Five Chartered Engineers have been shortlisted for the prestigious Chartered Engineer of the Year Award, supported by Arup.

The Registered Professional Title of Chartered Engineer, considered to be the gold standard of the profession, was established in Ireland over 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.

Congratulating those shortlisted, Joe Burns, Buildings Leader at Arup in Ireland, commented: “On behalf of Arup, I would like to extend my congratulations to each finalist shortlisted for the Chartered Engineer of the Year Award. We are proud to sponsor this award and celebrate the finalists’ achievements in design, engineering and problem solving. The Registered Professional Title of Chartered Engineer demonstrates a commitment to harnessing creativity to achieve the remarkable outcomes needed to solve the challenges faced in today’s world.”

Damien Owens, Registrar and Interim General of Engineers Ireland, added: “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.”

Congratulating the shortlisted finalists, Mr Owens added: “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 10 November. I would also thank Arup for their continued support of this award.”

The 2022 shortlist is as follows:

Julia Adams

Julia Adams is a Structural Engineer with Arup.

After graduating from UCD with an M.Eng in Structural Engineering with Architecture in 2015, Julia worked for OCSC Dublin, before joining Arup Berlin in 2018. Since the beginning of her career, she has followed her passion of working in diverse, international teams by contributing to the design of large-scale projects globally. In 2019, Julia was selected to go to Malaysia on a one-year assignment, to support the integration of the Malaysian offices into the global Arup Group.

In 2022, Julia relocated to Arup London where she is the design coordinator of the substructure of a prominent new high-rise building in the city of London with Foster+Partners architects, which aims to generate half of the carbon of current benchmarks to construct.

As a passionate supporter of women in STEM, Julia was selected as EDI champion for Arup Germany, where she was responsible for organising initiatives which promote diversity and inclusivity within the group.

William Fyans

William Fyans studied Mechanical Engineering in Trinity College Dublin and for the last 20 years has pursued a career in the development of novel technologies. He conducted the structural design of principal elements of the lifting equipment aboard the world’s largest ship (Pioneering Spirit); played a lead role in the mechanical design of tidal turbines with Openhydro and led the design of super-precision mechanisms for scientific instrumentation. 

William is currently the Engineering Manager with SiriusXT, leading the design and regulatory approval of the world’s first laboratory-based Soft X-Ray Microscope. This technology enables the generation of a through-thickness 3D image of a single cell and represents a significant development in disease and drug research.  

William is also the Director of Fyans Engineering, which offers consultancy services. Recent projects include the development of a new system of multi-storey modular construction on behalf of Suretank, which has been implemented in the data industry.

Séamus Gilhooley

Séamus Gilhooley is a graduate from the University of Limerick with a BSc in Physics (2010) and MSc in Engineering (2022). He started his career in biotechnology with Curran Scientific and GenCell Biosystems in manufacturing and R&D roles.

With a move in 2013 to the medical device company Stryker, Séamus worked in development of various medical devices used in orthopaedic surgery, including revision hip and total knee arthroplasties. He gained increasing responsibility from design engineering to technical lead on projects and portfolio lead engineer, and had the opportunity to mentor multiple interns, graduate engineers and permanent engineers.

During this time, he demonstrated innovation in engineering by being nominated by R&D management for Stryker’s best invention (2015), and winning member in global awards for collaboration (2017, 2019), as well as being granted six patents.

Siobhán Gleeson

Siobhán Gleeson is a Senior Engineer with Arup where she specialises in the design and construction of flood relief schemes. She is a graduate of Civil and Environmental Engineering from University College Cork.

Prior to joining Arup, she worked in the UK for four years as a graduate engineer with the Environment Agency. She had roles in Asset Management, Planning & Consent, the Thames Barrier, and BIM implementation teams. She also worked as a site engineer on a large flood alleviation scheme. 

Having been with Arup for five years, her role now involves managing the detailed design of complex flood relief schemes, site design liaison, contract administration and BIM implementation. She is currently leading the delivery of the Douglas and Togher Flood relief schemes for Arup. A key focus of Siobhán’s has been the promotion of BIM and digital initiatives in the design and delivery of infrastructure projects.

Dr Fergal O’Rourke

Dr Fergal O’Rourke is a chartered engineer, the Director of the Centre for Renewables and Energy at Dundalk Institute of Technology, Principal Investigator of the CREDIT Technology Gateway and a lecturer in the School of Engineering. He holds a BE(Hons) in Mechanical Engineering (First Class Honours) and a PhD (Mechanical Engineering). His PhD thesis focused on the hydrodynamic design and evaluation of a tidal current turbine operating in real site conditions. Fergal is principal supervisor of six PhD students that are working on projects in the energy domain.

Fergal has over 15 years’ experience in design, evaluation and research, undertaking key roles as a designer, project engineer, engineering consultant and research and development engineer. He has worked on the design, development and evaluation of a range of energy products and systems that provide a sustainable use of energy and reduce carbon emissions. Much of Fergal’s research and industrial project work form part of the learning material for undergraduate engineers.