Engineering faces housing crisis, climate change crisis and biodiversity crisis simultaneously requiring everyone onboard with diversity of thought for new solutions.
Danny Pio Murphy shares how sustainable Swords strategy engaged 800 school children and hundreds of adults through covid restrictions, why greenfield site allowed testing protected cycle infrastructure before design manuals existed, how DBFI Consulting Engineers achieved gold accreditation investors for diversity with 85% inclusivity score, and why half LGBT engineers remain closeted through fear despite marriage equality referendum changing Irish society fundamentally.
Danny is a Chartered Engineer, Associate Director at DBFL Consulting Engineers and former Chairperson of Engineers Ireland Inclusion Diversity Society. In this episode, he discusses mentoring graduates through four year development programmes, intelligent mobility hubs coming online Cork Docklands, and why people skills matter as much as technical expertise when moving from engineer to leadership.
THINGS WE SPOKE ABOUT
● Kids wanting safer routes school cycling tracks greening
● Greenfield sites test new infrastructure before manuals exist
● Half LGBT engineers closeted through fear workplace safety
● Gold Diversity accreditation 85% inclusivity score achieved
● Intelligent mobility hubs drone technology electric charging future
GUEST DETAILS
Danny Pio Murphy is a Chartered Engineer, Associate Director at DBFL Consulting Engineers, leading the sustainable Swords strategy, transforming a town into 100,000 person city and a strategic development zone creating 23,000 residents with 25,000 jobs.
A former LGBT activist for nine years giving wellbeing lectures across Ireland and UK, he chaired Engineers Ireland inclusion diversity society and helped DBFL achieve gold accreditation investors for diversity held by only 28 organisations nationally.
His achievements include pioneering protected cycle infrastructure before Irish design manuals existed, increasing company female representation from low base to quarter over five years, and mentoring graduates through four year Chartership development programmes whilst supporting diversity networks across 30 nationalities.
Connect with Danny:
www.linkedin.com/in/dannypiomurphy/?originalSubdomain=ie
QUOTES
● "We're facing a great challenge here in engineering, because we're facing a housing crisis, a climate change crisis, biodiversity crisis. We need everyone on board to help us with that, and we need different points of views and a diversity of thought for new solutions. - Danny Pio Murphy
● "The kids were saying that they want safer routes to school, cycle tracks. They wanted more public transport and actually more greening around our town as well. They were very environmentally conscious. They wanted more seating areas and greening. It was really good to hear that. They're always so positive." - Danny Pio Murphy
● "There's a lot of things that we as engineers can see on paper and we're following standards, but the local knowledge is indispensable at times, and you can include that in your designs." - Danny Pio Murphy
● "We got gold accreditation in investors for diversity by Irish Centre for diversity. It's only held by 28 organisations in the country." - Danny Pio Murphy
● "My first job interview, I had LGBT on my CV. The person doing the interview didn't read my CV, and when they got there, they stopped for 10 seconds in silence, and they were very uncomfortable seeing that I was an LGBT activist and I didn't get the job." - Danny Pio Murphy
TRANSCRIPTION
For your convenience here is an AI transcription
Dusty Rhodes 0:02
Right now, on AMPLIFY
Danny Pio Murphy 0:04
We're facing a great challenge here in engineering, because we're facing a housing crisis, a climate change crisis, biodiversity crisis. We need everyone on board to help us with that, and we need different points of views and a diversity of thought for new solutions. You
Dusty Rhodes 0:23
Hi there. My name is Dusty Rhodes, and you're welcome to AMPLIFY the Engineers Journal podcast. Our guest today is the technical force behind major projects including the sustainable Swords strategy. He's also an award winning leader in EDI and has chaired the Engineers Ireland inclusion and diversity society. We'll be learning about the power of specialisation, beyond technical skills, navigating real world project complexity, and hearing about the skills that you may need to transition from engineer to leadership. It's a pleasure to welcome a chartered transportation engineer and Associate Director at DBFL Consulting Engineers. Danny Pio Murphy,
Danny Pio Murphy 1:02
Oh, it's a pleasure anyway.
Dusty Rhodes 1:05
But how did you get into our engineering?
Danny Pio Murphy 1:09
Well, the thing I always wanted a career where I was continuously learning and having an expert knowledge across many multiple subjects and fields and real complex solving, problem solving and challenging problems and having real, meaningful, real life results and impacts.
Dusty Rhodes 1:31
Where no one day is the same, and I'm always engaged and mentally stimulated.
Danny Pio Murphy 1:37
I was actually thinking of going into medicine, but engineering pulled me in anyway, strangely enough, because it's particularly transported. It's just so dynamic, and it's constantly ever evolving, and it's just where it's so many things in terms of innovation, technology modelling, techniques, planning. So it's really where I feel my authentic self in us anyway. So that's what really drew me into it.
Dusty Rhodes 2:09
Let me get an idea of you, Danny, and talk about kind of one of the projects that you're probably best known for, and that's the sustainable Swords strategy. Tell me what the strategy is
Danny Pio Murphy 2:22
So Swords is going to become a city of 100,000 people, and you're going to be getting major infrastructure, being the Metro link and the bus connects infrastructure. But you also have the r1 three connectivity project, which is the bypass along Swords is going to be turned into a street, but they wanted to come up with a strategy where Swords can actually evolve into that, a modern European city in a sustainable way. So where I came in was we have we started with a multidisciplinary team anyway, with public realm consultants, communication consultants, environmental as well. So we came in just to have a look at this anyway. So it this, this strategy came with different things, where Swords could be a compact city, a livable city, it would be having a lot of sustainable modes of transport for all of the residents, from the outskirts to the to the core, and basically a lot of The streets are would evolve into kind of multimodal corridors. There would be a more more realised cycle network there, and a lot of permeability for residents, for particularly vulnerable users. And it was a good project anyway, because we got to engage. It wasn't just that we were spearheading it technically, we also got feedback from the public as well. What was the feedback from the public? Yeah. So we had first a pre designed one, a public consultation where we weren't into schools. We did a public consultation, and we got hundreds of responses seen where the public would want, how they want to evolve their city anyway, and where they want improvements in the public realm and the transport as well. So the schools were particularly good anyway, because I think we got nearly 800 responses there, but we but that wasn't the only place we got feedback. We went to the businesses as well. We went to the shopping centre and for public evenings, and we also went to vulnerable user and disability groups and residents associations. And then when we kind of got all of that feedback, we kind of filled in the missing pieces. And then once we kind of came up with our draft strategy, we went out to the public again and got their feedback. And refined it after that anyway, so it was very well received, and it was particularly challenging because it was during covid times as well. So we had to be hyper, hyper vigilant anyway for safety and the public. But we did manage to get in person when lockdown was, when lockdown restrictions were lifted.
Dusty Rhodes 5:24
Can I ask you, because you mentioned that you went into schools and you're planning about how life is going to be in Swords over the next 1020, 30 years, when you say you went to the schools, did you use the school as a venue, or did you actually talk to the kids? Who are, you know, teenagers or younger now, and will be the adults who will benefit from this project in the future.
Danny Pio Murphy 5:48
Yes, we did. We did workshops with the kids anyway, through the the Communication Consultant anyway, and an green schools. And it was great, because we did it in such a way that the kids come up with their own ideas and what they see for the future. And that was actually quite good as well, because some of that feedback we got to show the adults as well. So adults got a real perspective that the generations coming up behind us, this is what they want to see the future, and this is what they want to see a city. Their city be evolved into.
Dusty Rhodes 6:24
So this is interesting. What was it they were saying that they wanted to see?
Danny Pio Murphy 6:30
Yeah, they were saying that they want safer routes to school, cycle tracks. They wanted more public transport and actually more greening around our town as well. And they were more very they were very environmentally conscious as well. They were saying that they wanted more seating areas and greening. Yeah, it was really good to hear that. Anyway, they're always so positive.
Dusty Rhodes 6:56
And then with the adults, where you you would almost kind of guess what responses they they make. And one thing I've learned is that when you go and ask the public stuff and you assume this, you always get something different back. What surprised you from the response from from from adults?
Danny Pio Murphy 7:14
Surprisingly enough, adults were actually quite similar as well. They were more focused on the public transport side and maintaining kind of the roads, and the one thing that they're always vigilant about is parking. So, yeah, it was very strange. The Town core, it was, I think there was about 10, 15% of the surface area of the town core was dedicated to car parking. So if so, they're hyper village lint about that, but yeah, and also, you would just a lot of them would have safety concerns. But the one thing going back to the kids was there was a lot of parents that wanted safe infrastructure for their kids to kind of get to school, a lot of parents just want their kids to be independent and safe as well.
Dusty Rhodes 8:07
That's a good design plan for any town. Now that you have all of that research back and you've had all the feedback now, what is the engineering challenge that you're facing to make it happen?
Danny Pio Murphy 8:20
Well, that's actually quite interesting, because in the next three to five years, there's about 10 to 15 transport projects to build this town anyway, and we, I recently was working with Fingal county council to kind of see how we can kind of fit all of the different pieces who were, who could build what and where. And now, with Metrolink coming online soon enough, it's added a little bit of complexity. So it was, it's very good anyway, because they're getting their public realm schemes in at the moment. And then the r1 tree two is just to come online soon. And Metro link so we are we came up with a traffic management plan, which will benefit of the town anyway, and make sure it's still functional operational.
Dusty Rhodes 9:14
How is the Metro Link going to complicate things? Is that running over ground or underground through Swords.
Danny Pio Murphy 9:21
It's a mixture of both. Anyway, it will be a bit difficult. Anyway, one of the things that we have to get through is the R 132, which is the road corridor that I was saying that has to turn into a street. At the moment, it's a dual carriageway, and people are still using it dangerously without footpaths crossing the road cyclists going along it. So that has to be upgraded to a street before Metrolink comes in. So we had to design all of that road link. And we got planning permission for that, and it's going out to Tinder at the moment. So hopefully that'll. We start building that soon.
Dusty Rhodes 10:02
So how long is all of this going to take you? I mean, what? What kind of duration are you looking for the project? Is it something over the next immediate years to three years, or are you looking at a much longer time scale.
Danny Pio Murphy 10:15
For the R, 132, that would be around three years to actually, two years actually. Then for the other project around Swords, it's up to 2040 so there is a good time frame there, but it's all going to be phased in anyway.
Dusty Rhodes 10:33
And what about when you're looking overall at because, I mean, it's great if you have a greenfield site or brownfield site or whichever, you're literally looking at a blank canvas, and then off you go, right? But you're not, you're looking at a town that has grown from, you know, a small village maybe 50 years ago, and it's now a colossally huge population centre, and now you're in there, meddling, redesigning everything. What are the problems for you? Kind of thinking as on an engineering level, working with an existing town?
Danny Pio Murphy 11:09
Yeah, there's a lot of complications and considerations you have to consider. Basically, you have to think of everything above ground anyway, and you have to think of all of the different stakeholders. Number one. So you'll have the residents, you have all the public operators, you have the vulnerable users and the people that need inclusive designs and universal designs, and then you're working with that, and then you're trying to bring in kind of sustainable infrastructure as well. How do you retrofit it, and how do you reallocate space? And then you have to do it within guidance documents and standards and policy documents from the either from the national government, regional guidance or the local county council guidance as well. So there's a lot of interconnected things there. And then you also have to work with other consultants as well, where you would just have, I could only see the technical side of things, but say, a public realm consultant gives it the more aesthetic and the livability and the place, making part of it as well. And then working with civil engineers, you have to think of what's underground that has to be redesigned as well. We have quite a lot of deteriorating infrastructure underneath the grounds that we have to update as well. So there's opportunities there. And also we have to think about a sustainable urban drainage systems as well. So it's a very complicated system as well. And then that's only for the design stage. But then when you try to get to the construction stage, then you have to kind of think more there as well. How is this going to be constructed? How is it going to be built? And then what's the temporary effects on local residents and everything like that. And yeah, that's the complexities a lot with us.
Dusty Rhodes 13:02
So let me ask your experience. Then on the complete flip side of what's going on in Swords, which is an established town, and let's talk about plum Burroughs, which is kind of, I mean, it's a huge, huge site. It's between Lucan plunder and the Grand Canal. That kind of, kind of an area. It's 280 hectares. And that is more of a it's a strategic development zone, if I'm not mistaken, and you're going at that from scratch.
Danny Pio Murphy 13:28
So it's a really rare thing in an engine for an engineer to have a greenfield site where you just have a blank canvas and you can just go have a great creative experience there. Anyway. So with clomborus, anyway, my company DBFL, were commissioned to do the preliminary designs up to the construction, up to the construction and delivery of them, anyway. So we designed every single junction in the town. The town is going to have over 23,000 residents and about 25,000 jobs. So you can just get a sense of how big this new town is going to be. And there was a because it's a strategic development zone, there was a plan that was approved by onboard planola At the time, so we had to follow that, but we had to do the kind of the actual hands on designs. And the good thing about this was we actually did designs that weren't introduced into Ireland before. We had to do protected cycle infrastructure, signalised junctions we had before there was actual the cycle design manual came on board. So we were doing new designs and testing them out, testing them out here anyway, and constructing them, which was a privilege, actually, for an engineer, to do, and bringing in new technology to make the. Makes the intelligent transport systems more functional and efficient as well, and also bringing in permeability filters. And when we were building this as well, we came across things that all right, this doesn't seem to work, but we've translated back to the National Transport Authority, and they included that feedback into their cycle design manual. So it was very insightful to do that. As I said, it was a blank canvas, and bringing in new type of infrastructure in Ireland was quite good.
Dusty Rhodes 15:34
So when you look at Swords, and when you look at Plum Burroughs, and you're dealing with a very established area, and then you've got a greenfield area. What's the difference between the two?
Danny Pio Murphy 15:49
The difference between the two is that it's less complicated, but actually I prefer, I prefer the ones where it's in Swords anyway, because then you kind of get, you get the public interactions and everything like that, and they, they're buying as well, because there's a lot of things that we as engineers, we can see on paper, and we we're following standards, but the local knowledge is indispensable at Times, and you can include that in your designs. And when people get the buy in as well, they're very supportive. And then again, when you're doing the greenfield site, as I said, you're trying, you're you're trying, trying something out for the very first time, but then you don't get that kind of feedback of if it's working or not.
Dusty Rhodes 16:40
You've had two brilliant projects, two huge projects, two completely different projects. Did you approach either or both of them with new tools in engineering? Have you got new I always in sound engineering, I always called new toys. But I mean, was it because? Because Because when you're working with something new like that, you're able to actually do new things that have never been done before. Did you use any new tools or any new methods?
Danny Pio Murphy 17:12
What we used anyway was in terms of kind of doing the designs and seeing if it was function. We did new modelling techniques anyway, and we did new calculations behind all of that to see, look, this isn't in our standards. Anyway. We need to see, look, is this workable? That's what we did. We did a very intelligent modelling framework as well, where we modelled Swords and all of the different projects that were underneath that. We put it into a regional model to see what's the regional effect. We put it into a local area model to see what's the whole area effect. And we did a micro simulation of the town as well, which is still being used today. And it's very intelligent and very visual, and they're all interactive with each other. So that's where kind of the innovation came in there. And when it comes to other kind of techniques for the intelligent transport system for clonborous we proposed, and what's going to be built in to it anyway is a lot of cycling, cycling loops and cycling signals that weren't really done before, and how, how would they be worked in as well, and micro detectors as well to see where to give more green time to pedestrians so that they can go across very busy junctions as well. So that's where we kind of brought in some innovation there.
Dusty Rhodes 18:44
So in your view, then, Danny, what do you reckon is the single biggest factor in both of those different projects that decides in your head, if the project is a success or a failure?
Danny Pio Murphy 18:57
I would think, and the I would think it's how well it's used anyway. There's a lot of schemes that I've used where that I have designed or kind of retrofitted, and we did kind of monitoring testing afterwards anyway, and maybe in person surveys, and where you cut the feedback from the public and say that, look, this has improved our situation, our journey time. You see the data as well where cycle Cycling has gone up along a route, or you could see kids are staying in an actual place, and it's more comfortable, and you get feedback from people vulnerable users and people that are visually impaired or hearing impaired, and they're getting good feedback, saying that. Look, this is more a safer scheme for us. So that's that's where the success is anyway, where it's the common good that is being felt by the community.
Dusty Rhodes 20:11
I kind of wanted to ask you about your career, because I mean, sustainable transportation is a huge thing for you, and those projects are great. I want to ask about your career, because a lot of what you've done has focused on inclusion and diversity as well. Okay, why did you decide to champion that work?
Danny Pio Murphy 20:34
Well, it's before we went into engineering. I was actually an LGBTQ plus activists for nine years and basically, and I'm also an openly queer man as well. And basically, it was a passion of mine just to kind of get greater rights. And I had a heavy focus on well being and giving lectures around all of Ireland and in the UK as well. And then when I when we after marriage equality, things kind of transitioned into a more normal life for me anyway, and I focused on my career and my chartership anyway, but there was always when I was around the table with people from many different backgrounds, you would hear the things that their barriers that they face, the challenges that they face, and particularly in my career in transport, you hear that as well with a lot of users, and I hear that in our the in our industry as well, and that's why I got into it anyway. And it's really very important to me that we have full inclusion within the industry anyway.
Dusty Rhodes 21:55
A lot of people would think, as you say, since the marriage referendum, things did change. And I mean, Ireland today is completely different from where it was 30 years ago, or even the turn of the century. My god, did I actually say the turn of the century 25 years ago? But what are the challenges that are still being faced today?
Danny Pio Murphy 22:15
Well, again, for gender diversity, you have a lot of barriers still felt by women, and there's still a lack of knowledge about gender identity as well. And then for the lgq Plus community, look half the half of them are in the closet in engineering from actual studies, and that's because of fear of coming out and just not feeling safe around their colleagues, and then you also have small bits of lack of cultural knowledge. Age age diversity as well is coming up. And again, it's a lot of things. And of course, a big thing that's always with engineering is it attracts a lot of neuro diversity as well. So there's a lot of dyslexia and ADHD and autism that are represented in engineering as well, but they're not known and how to include them as well, and also in engineering as well. When it comes to disability, there's a lot a lack of knowledge of that and a lack of reasonable accommodation to provide for people with employees with that,
Dusty Rhodes 23:24
I'm kind of struck thinking again, in this day and age and where society is at the moment, that people don't feel safe. What do you mean by they don't feel safe?
Danny Pio Murphy 23:34
Again, it's just when you, for example, anyway, when? Now this doesn't happen anymore, anyway, but my my first job interview anyway, I actually had LGBT on my CV, and basically the person that was doing the interview with me didn't read my CV, and then when they got there, they just they stopped for 10 seconds in silence, and they were very uncomfortable seeing that I was an LGBT activist and I didn't get the job. Yeah, and that's kind that was 10 years ago anyway, and that stuck with me. And there's a lot, and I'm hearing from a lot of people that they hear there's a culture of that they don't feel that they can be their authentic selves in the workplace, they don't feel safe,
Dusty Rhodes 24:36
And so you mean that it's not that don't feel safe, as in, there's no physical threat or anything, but they don't feel secure.
Danny Pio Murphy 24:44
They don't know. They don't feel secure to be their authentic selves anyway, that they have to hide a part of themselves, and which is very unfortunate anyway, because diversity is a fact anyway, but inclusion is. Is absolutely necessary.
Dusty Rhodes 25:04
Danny, let me ask you about EDI at your own company, DBFL Consulting Engineers, you've won an award for how you handle inclusion and diversity. Tell me. Tell me. Tell me about that.
Danny Pio Murphy 25:17
Yeah. So it was a five year, five year journey. Anyway, so we recently got gold accreditation in investors for diversity by the Irish Centre for diversity, and it's an amazing, amazing distinction because it's only held by 28 organisations in the country. And it was, it was such an amazing journey anyway. So it started off five years ago where we just had a kind of a strategy, and based on my research from a tea society in in college, and we had a team come together anyway, and we became committee. And from that we drove, we came with a good strategy based on five pillars, based on inclusive leadership, how we operate policies, recruitment and retention, and how we develop and of course, how do we monitor our progress in EDI as well and data collection, and of course, how do we have an impact externally as well? So from that, anyway, we came up with a very innovative thing where we have about 12 driver groups in the organisation, and each driver contributes to the company's development, its strategy and its processes anyway. So two thirds of the company are actually directly involved in the actual, in the how the company operates anyway. So from that anyway, we have a very inclusive culture, and we do so many initiatives and events as well. And we have, as well, a women's network and a cultural diversity network. The stats are also very good as well. We're starting. We started at a very low female employee base, but now we're up to a quarter. Now, over five years for LGBT representation, it's gone from just under 4% up to 10% because they felt more included. And 60% of the company are under the age of 40 as well. And it's a really dynamic, really dynamic. And we're represented by nearly 30 countries as well and nationalities, so it was really empowering to see that and externally as well. We've been getting involved with a lot of engineers Ireland for greater diversity and inclusion, the Association of consulting engineers of Ireland as well. We're part of their EDI charter. And of course, we get involved with many external organisations, including community charity events as well. So we that's, it's just a great thing that we're having there anyway. And I think the Irish Centre for diversity had a metric there of inclusivity score, and we got 85% we were 10% higher than any other or on the industry average, and I think about 15% higher on a national average. So we're doing, it's doing something great in DBFL, EDI, it's really, it's part of one of our core values, inclusivity. And when you don't have inclusion anyway, you don't you don't retain the diversity in your industry anyway. And we're facing a great challenge here in engineering, because we're facing a housing crisis, a climate change crisis, a biodiversity crisis, and we need everyone on board to help us with that. And if people for and we need different points of views and a diversity of thought for new solutions and new thoughts of how to tackle these anyway, but if we're not attracting, if people don't feel included, they won't be part of that industry and that thought process anyway. So again, that's why EDI is quite important, and something that we do have to look into in our industry.
Dusty Rhodes 29:24
Yeah, as all of those differences, I've found that are actually advantages two sides to every coin. Is this idea? But can I ask you, then, Danny, because you've acted as chair of the engineers Ireland, inclusion, diversity society, what's the biggest lesson that you've learned about trying to lead that cultural, cultural change across the industry?
Danny Pio Murphy 29:50
Oh, a lesson I would have learned now. There's a lot of support out there. There's a big collective of support. And. It's just harnessing that. That's the real big lesson of that anyway. And now you're going to feel a lot of barriers and challenges facing that. But when there's a collective behind you and there's good research behind you as well, that's you can forward a lot of that through anyway. And the good thing is, a lot of companies are really EDI mindful now, and they they tie in and sponsor us as well.
Dusty Rhodes 30:31
Now you are an associate director at DBFL Consulting Engineers. Kind of want to learn a little from you about moving up the ladder and going from, you know, engineer to a leader. Do you think people skills plays a big part of that?
Danny Pio Murphy 30:50
It would indeed anyway, particularly in my industry, because you're facing the public a lot, you have to talk to politicians. You have to talk to multiple different types of groups. But again, also internally, you do have to speak with your colleagues from different departments. You also have to talk to different organisations as well, if you're on a multidisciplinary team, to drive a project through. And of course, when you're going up the ladder as well, you're managing people, and you have to communicate and also mentor them as well. And then, of course, you have to communicate your ideas as well, and your problem solving in presentations to clients, into your your colleagues as well. So yeah, it's a communication and interpersonal skills is real big thing anyway.
Dusty Rhodes 31:45
And where do you learn these skills? Do you pick them up from other people? Do you do some research yourself? Do you do a course?
Danny Pio Murphy 31:53
For me anyway, It was learned anyway. As I said, there was nine years I was an activist anyway, so there was a lot of public speaking, like I was on prime time twice. So I was fine with that, yeah, but no, it is. It is a quiet it is an acquired skill that you do have to learn anyway, and then you also have to learn different people, personality styles that you have to communicate to audiences you have to communicate to, and what you're trying to translate as well. So it is that now I've mentored a lot of people, and they did find benefit to going, doing the courses as well, leadership courses and kind of speaking courses.
Dusty Rhodes 32:39
So you've mentioned that you are mentoring people. In which way do you do that?
Danny Pio Murphy 32:44
So I mentor people internally in DBFL. So we have a great Graduate Development Programme where someone that that's just finished college that they just join the development programme, and they develop their skills over four years in in the aim of being chartered anyway. So I'm with those people for four years and seeing where can we help them get their skills, and I'm sitting in with them quarterly anyway and trying to help them get to charter chip anyway and build that career to be more senior person and a good, high level professional. And then, as well, on top of that, in DBFL, we also have beyond Chartership programme, where people that want to go into senior leadership programmes, you you get a link up with people that are recently chartered, and you help them to see what's the skills you need to be more senior or get to a higher level in in your in your career, and also it's my mentoring doesn't stop there anyway. I also mentor in the colleges, because a lot of students, they really want to know what what's it like in the industry anyway, and what do they really need to focus on in college? I know myself, when I was going through college, it was six years of rice. I had no industry. There was no engineering in my background. Just gone in, just because I loved engineering, but I had no idea what it was like in the actual industry. And I would have loved to have spoken to someone in the profession to tell me about it. So I'm actually doing that now, particularly with UCD, where I just link up with students, and for half the year, I would just have these meetings with them, and they asked me, what is it like in the industry? What should I do in college? What's what's it like abroad? Chartership, everything like that.
Dusty Rhodes 34:50
But it's invaluable anyway, that mentorship, if somebody is listening now and they're kind of going, Okay, I would love to have a mentor, because it's great to talk to somebody who's like, a few years or 10 years ahead of you. I. And I found that people who are ahead of you are far more giving because they don't see you as a threat, and they love kind of going, Ah, come on. I'll take you under my wing, that kind of a thing. If you're looking for where do you look for a mentor or Ken? Do you have to go to a special place sign up for a special course? Or can you find somebody who's in your workplace and to say to them, do you know what I'd be really honoured if you were a mentor.
Danny Pio Murphy 35:22
A lot of organisations do have these mentorship programmes. But again, there's nothing stopping you going to a colleague that you really admire and say that, look, can you just tell me a bit of advice? I was in the the engineering magazine recently, anyway, and I was just saying about my peer mentor, who's a female director in dB FL, and it's, I always go to her for advice and everything like that. Even at a senior an associate level, there's nothing wrong with that. And then when you're in college, I think if they're there, there are programmes like the one in UCD, as I mentioned anyway, where you link up with professionals. But again, if you know someone in the industry, you can ask them that advice as well. It's invaluable. And yeah, it's those mentors all around us and role models, and it's invaluable that seeing that people talking to these people, and seeing that look, they did it, they and I can do it too.
Dusty Rhodes 36:34
Just before we wrap up, a sustainable transportation is your thing. If you were to look ahead for the next five years and the next 10 years even. What do you think is going to be the biggest positive change in that sector coming?
Danny Pio Murphy 36:47
I think the biggest positive change would be our we're coming in with a lot of major projects anyway, be it dark, plus Metrolink. We're getting Lewis stone and cork. We're getting the bus connects networks all across the regional cities as well. So I think there's going to be a be once they're built anyway, or in there are going to be a major change in how in public transport anyway, and in an active travel we do see, we do see large base in kids anyway, coming along that are very active in walking and in cycling, where it is provided, and we need to encourage them to go into doing that in their secondary school and into college and then into the work life that it's going to be part of their lives anyway. So that's where I see things happening. And then also in transport, sustainable transport, it's always evolving. There's always innovation coming up. So there's going to be things like intelligent mobility hubs that will be coming online. There possibly be drone technology coming in line and E commerce that we all have to think about in the future anyway, and also electric vehicles as well.
Dusty Rhodes 38:14
What about the intelligent mobility hubs that sounds interesting? What is it?
Danny Pio Murphy 38:18
So these intelligent mobility hubs anyway. They're like glorified car parks, as I would say. But it's, it's putting say, if you want to have higher density neighbourhoods, one way of doing that is putting all concentrate, all of the parking into one area, or putting all of the mobility needs of that little neighbourhood into one area. So there'll be more apartments being built there. And also you can go there and say that I want to have a car parking space here, and just you can rent it out, or something like that intelligently. Or it could be a company coming in and printing it out for the day, and then it'll be brought back again. You'll also have your shared mobility there car hubs or car clubs and car shares, car rentals, as well bike rentals and bike shares. And you'll have kind of other amenities, like electrical, EV charging, possibly drone drone hubs as well. And there's also a lot of logistics companies that might want to avail of that, that they could have a drop off centre there, or they can use their drop off centres. So there's a lot in terms of that. Anyway, we did a lot of research in that here in DBFL, down in the cork Docklands. So they'll be coming online quite soon.
Dusty Rhodes 39:47
It sounds amazing. You also mentioned electric cars. I believe they're going to stop selling petrol cars in 2035 which, I mean, it's only 10 years away. But still, people aren't really getting. Excited about electric cars, even though we see more and more of them, and still we have range anxiety. And so one thing I hear about my friends, and I'm thinking of buying a new car. I don't know if I want to buy an electric car, because, you know, you know, that's one of the things. And in my head, I'm thinking, well, it's fine. You just need to plan it a little in that you time your trip to this the place where you top up your car. At the moment, it's a petrol station. It takes two minutes to top up the car. Do you think where we're going to get to something like that with an electric car? Or will you still have to wait for 20 minutes, or even up to an hour?
Danny Pio Murphy 40:35
No, there's a lot of there's a lot of companies developing fast charging, so it would be in a couple of minutes anyway, I would see in the future and electric but we need the infrastructure as well. So that's going to be another big thing that we'll be doing in the future, providing that infrastructure for charging the electric vehicles, of course. Look, we need a huge fleet of electric vehicles as well to come in, but that's not the full answer. Anyway, we kind of a sustainable future is that they're one part of the solution. Anyway, there's also active travel, there's also public transport, there's go there. It has to be kind of sustainable opportunities for everyone. It's just not a one solution fits all.
Dusty Rhodes 41:25
Okay, so you're a big you're a big thinker, Danny, and it's been absolutely fascinating chatting to you. I actually feel like I've been just glimpsing into the future for our conversation today. So Alyssa, thank you very much. If you'd like to learn about more about Danny's work in sustainable transport and diversity. Check out the links for DBFL and engineers Ireland society in the show notes, but for now. Danny po Murphy, thank you so much for joining us.
Danny Pio Murphy 41:50
Thank you so much.
Dusty Rhodes 41:52
We hope you enjoyed our conversation today. If you know an engineer who would appreciate these insights, please do share the podcast with them. They can find us simply by searching for Engineers Ireland. Wherever they listen to podcasts. This episode is produced by dustpod.io for engineers Ireland, for advanced episodes, more information on the latest trends in infrastructure or career development advice, you'll find a wealth of resources on the website at engineers ireland.io until next time for myself. Dusty Rhodes, thank you for listening.