Andrew Ives - Citation
Chancellor, in the 200th anniversary year of Isambard Kingdom Brunel's birth, it seems appropriate to reflect on the place of engineering in our world. Of course, we associate Brunel with the energy and inventiveness of the Industrial Revolution. He was one of the great fathers of our industrial economy, which saw the imaginative application of technology, improved transport and communications, the rise of British commercial and financial power, and a steady improvement in the standard of living. Our honorary graduate is an outstanding engineer in the same tradition. Andrew Ives has had a major impact on our world through his research and his management of design, product and business development for the automotive industry. But Andrew Ives has taken Brunel's vision an important stage further, broadening public and professional understanding of the role of engineers in twenty-first century society. He has inspired us to see engineers - not scientists and not politicians - as the iconic heroes of the future, since only engineers can create the products and systems to “contain, limit or even reverse" the ecological problems threatening humanity in the 21st century.
Andrew Ives's vision of engineering is one rooted very much in the ethos of our own University, emphasizing knowledge, professionalism and imagination put to good use for the community. He was one of the first thin-sandwich students to graduate from Brunel in its early days in Acton in the 1960s, excellence evident in his First Class Honours degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering. He joined the Lucas Group Research Centre and immediately focused on the future: the development of electric vehicles. Thanks to his efforts, experimental vehicles capable of doing more than 60 miles per hour were soon cruising the streets of Birmingham, well within the speed limit, of course.
Andrew Ives's industrial career pays tribute to the fact that engineering is so valuable to society because engineers are great lateral thinkers. At a time when mechanical engineering was thought the basis for automotive development, he understood the exciting potential of new technologies, especially electronics, for advanced products and processes. Convinced, as Head of Electrical and Electronic Engineering for Lucas Research, that electronics could revolutionize conventional petrol-engine cars, he developed such innovations as electronic anti-lock braking systems and electronically controlled driving lights. Even more significantly, he grasped the important future for electronics on a global scale in terms of controlling vehicle emissions as well as improving performance and safety. His foresight and his ability to turn theory into practical product is why, in the 1980s, Lucas CAV asked him to lead the development and production of new electronic controls for diesel engines in a wide variety of vehicle types. The attractiveness of diesel-based family cars for today's market is thanks to his leadership in the field.
Andrew Ives is a man firmly in the Brunel tradition of uniting research capability and business acumen on an international stage. Not only is he the author or joint author of nine patents in the automotive electronics field, but he has held senior managerial positions at the Lucas Group Research Centre, and has been General Manager of Lucas Micos and Director and General Manager of Lucas Automotive Sensors. He has directed projects that pull together large engineering teams in the UK, Europe and America, and, as Principal Consultant to a major electronics and engineering company, has developed important business ventures in China, South America and Hungary. It is not surprising that Andrew Ives is a highly respected independent consultant here and in the United States. Moreover, his powerful advocacy of engineering is based on the conviction that engineering as a profession is fun, as well as worthy, citing his own work with the Jaguar racing team and on the Metro 6R4 super rally car.
Generous as an advisor to Universities, a keen friend of our own University, and a strong promoter of the value of engineering education, Andrew Ives's contribution to the field is well acknowledged through his senior leadership within the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Not only has he served as Chair of the Automobile Division and of many Institution Boards and Committees, but he was also named its 120th President. In his presidential George Stephenson Lecture, he pointed to the considerable interdisciplinary talents required of an engineer: he or she must know the science, develop the technology, apply it to product development, and then introduce it successfully into the marketplace. At every moment of his career, Andrew Ives has shown us how to put this challenging definition gracefully into practice; and he undoubtedly merits our celebration of his outstanding achievements.
Chancellor, in recognition of his outstanding services to engineering, it gives me great pleasure to present to you Andrew Peter Ives for the degree of Doctor of Engineering, honoris causa.
