Wide range of activities during Engineers Week 2013
Engineers Week is an annual campaign to promote engineering as a career and the importance of the profession to Ireland. It’s taking place this year from February 25th to March 3rd 2013 and a wide range of events are being organised by Engineers Ireland and IT Sligo in Sligo and Leitrim to bring the subject alive for prospective students, their parents and other members of the public.
The work of engineers is all around us. The computers we use, our roads and cars, the buildings we live in, the medical devices that keep us alive, and the technologies that keep our environment green, are all the products of clever engineering. It is a wide industry that employs thousands of people in the North West region in the areas of civil, structural, mechanical and electrical engineering, medical devices and environmental protection– to name but a few.
Anthony Skeffington, Chairman of Engineers Ireland North West region, encourages anyone interested in learning more about engineering to get involved in the week’s activities; “Engineering is a vast discipline with limitless career opportunities and we organise this week of activities each year primarily to try to demystify it somewhat for interested students and their parents,” he said. “It’s an exciting time to be an engineer at the moment and there are a lot of very promising employment opportunities for engineers in the North West and around the world.”
Professional engineers will visit IT Sligo, local primary schools and libraries in Sligo and Leitrim to promote their work during the week. Events during the week include public lectures about Sustainability in Road Maintenance (Sligo Park Hotel, Feb 25) and the History of Masonry Arch Bridges (IT Sligo, Feb 28), a Careers Open Night at IT Sligo with guest lectures and a tour of the cutting edge engineering facilities at the Institute (Feb 26), an ‘Airmazing’ show in IT Sligo (Feb 27) and the Bush Hotel Carrick-on-Shannon (Mar 1), a Coder Dojo workshop at IT Sligo (Mar 2) and a student debate at IT Sligo pondering the question ‘Ís Civil Engineering the Superior of the Engineering Species?’ (Feb 27). For a detailed programme click here – Programme.
All events are free and most are open to members of the public to attend. For more information and to register see www.engineersweek.ie.
An Industry View
Thousands of people are employed in the field of Engineering in the North West and local companies play an important part in Engineers Week through the ‘Host Day’ series in which they host groups of visiting students for the day, giving them a real insight into their work.
LotusWorks in Finisklin Business Park has been participating in the event for a number of years. 
Peadar Doyle a software Engineer with LotusWorks explained why they think it’s important to participate in the event; “Engineering as a career presents the opportunity to work in a variety of industries and it is important that students understand the wide range of options Engineering can present,” he said. “LotusWorks has a variety of engineering disciplines working on a diverse range of projects in Europe, the USA, Canada and South America and we very much welcome the opportunity to grow awareness about the industry and to assist in sharing our knowledge and experience of the profession with our local community.”
Other local companies participating in the ‘Host Day’ series include Waterways Ireland, SF Engineering, Masonite, Verus Precision, ESB, Sligo County Council, Abbott Ireland, Bruss and JOD.
Caption: Pictured (top) at the launch of Engineers Week at IT Sligo are, from left to right; Anthony Skeffington, Chairman of Engineers Ireland North West Branch; Roisin McManus, IT Sligo Environmental Engineering student; and Dr Tomas O’Flaherty, IT Sligo Civil Engineering lecturer. Photo by Sean Mullery.
Caption: (Above) Peadar Doyle a software Engineer with LotusWorks. LotusWorks is one of the local companies hosting students during Engineers Week Host Day series.
Caption: Pictured below at the launch of Engineers Week at IT Sligo are, from left to right; Seamus Lee, VHA Architects; Roisin McManus, IT Sligo Environmental Engineering student; Anthony Skeffington, Chairman of Engineers Ireland North West Branch; Trevor McSharry, Head of Department of Civil Engineering and Construction; and Louise Flynn, Environmental Engineering Student. Photo by Sean Mullery.
