Corporal Craig Cooper, a student of the Level 7 BEng in Electronic Engineering (Military Communications Systems) at South East Technological University’s Carlow campus was presented with an Asset Management Student Award at the recent Engineers Ireland MEETA Society Annual National Conference. The event was sponsored by ESS Eirdata.
The MEETA Asset Management Awards are designed to celebrate excellence in the fields of maintenance, reliability engineering and asset management. Craig's project STEM (Solar Tracking and Energy Management System) is part of a larger goal to reduce the carbon footprint of the Irish Defence Forces. His supervisors were Keith Smyth (SETU) and Corporal Sarah Nolan (Irish Defence Forces).
Corporal Craig Cooper was delighted to accept this award and acknowledged the support he received, "It’s a wonderful honour to have been selected for a certificate of excellence award and have my work recognised in this way by MEETA. The MEETA asset management society awards provide students with an outstanding opportunity for recognition in the area of maintenance and management of physical assets.
“This accomplishment is not something that I did alone, and it would not have been possible without the support of SETU Carlow, my family, friends, and fellow students. I hope to continue my efforts in creating innovative solutions for engineering problems in my career for many years to come."
Kevin Smyth, lecturer at SETU emphasised the prestige of the award in what is a very competitive space, “The MEETA annual project award is highly sought after by all universities. This year SETU had three excellent entries, all CIS Corps students. It’s testament to Craig’s ability and work ethic that he was selected to receive a certificate of excellence award for what was a truly well engineered project. I have no doubt that this won’t be the last award Craig will receive for engineering during his career.”
The Defence Forces, Communications and Information Services (CIS) Corps also congratulated Cpl Cooper on his achievement, “The Defence Forces, CIS Corps congratulate Cpl Craig Cooper on his excellent performance throughout the duration of his CIS Trainee Technician Scheme. The BEng in Electronic Engineering (Military Communication Systems) from SETU is the backbone of our CIS Technician training which develops our personnel to operate at home and overseas as Communications and Information Services Technicians. Over the four years of training as part of the CIS Trainee Technician Scheme Cpl Cooper demonstrated an excellent work ethic and aptitude for technical problem solving. Cpl Cooper’s chosen final year project illustrated this along with his technical ability. The Defence Forces are committed to decarbonisation and hope to build on Cpl Cooper’s excellent work by assisting us to embrace the ambitious targets set out in the Climate Action Bill 2021 and the EU Green Deal, significantly enhancing the Green Defence agenda.”
The MEETA Asset Management society is a special interest group for maintenance, reliability and asset management practitioners, providing CPD and networking events for engineers. MEETA was created over 35 years ago, as an amalgamation of the National Maintenance Association (NMA) and the Energy Management Association. MEETA's operating model is to promote asset management, maintenance and reliability best practices and knowledge; to help drive real improvements in the Irish industrial setting.