Overview
This is the first of a new quarterly Engineering Skills for Safety webinar series. It aims to inform and engage our global audience about engineering skills for safety, promote safer and innovative engineering, and establish a new skills for safety community.
The webinars provide a platform for networking, knowledge exchange, and peer support among safety-focused engineers. They also foster collaboration and partnerships with co-funding organizations, while gathering valuable evidence and data for long-term program impact.
Embrace a systems mindset to tackle safety challenges in complex systems
This engaging webinar will dive into the transformative power of shifting mindsets to address safety challenges within complex systems. How to learn from failures for a culture of safety resilience, and why engineers need to apply different tools to produce safer outcomes. Listen to experts and practitioners in the field as they share insights, real-world examples, and practical tools to foster a collective mindset shift for safer and resilient adaptive systems.
Managing 'before' and 'after' a safety incident in a complex system
Hear from Professor Colin Pilbeam about managing change following safety incidents in complex systems. Safety incidents are a ‘brutal audit’ of a complex system. He will illustrate and explain through several cases in the presentation, the key success factors, drawing attention to those additional skills required by engineers, and others, wanting to successfully manage in complex systems.
Safety in complex systems requires application of a range of tools.
Hear from thought leader and safety expert Trish Kerin on how can we effectively manage process safety and why does it require a focus on leadership, knowledge and competence, systems and procedures, engineering and design, assurance, human factors, and culture. Trish will highlight why all these elements apply to complex systems in delivering safer outcomes. This presentation will explore how the process safety fundamentals apply to broader complex systems thinking.
This webinar was facilitated and chaired by Shane McHugh.
Chair: Shane McHugh
Shane McHugh is interim Associate Director International at the Academy, with responsibility for the Academy’s £12m annual portfolio of international work. Prior to his career at the Academy, Shane worked in the Irish civil service and at the Irish Embassy in London on science, trade and innovation policy.
Panel
Colin Pilbeam
Colin Pilbeam is Professor of Organizational Safety at Cranfield University and holds doctorates in both natural and social sciences. His research on safety leadership and the impact of outsourcing on organizational safety has been funded by IOSH. Lloyds Register Foundation funded research on designing safety interventions with context in mind. Most recently the Academy has funded work on learning from failures. Through his research he has worked with a range of large organizations in different sectors, including Network Rail, Laing O’Rourke, Siemens, GSK and Kuhne + Nagel. He publishes regularly in leading safety journals and presents at international conferences.
Trish Kerin
Trish Kerin is an award-winning international expert and keynote speaker in process safety and the inaugural director of the IChemE Safety Centre. She leads a team who help organisations share and learn in process safety. Trish leverages off her years of engineering and varied leadership experience to help organisations improve their process safety outcomes. She has represented industry to many government bodies and sat on boards. She is a Chartered Engineer, registered Professional Process Safety Engineer, Fellow of IChemE and Engineers Australia and a Senior Member of AIChE. Trish also holds a diploma in OHS, a Master of Leadership and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Her expertise has been recognised with the John A Brodie Medal (2015), the Trevor Kletz Merit Award (2018) and Women in Safety Network’s Inaugural Leader of the Year (2022). She has been named one of the “Superstars of STEM” for 2023/24 by Science and Technology Australia.
Emma Houiellebecq
Emma Houiellebecq is a PhD Candidate at the University of Cambridge, Department of Engineering. Her doctoral research explores how systems thinking approaches can enable more strategic decision-making in protracted humanitarian crises, with the ultimate aim of strengthening the resilience of essential services. Prior to her PhD, Emma worked as an engineer and project manager with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and other NGOs primarily in Gaza, South Sudan, and Uganda. Emma completed an MPhil in Engineering for Sustainable Development and is a 2016 and 2021 Gates Cambridge Scholar.
Federico Sittaro
Federico Sittaro is the Deputy Head of Analysis and Evidence at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), based in Geneva. Before joining ICRC in 2014, Federico worked with Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF) contributing to WASH and public health engineering in natural and manmade crises across 19 countries. In ICRC, Federico first focused on how hospitals in resource-limited settings cope with unforeseen, violent events. He later shifted his focus towards urban environments, specifically addressing the intricacies of planning humanitarian interventions in complex settings, emphasizing safety and resilience integration.
Previous webinars
Measuring engineering capability around the world: early insights from the GECR 2023
This webinar presented the index framework and provided an overview of the methodological approach and a first look at the early findings from the research. The S&P Global research team demonstrated how these data could better inform decision-makers across stakeholder types to promote best practices and identify areas of opportunity.
Engineering skills in disaster preparedness, response and recovery
This presentation explored innovative initiatives in humanitarian engineering, and how increased skills of in-country engineer involvement in disaster preparedness, response and recovery can enhance the safety and resilience of affected communities.
Process safety - management systems for industrial sites
The presentation provided an overview of the most applicable frameworks by highlighting key findings and learning points of a case study where many of the elements of the safety management system failed. Furthermore, it provided some tips as to what good system, and good implementation, looks like; that is addressing engineering skills for safety challenges as part of the Engineering X Engineering Skills Where They Are Most Needed (ESMN) programme.
Speakers
Dr Zsuzsanna Gyenes
Dr Zsuzsanna Gyenes is a Senior Process Safety Expert with extensive experience in training CEO’s of high hazard industrial sites on Process Safety Leadership and Culture, implementing tools and overseeing Process Safety Management systems for industrial sites, reviewing safety reports, advising on risk reduction and performing on-site inspections. Currently being involved in Disaster Risk Knowledge Management, resilience goals and building scenarios for multi-hazard risk assessments. Proven track record of developing guidance documents on Lead Process Safety Metrics, speaking at international conferences and running technical symposiums worldwide. Extensive knowledge of global process safety standards and practices gained working with the world’s leading chemical and oil and gas companies across the UK, US, Europe, the Middle East and Australia.
Dr Tim Slingsby
Dr Tim Slingsby is Director of Skills and Education at the Lloyd’s Register Foundation leading their substantial portfolio of programming in the UK and globally on improving safety skills. Prior to working with the Foundation, Tim was with the British Council and several other leading organisations working in the UK and on international collaboration in public engagement with science. He has also been a researcher in industry and academia following his PhD in Molecular Genetics from the University of Leicester. He is also serving as the Chair of Maritime Charities Group.
Greg Lymar
Greg is a highly skilled process safety professional with over eight years of experience working in high hazard industries such as oil refining, power generation, gas processing, and chemicals. He possesses a strong technical and practical knowledge of process and functional safety management principles and has demonstrated this in management and senior roles. Greg is a certified Functional Safety Engineer and a member of the Concawe Safety Management Group and the Energy Institute Hazardous Area Classification Working Group. He is also an IChemE Human Factors in Health and Safety award recipient, a former Vice-Chairman of the Tyneside IChemE Members Group, and an active STEM ambassador who frequently participates in industry events.
Helen Conlin
Helen is an experienced chartered chemical engineer, Fellow of IChemE and IChemE registered safety professional, with over 25 years of experience in regulation, industry, and consultancy. She has expertise in sociotechnical systems approaches and their practical application to improve performance, reduce risk, and solve problems. Helen has supported high and medium hazard facilities across various sectors, including oil and gas, chemicals, power generation, and nuclear. Currently, as the Head of Health, Safety, Security and Environment at Stanlow Terminals Ltd, she provides leadership in HSSE, advising the company as it transitions from owner to operator and plays a role in leading the UK's energy transition.