Engineers Ireland celebrated excellence in the fields of maintenance engineering and asset management at its annual MEETA (Maintenance, Engineering, Environment and Technology Association) awards event held at Clyde Road on November 17.
The awards are an initiative of the organisation’s own MEETA society, a special interest group for maintenance, reliability and asset management practitioners.
MEETA promotes all aspects of maintenance and asset management in industry, the public sector, semi-state bodies and third level institutions, and represents the interests of its members on national and international issues such as education, infrastructure and development of the practice in Ireland.
Prizes were presented by Dermot Byrne, president of Engineers Ireland and by the event sponsors AESSEAL Ltd and ESS Ltd in the following categories:
- Student Category: Jack Cremmins, IT Carlow (Certificate); Lisa Mooney, CIT (Certificate) and the overall winner in the category was Karen McDonnell of CIT;
- Technology – winner Hollister;
- Management – winner Ballina Beverages, County Mayo;
- Environment - winner Boortmalt;
- Safety – winner BioMarin; and,
- Overall Winner: Zimmer Biomet.
“Engineering is playing an ever-greater role in maintenance today as systems become more complex and young engineers will need to develop the skills of maintenance management," said Dermot Byrne, president of Engineers Ireland.
"The skills needed to maintain the many different types of equipment, (ranging from relatively simple manufacturing facilities to complex areas such as hospitals and data centres), are now being recognised as a profession with defined levels of competency. Such skills are the key elements in the armour of the emerging maintenance engineer when demonstrating competent management of the services that provide the environment in which we all live and work. Therefore we are delighted in Engineers Ireland to have our MEETA awards and acknowledge talent in this field.
“In looking to the future, emerging developments in communication and sensor technology combined with big data and cloud based analytics, will help to unlock the unused potential of equipment. These systems will provide real time data on performance and condition. These systems can convert masses of data into information thereby allowing the most efficient replacement or repair of equipment," he added.
Byrne also thanked the sponsors of the awards: “I would like to thank the sponsors of the MEETA industry awards,
AESSEAL Ltd who took on the sponsorship for the first time in 2015 - sponsoring awards in environment, safety, technology and management as well as the overall award tonight. Also, my thanks to
ESS Ltd who are long-standing sponsors of the student awards.”