In a UTS first, Professor David Eager has been elected as a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), a prestigious award acknowledging outstanding achievements in the field of mechanical engineering.
UTS Faculty of Engineering & IT Dean, Professor Peta Wyeth, presents Professor David Eager with the ASME Fellow Award. Photo: University of Technology Sydney.
School holidays are in full swing, and children of all ages are climbing structures in playgrounds, bobbing around the pool on inflatables, jumping on trampolines, scaling climbing walls, swinging past trees in high ropes parks and defying gravity in theme park rides.
With so much fun to be had, many would not consider the engineering research and standards that help to make these activities safe, but for Professor David Eager it’s been his lifelong passion.
As a testament to his significant contributions dedicated to the protection of public safety, Professor Eager was recently named a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) in in the area of Codes and Standards.
“Standards are really important because they save lives’ said Professor Eager, a biomechanical engineer at the UTS Centre for Audio, Acoustics and Vibration and world-renowned expert in risk management and injury prevention in sports and recreation equipment.
“When engineering is done well it usually goes unrecognised because engineers have done their job by ensuring the device works, it is fit-for-purpose, they have included the appropriate fail-safes and safety factors,” he said.
“I am very grateful to have been elected as an ASME Fellow and would like to give a heartfelt thanks to my sponsors for their letters of support, particularly Dr Mickey Clemon who coordinated the nomination process”.
To add to a long list of accomplishments, Professor Eager is a Fellow of Engineers Australia, Chartered Professional Engineer, was awarded the Standards Australia National Meritorious Contribution Award for dedicated service in standards development in 2020 and appointed a Life Member of Play Australia in 2021.
Professor Eager represents Engineers Australia as the chairperson on several Australian Standards committees including children’s playground equipment, artificial climbing structures and high ropes, trampoline parks facilities, and on behalf of UTS has been engaged as a risk consultant by state governments, local government, private organisations, and community groups. He represents Australia as the Head of Delegation on two International Standards Organisation committees and is the ISO expert on several CEN sports and recreation equipment committees.