Head of Mechanical Engineering
Prof David Kennedy
t: +353 1 220 6736
David Kennedy started his career as a Mechanical Engineering student, completing his Certificate, Diploma and Honours Degree by 1983 at DIT. Following this, he worked in Irish Industry as a Mechanical Engineer and Project Engineer at Midland International Ltd., and with An Foras Áiseanna Saothair in Dublin. He completed a Master’s Degree (MAI) by Research at Trinity College Dublin and completed his PhD at Dublin City University in 1995 on Materials and Surface Engineering. He spent nine years at IT Carlow lecturing, liaison with Industry and conducting Research. He returned to Lecture at DIT (TU Dublin) in 1997. He became a Charted Engineer in 1992, Eur-Ing in 1997, Fellow of Engineers Ireland in 2005 and Professor of Mechanical Engineering in 2012.
Professor David Kennedy is the Head of Mechanical Engineering at DIT (TU Dublin) since 2004. He also acted as Head of School for a period. He is past Chairman of the Irish division of the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IET) and past Chairman of the Membership and Qualifications Board (MQB) at Engineers Ireland and past member of the Engineering Council, Engineers Ireland. He also chaired the NSAI TC8 committee for bulk storage of LPG for a period of 6 years and chaired boards for RGII/RECI. He has been an active member of two European COST projects involving Surface Engineering and Renewable Energy, one of which was held in Dublin. He also provides services to the state as an expert in R&D tax credits.
He is responsible for managing a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. He also led a key role in developing Research across engineering at DIT and was responsible for managing the research activities of the Faculty of Engineering at DIT for 4 years. He has successfully attracted research funding to the order of €4M and has successfully supervised 12 PhD and 13 MPhil students to completion. Professor Kennedy has organised a number of International Conferences at DIT. The International Conference on Materials and Tribology led to collaboration between the College of Engineering & Built Environment, the University of Zagreb, University of Split and the Croatian Society of Materials and this successful partnership has continued to date on an annual basis. In 2006, he organised the international conference covering Materials, Energy and Design (MED06) attracting delegates from over 25 countries. He was also Chairman and Co-organiser of SPIE Conference section on Surface Engineering and Nanotechnology in collaboration with OPTO Ireland., Royal Dublin Society in April 2005.
He also co-organised and managed the COST Conference on Renewable Energy (BIRES 2017) at DIT. Professor Kennedy has supported and participated in events for the Institution of Corrosion, the Institution of Engineers of Ireland and the Institution of Electrical Engineers. He was responsible for co-ordinating and managing the development of a Master of Engineering programme in Advanced Engineering (ME) in 2002 and the development of a Masters (ME) in Mechanical Engineering in 2008.
Professor Kennedy has published extensively in the areas of surface engineering and materials, education, design and renewable energy with over 150 articles for book chapters, International Journals, Peer reviewed Conference papers, proceedings, and other journal articles. He has almost 100,000 downloads of papers from Arrow and Research Gate.
In 2012, he became a member of the committee of Professors of Mechanical Engineers in Ireland and was the Chairman for the International Undergraduate Awards competition for the Engineering and Mechanical Sciences category 2012 and 2013.
He is actively involved in development of engineering and engineering education for the past 20 years through research, liaison with industry, European University collaborations, COST Actions, programme developments and accreditations/ validations both nationally and internationally.
Learn more about the Discipline of Mechanical Engineering