As our population grows and our world gets busier, there is significant pressure put on our infrastructure and there is an increasing demand for innovative solutions.

Today we’re meeting an engineer who is leading a team of over 400 people working on Ireland’s infrastructure and transport systems to develop a more sustainable future. We hear how important building a strong network is for learning and advancing projects, and about the technical challenges of working with public transport and gas lines.

Our guest today has transitioned from civil engineer to management in his almost 30 years with ARUP and is Ireland Group Leader in Advisory, Planning, Digital, Infrastructure Design and Technical Services, Donal McDaid.

THINGS WE SPOKE ABOUT

• Building a solid network through project work
• Transitioning to sustainable solutions in infrastructure
• Impact of planning and regulation on projects
• The journey to leadership and management
• Innovations in materials and digital

GUEST DETAILS
Donal McDaid manages Arup’s Transport and resources Group in Ireland, which is primarily focused on our Roads and Urban Streets, Rail, Aviation, Maritime, Energy and Water Businesses. There, he leads a diverse, highly motivated team of 300 professional planners, engineers and management consultants.

Since joining Arup in 1997, Donal has worked on and led multi-disciplinary teams on transport planning and environmental studies, and large scale transport infrastructure project planning, design and implementation, both in Ireland and overseas.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/donalmcdaid/

MORE INFORMATION

Looking for ways to explore or advance a career in the field of engineering? Visit Engineers Ireland to learn more about the many programs and resources on offer. https://www.engineersireland.ie/

Engineers Journal AMPLIFIED is produced by DustPod.io for Engineers Ireland.

QUOTES

I got to know every single local authority engineer, I got to know every single architect, I got to know every single planner, every single developer. So the project afforded me the opportunity to build a network. - Donal McDaid

We've come through a decade of what I would call planning and designing. The next decade is going to be about delivery. So I can't think of a more exciting time to be coming into the engineering profession. - Donal McDaid

You really need to think about the existential crisis, which is climate change. And what that does for engineers is that we need to think about our adaptation, resilience when it comes to infrastructure. - Donal McDaid

You actually have to think about the communities you're serving. And if I think about transport, it's always been about access to opportunity. - Donal McDaid

Don't run before you can walk. Be content and learn your trade. Seize the opportunities. - Donal McDaid

KEYWORDS

#infrastructure #sustainability #future #civilengineering #career #transport

Ireland is working toward sourcing 80% of its electricity from renewable sources in just six years.

One of the key players in this mission is the Head of Engineering at EirGrid who is responsible for overseeing the delivery of critical grid infrastructure. In this podcast she shares experience on the complexities of integrating renewable sources like wind and solar into the grid, about balancing supply and storage solutions, plus technical and regulatory hurdles that engineers must navigate. She also speaks about the challenges she has had to face personally as an engineer in this role.

Listen now to get a deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities shaping the future of Ireland's power grid and our transition to renewable energy.

THINGS WE SPOKE ABOUT

• The role of Head of Engineering at EirGrid
• Do we have a creaking old grid?
• Problems storing energy from renewable sources
• Moving energy across long distances
• The planning system
• Challenges she is facing in 2025

GUEST DETAILS

Louise O’Flanagan is the Head of Engineering and Asset Management at EirGrid, a Fellow of Engineers Ireland, and a leader with two decades of experience in the field.

With her long experience connecting customers such as wind farm developers to the national grid, she possesses a deep understanding of the intricate workings of the power system and the challenges of integrating renewable energy sources.

Louise on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/louise-o-flanagan-3a12ba3a/
EirGrid Website - https://eirgrid.com

MORE INFORMATION

Looking for ways to explore or advance a career in the field of engineering? Visit Engineers Ireland to learn more about the many programs and resources on offer. https://www.engineersireland.ie/

Engineers Journal AMPLIFIED is produced by DustPod.io for Engineers Ireland.

QUOTES

Leadership is one part of project management. Leadership is about getting people to buy into what you want to deliver and to want to help and assist you in that.

There is definitely a shortage of female engineers in Ireland. 23% of engineers coming out of university are female and that drops to about 12% actually entering into the workforce. EirGrid have a very active graduate program where you'd see 50% of our graduates are female.

As an engineer, you can have the most perfect plan on paper. But unless you actually meaningfully engage with your stakeholders, that may be where that plan will stay. On paper.

It's what a lot of engineers’ face when they're delivering infrastructure projects. First, you need to explain what the need of the project is, but then also listen and take on board that feedback. You must engage with the community.

KEYWORDS

#engineering #renewable #grid #womeninengineering #eirgrid

Engineering innovation has created incredible technology and found new ways to use current technology to overcome engineering challenges.

LiDAR is an example of one of these revolutionary tools and today we hear from an art historian turned civil engineer who is using it to scan our cities. We hear about their creation of the world's densest urban aerial laser scanning dataset, which was conducted using a large slice of the center of Dublin City, and the challenges they’ve overcome in transforming how we understand, plan, and protect our cities.

Our guest is a pioneering force in urban data science and has authored over 160 peer reviewed publications, been awarded four patents and worked as a professor in UCD Dublin. She is Professor at New York University's Center for Urban science and Progress, Dr. Debra Laefer.

THINGS WE SPOKE ABOUT

• Using LIDAR technology to create highly detailed 3D scans of cities
• Developing methods to efficiently store, process, and analyze LIDAR data
• How 3D scans are revolutionizing urban flood modeling and emergency response
• Applying the LIDAR data and 3D models to real-world engineering challenges
• Exploring the use of 3D printing technology in conjunction with LIDAR data

GUEST DETAILS
With degrees from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (MS, Ph.D.), NYU (MEng), and Columbia University (BS, BA), Prof. Debra Laefer has a wide-ranging background spanning from geotechnical and structural engineering to art history and historic preservation.

In her decade and a half as a faculty member in both the US and Europe, Prof. Laefer has served as the principal investigator for grants from a wide range of sponsors including the National Science Foundation, the US Federal Highway Administration, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, Science Foundation Ireland, and the European Research Council (including a €1.5 million single investigator award from the flagship ERC program for which she is the only civil engineer to have been funded in Ireland in the program’s 11 year history).

Prof. Laefer has authored over 160 peer-reviewed publications, been awarded 4 patents, and has supervised 15 doctoral and 20 Masters theses. Among many honors from IEEE, ISPRS, and other professional societies, the most notable is perhaps the 2016 commissioning and hanging of her portrait by the Royal Irish Academy as one of eight researchers selected for the Women on Walls project to celebrate Irish women in science and engineering.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/debra-f-laefer-09510a11/

MORE INFORMATION

Video mentioned in the podast of High Density Laser Scanning (LiDAR) Data Dublin is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEi2Wo7Bcuk

Looking for ways to explore or advance a career in the field of engineering? Visit Engineers Ireland to learn more about the many programs and resources on offer. https://www.engineersireland.ie/

Engineers Journal AMPLIFIED is produced by DustPod.io for Engineers Ireland.

QUOTES

We didn't devise a sensor, we didn't even improve the sensor, but we took a fundamentally engineering approach to it. We took this more systematic approach of; let's reverse engineer the process, figure out what we want to get and figure out how to use the sensor to obtain that data. - Dr. Debra Laefer

This technique has been used in fields as far from civil engineering as breast cancer research. So that not only has it been transferred to other LIDAR applications, but people have used it for other remote sensing and medical imaging datasets. - Dr. Debra Laefer

It's good to make mistakes, and it's good to have senior engineers check them. - Dr. Debra Laefer

As crazy as your idea may seem, a lot of the time the best ideas are initially too far ahead of the curve, so don't give up on them. - Dr. Debra Laefer

KEYWORDS

#buildings #data #dublin #engineers #civilengineering #lidar #computationalmodel