Irish automation body reports progress.

The Ireland Section of the International Society of Automation held its AGM recently in Cork. The Section Secretary Billy Walsh report on the highlights of a very busy year during which eleven committee meetings were held.

Some of the delegates at the ISA Ireland AGM 2019

Technical Programme:
During the year several evening technical talks were held in Cork and occasionally in Dublin on topics such as Digital Transformation and Industrie 4.

Ed Cuffe, Section President 

congratulates Rory Moloney on 

his election as President-Elect.

Perhaps one of the most significant developments for the section was a series of training courses on Cybersecurity, based on the international ISA standards, jointly organised by the section and ISA Europe, the training arm of the Society based in the Netherlands. After the first set of courses the demand was found to be very robust and has led to nine courses to date in both Dublin and Cork. More courses are planned for the next year.

Honours & Awards:
The annual Honours and Awards ceremony was held in December and awards were presented to the following.

• Craftsperson: Paul Meers, CETB & IT Carlow
• Degree: Paul Casey, GMIT
• Honours Degree: Emma Branigan, DCU
• Postgraduate: Ciara O’Hara, CIT
• Automation Champion: Dr Hassan Kaghazchi, UL
• Pioneer: Malachy Hanley, Hanley Automation
• Innovative Project: Alan Shefflin, BMS Biologics

Students:
An important outreach of the section (and indeed the ISA as a whole) is to students in the discipline. Members of the section visited the School of Physical Sciences in CIT on ivitation from the school head Dr Donagh O’Mahony and college lecturer Dr Natalia Rebrova. Presentations were made to staff and students within the school about the benefits of ISA membership. Two CIT students Tadgh Gilroy and Owen O’Brien made up half of the District 12 (EMEA) team at the ISA Student Games in Calgary (CDN) in March. The remaining two in the team were from the San Juan Bosco student section in Spain. Brian Curtis, a member of the Section, Global President of the Society, opened the student games.

Co-operation:
The section is furthering co-operations with other organisations. A joint ISA/ISPE half day conference of presentations under the title: “Lifesciences 4.0 – Unfolding the Future of Manufacturing for Lifesciences” was held at Limerick in October 2018. The afternoon session allowed the attendees to visit a number of industrial sites (plants) within the radius of Limerick city.

An inaugural meeting that was held between personnel from the IChemE and ISA. They have started to share flyers about forthcoming technical talks within their respective areas of operations.

Billy Walsh, Rory Moloney, Ed Cuffe and Brian Curtis

Global participation.
Internationally the society continued its impressive participation in the governance of the Global Society. Brian Curtis, completed his term as Society President in December. Billy Walsh, who has served in several distinguished positions in the Society was recognised for the excellence of his service to the Society at the annual Honours & Awards function held in Montreál (CDN) in October.

Sponsers:
The meeting gratefully acknowledged the support of eighteen key Corporate Sponsors whose generousity allows the Section to offer such an extensive programme to automation professionals in Ireland and beyond.