Engineers Journal / News

Chartered Engineer of the Year Award finalists announced

Monday 21 September 2020

Six chartered engineers have been shortlisted for the prestigious Chartered Engineer of the Year Award, sponsored by Arup.

The professional title of chartered engineer, considered to be the gold standard of the profession, was established in Ireland more than 50 years ago.

Within the Republic of Ireland, Engineers Ireland is the sole authority to award the title, which is granted to professional engineers who, through a rigorous review process, have shown their ability to apply their professional competencies in the workplace.

Caroline Spillane, director general of Engineers Ireland, said: “Achieving the registered professional title of Chartered Engineer is an important goal in any professional engineer’s career.

"Beyond the specific statutory functions reserved for Chartered Engineers, achieving this registered professional title is a public statement of an engineer’s competence to practice as a professional.

"It is a seal of approval by their peers that they have developed an ability beyond that achieved during their academic years to that of a professional practitioner. It is also a mark of an engineer’s commitment to the continuing development of their professional expertise and ethical practice.

“I would like to extend my congratulations to each of the finalists on being shortlisted for this year’s Chartered Engineer of the Year Award and wish them the very best of luck in advance of the competition final on October 5. I would also thank Arup for their continued support and sponsorship of this award.”

Donal McDaid, transport and resources group leader at Arup, said: “We are pleased to partner with Engineers Ireland to continue our sponsorship of the Chartered Engineer of the Year Award.

"Becoming chartered is a fantastic achievement in an engineer’s career – the culmination of years of hard work. This award celebrates the accomplishments of engineers striving to make their mark and it is a true reflection of Arup’s vision to shape a better world.

"We are proud to sponsor an award category that contributes to the engineering profession and society. On behalf of Arup, I would like to extend my congratulations to each finalist.”

The 2020 shortlist

Patrick Calnan, Chartered Engineer

Calnan is portfolio and risk manager for Brookfield Renewable UK and Ireland assets, responsible for maximising revenues for existing assets and the development of new assets through commercial contracts negotiations.

He joined Brookfield Renewable in 2014 through Brookfield’s acquisition of Bord Gáis Energy’s onshore wind assets; Brookfield’s first renewable acquisition in Europe. He worked to establish Brookfield’s European renewable platform, notably in setting up its trading, risk and analytics functions.

Prior to Brookfield he worked in Bord Gáis as its lead analyst for its trading business with focus on the interactions of the Whitegate power station in the market.

Calnan has worked as a project manager for SWS Energy (acquired by Bord Gáis in 2010) and a project engineer for Punch Consulting.

He graduated from UCC with a BEng (Civil) and a MEng Sc (via research on power system economics) and has a postgraduate diploma (Renewable Energy) from the University of Ulster.

Rachael Gannon, Chartered Engineer

Gannon is a digital consultant at Accenture in Ireland. She has seven years’ experience in project delivery. Since joining Accenture in February 2020, she has worked on the implementation and delivery of Adobe Experience Manager CMS platform.

She has a deep understanding of stakeholder management and project delivery. She joined Accenture in 2020 from Arup Consulting Engineers where her role was digital co-ordinator, senior engineer and project manager in the Infrastructure and Advisory Group. Her previous roles were with AECOM (formerly URS Ireland) and Ryan Hanley.

Gannon is a Chartered Engineer (CEng MIEI) and a NUI Galway civil engineering graduate (first class honours). She also received a first-class honours in a Level 8 NFQ higher diploma in science in computing (Software Development, DBS 2018) which she completed part time.

Gannon has a keen interest in community engagement and volunteering. She has volunteered both in Ireland and abroad. She is passionate about encouraging STEM in the younger generation and our alignment to the UN SDGs.

Donal Kelly, Chartered Engineer

Donal Kelly is a civil engineer specialising in tunnelling and project management. After graduating with a Bachelor of Civil Engineering in 2008 from NUI Galway, in his native county, he worked in Dublin for a year before moving to London.

Initially gaining experience as a site engineer on tunnelling projects, Kelly rapidly progressed into management positions. Notable projects he has worked on include the Crossrail Stepney Green Caverns, which at 17m wide were the largest soft-ground caverns in Europe, and he led the construction of the technically challenging Crossrail C305 Cross Passages.

Since 2017 Kelly has worked as the tunnel manager on the £654 million Bank Station Capacity Upgrade Project, responsible for the delivery of 1.3km of complex tunnelling works which are weaved around the existing 100-year-old operational station.

Both as an engineer and project manager, he has built a reputation for pushing innovation within the industry, creative problem solving and successfully delivering major infrastructure projects.

Thomas Loftus, Chartered Engineer

Loftus is a Chartered Engineer with a BEng in Environmental Engineering from NUI Galway and an MSc in Water and Wastewater Engineering from Cranfield University.

He has more than 10 years’ experience, primarily in the design, build and operation of water and wastewater infrastructure across Ireland and the UK.

Notably as engineering director and general manager at Coffey Water, Loftus led teams of more than 60 engineers and technicians in the delivery of complex DB/DBO projects covering both municipal and industrial applications.

In leading projects, Loftus encourages collaboration, innovative problem solving, and pragmatic decision making. He strongly advocates that engineers take a lead role in addressing the current and emerging challenges both technical and commercial to deliver sustainable infrastructure.

In his current role as an associate at AECOM in the infrastructure cost management team, he draws from his experience in engineering and management to provide programme, cost and consultancy services for infrastructure clients.

Emer McSwiney, Chartered Engineer

Engineering has always been part of McSwiney’s life, with her whole family being civil/structural engineers. She commenced her career with Jacobs Engineering on their semiconductor manufacturing project in Leixlip as part of her civil engineering course placement with UL.

Upon graduating with an honours degree in 2014, she moved to the UK, where she worked on a variety of projects across different sectors including but not limited to York Plasma Institute, a new research facility in the University of York, Scarborough Leisure Village and Hinkley Point.

However, it was during her time in London where her passion for conservation engineering grew, while leading the Ram Quarter heritage project in Wandsworth, London, with Malachy Walsh and Partners.

She later moved home to Cork, returning to Jacobs, and now leads the structural design of multiple 100 plus million global projects and manages engineering teams across the world. She has also been involved in several initiatives within Jacobs relating to women in engineering and student/graduate mentor programmes.

James Patrick Ryle, Chartered Engineer

Ryle graduated with a bachelor’s degree in electronic engineering and went on to perform research leading to a PhD degree from University College Dublin. His doctoral research focused on advancing digital holographic imaging systems and also developing speckle metrology systems to measure biophysical signals of brainstem activity.

Shortly after his PhD, he designed the initial technology used in the field trials of an equine light therapy mask. This aides healthy and efficient thoroughbred reproduction and resulted in a university spin-out company.

He held a postdoctoral fellowship at Maynooth University and was a visiting scientist at Technische Universitat Ilmenau in Germany. He returned to UCD where he was awarded an innovation prize. He has collaborated with and been funded by research wings of multinational corporations to advance their new technology offerings.

In 2019, he joined Eaton Corporation’s Centre for Intelligent Power as a senior specialist. Here, he contributes to industrial machine vision research projects, investigates emerging technologies and identifies collaboration opportunities for the centre.