Engineers Ireland is pleased to participate in National Volunteering Week 2021, Ireland’s largest annual celebration of volunteers. As part of the nationwide campaign, Engineers Ireland will recognise and celebrate the work of members whose volunteering efforts have positively contributed to Ireland’s engineering community.

Caroline Spillane, director general of Engineers Ireland, commented: “At Engineers Ireland, our volunteers are the lifeblood of our organisation and play a pivotal role in our engineering community.

"The scale and reach of our work is only possible through the enormous contribution of our volunteer members who share best-in-class knowledge and champion excellence through their involvement in our STEPS outreach programme, Regional branches, Engineering divisions and Societies and by conducting assessments or by participating on committees and boards.

“On this National Volunteering Week, I would like to thank all our volunteers who donate their time, energy and talent throughout the year. Thank you for your unwavering support, generosity and for sharing your skills and knowledge.” 

Seven volunteer members nominated by staff 

Rahima Ahmed

Rahima Ahmed is a recent graduate of Limerick Institute of Technology and is a BIM Technician at PUNCH Consulting Engineers. 

Ahmed is a highly valued STEPS Volunteer Engineer and has participated in the STEPS Young Engineers Award since its launch in 2018. Each year Ahmed enthusiastically signs up to visit multiple schools where students find her enthusiasm for engineering infectious. She has also taken part in virtual events for STEPS Engineers Week, such as the Women in Engineering: Why Engineering might be for you! event hosted by the Thomond Region’s Young Engineers Society. Ahmed also actively encourages her fellow engineering colleagues to participate in engineering outreach.

Sheis also past Chair of the Thomond region’s Young Engineers Society and was the recipient for the inaugural Thomond Region Engineering Engagement Award. This award recognises individuals and teams for their dedication and enthusiasm in the advancement and promotion of the engineering profession within the region.

Carl Devlin

Carl Devlin is a Chartered Engineer who is currently based in New Zealand having previously spent many years in the United Kingdom working on large scale infrastructure projects.

As a long-standing interviewer and assessor for the Registered Professional Titles process, Devlin dedicates his time to support Engineers Ireland’s community in achieving their professional development objectives.

Since professional title interviews moved to a fully remote environment, he has been able participate on 9 interview panels – both as chair and panel member. This enables him to give something back to the profession that has given him so much since he was successful in obtaining the title of Chartered Engineer many years ago. He believes it keeps him in touch with home and connected to the Irish engineering community and feels that it is a privilege to have an opportunity to meet some of the exceptional talent that will lead the profession in the future.

John Jordan

John Jordan is a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of Engineers Ireland and has been an active volunteer with Engineers Ireland since joining the Midlands region committee in 2007.

He has generously donated his skills, expertise and time for the benefit of our engineering community and been integral in supporting our members and enhancing and promoting the standing of the profession and its practitioners through his involvement as a volunteer member.

In addition to his role as managing director of Wirtgen Ireland Ltd, he is currently chair of the Finance Committee and a member of the Audit and Risk Committee, Benevolent Fund Committee and Club Committee. He also plays an active role on Engineers Ireland’s Council and Executive. He is also a member of Midlands Region Committee and was previously Chair of the region in 2011.

Ronan Keane and the Cork region committee

Ronan Keane is a Chartered Engineer working with Cork County Council and is immediate past Chair of the Cork region, which celebrates its 80th anniversary this year.

In the past year, he has given very generously of his time to the Cork region and to Engineers Ireland as a whole. During his time as chair, the Cork region has held many successful events, including the History & Rehabilitation of Daly's (Shakey) Bridge (an event that had the highest recorded attendance for the year to date), Offshore Wind in Ireland, and Cork Lower Harbour Estuary Crossing HDD project.

He has successfully steered the region through the challenges of moving events into the virtual environment. In the past year, the Cork region have hosted 24 webinars, with a total attendance to date of 2,834, and contributed 17 recordings to the Engineers TV suite of technical presentations.

The region hosted two events in the Sustainability Grand Tour series and have collaborated with other bodies such as IMarEST, STEM South West and IStructE on events.

Collaborations with our Divisions and Societies were also a feature of the year, with events taking place with the Local Government division, the Energy, Environment and Climate Action division, the Roads and Transportation society and the Geotechnical society and regions, including An Ríocht and West regions.

Michael Lyons

Michael Lyons is a Chartered Engineer and currently Chair of the Fire and Safety Division. He works as a consulting engineer specialising in fire safety. He has been volunteering on the committee of the Fire and Safety Division since the early 1990s and has acted as secretary and chairperson as the need arose. He volunteers on professional interviews for Chartered Engineer. He has also played an active role on Engineers Ireland’s Council and Executive. 

With a passion for fire safety and lifelong learning, he collaborated with CPD Training team to develop and deliver each annual Fire and Safety Division Annual CPD Seminar since 2018. This annual CPD seminar in 2020 was delivered in a time of change as all seminars pivoted online due to COVID-19 restrictions. The CPD team were very much appreciative of Lyons as he took on this challenge and ensured that this seminar was successfully delivered for 120 attendees. He was also pivotal to the 2021 Fire and Safety Seminar which took part on 28 April 2021.

He has also volunteered to represent Engineers Ireland for fire safety on NSAI's National Eurocodes Advisory Committee. He is also a trained spokesperson for Fire and Safety media queries.

Lyons views volunteering as being an imperative for a professional person in order to develop and expand one's professional career.

Peter Roche

Peter Roche is a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of Engineers Ireland. He is a long-standing accreditation assessor and member of the Engineers Ireland accreditation board in the role of vice chair. Each year, he gives generously of his time to undertake a number of two-day accreditation visits, reviewing documentation in advance, meeting academic staff and interviewing students, graduates and employers.

A retired electrical engineer, he brings a wealth of industry expertise and international experience to maintaining standards in engineering education in Ireland. He has also represented Engineers Ireland at international reviews of Engineers Australia, Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (USA), Board of Engineers Malaysia, Russian Association of Engineering Education and Engineering Council (UK) as part of the Washington, Sydney and Dublin Accords.

Roche has acted as mentor and is generous with his expertise and time in interviewing for professional titles at all levels. He is a past chairman of the Irish Centre of the IET.

Professor Mary Sharp

Mary Sharp is a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of Engineers Ireland. She was an assistant professor and is now a visiting research fellow in Trinity College Dublin.

As a long-standing member of Engineers Ireland, Prof Sharp has made a significant impact on our engineering community by investing considerable time as a volunteer over many years to help foster high standards and champion excellence within our organisation.

She played a pivotal role on the Board of Examiners, which does such vital work in supervising and quality assuring our professional review procedures leading to the award of our Registered Professional Titles, from 2005 to 2015. She has been involved as a regular contributor to professional interview panels and was an adjudicator for the Chartered Engineer of the year award.

Since 2015 she has been a pivotal member of the Membership and Qualifications Board. She has been a panel member for many accreditation visits on behalf of Engineers Ireland.

Prof Sharp joined the Ethics and Disciplinary Board, a standing committee of Council responsible for promoting, monitoring and enforcing the Code of Ethics in 2009. She subsequently became chair of the committee in 2010. She is also a longstanding member of the Biomedical Division and was Chair of this Committee in 2019 and 2020.

Members are encouraged to share their own volunteering stories and achievements using the official campaign hashtags #NVW2021 and follow our nominees’ stories on Twitter and LinkedIn throughout National Volunteering Week.

To find out more about volunteering opportunities with Engineers Ireland,  visit: https://www.engineersireland.ie/Professionals/Communities-Groups/Volunteer