Dr Daniel Woodland, head of command, control and signalling at Ricardo Rail UK became the 96th President of the Institution of Railway Signal Engineers (IRSE) on 23 April 2020.
At a ‘virtual’ meeting of the Institution’s governing Council, Dr Woodland was officially inaugurated as the new president, taking over from George Clark, director of engineering for Transport for London. Ian Bridges, professional head of signalling and engineering director at Balfour Beatty becomes vice-president and Andy Knight, managing director of Signet Solutions takes over as junior vice president.
Due to the current coronavirus lock-down, it was not possible for Dr Woodland to deliver his presidential address*, traditionally presented at the Institution’s AGM which this year has been postponed. Instead, Dr Woodland delivered his address to an international audience remotely online, marking a first in the Institution’s 108-year history. The address can be viewed at www.irse.org.
Dr Woodland said: “I joined the IRSE as a Student member in 1995 and since then the Institution has played a significant role in developing my knowledge and competence in railway signalling and control.
“I am a passionate supporter of the institution’s charitable aim to advance the science and practice of signalling by the promotion of research, the collection and publication of educational material, for the public benefit. In these difficult times for all of us, it won’t be possible to do that in our traditional ways. During the coming year as president I hope to promote new and enhanced ways of engaging with and supporting our industry and, in so doing, to make a positive contribution to the Institution, its future direction and the benefit that it offers to both its membership and the wider society.”
During their presidential year, each IRSE president organises a themed series of presidential papers, presented by leading experts in railway signalling, communications, train control and traffic management. Dr Woodland’s programme is entitled ‘The challenges of change in complex command, control and signalling systems’ and features the following presentations to be held in Japan, Switzerland, Ireland and the UK. Until social distancing measures have been lifted the presentations will be presented via remote webcasts. Full details will be published in the events section of the Institution’s website.
16 June webcast: The Forefront of system safety and its application to railway signalling. Professor Yuji Hirao Department of System Safety, Nagaoka University of Technology and member of IRSE International Technical Committee (ITC).
30 October webcast/Switzerland: The crossover between rail and autonomous road vehicles. Tom Jansen, Global Domain Leader Connected & Automated Vehicles, Ricardo Nederland.
19 November York/webcast: Cross acceptance of systems and equipment developed under different standards frameworks. Professor Rod Muttram, Independent Consultant Forth Insight Ltd and IRSE ITC
2 December University of Birmingham/webcast: Testing modern electronic/software systems. Nicholas Wrobel Railway Systems, Managing Director, Aerobel Defence Technology Ltd and Robin Hirsch managing partner, Kingdom Technology, director, CARIS Research Ltd & teaching fellow, University of Birmingham.
January 2021 Glasgow/webcast date to be confirmed: Cyber security Alžbeta Helienek Co-Founder at C4SAM and Principal Consultant at Ricardo Rail.
4 February 2021 Dublin/webcast :Traffic management systems and automation in control centres. Ian Mitchell, signalling consultant at Resonate and IRSE ITC committee and Nora Balfe, human factors specialist at Iarnród Éireann Irish Rail.
Photo credit: IRSE
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