Excellence in Automation in Ireland recognised!

The Ireland ISA Section, which is a voluntary organisation with a membership of over 220, received its charter in 1978. Its purpose is to bring together all personnel involved in the instrumentation and related disciplines in order to enhance their capabilities in instrumentation design, manufacture and use.

This year the 35th annual Honours and Awards Ceremony was held in the hallowed halls of University College Cork. This annual ceremony to acknowledge and encourage excellence for those training for careers in Instrumentation, Control and Automation.

This year six awards were presented, three of which have been submitted by Third Level institutions and three industry awards.

The presence of sponsors clearly showed both the industry’s awareness and its support for promoting and awarding excellence in automation. (see list at bottom). Here are some pictures of the event of varying quality.

Awardees:

Chris Ryan

Craft Person Award: Chris Ryan has completed his apprenticeship as an Instrumentation craftsperson. He has achieved all credits in every subject for phase 2,4,6. Chris is an excellent student. He was nominated for this award by Pat Mc Carthy & Jim Doyle of the Cork Educational and Training Board.
Chris has also completed a number of in-house and external training courses. Chris served his apprenticeship with Lotus Works and has worked on several major projects in the Dublin, Galway & Limerick areas.

Colm Prendergast

Degree Award: Colm Prendergast has been an outstanding student on the degree course in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT).
This project demonstrates the automation of a grain dryer using a programmable logical controller (PLC) and creating a control interface for it using a human machine interface (HMI) for the Strawchip Ltd agribusiness based in Athy, County Kildare.
Dr. Mick Mc Keever, lecturer at the DIT had no hesitation in nominating Brian for this award.

Brian Martin

Honours Degree Award: Brian Martin, B.Sc. (Hons.) in Physics with Astronomy, worked on developing a test platform to characterise and test finger ejection systems in optical sorting devices. Ejection systems remove unwanted products from production lines at high speed and with a high degree of accuracy. As such, the components used within ejection systems must operate in a fast, efficient, accurate and predictable manner. The project was conducted in collaboration with an industrial partner, Tomra Sorting Solutions – Food based in Citywest in Dublin, and they were delighted with the project work and outcomes.
Professor Enda Enda McGlynn commented that this was an exceptional project and that Brian was a worthy recipient for the award.

Thomas Butler

PHD Award: Dr. Thomas Butler has recently graduated with a PhD in Applied Physics from Cork Institute of Technology. His thesis title was “Real-Time Characterisation of Dynamic Laser Fields”.
Many modern technologies rely on laser devices ranging, for example, from high speed communication networks to medical imaging systems. A detailed examination and understanding of the fundamental operating dynamics of these laser devices is crucial in ensuring not only the quality and effectiveness of the devices in their current applications but in also providing insight into the future development of next generation photonic devices.
Dr. Guillaume Huyet of the Physical Sciences Department at the Cork Institute of Technology recommended Dr Butler for this award.

Pioneer Award: This is one of the earliest awards given by the section since 1984. It is awarded, on the nomination of two or more Society members, in recognition of a lifetime devoted to Instrumentation / Automation in Ireland.

John Lotty

This year, members Mr. Bob Shine, himself a recipient some years ago and Mr. Declan Lordan, nominated Mr. John Lotty, through his dedicated support of the ISA Ireland Section has worked for over 35 years promoting the development and growth of Instrumentation and Control in Ireland. John is a Senior Life Member of ISA, and during his extensive career was a member of the Institute of Engineers of Ireland, the Marketing Institute of Ireland, the Institute of Public Relations and a member of the Professional Journalists Institute in Ireland. He career includes stints in the British Royal Force and then in Pfizer's plant in Cork. He was then with Marathon (now Kinsale Energy) for over thirty four years retiring earlier this year.
In 1992 – 1994 John served as Section President, uniquely the only person to serve two consecutive terms. During his terms he brought a new professionalism to the Section this resulted in a significant membership increase. His PR abilities secured high profile of the Section across the media in Ireland.
He has continued to support our annual Honours and Awards with special attention on the Honour’s Degree Award as the annual €1,000 Busary is given in memory of Ger Dullea the section president prior to John, who tragically lost his life in 1993.
He was been recognised internationally by the Society with the Distinguished Society Service Award in 2006.

Innovation Project Award: This awards recognises a project which has made a significant contribution to the advancement of industry in Ireland through the use of Automation Technology.

The JJCV Team, Aidan Jordan is second from right.

Aidan Jordan was nominated by Declan Fagan of Vision Care Ireland, Limerick. For development on the JJCV Compare tool, a software application developed by Vision Care Ireland to perform multiple compare and review functions on multiple control system platforms. Siemens/CTI APT and Allen Bradley RSLogix Studio 5000 make up the majority of control system platforms at Vision Care Ireland.
Savings in excess of €200,000 have already been realised by the company this year as a result of the introduction of this tool.

#ISAuto #PAuto @IrelandISA @_LotusWorks @ditofficial @CIT_ie