Bernard Gindroz,
incoming District
H leader

The ASME community in Europe is represented by the District H, which comprises Europe, Turkey, Israel and Russia. The District H leader is elected by the European section leaders and has a 4 year term. ASME EMEA eUpdate caught up with incoming District H leader Bernard Gindroz to discuss with him his plans for the future and his term.

As the incoming leader of District H what are your main goals for your term?

As the incoming District H leader, I will concentrate my initial effort on setting up a better communication structure for the community of ASME leaders, volunteers and members within EMEA. This involves communication from ASME internally (Headquarters and Europe Office), with District H and sections, and with its members in general.

The District H leader’s role is to ensure that the communications flow continually between the sections, the District H Board and the Europe Office and ASME Headquarters, in order to allow the Europe Office to assist the volunteer leaders where necessary. Hence, a communication plan needs to be agreed on between the District H Board, Headquarters and the Europe Office.

We really need to define our District strategy and priorities for the upcoming years, in a changing world, where globalisation could erase the major local specificities on behalf of its worldwide goal. However, the highest potential lies locally, where people live and work, with their culture and their language, their differences and shared interests. That is exactly where ASME’s District H could play a major role: building its strategy on the synergy of local talents from mechanical engineers from all around the world.

Thus, my strategy as leader of District H will be developed consistent with the following seven objectives:

1. Creating a strong image of mechanical engineering
2. Strengthening relations with sister societies
3. Developing an efficient organisation within the District based on local active volunteers and Europe Office support, to better serve our members; creating new sections where they will be considered relevant
4. Motivating and structuring student activities and student volunteers
5. Bridging student activities and student volunteers with senior section activities
6. Making ESDA the major European event, highly recognised for the quality and the importance of mechanical engineering
7. Motivating local activities such as historic landmarks.

What are the main activities/ actions that the ASME EMEA community can look forward for the upcoming months?

As the new District H leader, my first action will be to set up the District Board. The role of the Board will be to define the strategy of our district, as well as to develop its action plan consistent with the seven aforementioned objectives developed above, and to follow the actions. Thus, the Board could include section's leaders, the country correspondents, the chair of the ESDA permanent committee, the student section leaders (one per country) and two officers from the Europe Office, as well as the Headquarters liaison officer. With such a Board, we should have the key persons to develop our District and reach the 7 objectives.

My second action for the upcoming months will be to work with the Europe Office on some work more on the conceptual side, looking into the relevance of District H for the engineering sector, for ASME and for its members. Create a vision for the future, its goals and means to achieve it. We need to look into ASME Europe as a whole and what we want to achieve, we believe: Sustainable Community Dynamics and Sustainable Service/ Product Dynamics.

The third action will be to set the ECC (ESDA Conference Council). I believe that ESDA is crucial for our District. ESDA can both be an objective as a tool to build a dynamic community. The ECC will enhance the success of ESDA, and we should aim to develop ESDA into the European ASME Congress (network, community building, industry contacts, and building up European funds).

The support for the creation of the Italian section will be my fourth action. Indeed, the Italian members are willing to work on a better organised ASME structure, and thus have initiated the process for the creation of a section. For many years, very active Italian members have been involved in ASME International committees and within the District. Moreover, Italy has a strong expertise in mechanical engineering and is well recognised worldwide.

My fifth action for the upcoming months will be to develop with the Europe Office an online District H Calendar of events and meetings, in order to help volunteers organise their activities and to plan and anticipate their professional, private and ASME volunteer activities. Such a calendar could include local (sections) ASME events and meetings, District H activities, LTC days and other relevant ASME events. An early planning of meetings will also help in optimising the travel costs, and therefore, allow District H to better spend its budget.

My sixth action will be to work with the DH Board on a provisional budget, in order to select the actions the District will be able to support.

Finally, my seventh action will be to support and work with the ESDA 2010 organising committee and the ECC, to make the next conference in Turkey a success.

My election as new District H leader has been based on your section leaders and country correspondents votes, and I thank you very much for selecting me to lead our wonderful part of the ASME community. I can assure all of you that I will do my best to provide for our members and the mechanical engineering community.

In our changing world, innovation is one of the key strategies to run for competitiveness, and mechanical engineering is of the crucial domains where innovation will serve humanity and enhance its sustainable quality of life. Bringing back the human being in the heart of all our development strategies is my major concern for my 3 years term has new District H leader.

Overcoming climate changes is a key engineering challenge for the 21st century. There is a strong need for a reduction of emissions of greenhouse gases to a sustainable level. Most of the technologies required to help stop climate changes are already available, while others are yet to be developed. Engineers are involved in every energy systems and hold critical knowledge of new sustainable technologies.

Consequently, 13 associations of engineers worldwide have joined efforts and are bringing their recommendations for a global climate action plan that will be presented to participants in the UN Climate Summit, COP 15.

On 3 - 4 September 2009, the Engineering Societies Climate Conference, a preliminary for the UN Climate Summit in December, will be held in Copenhagen. The conference will put forward the joint recommendations from the participating organisations addressing the UN, the parties to the Kyoto protocol, and others who commit themselves to the new climate agreement.

ASME is participating with a report that is focusing on the reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, giving technology and policy recommendations and goals for the energy sector. To achieve a sustainable atmospheric concentration ASME recommends technologies for reducing CO2 emissions associated with energy generation, conversion, and utilisation, which are the largest anthropogenic sources of such emissions.  

Given the complexity of a carbon-constrained energy portfolio and its associated economic issues, integrated governmental, industrial, technological, and societal approaches are required to control and reduce CO2 emissions. The technical and economic means for significantly reducing CO2 emissions are within reach.

Additional research and development, together with increased investments are required to demonstrate technological viability, ensure enabling infrastructures, and minimise cost.

Given the time constraints for technology deployment and associated climate responses, prudent action addressing CO2 emissions in the near term will have less negative economic impact than deferring action, which necessitates more draconian emissions reductions in the future.

Additionally, ASME acknowledges that adaptation to climate change will be an important and necessary climate response strategy. It is therefore recommended that the likely consequences of climate change be determined with more clarity, and that effective measures to adapt to such consequences be identified, prioritised, and incorporated into governmental policies as soon as reasonably practicable.

It is still possible to be part of the project by participating in the conference on 3 - 4 September 2009 in Copenhagen. For further information about the programme and for registration please go to: www.futureclimate.info

CONTRIBUTE!
This section of the ASME EMEA eUpdate is open for your comments, regarding the use and implementation of the ASME codes and standards in the EMEA region. Write a short paragraphs or two of a maximum of 200 words answering the question: "How have you been implementing the ASME codes and standards, and which ones? How has it made a difference?"

This could be an excellent opportunity for you or your company / organisation to share your experience / success stories with over 27.000 mechanical engineering professionals in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Please also enclose your photo, company logo or a company photo (jpg format, high resolution if possible). Send it to fortesc@asme.org

It is with pleasure and pride that we can now look back to the first year of the ASME Europe Training & Development service. Pleasure to see how the 4 courses that were organised since May 2008 have received strong interest from all over the world, and pride to serve the professional development of the engineers who attended our high level continuing education courses and could bring newly acquired or enlarged expertise to their organisations.

ASME training & Development in numbers:

• 4 sets of courses in major European cities from May 08 to June 09
• a total of 11 different course titles, from Section VIII to B.31.3. and from Welding to Section III
• over 150 participants from 28 countries in Europe and beyond

Based on the fruitful 08-09 experience and on the feedback from participants, ASME Europe will keep building up the Training & Development public offering with 16 course titles brought to 4 different European locations from September 2009 to June 2010 (Denmark, Spain, Amsterdam, Italy).

New courses have been included in this year's offering, such as Geometric Dimensioning & Tolerancing Fundamentals which will provide insight on the newly revised ASME Y14.5 standard - and API 579 Fitness for Service.

Please make sure to visit www.asme.org/education/europe to review the full ASME Europe Training & Development offering for 2009-2010 and to register.

Copenhagen, Denmark
14-18 September 2009
http://www.asme.org/Education/Europe/

For the first time, ASME Europe offers a training course on the authoritative ASME Y14.5, with the course Geometric Dimensioning & Tolerancing Fundamentals. This training course is designed for personnel who need to use geometric tolerancing in an industrial environment.

The ASME Geometric Dimensioning & Tolerancing Fundamentals course will provide a true "practical world" approach to the subject, and will enable participants to gain :

• A thorough understanding of geometric concepts
• Insight into geometric concepts and a solid foundation in the fundamentals of geometric tolerancing
• Strong knowledge on how, when and where to apply geometrics along with tips for producing quality parts
• A deep understanding and knowledge on any changes, updates and improvements in the new ASME Y14.5 2009 standards. (http://go.asme.org/gdt)

Testimonials from previous sessions:

"The best feature about the course was the instructor's expertise, who provided some information that is not necessarily detailed in the Code itself" (Anonymous - attended Section VIII Div 2 course in Stockholm, Sweden, June 2009)

"ASME training programme in Europe has given opportunities for more engineers to participate and to increase code awareness. The course also exposed me to more information on piping and provided strong insight into piping design" (Olabulo Adewale, Engineering, Head of Department at Oando PLC, Nigeria - attended B31.1 course in Stockholm, Sweden, June 2009)

In Partnership with
ALITUR (Associazione dei Laureati in Ingegneria di Tor Vergata, Università di Roma); BSMEE (Belgian Society of Mechanical and Environmental Engineering); Coordinamento Mecanica; DMS (Danish Society of Mechanical Engineers); FABI (La Maison de l'Ingénieur); IDA (Danish Society of Engineers); SNE (Spanish Nuclear Society).

Upcoming Courses

Other Educational Activities
ASME organises a variety of educational activities worldwide. Check the upcoming dates and locations and further your knowledge and ensure the next steps in your professional future.

ASME EMEA Events Calendar
See all the events in EMEA and select the event you want to attend.

ASME United Kingdom and Ireland section organised an Oral Presentation Competition for the current undergraduate mechanical engineering students. The competition was held at Wolfson Court, Cambridge on 20 June, 2009. The topic of each presentation was selected by the candidate.  Any technical topic relating to mechanical engineering was eligible. Student contestants preferred to talk about their project work.

Participants were allowed a 15 minute presentation with 5-10 minutes of questions and answers. Audience consisted of the participants and a number of professional engineers who judged presentations, using the Old Guard Presentation Competition criteria.

First (£150) and second prizes (£100) were awarded to Iain Waugh of the University of Cambridge and Alex Scott of Loughborough University respectively, both of whom will compete at the DH (European District) finals.

Europe and World Finals

Other ASME Sections in DH (European District) are also organising oral presentation competition in their own section. Winners of the first three places from these competitions from each DH Section will compete at the DH finals where the top prize is $1000 plus a trip to Lake Buena Vista, Florida in November 2009 to compete at the world finals at the ASME Congress, where the top prize is $2000.

The oral presentation competitions in DH is viewed as the first step towards organising a full SPDC (Student Professional development Conference) in Europe, similar to the US based SPDCs, which typically include Old Guard Oral Presentation Competition, Old Guard Technical Poster Competition, Technical Web Page Competition and Student Design Competition.

The Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) in Winterthur, in cooperation with ASME Europe, will host the one-day Blade Mechanics Seminar on 2 September, 2009. The one-day seminar will be a discussion forum for engineers interested in current technical issues of blade mechanics.

This year the keynote will be on “Forced Response Computation of bladed disks: Industrial Practices and Advanced Methods”, given by Eric Seinturier of Turbomeca, followed by an open discussion. Afterwards presentations will be given by different specialists from Alstom, Rolls-Royce, MTU Aero Engines, University of Hanover, ETH Zurich, Uni Cottbus and ZHAW in sessions about  “Nonlinear Blade Vibration with Friction Damping”, “Experimental Blade Analysis” and “Blade Design”. Every presentation will be followed by a moderated discussion.

International Project Management for Technical Professionals, by Brian E. Porter, PE, PMP

“Brian Porter’s International Project Management is an essential read for all project managers whether your projects are local or globally based. This book cuts to the common core of all projects, effective communication. Porter's keen sense of how to manage the subtleties of project management combined with his personal experiences make this book an enjoyable read and a great reference for how to build successful international business relationships now and in the future.”

Buy Online: http://catalog.asme.org/books/PrintBook/International_Project.cfm