Speaking up for professional civil engineers in Europe
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ECCE NEWS - SPRING/SUMMER 2002 |
FOCUSING
ON OUR KEY AREAS OF ACTIVITY:
The
main focus of ECCE effort is channelled through its five Task Forces:
Education,
Professional Recognition, Environment, Research and Development and Information
Technology.
Education:
Executive Committee member Professor Iacint Manoliu of Romania has played
a leading role in ensuring ECCE’s profile in educational activities through
his very active involvement in the EUCEET thematic network project on civil
engineering education. The EUCEET project was extended throughout 2002 for
a dissemination phase with three fora to be held in European regions – Madrid,
Spain; Gliwice, Poland and Munich, Germany.
Professional
Recognition: The concerns of the profession over European proposals for a
new consolidated directive on the recognition of professional qualifications
has, for the moment, superseded the ongoing work on a professional register for
civil engineers. Since autumn 2001 this Task Force has been chaired by Professor
Carsten Ahrens of Germany, with Jiri Plicka of the Czech Republic taking the
role of Vice-Chairman of the Task Force. Following a presentation on the
directive Professor Ahrens agreed to draw up a questionnaire
for members in order to provide a more detailed position paper to the European
Commission.
Research
and Development: Task Force Chairman Olavi Tupamaeki has kept members
regularly informed of progress on the Sixth Framework Programme for research and
development. On 15th May the European Parliament had made its decision on
the Sixth Framework Programme – with a focus on larger programmes.
Member organisations have been compiling data on R&D organisations and
national programmes in support of the European Research Area. It was
announced that the Task Force would have an additional meeting in the context of
the European Engineering Forum in Croatia in October.
Information
Technology: The main area of activity over the last two to three years has
been participation in the European Commission Working Group for Competitiveness
in Construction by UK civil engineer David Leonard MICE and Diana Maxwell, ECCE
Secretary General. The second phase of the Information and Communication
Technologies Working Group (IT WG) for the European construction industry began
in Spring 2001, focusing on the development of innovative IT applications for
all stages of the construction process, with a special emphasis on accessibility
for SMEs.
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Members of the Construction Competitiveness Working Group for IT, photographed in March 2002 by Diana Maxwell, rapporteur to the group. |
At the June meeting in Helsinki Deputy Task Force Chairman Rasso Steinmann presented the ROADCON project. This one-year roadmap project presents a new opportunity for ECCE to play a part in promoting the development of information technology in construction. The ROADCON project aims to develop a strategic road map for RTD projects and supporting measures in the construction industry, to lay the groundwork for future research and development for construction ICT. A standardisation road map and business best practices should be ready in 2004.
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The ECCE IT Task Force in action: from left to right - Rasso Steinmann, Arturas Kaklauskas, Stephen Vincent, Diana Maxwell, Inessa Loukmanova, Yuri Yakovlevich Kuvshinov |
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