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Aidan Madden wins International Engineer of the Year Award

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Clare O'Loughlin Clare O'Loughlin Europe Press Office, Ireland
13 November 2017

Arup's Aidan Madden was awarded International Engineer of the Year at the Engineers Ireland Excellence Awards 2017 event held last week in Dublin.

Aidan has been at the forefront of Arup's work in the garment industry in Bangladesh since the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory in 2013. This work involved the design, piloting and implementation of a rapid structural assessment programme in almost 4,000 factories nationally, which directly impacted on the lives of over four million workers there.

Rana Plaza factory in Bangladesh Rana Plaza factory in Bangladesh

Aidan has also led the design and development of key national technical guidance documents and standards for the follow-up remediation works and contributed to the design of a national regulatory body to oversee these works.

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It is an honour to be recognised by Engineers Ireland with this award. The work in Bangladesh, undertaken by a team of 200 Arup staff from all over the world, has given us a wonderful opportunity to make a hugely positive contribution to the garment industry, which makes up a significant part of Bangladesh's economy. I hope that our work will become part of a game-changing shift in the garment industry and continue to improve worker conditions in Bangladesh and further afield, underlining the importance of good design in the built environment. ”

Aidan Madden Aidan Madden Associate Director

Due to the significant impact made by Aidan and the team in Bangladesh, a group of garment brands have recently appointed Arup to design a building safety programme for adoption internationally in the garment industry. Aidan is currently leading this work in Vietnam.

Textile factory workers in Bangladesh
Arup staff with two rickshaws from Bangladesh
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In total, almost 4,000 factories in Bangladesh were inspected using our structural methodology. All exporting factories are now assessed using the Arup-developed methodology.

The Engineers Ireland Excellence Awards are presented in recognition of the achievements of engineers who have demonstrated exceptional engineering skills. Two other Arup projects were shortlisted on the night, 14 Henrietta Street – The Tenement Museum Dublin (joint entry with Shaffrey Architects) in the Heritage and Conservation category and Connswater Community Greenway (joint entry with Belfast City Council and Farran's Construction) in the Engineering Project of the Year category.

Arup continued our support of these awards this year by sponsoring the Chartered Engineer of the Year Award. Captain Eoghan Carton, Engineer Officer, Irish Defence Forces, won this award for the project 'Lead Nation Changeover 2016: The Changeover of Combat Engineering, Infrastructure and Utilities Support from Finland to Ireland in UNIFIL'.