ireland an international leaderin its knowledge of bomb disposal,” noted Moran.

The policy governing the Defence Forces is set outin the Government white paper on defence. Thelatest version (published in 2015) (PDF) sets anestablishment of 9,500 for the Defence Forces. Thecurrent figure, as of September 2017, is 9,100. TheArmy is recruiting heavily this year.

Serving overseas andretention issuesUntil recently, it was Government policy not todeploy any naval or air assets in support of our

overseas missions. That changed in 2015, when theGovernment deployed a ship in the Mediterraneanto assist with the refugee crisis.

“Before that, overseas operations were largely land-centric and carried out by the Army,” stated Moran.“Members of the Air Corps have the option ofvolunteering for an overseas mission as part of anArmy Unit. The Air Corps has just sent 19 membersof a 150-person UNDOF mission to Syria but, in atypical year, only a handful of Air Corps memberswould serve overseas.

“Air assets have not yet been used in overseasmissions but there may be opportunities in thefuture,” he added.

Retention is an issue for pilots, engineers andtechnicians alike. The Air Corps has qualified,experienced and well-trained engineers andtechnicians that are sought after not only in theaviation sphere, but in other technical andmanagement spheres as well.

“Ireland’s aviation industry is very big in comparisonto the size of the country. We have Ryanair, thebiggest operator in Europe, based in Dublin; wehave the management of half of the leased aircraftin the world based in Ireland; and we have the IrishAviation Authority, which manages a significantportion of international air traffic,” said Moran.

“These large and successful organisations aremanned by a lot of ex-Air Corps people. Ryanair andAer Lingus have a lot of former Air Corps personnel,both technical and pilots. Add that to the popularityof some of the aircraft that we’re operating – theAW139 helicopter is used a lot in the Middle Eastand also the North Sea oil-rigs – and you can seethat there’s a high demand for all of the technicalskill sets associated with the Air Corps.”

Due to the changing nature of contractualarrangements, people are less likely than inprevious decades to stay for full careers in the AirCorps. Now they use their time in the military toenhance their experience profile. “It’s somethingthat looks good on their CV. We pride ourselves onthe professionalism of our training, on ourobjective-orientated focus and our can-doattitudes,” said Moran.

“As has been rightly pointed out by EngineersIreland when talking about their mentoring andcoaching programs, some 70% of how you learn isin the company of others within your workenvironment – there’s a mentoring element andthen a formalised element. The vast bulk of howyou learn is through your cohorts.”

A plaque in the chapel

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Having an internationally recognised standard ofexcellence and a formalised mentoring programme,means that our engineers receive excellent training.

Lead times to recruit and train personnel are anissue: from selection to getting somebody out onthe hangar floor could take upwards of five years.“This problem is well-known in the Air Corps andwe’re looking at ways to reduce the impact, whichcould involve some increased civilianisation ofelements such as maintenance.”

Innovation in the DefenceForcesAs well as engineering director, one of Moran’sother portfolios is the inculcation of innovationwithin the Defence Forces. “In 2011, the DefenceForces were formally tasked with trying to supportthe Government’s innovation and growth strategy.I’ve been the Air Corps’ representative on theDefence Forces co-ordination body since 2011.

“The Air Corps has supported a number ofInnovations from both the academic and industrialspheres. We recently signed a service levelagreement with the Marine Institute to use ourmaritime aircraft to support research in the marineenvironment. We’ve also offered our technicalexpertise and guidance in new innovations inaviation safety, human factors training and satellitecommunications.”

Moran has no doubt about why he enjoys workingin the Air Corps. “One of the best things aboutworking in the Defence Forces is the calibre ofindividuals, the quality of the training and thevariety of tasks,” he concluded.

The restored Marchetti Panel, which was once used asa training aid, at the Air Corps Museum

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The recession is over and construction activity inIreland has experienced a welcome increase inrecent years, with The Irish Times Dublin CraneWatch reporting a doubling of cranes in Dublinbetween 2016-2017 – and even a dedicated Twitteracount, ‘Dublin Crane Count’, to update us.

To meet demands, there is a need for skilledengineering graduates in this sector. Studentnumbers in civil and structural engineering coursesin Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) have risensharply in the last two years. This is a result of acontinued and determined marketing effort andreassurance to students that there is a rewardingcareer ahead, despite the boom and bust cycles ofthe past.

The recession showed us that Irish engineers cannotdepend on the Irish market alone and manycompanies looked to the UK and further afield tobring in work. Today’s graduates have access to aninternational global marketplace where knowledgeof standards, communication and social skills maybe as important as the intellectual prowess gainedby obtaining a degree itself.

Continued growth in this market will depend on theavailability of a talent pipeline of civil and structuralengineers with a suitable skillset to bring about,maintain and operate large multidisciplinaryprojects. The welcome announcement of the raillink to Dublin Airport, proposed for completion in2027, gives an indication of the timeframesrequired of major infrastructural projects.

The role of the civil engineer will be critical in theachievement of these projects and it is now time toconsider how academic institutions can prepareengineering students for the challenges ahead.

Global engineering problems also act as a driver forcurriculum review. In 2000, the National Academy

of Engineering (NAE) published a list to celebratethe accomplishments of engineers in the 20thcentury. The list highlighted such things aselectrification, radio and television, computers, theinternet, and water supply and distribution, amongothers. It is a list of inventions of things, wheresmall groups of people worked on a narrowproblem and came up with a solution to solve theproblem. The inventions themselves resulted ingrand societal changes and many of us could namesome of the inventors today.

Creating holistic engineers to solvethe grand challenges of the future

Úna Beagon writes that continued growth in construction depends onthird-level institutions securing a talent pipeline of civil and structuralengineers with suitable skill sets to bring about, maintain and operatelarge multidisciplinary projects

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ACADEMIC

Úna Beagon

Grand challenges for the21st centuryAn investigation into 21st-century engineeringproblems culminated in a list of ‘grand challenges’.Improvements for society at large form the core ofthe grand challenges, which range from providingclean water and engineering better medicines tosecuring cyberspace and managing the nitrogencycle.

This list has a much broader remit than individualinventions. It challenges engineers to use theirknowledge not only to create new inventions, but todesign global systems and influence policies andprocedures to cause societal changes.

The emphasis on large-scale activity will requiremultidisciplinary teams to work together acrossland and political boundaries. Policy makers,economists, politicians and social scientists will allbe involved in the successful implementation ofthese changes. Engineers will no longer work insmall teams; communication with broad socialgroups will become more critical than ever.

The skills required to achieve these aims comparewell to the DIT Graduate Attributes, upon which ourprogrammes are designed. Technical and practicalclasses, along with opportunities to developinterpersonal skills, are embedded through manydifferent initiatives. These include practical, team-based projects such as the Bridge Design and BuildCompetition, collaborative projects with otherdisciplines and the use of assessments to highlightthe importance of teamwork, negotiation andpresentation skills, for example.

DIT civil-engineering students are also working on ajoint project with students from Rochester Instituteof Technology in the United States, with the aim ofproviding an opportunity to experience interculturaldesign teams, international design standards and aglobal outlook on common civil-engineering designproblems.

Retaining femaleengineering studentsRetention of engineering students can also be aproblem, particularly in first year. Femaleengineering students may be especially vulnerableas a result of feeling in the minority. The School ofCivil & Structural Engineering created the Women inEngineering Network to address this problem. Thegroup has three aims: to be a network for female

engineers (both students and staff), to mentoropportunities and to create a team of volunteers tovisit girls’ schools and highlight engineering as acareer.

The demand for engineering graduates isincreasing. Widening particpation is a key aspect ofstudent recruitment. Enhancing the numbers offemale students, mature students and internationalstudents will provide a large talent pool to enablethe economy to continue to grow.

The successful part-time programmes in civilengineering are aimed at mature students oftenalready working in the engineering industry, eitheras technicians in consulting offices or as tradesmenon site. It is heartening to witness the academic andprofessional success of mature students who havejoined programmes from alternative routes throughthe educational system. They see a bright future inengineering and value the importance of anaccredited degree programme, as do we!

Author:Úna Beagon, assistant head of school, School of Civiland Structural Engineering, Dublin Institute ofTechnology Bolton Street

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Electronics are pervasive in our daily lives.Electronic devices are becoming increasingly morepersonalised, more connected and more ubiquitous,whether as part of our personal lifestyle or asenabling technologies for better cars, cities,schools, hospitals or manufacturing plants.

The future digital society will depend more onelectronics and will have the highest expectationsfor their functionality, performance, connectivity,resilience and robustness. Electronic engineeringeducation should thus develop the skills that notonly prepare engineers for discovering anddeveloping new technologies, but also for makingthese technologies accessible, affordable and mostdependable.

Equally, electronic engineering education shouldaddress the profound ethical and security issuesthat surround the use of electronics in anincreasingly connected society.

A major challenge facing electronic engineeringeducation is to offer innovative and engagingcurricula that expose students to the challenges andopportunities for digital technologies inenvironments that mimic the real world.

Of particular importance is the understanding of theuse of digital technologies as parts of widelydistributed and loosely connected ecosystems,rather than standalone devices and reflecting theseecosystems in electronic engineering curricula.

Changing softwareenvironmentsWe have more electronic devices than people on theplanet connected to the internet, and these devicesbecome increasingly more integrated into ‘Networks

of Things’ underpinned by machine-to-machinecommunication and poised to improve our dailylives and make us healthier, more active and moreproductive. The services delivered by these devicesface massive demand and use the Cloud to scale tobillions of users and devices.

The software environments used to programmodern electronics are now open source andcollaborative environments, with highly integratedtools. Platforms such as the Arduino and Rasberry Piallow the integration of Systems on Chip withwireless communication services and the integrateddevelopment of mobile applications and Cloudservices.

Emerging platforms in this space offer capability forhardware customisation via the use of field-programmable gate arrays and increasingly moreaccessible software tools for prototyping on them.

Disruptive changes happen also in the algorithmsthat underpin networks of electronic devices. Our

Electronic engineering for thefuture digital society

Prof Dimitrios S. Nikolopoulos writes that bodies involved in electronicengineering education must offer engaging curricula that exposestudents to the challenges and opportunities for digital technologies inenvironments that mimic the real world

Prof Dimitrios Nikolopoulos

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ACADEMIC

society expects human-like decision-making abilityfrom networks of electronics: instantaneous, if notspontaneous, perceptive and effective.

Our digital ecosystems generate vast amounts ofdata mainly from sensing and actuatingcomponents, which are available on every electronicdevice and steadily grow in numbers. Intelligentdecision-making capability requires electronicsecosystems that are tightly integrated andinteroperable with powerful computing capability toquickly absorb, clean and analyse the vast volumeof data generated.

Perhaps more importantly, effective decision-making requires algorithms that through trainingcan learn to do things that they were notprogrammed to do in the first place.

Understanding these algorithms that stem fromArtificial Intelligence and Deep Learning theory, aswell as their implications for systems, networks andsoftware has become a key research challenge incomputing and will inevitably become a keychallenge to the integration of future electronicsecosystems.

These algorithms are at the heart of functionalitythat a data-dependent digital society expects to becommonplace and easily accessible: naturallanguage processing, human-like computer vision,self-driving cars, diagnosis and treatment ofdisease, or education.

Curricula that reflectsdisruptive changesHow should modern electronic engineering curriculareflect the disruptive changes that happen in ourdigital ecosystems?

Electronic engineering curricula easily lose students’attention and interest early in their studies, due to acontinued strong emphasis on the fundamentals ofcircuits and signals. These concepts, thoughessential, may not be easily accessible or easilylinked to real-world deployments of electronics.

We have a pressing need to make our electronicsand, indeed, all our engineering curricula moreapplication oriented and help our studentsunderstand how circuits and signals work in larger,connected systems. We need to give our students aglimpse of how electronics are used and operate inthe real world and what are the challenges of actualdeployments.

Students should gain insight into the fundamentalsby using them as building blocks of practicalsystems, by connecting these blocks and by makingthese blocks perform meaningful tasks. We shouldhelp students bring together their skills inelectronics fundamentals, computing andprogramming by developing whole distributedsystems, instead of programming individual systemcomponents.

Students should also take a holistic view of meetingthe requirements of systems, both functional andnon-functional, as a key criterion for assessing theirwork.

Last but not least, students should experiencelearning of electronics and engineering in spacesfull of creativity and innovation, using cutting-edgetools and hands-on training. We shouldcontinuously inspire our students to dream,innovate and take ownership of their ideas.

Author:Prof Dimitrios Nikolopoulos is Professor of HighPerformance and Distributed Computing and theHead of the School of Electronics, ElectricalEngineering and Computer Science, at Queen’sUniversity Belfast.

Tel: +353 1 207 1000

Email: info@gdgeo.com

Web: www.gdgeo.comUnit A2, Nutgrove Office Park Rathfarnham Dublin 14

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The global energy landscape is changing fast.Recent breakthroughs in technology innovation,price reductions in renewable energy and thesigning of the Paris Agreement have led toincreased progress in the worldwide transition to alow-carbon energy system – in 2016, energygenerated from renewables alone grew by 14%.

The change in focus from the Kyoto Protocolemphasis on burden sharing to the Paris Agreementfocus on opportunities has unlocked considerablemomentum. But this momentum is not sharedequally across all sectors and all countries.

In Ireland in October, the Citizens’ Assembly wasasked, ‘How the State can make Ireland a leader intackling climate change?’ This ambitious framingcontrasts with much evidence that marks Ireland as anunderperformer in climate action and energy policy.

What are the opportunities for Ireland associatedwith the low-carbon energy transition? A researchteam at University College Cork’s (UCC’s) MaREIcentre is exploring this question in the NTRFoundation-funded Our 2050 project.

MaREI is Ireland’s research and innovation centre onmarine and renewable energy, supported by ScienceFoundation Ireland. It has seven research areas,including marine renewable-energy technologies,bioenergy, energy policy and modelling, and energymanagement.

Part of the fresh approach of MaREI is taking amulti-disciplinary perspective to the low-carbonenergy transition, bringing together engineering,economics, social, business and innovationchallenges to develop holistic solutions. Energyengineers today increasingly need to have both adeep expertise and a broad capacity to work withother disciplines.

Low-carbon energyfuturesOver the past ten years, researchers at UCC havedeveloped expertise with integrated energy-systemmodels that can explore different low-carbonenergy futures for Ireland. Most recently, the Our2050 project is using advanced computing power

Harnessing the opportunitiesfrom the low-carbon transition

Tomorrow’s energy engineers must take a multi-disciplinaryperspective to the low-carbon energy transition, embracing economic,social, business and innovation challenges to develop holistic solutions,writes Dr Fionn Rogan

Dr Fionn Rogan

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and large numbers of scenarios to look atopportunities for a range of technologies acrossmultiple decarbonisation pathways.

Across such an ensemble of decarbonisationpathways, we can explore:

• Resilient technologies (i.e. technologies thatfeature in many future scenarios and thus have alower risk investment profile),

• Tipping-point technologies (i.e. technologiesthat cause a tipping point in overall system costand which are also ripe for a small technicalimprovement providing a crucial competitiveadvantage), and

• Niche technologies (i.e. technologies that needadditional cost reductions and policy supports,which the modelling can help to quantify).

Some of the early results of this modelling work canbe viewed here.

Integrated energy-systems modelling providesinsights to the costs and opportunities for differenttechnologies, but there is more to the low-carbonenergy transition than just technologies and costs.Business models, innovation policies and associatedsocial and community changes must also beinvestigated.

Energy-engineering researchers in MaREI areworking with Cork University Business School (CUBS)and the Department of Business, Enterprise, andInnovation (DBEI) to understand some of thesebroader issues, for example the innovationmanagement challenges for organisations, and theskill’s and job’s needs for different low carbontechnology portfolios.

Analysis of resilient technologies points tosignificant opportunity for energy efficiency inindustry, but a need for improved energymanagement methodologies to maximise andsustain the energy savings. UCC researchers areworking with industry to help develop some ofthese solutions.

An opportunity for biogas in the freight sector wasalso identified and a new agent-based modellingapproach was developed in collaboration with aneconomics researcher to quantify some of thebehavioural factors associated with driver switchingfrom diesel to biogas and the policy supports thatmight help nudge the industry in the right direction.

Our analysis of the (initially) niche technology oceanenergy examined the factors affecting rates oftechnology learning for different levels ofinvestment, which has led us to working with theInternational Renewable Energy Agency and the IEA

Mission Innovation consortium. These are just someexamples of the ongoing work of Our 2050 project.

Multidisciplinary researchTo harness the many opportunities that exist, it isnecessary for different stakeholders and differentdisciplines to work together. The importance ofmultidisciplinary research is being increasinglyemphasised at a European policy level, with a recentsurvey finding 19% of university energy research(PhDs and Masters) being multi-disciplinary (i.e.STEM plus other).

This also underscores the importance of effectivecommunications and genuine engagement. So far,the Our 2050 project has benefitted hugely fromworking closely with the energy industry in Ireland,such as via presentations at energy industry events,a survey on energy-innovation practices, and aproject event to which key industry participantswere invited.

The challenges and opportunities of the energytransition underline the contribution that energyengineers can and must make in the future. Whilemuch of the recent positive momentum in theenergy transition has come from technologyinnovation, to fully capitalise on these technologychanges, broad alignment of political, economic andsocial factors is needed.

Energy engineers need a whole energy systemperspective (electricity, heat and transport) togetherwith a deep understanding of the multipledimensions of innovation: technical design,innovation management within an organisation,innovation policy and the many non-technical wayssociety engages with energy services.

Author:Fionn Rogan is a Research Fellow in the MaREIcentre in University College Cork, where he is leadresearcher on the Our 2050 – Opportunities forIreland in a Low Carbon Economy project. He isinterested in all aspects of energy transitions andenergy innovation including the technical, economic,policy and societal dimensions.

Rogan lectures on energy systems modelling in UCC,has provided technical advice to the Irishgovernment on energy policy, and has published inkey energy and transport research journals. He hasa PhD in Energy Systems Modelling and an MEngScin Sustainable Energy from UCC and a BE inIndustrial Engineering and Information Systemsfrom NUI Galway.

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Chemical engineering deals with the design,construction and operation of facilities in whichmaterials undergo chemical and physical change, todeliver the processes that make the products wedepend on, while simultaneously managingresources and protecting the environment.

These products include synthetic pharmaceuticals,fuels, polymeric and inorganic materials, finechemicals, processed foods and beverages. Thecomplementary field of biochemical engineeringrepresents a synthesis of the disciplines ofbiotechnology (utilising biological organisms togenerate products, such as biopharmaceuticals) andchemical engineering (design for large scaleindustrial processes).

Chemical engineering education in Ireland began inthe early 1950s with the first BE graduates fromUniversity College Dublin (UCD) in 1956. Severalother higher education institutes subsequentlyintroduced programmes as the chemical and alliedindustries in Ireland began to grow.

The pharmaceuticalIndustry in IrelandToday, graduates enter a buoyant job market in adiverse range of sectors. The vast majority choosecareers in the pharmaceutical/biopharmaceuticalsector, which has been growing steadily in Irelandfor the past several decades since the firstinvestments in 1960s by Leo Laboratories andBristol Myers Squibb. The first major biotechnologyinvestment came from Schering Plough (now MSD)in Cork in the early 1990s.

According to IDA Ireland, this sector currentlyemploys around 28,000 people directly and another

25,000 indirectly, with over 65% of employeeshaving a third-level qualification.

An increasing percentage of pharmaceuticalsentering the market are biopharmaceuticals. Annualsales of biopharmaceuticals exceed $200 billionglobally, and industry revenue is growing at

Chemical engineering educationKeeping pace with industry developments

Prof Eoin Casey outlines why investment in our higher educationinfrastructure and improvements to the university funding systemsmust be addressed, to ensure the availability of highly trainedgraduates for the bio/pharmaceutical industry

Prof Eoin Casey

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approximately 15% per annum. This sector isparticularly important for Ireland, with over $10billion of investments in biotech manufacturing overthe past 10 years.

Capital investment projects valued at €5 billion havebeen recently completed or are currently inprogress, according to BioPharmaChem Ireland. In2016, the Expert Group on Future Skills Needsestimated that 8,400 potential job openings willarise within the biopharma industry in Ireland overthe next five years.

In response to major growth in biopharmaceuticalmanufacturing, the Irish Government established adedicated research and training centre, the NationalInstitute for Bioprocessing Research and Training(NIBRT), based on an innovative collaborationbetween University College Dublin, Trinity CollegeDublin, Dublin City University and the Institute ofTechnology, Sligo.

NIBRT has sometimes been described as a ‘flightsimulator’ for biotech manufacturing and it works inclose partnership with the biopharmaceuticalindustry on both training and research.

Outlook for chemicalengineering graduatesTo date, the majority of biopharmaceuticalmanufacturing in Ireland has focused onmammalian cell production of monoclonalantibodies. There is now increasing diversificationin the product pipeline, with advances in innovativebiotherapeutics such as cell therapy, gene therapy,combination products and precision medicines.

For example, the field of immuno-oncology isexperiencing rapid growth, and manufacturingcapacity to meet the demand for these products iscritically important. In parallel, the nature ofbiopharmaceutical manufacturing processes isconstantly evolving with the development andintroduction of novel technologies such ascontinuous processing, advanced analytics andsingle-use systems. New technology platformsassociated with, for example, antibody-drugconjugates create significant technical challengesthat require chemical engineering expertise.

The Irish higher education system has beenresponsive to the growth of the bio/pharmaceuticalsector and has increased the number of graduatesmeeting industry skills’ requirements. Moreover,there has been a parallel increase in theestablishment of industry-academic research

collaboration, which has been catalysed by stateinvestment in research through bodies such asScience Foundation Ireland (SFI).

UCD has responded to changing industrial needsthrough several initiatives and now offers a numberof successful programmes. From the 2016/17intake, UCD’s flagship BE (Chemical & Bioprocess)degree pathway has become part of the new five-year Integrated BE/ME in Chemical & BioprocessEngineering, which includes a mandatory, six- toeight-month industrial placement, with potential toextend to 12 months.

Additionally, the BE component of the programmenow offers students an optional Minor inBiochemical Engineering. For the past decade, UCDhas also delivered a taught MEngSc inBiopharmaceutical Engineering, available on bothfull-time and part-time bases. These programmesare characterised by a rigorous, analytical-centrededucation that emphasises the fundamentals of thediscipline, on research-informed teaching and anemphasis on chemical engineering designprinciples.

Conclusion Graduates have excellent analytical and high-levelproblem-solving skills, greatly valued by employers.Both undergraduate (BE/ME) and graduateprogrammes operate in collaboration with NIBRT,for access to state-of-the art education and trainingfacilities.

The availability of talented engineers is critical forthe bio/pharmaceutical sector if Ireland is tomaintain its competitive advantage and globalreputation in this sector. Investment in our highereducation infrastructure and improvements to theuniversity funding systems must be addressed, inorder to ensure that highly trained graduatescontinue to be available for the bio/pharmaceuticalindustry.

Author:Prof Eoin CaseyProfessor and head of school, UCD School ofChemical and Bioprocess EngineeringPrincipal Investigator (PI), UCD Biofilm EngineeringLaboratory Co-PI: Energy Systems Partnership Programme

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The emergence of Ireland as a global hub formedical technology has meant that Level 8 bachelorof engineering (BE) programmes in biomedicalengineering are now well-established across manyIrish universities and institutes of technology.

These, and related courses in science, technology,engineering and maths (STEM), are akey factor in attracting investment anddriving growth in the medicaltechnology sector. This industry nowemploys over 29,000 people in Ireland,provides a base for 18 of the world’stop 25 medical technology companiesand has annual exports valued at over€12 billion.

It is encouraging that the recent IrishMedtech Association report on futureskills needs (1) across the sector hasindicated that the demand foremployees in all areas will continue togrow. The report forecasts that by2020, the number of engineeringemployees across the sector will growby 36%, with the largest increaseexpected in research and development(R&D) roles.

Highly-skilled individuals will berequired to fill these roles, with an expectation thatover a quarter of R&D engineers will be educated tomasters or PhD level.

It is also forecast that there will be a 25% increaseddemand for engineering roles in manufacturing andoutlines the potential of additive manufacturing tochange the supply chain and product designprocess for Medtech companies.

Furthermore, it is predicted that employees willrequire more blended skillsets in the future astechnological development in the medtech sectorwill become more collaborative in nature, with newproducts will seek to combine technologies, in areassuch as smart drug-delivery devices or ICTintegration.

Biomedical engineering –an evolving landscapeThe Irish biomedical engineering education systemis continuously adapting to meet the needs of thisrapidly-evolving industry and profession. Perhapsthe most significant change to engineeringeducation in the recent past has been driven by the

Maximising the talent pool to meet futureneeds of Ireland’s medtech sector

Dr Ted Vaughan writes that industry, academia and professional bodiesmust work together to promote the exciting career opportunities withinbiomedical engineering to second-level students, while also targetingincreased uptake of STEM-based subjects

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new standards established for chartered engineer,with graduates from 2013 onwards requiring anaccredited Level 9 masters qualification, orequivalent, to apply for the title.

Higher-education institutions have responded tothis, with the emergence of Level 9 mastersprogrammes in biomedical engineering specificallydesigned to meet the equivalent learning outcomesas that of engineering graduates of any of thesignatory countries to the Washington Accord.

Already, there has been move to consider biomedicalengineering as a five-year programme, comprisingof a four-year bachelor and one-year mastersstructure. For accredited biomedical engineeringprogrammes (2), higher education institutions arecontinuously working with industry partners andEngineers Ireland to ensure that programmeoutcomes and graduate skills serve the needs of Irishmedical device sector and the meet the higheststandards required for profession qualification (3).

All programmes are designed to deliver a breadth ofknowledge in the mathematics, sciences andtechnologies that underpin the biomedicalengineering profession and place a significantemphasis on problem-solving skills that can beapplied to the design of medical devices andsystems/processes relevant to the sector.

Employability of biomedical engineering graduatesis significantly enhanced through 6- to 12-monthindustry placements for students, with workexperience programmes now standard across alluniversities offering the degree (although some onlytake place when graduates progress to ME level).

In terms of addressing the increasing employmentdemand in the medtech sector, it is encouragingthat biomedical engineering student numbers areon the rise. As an example, NUI Galway, whichresides at the heart of the Irish medical-deviceindustry, has experienced a three-fold increase instudent numbers over the past ten years, withalmost 300 students currently enrolled inbiomedical engineering programmes (Levels 8 and 9).

University-industry links Biomedical engineering education has benefitedthrough increased levels of interaction betweenacademia and industry, particularly as recentnational funding strategies have prioritised more‘applied’ research that has seen the formation ofeffective and productive industrial and academicpartnerships (4).

The Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) ResearchCentres programme is one such major initiative thathas seen the establishment of the Centre forMedical Device Research (CURAM) and AdvancedMaterials and BioEngineering Research centre(AMBER), which have both delivered significanteconomic and societal impact by supporting theactivities of the medical device industry.

In parallel with other national schemes, such asthose run by the Irish Research Council, andadditional funding leveraged from the EuropeanUnion Horizon-2020 framework, there is now alarge a cohort students enrolled on structured PhDprogrammes (Level 10) in biomedical engineeringacross higher education institutions, who will beprimed to take up high-value employment in small-and medium-sized enterprises and multinationalcompanies across the medtech sector.

The increased collaboration between industry andacademia provides an added benefit to taughtundergraduate and postgraduate programmes, as itpromotes research-led teaching that is delivered byacademic staff working at the cutting edge oftechnological innovation.

This research-led teaching strategy means thatadvanced technical skills training are available in arange of specialisations within the sector, includingneural engineering (UCD), advanced biomaterialsand processing technologies (DCU), advancedcomputational biomechanics (NUIG), microfluidics(UL) and tissue engineering (TCD).

There has also been a renewed focus in the area ofadvanced manufacturing across many of thehigher-education institutions and the recentannouncement of two new SFI research centres inadditive (iForm) and smart (CONFIRM)manufacturing ensures a pipeline of engineeringexpertise that will have the capacity to supportmanufacturing innovation across the medtechsector.

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“The higher education sectormust ensure a continuedsupply of highly-skilled

graduate engineers to meetthe increasing demand

within the sector”

Future needsInto the future, it will be crucial that the highereducation sector continues to support the growth ofthe Irish medical device industry and ensures acontinued supply of highly-skilled graduateengineers to meet the increasing demand within thesector.

To maximise the talent pool available, there shouldbe collaborative efforts between industrial,academic and professional bodies to promote theexciting career opportunities within biomedicalengineering to second-level students, while alsotargeting increased uptake of STEM-based subjects.

It will also be critical that a sustainable higher-education funding model is identified in the nearfuture to safeguard access to third-level educationfor students from all socio-economic backgrounds,while also ensuring that higher educationinstitutions are adequately resourced to enabledelivery of engineering curricula to the highest,internationally-recognised academic standards.

References:(1) Future skills needs analysis for the medical

technology sector in Ireland to 2020, IrishMedtech Association Skillnet, 2017

(2) List of Engineers Ireland AccreditedProgrammes available athttp://www.engineersireland.ie/Membership/FAQ/Accredited-Courses.aspx

(3) Engineers Ireland: Accreditation forprofessional titles

(4) National Research Prioritisation Exercise,November 2011.

Author: Dr Ted Vaughan is a lecturer in biomedicalengineering in NUI Galway’s College of Engineering& Informatics.

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The development of innovative product-development processes and multi-disciplinarylaboratories, modules and projects has dovetailedwith the implementation of major initiatives in CorkInstitute of Technology (CIT).

This includes student start-up companyinternships, CIT Innovation Week and student prizesfor innovation and entrepreneurship, and the CITengineering exhibition (with 200 stands in 2017). Ithas engineered a college-wide student innovationeco-system, leading to a great flowering of Irisheducational student achievement on national andinternational stages.

The developed action-learning programmes bringmultidisciplinary teams together to collaborate andbring novel products from conception through tocommercialisation.

Many of the start-up companies, while cognisant ofcommercial realities, are driven by the idea of usingengineering, business and innovation to betterhumanity, with projects addressing globaltransformative biomedical and societal needs.

Innovative, practicalmodulesThe laboratory- and workshop-based modulescentre on the practical development of engineeringsystematic product research, design, developmentand production skills, experimental and modellingtechniques, commercial assessment, marketing andinterdisciplinary teamwork management.

Product development learning outcomes areachieved through the application of innovativeteaching techniques – such as hands-on studentexposure to development technologies andmethodologies, formal laboratories and workshops,formal report writing and informal multi disciplinarystaff/student round-table fora.

The learning process is enhanced by academic,industrial, peer and public review through formaldemonstration and exhibition of the developingsolutions. Industrial expertise is harnessed byincorporating formal consultations and lectures byleaders of industry, research, patent lawyers,marketers, innovation centre managers andinnovation award winners.

Students are introduced to the potential andopportunities provided by the resources, facilitiesand expertise of Enterprise Ireland and Centres ofExcellence.

Engineering an undergraduate multi-disciplinarystudent innovation eco-system

Prof Seán O’Leary writes that laboratory and workshop-basedteamwork, combined with leadership skills development, facilitatesinnovation and entrepreneurship in engineering students

Prof Seán O’Leary

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The development of the CIT Prize for Innovation,with awards totalling €14,000 per annum (inconjunction with Enterprise Ireland InnovationCentres and the Cork City and County EnterpriseBoards) has also been a major spur in thepromotion of an entrepreneurial/innovation ethosamongst the student body. The attendance andparticipation of internationally renownedentrepreneurs and alternative thinkers, such asEdward De Bono of ‘Six Thinking Hats’ fame, isdesigned to provide inspiration.

Many of the projects bring developed by themultidisciplinary teams are progressing toknowledge-based, innovative start-up companies.

Encouraging successfulstart-upsA prime example of a highly successful studentstart-up company, now employing 22 staff, is PMDSolutions based in the Rubicon Centre, CIT’sCampus Based Start-Up Incubation Centre.Following winning First Place in the CIT Prize forInnovation and the coveted Award of CITEntrepreneur of the Year 2011, CIT MechanicalEngineering Student and MEDIC Centre intern MylesMurray founded PMD Solutions to developinnovative and patient friendly technologies tosupport health providers early prevention model ofpatient care. PMD Solution’s novel respiratorymonitor device achieved Horizon 2020 funding of€4.2 million in 2016.

This success is underscored by the unprecedentedachievement by CIT IPD multidisciplinary studentsand staff of all five major awards at the EnterpriseIreland Student Entrepreneur Awards National Finals2016 – the Enterprise Ireland Overall NationalWinner and Student Entrepreneur of the Year 2016,the Cruickshank Intellectual Property AttorneysNational Award 2016, the Grant Thornton NationalAward 2016, the Intel ICT National Award 2016 andthe Enterprise Ireland Academic InnovationAchievement National Award 2016. This successhas continued apace into 2017.

In addition, many students have reported that themulti-disciplinary innovative project has been amajor positive and differentiating factor in jobinterviews.

Student multidisciplinary teams are forged togetherfrom career streams with high proportions of males,such as mechanical engineering and accountancy,and disciplines with higher proportions of females,such as biomedical engineering and

marketing/management. This has had a hugelybeneficial effect in inculcating an innovation/entrepreneurship mindset and skillset.

The developed multidisciplinary programme activelypromotes the role of women in engineering ingeneral and, specifically, in relation to participationthrough leading roles throughout the innovativeproduct-development process. In the academic year2016/17, over 60% of the team leaders and projectmanagers elected by the multidisciplinary teamswere women.

Indeed, the prevalence of female engineers in teamleadership and project management roles had beena major driver and central component of theinternational/national success of thesemultidisciplinary teams.

Now, entering its 32nd year, the Cork Mechanical,Manufacturing & Biomedical Engineering Exhibition–Europe’s largest educational engineering eventincorporating over 200 stands – is a seminal fixturein promoting engineering and is central and crucialto engineering a highly successful campuseducational innovation eco-system.

In addition, the Cork Institute of TechnologyInnovative Product Development Multi-DisciplinaryLaboratories initiative has been adjudged winner ofand presented with the European Commission EEPANational Award ‘Promoting the EntrepreneurialSpirit – Promote an Entrepreneurial Mindset,especially among Young People and Womenthrough delivering Innovative Product Development,Multi-disciplinary Engineering and Ground-breaking Education’ at the European EnterprisePromotion Awards International Finals inLuxembourg.

A continuous design core, a strong innovationethos, product development from student conceptto prototype manufacture and optimisation, multi-discipline teamwork, business plan development,communication and exhibition skill enhancementand a unique engineering education model have allcombined to create a critical mass leading to theremarkable international and national successesover a sustained period of the students of CIT’sengineering and business degree courses.

Author:Prof Sean F. O’Leary, senior lecturer, Department ofMechanical, Biomedical and ManufacturingEngineering, School of Mechanical, Electrical &Process Engineering, Cork Institute of Technology

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We are now in the Fourth Industrial Revolution,synonymous with the phrase Industry 4.0, wheretwo significant technologies are proving to bedisruptive. These are, namely, the industrialisationof 3D printing known as ‘additive manufacturing’,and ‘digitilisaton’, where we are able to connect andinteract with the cyber-physical-systems that arethe building blocks of our highly automatedfactories, machines and processes.

This is a time of rapid change and dramaticdisruption to our traditional way of thinking,carrying out research and educating engineers. Thedisruption is so dramatic that industry is alsofinding the change difficult to grasp: as a result, itis collaborating with industry-facing researchgroups in third-level institutions and reaching outfor new talent at masters (Level 9) and PhD (Level10) students from the third-level sector to supportthem in this transition.

Indeed, the move in engineering higher educationto masters (Level 9) as a basic requirement for CEngis timely, as the breadth and depth of knowledgerequired to truly embrace the sophistication ofadditive manufacturing and connected machinesand processes is significant.

A time to growThe techniques for metal additive manufacturingprocesses are developing at a rapid pace, withnumerous vendors in the marketplace offeringrobust production-ready machines and supportingsystems.

While the technology for additive manufacturing isadvancing, this is only one part of a completesystem. Finishing, heat treatments and inspectionare all topics that are the subject of intensivedevelopments as part of fulfilling the additivemanufacturing potential. Furthermore, the CAEdesign tools are only now emerging to allow us toconsider design-for-additive-manufacturing.

We recognise that most existingcomponent/product designs are in fact constrainedby traditional manufacturing techniques. Additivemanufacturing challenges us to completelyreconsider our design approach, with the new level

Mechanical and manufacturing engineersto drive the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Dr Garret O’Donnell writes that tomorrow’s mechanical andmanufacturing engineers must be comfortable with connectivity andwith sensorisation of machines and systems, and engaged in thecharacterisation of signals, data and machine learning

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of technical sophistication to be embedded incomponents.

We can imagine a new level of collaboration, wherethere is a need for the subject-area design expertand the additive manufacturing expert to workclosely to truly maximise the potential impact ofadditively manufacturing components. This is presenting us with fantastic opportunities todeliver research-led teaching at the masters level,allowing the students to get into the technologyfundamentals and enable them to drive changeinside industries.

A time to connectWhile additive manufacturing is viewed asdisruptive, the implementation ofdigitilisation/Industry 4.0 is absolutelytransformational, and this has become a major topicfor all sizes of companies, in many different sectorsspanning food, automotive, agri-equipment,medical device manufacturing, as well asautomation and traditional IT.

The proposal is that sensors on specificcomponents, products or machines can unlock keyinformation about performance or characteristics ofusage that could enable optimisation, allowing forredesign or reconfiguration remotely of thecomponent function.

The market has responded with numous platformsto enable connectivity, and numerous cloud systemsto host and access data. Examples are extensive,ranging from quantification of airflow to millimetreresolution in data centre cooling to ‘smart cuttingtools’ used for manufacturing of aeroenginecomponents.

Service is a new phrase in the world of themechanical and manufacturing engineering, and theaccess to data is enable service to be real impact forindustry. The mechanical and manufacturingengineer of the future must be comfortable withconnectivity, with sensorisation of machines andsystems, and aware and engaged in thecharacterisation of signals, data and machinelearning.

Ultimately, the data is only valuable if the engineerscan use this to determine the fundamentals of themachine or system performance; therefore, the coreknow-how and skill of the mechanical andmanufacturing engineer is more critical than ever.

A time to collaborate The ability for industry to engage and interact withthe third-level sector has also reached a new levelof openness. Most masters-level engineeringprogrammes have structured engineeringinternships with industry as part of Year 4 of theirfive-year masters degrees.

For example, in mechanical and manufacturingengineering in Trinity College Dublin, studentscompete for project internship positions withpartner companies and earn half of their Year 4grade based on the outcome of this industryinternship project activity. The industry appetite toparticipate is high, as industry partners are gettinga good insight into the talent, and students inreturn benefit significantly from exposure to thenew technical work and the professional workenvironment.

The research landscape has also changeddramatically. The leadership of Science FoundationIreland centres such as AMBER, combined withsignificant industrial targeted projects on processmaterial interactions, has paved the way for twospecific centres related to manufacturing: I-FORMon additive manufacturing and CONFIRM on smartmanufacturing.

In addition, the Irish Manufacturing Research (IMR)centre pools a number of industries with commonchallenges, where there is a sharing of best practicebetween industries – learning from each other andlinking to state-of-the-art technologies available atIMR.

We can certainly say we are in a time of significantchange. Along with change, there is opportunityand very exciting times for aspiring engineers toengage in technically sophisticated challengingtopics that will drive the Fourth IndustrialRevolution.

Author:Dr Garret O’Donnell, associate professor ofmechanical and manufacturing engineering, TrinityCollege Dublin

Engineers must be comfortablewith connectivity and engaged inthe characterisation of signals,

data and machine

Undergraduate level A wide range of engineering-related courses are offered in universities and institutes of technology. EngineersIreland accredits engineering programmes at over 20 of these higher education institutions, subjecting eachto a rigorous process of evaluation (see www.engineersireland.ie for more information). The Higher EducationAuthority (HEA) collects statistics on higher level student enrolment, progression and graduation, categorisingengineering-related courses as ‘Engineering / Manufacturing / Construction’ or ‘Information &Communications Technology (ICT)’.

Table 1 shows the number of students entering these courses for the first time over the past six academicyears. The number of new entrants has increased by 1.2% over the past year and by 11.5% over the past fiveyears to 8032.

In 2017, there were 8406 graduates from Engineering / Manufacturing / Construction / ICT courses (includingfrom universities and institutes of technology). This represents a 4.2% increase since 2016 and a 4.7% increasesince 2012 (Table 2). The output from ICT courses has been particularly strong in the past four years, growingby almost 1000 graduates between 2013 and 2017. This growth masked fluctuations in the number ofgraduates from Engineering / Manufacturing / Construction courses, which is down 6.3% since 2012. The vastmajority of these graduates achieved either an honours degree (Level 8) or an ordinary degree (Level 7), seeTable 3.

Educating the nextgeneration of engineers

The economic recovery and demographic trends are placing extremedemands on Ireland’s infrastructure and technology, including inhousing and the digital economy. The acute shortage of skilledprofessionals is threatening the supply of new infrastructure andtechnology, potentially undermining future prosperity, sustainability,and health and wellbeing. This brief report collates data on engineeringeducation and skills with the aim of quantifying the ‘pipeline’ of futureengineers.

Table 1. New entrants to Engineering/Manufacturing/Construction/ICT courses

11/12 12/13 13/14 14/15 15/16 16/17 Year- 5 year on-year trend

Eng/Manufact/Constr 4527 4703 4652 4589 4843 4955 +2.3% +9.5%ICT 2678 3036 3103 3031 3093 3077 -0.5% +14.9%Eng/Manufact/Constr/ICT 7205 7739 7755 7620 7936 8032 +1.2% +11.5%

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Postgraduate level For postgraduate courses, there was a strong rise in graduate numbers over the past five years. This trendwas driven by the ICT sector where graduates increased by almost half between 2012 and 2016. However,there was a 2% decrease in graduate numbers from postgraduate courses in the past year (Table 4). This maybe connected to an improvement in job opportunities for engineers upon the completion of theirundergraduate studies. The vast majority of the 2017 postgraduates completed taught masters programmes(Table 5).

ApprenticeshipsThe number of apprentices in Ireland declined dramatically during the recession. Data provided by SOLAS andthe Department of Education & Skills shows that the number of new apprentices registering each year fell from6763 in 2007 to a low of 1204 in 2010. New registrations have since increased to 4147 in 2017 (Table 6).

Table 2. Graduates from Engineering/Manufacturing/Construction/ICT undergraduate courses

11/12 12/13 13/14 14/15 15/16 16/17 Year- 5 year on-year trend

Eng/Manufact/Constr 6002 6336 5951 5750 5496 5624 +2.3% -6.3%ICT 2025 1856 2304 2381 2575 2782 +8.0% +37.4%Eng/Manufact/ Constr/ICT

Table 3. Graduates from Engineering/Manufacturing/Construction/ICT courses (2016/17)

Cert Higher Cert Diploma Ordinary Honours Degree Total Degree Degree

Eng/Manufact/Constr 694 327 166 1679 2758 5624ICT 57 206 74 736 1709 2782Eng/Manufact/Constr/ICT 751 533 240 2415 4467 8406

Table 4. Graduates from Engineering/Manufacturing/Construction/ICT postgraduate courses

11/12 12/13 13/14 14/15 15/16 16/17 Year- 5 year on-year trend

Eng/Manufact/Constr 1120 937 1027 1127 1222 1240 +1.5% +10.7%ICT 984 1012 1420 1715 1505 1436 -4.6% +45.9%Eng/Manufact/Constr/ICT 2104 1949 2447 2842 2727 2676 -1.9% +27.2%

Table 5. Graduates from Engineering/Manufacturing/Construction/ICT postgraduate courses (2016/17)

Cert Higher Diploma Diploma Taught Masters Research Masters PhD

Eng/Manufact/Constr 22 26 141 793 64 194ICT 18 395 45 894 13 71Eng/Manufact/Constr/ICT 40 421 186 1687 77 265

Table 6. New apprentice registrations

2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 20176763 3765 1535 1204 1307 1434 1929 3151 3153 3742 4147

8027 8192 8255 8131 8071 8406 +4.2% +4.7%

The total population of apprentices has increased by 9% in the past year and by 81% in the past five years;there are now 11,273 apprentices (Table 7). There has been particularly strong growth in apprenticeshipsrelating to plumbing, carpentry, electrical and mechanics. A new approach to the sector has resulted in thedevelopment of consortium-led apprenticeships, five of which were launched in 2017: Insurance Practice,Industrial Electrical Engineering, Polymer Processing Engineering, Manufacturing Technology andManufacturing Engineering. 114 apprentices have taken up these new courses.

Table 7. Total apprentice population

2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017Construction

Brick and Stonelaying 85 54 53 54 87 100Cabinet Making 35 10 4 5 3 3Carpentry and Joinery 716 406 471 657 882 962Floor and Wall Tiling 7 4 2 1 - -Painting and Decorating 69 37 33 40 51 58Pipefitting - - - 34 60 75Plastering 63 40 28 34 39 53Plumbing 688 604 779 798 1034 1152Stonecutting and Stonemasonry - - 16 28 27 30Wood Manufacturing and Finishing 29 42 51 84 128 127Wood Machinist 2 - - - - -

ElectricalAircraft Mechanics 113 124 136 132 146 140Electrical 1785 1622 2033 2491 3410 3823Electrical Instrumentation 82 102 163 211 260 275Electronic Security Systems 37 35 35 48 61 87Instrumentation 17 17 25 28 30 35Refrigeration 134 130 160 189 239 257

EngineeringFarriery 31 23 20 20 15 17Industrial Insulation 10 11 16 28 31 34Mechanical Automation & Maintenance Fitting 359 395 480 527 578 587Metal Fabrication 321 365 441 552 618 655Sheet Metalworking 44 43 58 81 94 115Toolmaking 127 184 218 233 244 245

MotorAgricultural Mechanics 89 98 112 140 148 157Construction Plant Fitting 127 147 166 199 215 225Heavy Vehicle Mechanics 286 277 344 429 470 481Motor Mechanics 808 815 932 1130 1264 1288Vehicle Body Repairs 133 103 114 118 152 159

Printing & PaperPrint Media 24 23 23 26 19 19Printing 2 - - - - -Bookbinding - - - - - -

Consortium-ledIndustrial Electrical Engineering - - - - - 12Manufacturing Engineering (Level 6) - - - - - 9Manufacturing Engineering (Level 7) - - - - - 7Polymer Processing Technology - - - - - 16Insurance Practice - - - - - 70Total 6223 5711 6913 8317 10305 11273

77

78

Gender gap in engineering educationGender imbalance has been an historic issue in engineering, not just in Ireland but internationally. Womenremain an untapped resource within the engineering profession. Table 8 shows that men greatly outnumberwomen at each stage of engineering education. Women comprise 25% undergraduate entrants, 17% graduates(U/G), and 28.6% graduates (P/G). The gender gap is particularly alarming for apprenticeships where just0.55% or 62 of 11273 are women. This said, the gender gap has narrowed (albeit marginally at some levels)over the past five years.

*Engineering/Manufacturing/Construction/ICT

ConclusionIn 2017, there were 8406 graduates from engineering-related undergraduate courses, 2676 graduates fromengineering-related postgraduate courses and 1929 newly qualified apprentices.

Skills shortages have emerged in the Irish economy and there is a need for a much larger and more diverseengineering workforce. It has never been more important to inspire and encourage more people, especiallyyoung women, to study engineering.

Engineers Ireland is currently developing a project, ‘The State of Engineering’, which will supplementeducation data with member and public surveys to track progress in engineering education, workingconditions, professional development and diversity.

Contact:Richard Manton, Engineers Ireland Policy Officer, rmanton@engineersireland.ie

AcknowledgementThe data contained in this report were collected by the Higher Education Authority and SOLAS/Department ofEducation and Skills.

Table 8. Gender gap at each level of engineering education

11/12 12/13 13/14 14/15 15/16 16/17Undergraduate entrants*

Male 6217 6609 6631 6491 6653 6725Female 988 1130 1124 1129 1283 1307%Female 20.2 22.3 21.9 22.7 24.7 25.0

Graduates from undergraduate courses*Male 6708 7037 7065 6935 6834 6975Female 1319 1155 1190 1196 1237 1431%Female 16.4 14.1 14.4 14.7 15.3 17.0

Graduates from postgraduate courses*Male 1524 1430 1830 2112 1939 1912Female 580 519 617 730 788 764%Female 27.6 26.6 25.2 25.7 28.9 28.6

ApprenticesMale 6191 5681 6884 8291 10270 11211Female 32 30 29 26 33 62%Female 0.51 0.53 0.42 0.31 0.32 0.55

Membership Team, Engineers Ireland, 22 Clyde Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, Ireland

Tel: +353 (0)1 6651334, N. Irl: (028) 95622062, Email: membership@engineersireland.ie, Web: www.engineersireland.ie