Everyone is talking about ‘big data’ and how tech behemoths like Google are going to use it to change the world. But what does it mean for the rest of us – companies and organisations who do not have ninja-coders sitting on beanbags developing artificial intelligence apps during their company-subsidised gourmet lunch breaks? In May of this year, The Economist declared that the world’s most valuable resource is no longer oil, but data. And with some saying that 90% of the world’s data was ...

In the first part of his presidential address, Engineers Ireland president Dr Kieran Feighan outlined how harnessing energy to improve mobility has been the foundation for the development of many of the great empires in the world over the course of history. You can read it here. One of the key areas that we need to explore is energy storage. There are many innovative solutions being put forward, both on a large scale and on a small scale. There is currently a well-advanced project in ...

Engineers Ireland president Dr Kieran Feighan gave his presidential address in the organisation's headquarters in 22 Clyde Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4 on Thursday, 21 September. Here we provide a transcript of his speech. Read the second of this two-part series here. I will examine how harnessing energy to improve mobility has been the foundation for the development of many of the great empires in the world over the course of history. Mobility has a number of different facets. ...

Engineers Ireland is delighted to host a workshop delivered by Sean Brady, entitled 'Forensic Investigation of Engineering Failures', on Thursday 28 September. For further information, please click here. [caption id="attachment_37701" align="alignright" width="300"] CLICK TO ENLARGE Fig 1: Bridge over Barton Highway, Canberra, Australia. 15 workers were injured[/caption] The engineering profession is well aware that lessons learned from past failures can play an important role in ...

For many years, items such as air conditioning, fire detection and access control have been list-items on almost every construction development. For most of these, there is a myriad of case studies and previous projects that can guide the engineer; moreover, the terminology and standardisation is all well matured, so conversing on the topics is straightforward. One of the newest members of the ‘A-list’ is electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE), which is required for more and more new ...

[caption id="attachment_36712" align="alignright" width="300"] CLICK TO ENLARGE Peak-hour congestion map[/caption] With the economy continuing to grow, the upward trend in the number of people making the bus, train or tram their transport mode of choice is very encouraging. Earlier this year, the National Transport Authority (NTA) announced an increase of almost ten million people (up 4.4 per cent) using State-supported public transport services in 2016. Passenger numbers on Dublin ...