Our Sector Spotlight series showcases and celebrates the achievements of our regions, divisions and societies. This week, Colm Callery, chairperson of the South East region, highlights its role and responsibilities.

The South East region is a hub for members based in Wexford, Waterford, Carlow, Kilkenny and South Tipperary. Our region represents all sectors of industry, providing local CPD and networking events for engineers.

South East region committee members Susan Gallagher, Dr Glen Collins, Michael McCarthy, Colm Callery and Mary Doyle Kent at the Applied Artificial Intelligence Ireland Forum & Technical Conference.

With more than 2,000 members across all grades, the majority of the region’s members are from a Civil and Structural background. Members from mechanical, biomedical, chemical, software and other engineering disciplines are also well represented in our committee and by the region.

The region is fortunate to be the home of two excellent third-level institutions, Carlow IT and Waterford IT. Both institutes are very active in promoting engineering in the South East and are very supportive of the work of the region committee in both the availability of their facilities for events and also the involvement of engineering personnel in our committee.

Committee highlights

This year’s South East region committee is comprised of a positive mix of engineers, with members from the institutes of technology, local authorities, consultants and industry, providing us with a very broad level of expertise and areas of interest. 

We have organised some excellent events over the last number of years, including multiple visits to the New Ross bypass during its construction stage organised by this year’s vice-chairperson, Christy Hannon of Bam Civil Ltd. As with other regions, our region supports collaborative events, much like our recent event on masonry which we held in association with the Irish Concrete Society.

We also held an excellent Applied Artificial Intelligence Ireland Forum & Technical Conference in Kilkenny in 2019. This event was arranged by committee member Dr Glen Collins and was a highlight of recent years’ events.

Most recently, our new committee member Colin Doyle was instrumental in setting up a summer series of technical webinars in collaboration with Roadstone. Doyle, a technical support engineer with Roadstone, kicked off the series with a very well attended SUDs presentation and following this we also held presentations on quarry operations and material standards and masonry essentials.

On the social side we have an excellent golf society with outings held across the region. A number of guests from the Dublin Region Golf Society attended our Christmas outing with the winner taking home the ‘Ollie Mannion Trophy’.

Looking ahead

We have an experienced and energetic committee and our focus for the coming year is to provide a schedule of high-quality events, both technical presentations and site visits, giving engineers in the region the opportunity to network and gain CPD hours along the way.

Through involvement with Engineers Ireland’s Liaison Committee, we will look to further collaborate and develop relations with other regions and professional bodies.

Embracing the challenge of online presentations has broadened our reach and increased our offering of CPD hours to members both in the South East and beyond. Our technical webinars will continue all summer and we encourage all members to join our online evening events.

As part of Engineers Ireland’s 2020 Sectoral Projects in Support of the National Recovery action, our region is also planning for the delivery of a number of webinars from September 2020 to May 2021

Our webinar series will showcase engineering projects, innovations and initiatives for the improvement of society and economy in the South East region and beyond.  

This series of CPD webinars aims to promote the positive impact engineers in our region have on our everyday lives across a range of engineering disciplines and areas of expertise.

From innovation, online working, key infrastructure developments, STEM, medical devices, carbon reduction, sustainable and active transport, this series will present high quality content of guaranteed interest to all engineers.

We look forward to meeting new members from around Ireland and overseas at our online events and future golf events.

To keep up to date with the South East region and to find out more about their forthcoming CPD events and webinars, visit: https://www.engineersireland.ie/Professionals/Communities-Groups/Regions/South-East

You can also follow the South East region on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.