Dermot Brabazon

Dublin City University's Professor Dermot Brabazon lists his ideal project as one "which address a societal need and is given the resources to make a significant and meaningful impact" – and among his engineering heroes are Renishaw's Sir David McMurtry and Glen Dimplex's Dr Martin Naughten.

Professor Dermot Brabazon is director of the Advanced Processing Technology Research Centre at Dublin City University (DCU), deputy director of I-Form, the SFI Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre, and director for the Centre for Doctoral Training in Advanced Metallic Systems (RoI). His research is focused on materials and processing technologies, including additive manufacturing, near net shaping, and laser processing.

In recognition of his academic achievements and contributions to development of engineering technologies, Prof Brabazon was conferred with the President’s Award for Research in 2009, appointed a Fellow of the Institute of Mechanical Engineering in 2015, received Invent Commercialization awards in 2015, 2017 and 2019, and the International AMPT Gold Medal in 2018 for lifetime achievements in materials processing research and education.

He is an editorial board member of Engineers Ireland's 'Engineers Journal'; the journals of 'Advances in Materials and Processing Technologies'; Nanomanufacturing and Nanometrology'; 'Metals', 'Materials', the 'Elsevier Reference Module in Materials Science and Materials Engineering'; and editor-in-chief of the 'Elsevier Materials Reference Works Encyclopaedia of Composite Materials'.

Since 2010, Prof Brabazon has been a member of the board of directors of ESAFORM (EU Material Forming Society). He has published more than 300 internationally peer reviewed papers and supervised more than 40 postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers to project completion.

Details of his research can be found at the following links: Centres: http://www.dcu.ie/apt ; http://www.i-form.ie/  Publications: https://scholar.google.fr/citations?user=WlPcqhIAAAAJ&hl=fr&oi=ao and https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3214-6381

1) When did you first become interested in engineering?
I was most interested in mathematics, science and economics at school. During fourth year, we were asked to compile a portfolio overview of which career we would like to pursue which included interviewing somebody in the profession. At that time I chose electronic engineering, a preference which, after being a first year common engineering undergraduate at University College Dublin (UCD), I specialised in mechanical engineering.

2) Who were the mentors who helped you on your way?
While working in Enterprise Ireland, Martin Hussey and Jim Lawler provided great technical and commercial professional advice.

From UCD, the past dean of the faculty of engineering, Prof Gerry Byrne has been a great mentor including in recent times.

At Dublin City University, Prof Saleem Hashmi, Prof Eugene Kennedy, Prof Dermot Diamond, and Prof Greg Hughes have provided invaluable advice.

Industrial mentors have included Joe Purcell, CEO Mincon International Ltd, and Brendan Tumilty, CEO Truform Laser Dies Ltd.

International mentors have included Prof Helen Atkinson, pro vice-chancellor of Cranfield University; Prof Waqar Ahmed, deputy head of school and professor of nanoscience, University of Lincoln; and Prof IS Jawahir, chair in manufacturing systems, director of Institute for Sustainable Manufacturing (ISM), University of Kentucky.

Sir David McMurtry with former UK prime minister David Cameron

3) Your engineer hero?
Sir David McMurtry, the co-founder of the engineering technologies company, Renishaw. He was recently selected by an RTÉ business podcast as one of Ireland's top four inventors.

After co-founding Renishaw in 1973, the company commercialised the touch-trigger probe and then grew Renishaw into the global, 5,000-people strong engineering business it is today.

He is currently the executive chairman of Renishaw and holds responsibility for group innovation and product strategy. His dedication to innovation is noted as one of the reasons why the company places so much value on the research and development (R&D) of future technologies.

4) An engineer you wish was better known?
Dr Martin Naughton, chairman of the shareholder supervisory board of the Glen Dimplex Group. He recently won the Engineers Ireland Excellence Award for Outstanding Contribution to Engineering.

Dr Martin Naughten, second left; Cian Walsh, first year student in Computer Science and Language, first left; Aedin McAdams, third year student, Zoology in Natural Sciences; and Dr Paddy Prendergast, provost, TCD

He studied mechanical and production engineering and founded the family-owned Glen Electric (now Glen Dimplex) in 1973. Glen Dimplex has 23 manufacturing plants worldwide: in Ireland, the UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, China and the US.

5) Your idea of project heaven?
A project which address a societal need and is given the resources to make a significant and meaningful impact. Such projects requires the creativity and good scientific and engineering problem solving skills that we learn as engineers.

A number of my current research projects are focused on developing improved materials processing production efficiency and on reducing materials wastage.

In other projects, we are developing sustainable engineering products. These include more efficient heat pumps with company Exergy, and a US-Ireland centre-to-centre project where we are helping to develop the next generation of solar cells.

6) And project hell?
A project in which you are not the lead co-ordinator, and there are multiple partners where one or some of the partners do not fulfil their part of the project.

7) Have you any favourite feats of engineering?
Current projects that I work on include my favourite and most interesting engineering feats, and include:

• Developing surface engineering of the rock drills of Irish company Mincon that can go kilometres into the earth’s crust without having to be replaced.
• Developing heat engines with Irish company Exergyn based on harnessing the naturally released energy from the phase change in a shape memory alloy (SMA), providing cheaper electricity for the public and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
• Developing the processing of high magnesium content oils manufactured by Irish company Oriel which are sold as vital food supplements and for health applications.

8) What is/are the most important trend/s in engineering right now?
Factories of the Future and Industry 4.0 are being enabled by disruptive technologies which include additive manufacturing and the digitisation of manufacturing.

Looking just at the digital control of additive manufacturing, these provide the ability with metal and polymer additive manufacturing (3D printing) to produce part designs which are personalised or with only the required amount of material, and to send the file to wherever in the world, only when the part is needed, rather than maintaining warehouses of parts or products that may never be needed.

These ground-breaking technologies also enable directly other disruptive technologies to emerge, including the additive manufacturing of wearable health monitoring technologies, the additive manufacturing of the housing for batteries in electric cars, and the production of heat recovery and heat engine systems based on the additive manufacturing of SMAs.

Due to globalisation and the associated movement and open access of information, the pace of change in technology is faster than ever before and this is not likely to slow down in the near future. It is therefore imperative that manufacturing companies continually innovate their manufacturing efficiencies and product offerings to remain competitive globally.

9) If you could, is there any one measure you would introduce to help improve the gender balance within the profession?
We do some things well at a high level where we present prominently females in our engineering promotional materials and focus on having female role models and equal numbers of female guest speakers at conferences.

The problem of the low number of females coming into STEM subjects originates at an earlier level with lower numbers applying for third level places.

From creche all the way through to the end of secondary school, there are biased messages for women to partake in one career and men to partake in another.

Within the SFI I-Form Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre, we promote engineering careers to females at primary and secondary level, we have established the Irish chapter of the global networking group, Women in 3D Printing, and we also have a focus group seeking to identify language around key influencers for choosing a career in manufacturing research.

This could also aid our messaging to attract females into engineering. For example, it is known that bioengineering degree courses attract the same or even more females than males where the engineering content is largely the same as with other mechanical engineering programmes.

10) What book is on your bedside table?
Some of my recommended readings include: Born to Run by Christopher McDougall; Let You Mind Run by Deena Kastor; Still Foolin’ Em by Billy Crystal; Born a Crime by Trevor Noah; I Can’t Make This Up by Kevin Hart; Fully Present by Susan Small and Diana Winston; and The Book of Joy by Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama.

11) What is the one piece of advice you would give to somebody starting out in the profession?
Talk to as many people as possible within your profession and network, ask a successful person on your chosen career path to be a mentor and set dates in your diary as to when to arrange to meet and discuss your career with them.

And follow you passion – what gets you out of bed in the morning – by choosing the right path for you, you will be motivated to give the best you can each day.

12) What is your favourite film?
The first Star Wars film in 1977. While this would not seem very impressive compared to modern special effects, it was ground-breaking at the time and very inspirational to myself as a teenager. The theme of 'work hard and persistently for what you want – and even against the odds you can win' – is a good lesson.

13) If you weren’t an engineer, what might you have become?
I may have become a business manager in a company. The majority of people from my school ended up in various business roles.

My family background was also more business management focused. I also liked economics and business studies at school and during my time studying for an engineering degree.

I still take an active interest in how various businesses and regions are performing. This interest lead me to develop and teach a module on product development and value analysis, which is taught to master's level engineering students in DCU.

14) What is a typical day for you?
I get up at 6.30am, complete a 30-minute morning exercise, be at my desk by 9am, work until after rush hour and head home, have dinner and then head to bed after some wind-down television.

15) What is the best piece of advice you have ever been given?
Do the best you can for your clients. They are the ones who pay the bills and do not forget to realise who your clients are – there are external and internal clients in every business.

16) What do you do to relax?
Walk, run, swim or or visit the gym each day. I completed the Dublin marathon and swim-a-mile challenges in 2019.

Once you have completed some exercise in the morning, you have done something for you and your health, and your body is awake for the rest of the day.