Ian Bridges, professional head of signalling and engineering director at Balfour Beatty, became the 97th President of the Institution of Railway Signal Engineers (IRSE) on 22 April 2021.
Due to ongoing social distancing restrictions in England, the Institution held its Annual General Meeting online at which Mr Bridges was officially inaugurated as the new president, taking over from Dr Daniel Woodland, head of command, control and signalling at Ricardo Rail UK. Andy Knight, managing director of Signet Solutions becomes senior vice president and Steve Boshier, manager asset integration and completions for the Australian Level Crossings Removal Project takes over as junior vice president.
IRSE members across the globe logged in to watch the online AGM and hear Mr Bridges deliver his presidential address. A video of the address can be viewed at www.irse.org.
Said Mr Bridges: “Throughout my long career in railway signalling, telecoms and systems engineering, the Institution has held a significant place in my life. Supporting me through learning, travel to far flung parts of the world, and through boundless camaraderie, it has helped me to develop in my profession.
“I am immensely proud of the body of knowledge that the Institution holds and continues to develop. From learned publications and papers, through technical visits and virtual events, the disciplines represented by the Institution continue to progress, contributing to the benefits of the railway customer. During my year as President, my program will continue to probe this progression, looking at how advancement can be made in the age of the intelligent railway.”
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. The theme for Mr Bridges’ presidential programme is ‘The Age of the Intelligent Railway’. Whilst it hoped that some of the later papers in the programme may be delivered face to face, until social distancing measures have been lifted in host countries, the presentations will be presented via remote webcasts. Full details will be published in the events section of the Institution’s website.
2021/2022 Presidential Programme
27 May 2021 Webinar: Measurement systems and machine learning Matt Fearn from Balfour Beatty
18 August 2021 Webinar/Austria: Frauscher global developments Martin Rosenberger from Frauscher
5 October 2021 The Netherlands/webinar: Big data Paul Hendricks from the IRSE International Technical Committee
10 November 2021 USA/webinar: Leveraging machine vision and data analytics Rajendra Jadhav (Wabtec)
11 January 2022 Thailand/webinar: Papers to be confirmed
February 2022 India: Three-day seminar in Delhi
3 March 2022 UK: Innovating innovation Dave Gorman from Unipart Group
Photo credit: IRSE
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