We were delighted to welcome 30 transition year students from all over Munster to the School of Engineering, UCC, this month to the Engineers Ireland initiative 'Engineering Your Future'.

This 3-day programme introduced the students to our four Engineering Programmes during workshops and a competition over the course of the event. These included an Introduction to Electrical & Electronic Engineering Sensors and Systems by working in teams designing a speedometer and an Introduction to Structural Engineering and Bridge Building Design.

The students were also brought to visit MaREI research centre where they were brought on a tour of marine engineering training facilities. 

Huge thanks to all who participated and contributed to this very successful Programme. 

Congratulations to Chair Professor Nabeel A. Riza on his ScholarGPS™ World Second place ranking of Lifetime Best Scholars in the World for 2024 in the in the field of Phased Arrays.

These Scholars™ are the most productive authors whose works are of profound impact and of utmost quality.

The top 10 list includes RF antenna/radar greats like the late Dr. Eli Brookner (Raytheon Corp.) and EE Prof. David M. Pozar (Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst).

www.Scholargps.com (Meta Analytics)

This year's winners of the John Francis Burke award in Biomedical Systems Design (EE4012) is the RadSil team consisting of Ellen Maye, Emin Tomson, Jingle Huang, ​Harish Anto Paul Antony Robinson and Mahendra Sai Mutalya. Their technology solution proposed an alternative light-weight protection for clinicians exposed to ionising radiation during clinical procedures.

The presentations of the teams behind FluoroTOF and Resterix provided imaginative solutions to real clinical problems in the areas of medical imaging and medical device sterilisation. All presentations were of a high quality and the School would like to commend all the teams for putting this together in during such a busy schedule at this time of year. 

Mechanical Engineering PhD student, Yiran Wang, under the supervision of Prof. Guangbo Hao and Dr. Xiuyun He, has been awarded a prestigious Heidenhain Scholarship/award by The European Society for Precision Engineering and Nanotechnology (euspen) for attending the euspen’s 25th International Conference and Exhibition to be held in Zaragoza, Spain. The scholarship will cover her conference fee and a networking dinner and single contribution of €300 towards her accommodation and subsistence costs. There are 10 students in total across the world per year to be selected for this award. Prof. Hao’s PhD student, Tinghao Liu, also won this award last year.

Scholarships are awarded to researchers in recognition of strong academic accomplishment and significant potential in the field of metrology, precision manufacturing, sensors, machine tools, automation and measuring instruments performance.

Our annual Process and Chemical Engineering Awards took place this evening, March 24th. It was attended by our Industry sponsors and nominated Process and Chemical Engineer Students. 

The annual Process and Chemical Engineering Awards provides a showcase for UCC’s engineering talent and rewards student achievement. The event demonstrates how the School of Engineering & Architecture has positioned proactive engagement with industry at the heart of its curriculum. 

The Awards recognise student achievements across a diverse range of academic and extracurricular activities, and showcases student excellence in advanced process design, operation and innovation, with the philosophy of sustainability production at its core.

Please click on the link below to download the comprehensive booklet where you will find details on the event, photos, prize winners etc. 

PCE Awards Booklet

We were delighted to welcome approximately 200 fifth and sixth year students from schools all over Munster to our 11th Industry and Careers Open Day. With a fantastic line up of speakers and attentive and interested students it was a very successful day. 

Head of School, Professor Jorge Oliveira,  opened the event, welcomed the students to our campus and gave an overview of the talks ahead.

The event was closed by Dr Frances Judge, Energy Engineering and Chair of the School of Engineering Outreach Committee.

Last Friday, Gregory Paul (Civil ME, 2024) was presented with the Irish Regional Group of Institution of Structural Engineers’ Student Prize for his ME Dissertation Design Strategies for Reducing Capital Carbon in Structures. He was presented with his award by Yasmin Becker, CEO of the Institution of Structural Engineers, at the Irish Regional Group’s Annual Dinner and Structural Awards Ceremony. The Student Prize is awarded to the best final year project in the area of structural engineering across all Irish universities. Nominees from each university presented their projects at the annual Student Prize Presentation Evening in December to a judging panel of industry experts.

Congratulations to Sean Coombes, who was recently awarded the CEIA BE Electrical and Electronic Engineering Graduate of the Year prize.  Sean is currently furthering his studies as a Research Student in the School working with Dr Alex Jaeger. 

We had a great response to our School Research Image Competition, with outstanding research images submitted across the range of School disciplines. After shortlisting and voting from the seven members of the School Research Committee, we have selected the winners: 

• 1st prize – Ning Xue
• 2nd prize – Chao Wang
• 3rd prize – Luca Colavecchi  

Ning Xue’s winning entry is entitled “Biohybrid electrosynthesis: microbial factory on the nano-engineered cathode”, and illustrates “a bacterium thriving on a 3D CoNi-bimetallic sulfide-coated carbon felt cathode, where it efficiently captures electrons to transform CO₂ and H⁺ into valuable products like acetate and ethanol. The nanometre-sized tips and honeycomb-like nanocrystals enhance electron transfer, achieving an impressive 90.8% faradic efficiency, as demonstrated in the study published in Cell Reports Physical Science (DOI: 10.1016/j.xcrp.2024.102262). This breakthrough highlights the synergy between electrocatalysis and biocatalysis, driving the transition toward a carbon-neutral economy.”

Help us to showcase the quality and diversity of our research in the UCC School of Engineering and Architecture and win up to €500 by entering your image in the School of Engineering and Architecture Research Image Competition. The competition is open to all School staff and students involved in research, including those in the School's associated research centres and units.

• 1st prize - €500
• 2nd prize - €200
• 3rd prize - €100

Minister Catherine Martin T.D. announced the appointment to the Board of the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) of Dr John McLaughlin.

John is a practicing architect and is senior lecturer in architectural design in the School of Engineering and Architecture. 

He has practiced architecture internationally on major civic and cultural projects, including the renovation of the Musee Nationale des Arts Asiatiques – Guimet in Paris, and he was principal architect with Dublin Docklands Authority before founding John McLaughlin Architects in 2010.

He joined UCC in 2015 and was awarded a PhD by prior published work for a dissertation on the subject of discourse production in architecture exhibitions.

A new European consortium research project called “HVDC4ISLANDS” begins this December. This project addresses a key technological challenge in future electricity grids, which is developing high-voltage direct current (HVDC) and hybrid alternating/direct current (AC/DC) technologies for integrating offshore wind and other forms of renewable energy. HVDC4ISLANDS will develop and test new electrical designs for "Energy Islands", renewable energy hubs intended to accelerate the transition to clean energy. Dr. Barry Hayes and UCC School of Engineering PhD student Amina Tahseen are involved in the project, which is co-hosted by MaREI and the UCC School of Engineering.

Nine alumni were honoured at the 2024 Alumni Achievement Awards in the iconic Aula Maxima, UCC.  Two are graduates of Electrical and Electrical Engineering; Michael Guinee and Dr Linda Doyle.

The awards are made in recognition of their exceptional achievements since graduation. The awardees included:

• Dr Pamela Byrne (BSc 1994; PhD 2000), Chief Executive for the Food Safety Authority of Ireland
• Trinity College Dublin Provost Dr Linda Doyle (BE 1989)
• Michael Guinee (BE 1968), Founder and CEO of Ei Electronics
• UCC Rugby Football Club volunteers Dr Len Harty (MB 1968) and Dr Noel O’Mahony (MB 1965)
• Dr Naomi Masheti (BA 2007; MA 2008; PhD 2015), Programme Director of the Cork Migrant Centre
• Businessman and strategic advisor to the university David Merriman (BA 1990; MBA 1993)
• Award-winning actress and presenter, Siobhán McSweeney (BSc 2001)
• Sustainability and climate expert Ruairí O’Mahony (BA 2006; MPlan 2008)

Third year Electrical and Electronic Engineering student, Fearghal Desmond, has been listed as one of the Emergent Ventures winners. Launched in 2018, Emergent Ventures is a fellowship and grant program that supports entrepreneurs and brilliant minds with highly scalable, "zero to one" ideas for meaningfully improving society.  Grants are awarded to thinkers and doers around the world. Mercatus Center faculty director Tyler Cowen administers the program.

Congratulations to Dr. Pongsiri Kuresangsai (far right in photo) who was among the early-stage researchers at UCC to have received over 4.6 million Euro in research funding in the 2024 Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship and Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship Awards.

Dr Kuresangsai was awarded the Prestigious IRC Fellowship Award for his project 'Smart-fluid-controlled compliant mechanisms for nano-manipulation'. 

He is supervised by Professor Guangbo Hao, Electrical and Electronic Engineering. Prof Hao tells us ,

'The international application is highly competitive with a possible successful rate less than 5%. Pongsiri was a visiting PhD student during COVID (2020-2021) in my CoMAR lab for 8 months. We have worked together to publish two high-impact journal papers so far. I am very delighted to have him at UCC for another 2 years'.

A new EPA Environmental Engineering research report, "ClimAg: Causes of Fodder Crises in Ireland & Climate Risks" led by Paul Leahy and team from University College Cork highlights key challenges facing Ireland’s farming system due to climate change.

The study projects decreasing grass growth, especially in the southeast, and identifies risks from the combined effects of drought and heat stress. To build resilience, the research calls for increasing stored fodder provisions and developing early warning systems. These insights are vital for ensuring sustainable farming and guiding better policy decisions.

This year's School prizegiving attend was very well attended. With the award winning students came family members and friends and the industry sponsors were delighted to attend and say a few words. Our prizegiving is our opportunity to recognise the quality of our students and thank them for their commitment and hard work. We are very grateful for the contributions from the employers themselves who assume a critical role in what we do, as any student who has done a work placement will attest to. Congratulations to all our students who we are very proud of!

Are you a #STEM graduate with a passion for sustainable energy? Look no further! UCC offers an exciting range of postgraduate programmes focused on Sustainable Energy.

Register for our webinar on 26 June at 1.00pm to find out more: Click here

Researchers at University College Cork (UCC) and the Tyndall National Institute based at UCC have won a combined €2.3m in funding for projects on AI energy management and integrated photonics.

The funding, revealed today, has been awarded under the Frontiers for the Future Programme announced by Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Patrick O’Donovan TD.

Among the successful recipients are  Dr Barry Hayes, School of Engineering and Architecture/MaREI, the SFI Research Centre for Energy, Climate and Marine and Dr Emanuele Pelucchi, Tyndall National Institute.

Dr Hayes has been awarded over €1m (€1,032,955.20) for his project “Autonomous Open Energy Communities: A New Paradigm For Power Grid Operations (AUTONOMY)”.

More information here. 

We would like to congratulate EE graduate Órla Burke (BE 2002, MEngSc 2005) on being awarded the title of Fellow by Engineers Ireland

The Electrical Engineering Power Laboratory in the School of Engineering is a testament to our commitment to fostering the next generation of engineering graduates. This state-of-the-art facility plays a pivotal role in equipping students with the skills and knowledge necessary to thrive in the industry. The success of this project owes much to the involvement of our Industry partners: Bourns Electronics, Collins Aerospace, Eirgrid, ESB, Moog, Neodyne and H&MV Engineering who generously supported the initiative.

Many congratulations to Catherine (Kate) O’Callaghan, School of Engineering, Energy Engineering student who has received the Joe Gantly Prize in Engineering. The prize is awarded annually to the best student of the Work Placement module in the Masters in Engineering (Hons) programmes.

Catherine completed her work placement with ESB Renewables in Offshore Operations.

The annual Process and Chemical Engineering Awards provides a showcase for UCC’s engineering talent and rewards student achievement. The event demonstrates how the School of Engineering & Architecture has positioned proactive engagement with industry at the heart of its curriculum. 

The Awards recognise student achievements across a diverse range of academic and extracurricular activities, and showcases student excellence in advanced process design, operation and innovation, with the philosophy of sustainability production at its core.

The Awards provide a showcase for emerging engineering talent and demonstrates the key role the School of Engineering & Architecture in supplying industry with the highest quality graduates. We are grateful to Gilead for sponsoring this year's event.

Are you curious about pursuing education in sustainability and climate action? Interested in online learning, and want to find out if it's the right fit for you?

As part of the Lifelong Learning Festival, you're invited to our free event to meet the Sustainable Futures team and learn about our suite of new subsidised short courses on topics such as sustainable business, systems thinking, sustainable energy, and more.

• Find out what Micro Credentials are and how they can work for you
• Get a taste of the online learning experience
• Explore our diverse range of short and stackable courses to upskill or reskill for your future
• Learn about our courses from the lecturers themselves, and ask all your questions!

Date: Friday April 12th

Time: 4-6pm

Location: Iris Ashley Cummins Building, University College Cork

Cost: Completely FREE!

To register, please fill out the online form.

Engineering PhD student, Tinghao Liu, under the supervision of Dr. Guangbo Hao, has been awarded a prestigious Heidenhain Scholarship by The European Society for Precision Engineering and Nanotechnology (euspen) for attending the euspen’s 24th International Conference and Exhibition to be held in Dublin, Ireland. The scholarship will cover his  conference fee and a networking dinner and single contribution of €300 towards his accommodation and subsistence costs.

Scholarships are awarded to researchers in recognition of strong academic accomplishment and significant potential in the field of metrology, precision manufacturing, sensors, machine tools, automation and measuring instruments performance. 

A University College Cork (UCC) colloquium, hosting experts and stakeholders from industry, academia, and government bodies from the bioeconomy sector, will also see the official launch of SUSFERM, a ground-breaking multi-disciplinary fermentation research centre.

The colloquium entitled "Opportunities in the Irish Food and Bioeconomy Sectors for Precision Fermentation and Microbial Biomanufacturing," features speakers from Clonbio, Siemens, Enterprise Ireland, the Carbery Group, Teagasc, SOS Ventures and more, discussing the potential of Precision Fermentation and Microbial Biomanufacturing to shape the future of the Irish food and bioeconomy sectors.

University College Cork has announced the spin-out of NeuroBell, a Cork-based medtech start-up, as NeuroBell closes a €2.1M investment led by Furthr VC, Atlantic Bridge and HBAN MedTech Syndicate, with Enterprise Ireland and other private investors also investing in the round.

The funding will enable NeuroBell to launch its ground-breaking technology for real-time and accurate detection of seizures in newborns needing additional care, enabling early intervention that can improve outcomes. To support its mission, NeuroBell will create 12 new jobs by 2025.

SOE and Tyndall PHD student Steven Cheng received the 1st Place in the Best Student Paper Award for paper entitled “Multi-functional RF Filter with Co-Designed Low Noise Amplifier and RF Switching Capabilities” that was presented in the IEEE International Microwave Filter Workshop (IMFW 2024), Cocoa Beach, FL, U.S.A. Steven also received the PhD Initiative Award for the same conference.

Prof Edmond Byrne, Dr Niall Dunphy and Dr Archishman Bose are among the 8 UCC Researchers awarded 3.7m in the 2023 Environmental Protection Agency Research Call Awards. 

Funded research covers a wide range of areas covering climate change, the natural environment, the green and circular economy, and the environment and human health. 

UCC is the highest performing institute in the EPA Research Call Awards 2023.

We were delighted to welcome 300 fifth and sixth year students from schools all over Munster to our 10th Industry and Careers Open Day. With a fantastic line up of speakers and attentive and interested students it was a very successful day. 

Professor of Energy Engineering, Hannah Daly,  opened the event, welcomed the students to our campus and gave an overview of the talks ahead.

The event was closed by Head of School, Professor Jorge Oliveira

Students and teachers from schools across Munster gathered in University College Cork (UCC) on Saturday, 27 January for the Cork region Finals of the FIRST® LEGO® League.

The FIRST® LEGO® League is a major global programme that introduces science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) to secondary school children through fun, hands-on learning. The competition challenges young people to design, build, and programme robots using LEGO. First LEGO League offers a fun way to engage STEM, weaving soft skills into real world scenario's that require coding, researching and presentations across four judging criteria. 

Students were judged across four areas, presentation on an Innovation Project, discussing their Robot Design and Strategy, performance at the Robot Game and Core Values. The FIRST^® LEGO^® League is a collaboration between LearnIT, the UCC School of Engineering and Engineers without Borders Student Society, with the direct support from Qualcomm.

Congratulations to Olivia Shortall who won the best student poster presentation award at the recent U.K. Nitrides Consortium Annual Winter Conference in Glasgow.  The award was for her work on the Spectroscopy of BAlGaN quantum wells, which is a novel material option for the production of high efficiency ultraviolet light emitting diodes (LEDs). 

Olivia is a first year PhD Electronic Engineering student undertaking her research in the Tyndall National Institute under the supervision of Prof Peter Parbrook and Dr Stefan Schulz. The work is funded by Science Foundation Ireland through the Frontiers for the Future Programme.

MSc Redesigning the Post-Industrial City [RePIC] is a two-year Taught Joint-Master Degree with 120 ECTS at Level 9 NQF - offered by eight of the 10 European Partner Universities in the UNIC alliance. It was the first Post-Graduate Programme seeking accreditation under this framework inside UCC and within the UNIC Alliance – and the first Course nationally (Ireland) to use the “European Approach” for the Quality Assurance of Joint Programmes. 

As an inter-disciplinary Programme, the lead academic units in UCC are Architecture and Geography who are represented by the Joint Programme Directors, Dr Jason O’Shaughnessy and Dr Denis Linehan. Colleagues in UCC’s Civic and Community Engagement Office are also involved in delivering a number of integrated CityLabs as part of the Programme. The programme began in September 2023 and will use the ECTS credit system to facilitate the recognition of qualifications and mobility periods abroad – and   students are currently in Ruhr-Universität Bochum before coming to UCC in January 2024.

Five female students in 1st year Engineering received Quercus Entrance Scholarships on Monday 27th November:  Meadhbh Mc Carthy, Mary Ellen Kelliher, Isabel Mc Carthy, Emma Goulding and Lucy Harty. Fantastic achievement well done all!

The Quercus Entrance Scholarships are awarded to First Year undergraduate students, who are admitted via CAO onto a full-time Level 8 primary degree programme offered by the university. The recipients will be selected on the basis of being among the top 15 students in their College with respect to Leaving Certificate Examination (LCE) Points achievement.

Congratulations to the Team who were awarded a Presidents Award for Excellence in Teaching. Dr Guangbo Hao of Electronic and Electronic Engineering was the team lead for the award application entitled: The Fold as a Site of Endless Potential: Transcending Disciplinary Boundaries through Origami. Other team members include Dr. Briony Supple, School of Education, Mr Alex Pentek, National Sculpture Factory/UCC and Nico Lorenzutti, School of Education.

Congratulations to the School of Engineering's Professor Edmond Byrne (Process and Chemical Engineering), Professor Maria de Sousa-Gallagher (Process and Chemical Engineering) and Mr. Francis Maguire (Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering) who all recently received the 25 year long service award to UCC. 

The School of Engineering in conjunction with the College of Science, Engineering and Food Science was delighted to host the November Business Briefing of CEIA (Cork’s Technology Network) in UCC on Friday 24/11/2023. The meeting, part of a regular series of business briefings organized by CEIA’s Industry Innovation Sub-Group was held in the Council Room, North Wing, UCC, and the theme of the meeting was “Artificial Intelligence (AI), Chatbots and the Future of Work.”

University College Cork’s Sustainable Futures project will host the inaugural Sustainable Futures Forum on November 27th 2023.

To coincide with the COP28 global climate negotiations, the Sustainable Futures Forum will be a high-level forum for discussing solutions to critical sustainability and climate issues relevant in a national and international context.

The 2nd Forum for Ireland-China PhD students was successfully held in the Western Gateway Building, UCC on 4-5 November at UCC and was chaired by Dr Guangbo Hao, School of Engineering. There were about 80 attendees in total. 56 papers were orally presented by PhD students in 13 parallel sessions, along with 4 invited talks and 1 special session.

The four invited talks were given by Prof. B. Wu from the Technological University Dublin, Prof. Y. Jin from Queen's University Belfast, Prof. L. Qian (ERC awardee) from University College Cork, and Prof. F. Qiu from University College Dublin (ERC awardee). After the conference, a Tyndall visit was arranged for some PhD students.

The third Forum of Ireland-China PhD students will be held in TCD in 2024.

The 4th International Symposium of Machine Learning and Big Data in Geoscience (ISMLG 2023), along with the European Network for Fostering Large-scale Implementation of Energy Geostructure (FOLIAGE) COST Action meeting was successfully held from August 28th to September 1st at University College Cork, Ireland.

Congratulations to Dr Paul Leahy, School of Engineering (back Left), who was part of the id+ project team which was presented with a Staff Recognition Award by the President at last week’s ceremony. The NE1001 module in Energy Engineering was the first co-learning module in the College of SEFS to be offered in the id+ programme for students with intellectual disabilities.

Well done all!

Professor Edmond Byrne of Process and Chemical Engineering,  delivered an invited keynote address to the 51^st Annual SEFI (Société Européenne pour la Formation des Ingénieurs) Conference, which was held at TU Dublin from 11-14 September 2023. SEFI is the European society for engineering education and the theme for SEFI2023, its 50^th anniversary conference, was "Engineering Education for Sustainability". 

The keynote paper, entitled "Contemporary landscape, drivers and developments in engineering education for sustainability", was well received by over 550 engineering education delegates from across Europe and beyond, including the CEO of ABET and the Director General of Engineers Ireland, who were gathered in Dublin to consider contemporary and future trends and imperatives across engineering education.

Leah Twomey (centre of the photo) became officially the Best of the B.E.S.T. (Business, Engineering and Surgical Technologies) last week, also in France, when her team won the 1st prize at IHU in Strasbourg. The B.E.S.T. programme included 1 week of training on Minimally Invasive Surgical Strategies, offering participants a fantastic experience in the latest advances and technologies used in surgery.

Leah is currently a postgraduate research student in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the Embedded.Systems@UCC group. Qualcomm sponsors her studies.

Congratulations, Leah, on a fantastic achievement!

The first quantum revolution of the 20th century charted the development of semiconductors, transistors, lasers and, from there, computers and the internet. The accelerating second quantum revolution will transform our lives as dramatically as these first-generation technologies and will solve many of the most profound challenges of the future.

UCC Futures - Quantum & Photonics is an innovative multidisciplinary team, building on the powerful synergies of our globally renowned quantum and photonics research in the Schools of Physics, Engineering and Architecture, and Mathematical Sciences, and Tyndall National Institute. We are pushing the limits of synergistic quantum and photonic research – a key element of this second quantum revolution. 

UCC Futures - Quantum & Photonics will drive a generational change across multiple sectors, including fundamental quantum physics, quantum computing, data transfer, quantum metrology, sensing, quantum matter, healthcare, environment, energy and communications to deliver transformational progress, enhancing daily living while generating novel and disruptive solutions to some of the most important global issues of our time.

Please click here for more information and the posts and how to apply. 

Many congratulations to Emad Jamil, (4th year EE PhD) who won a Best Paper Award at the 58th International Universities Power Engineering Conference (UPEC 2023) which took place last week (29th August – 1st September).

The title of the winning paper that Emad presented is Title: Fair Prosumer Participation in P2P Energy Markets: An Iterative Water-Filling Algorithm for Congestion Control

Authors: Emad Jamil and Barry P. Hayes

Congratulations to PhD student Siyuan Ye who has been selected as 3rd Place in the Graduate division of the ASME SMRDC 2023 for her project titled “An Origami-inspired Iris Valve”  Siyuan Li works under the supervision of Dr Guangbo Hao, Electrical and Electronic Engineering.

Congratulations to Dr Marguerite Nyhan who  has been recently promoted to Senior Lecturer in Future Sustainability & Environmental Engineering at UCC. She is based within the School of Engineering & Architecture and is lead Principal Investigator on multiple research projects in the Environmental Research Institute and the MaREI Centre for Energy, Climate & Marine.  

Dr Nyhan founded and now directs the Future Sustainability Research Group which harnesses new and emerging technologies in the development of intelligent solutions for sustainable, net zero, healthy, liveable and equitable urban areas. Marguerite is a prolific scholar and has interdisciplinary expertise in sustainable cities, urban environmental engineering, emissions modelling, urban analytics, population exposure modelling and environmental epidemiological modelling methods. 

Many congratulations to Dr Barry Hayes, Electrical & Electronic Engineering, on his recent promotion to Senior Lecturer. 

Barry leads a research group at UCC focused on the grid integration of sustainable energy technologies and is a Funded Investigator in the MaREI SFI Research Centre for Energy, Climate, and Marine. Prior to joining UCC in 2018, Barry was a lecturer at University of Galway (2016-2018), and a Marie Sklodowska-Curie research fellow at IMDEA Energy in Madrid (2013-2016). He holds a PhD in Electrical Power Systems Engineering from the University of Edinburgh (2013) and was a visiting researcher at National Grid UK (2011) and the University of Tennessee (2016). Barry is a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) and is involved in the development of new IEEE standards on smart grid interoperability. Barry also works with energy communities around Ireland, providing technical advice on the development of community-owned renewable energy projects.

Congratulations to Dr Paul Leahy who was recently promoted to Senior Lecturer. 

Paul joined the academic staff of the School as Lecturer in Wind Energy in 2009. Before then he was a postdoc in the Hydromet research group. Paul teaches on UCC's BE and ME programmes, particularly Energy Engineering, and he has developed new postgraduate programmes in Marine Renewable Energy and Offshore Renewables. He was a PI of the US-Ireland research project Re-Wind which successfully demonstrated repurposing of end-of-life wind turbines into new products. Paul also leads research projects in climate change, wind energy and green hydrogen. He is a member of the Royal Irish Academy multidisciplinary committee on Environmental Science and Climate Change, serves on the Steering Committee of International Energy Agency Task 45 on Wind Turbine Blade Recycling and is Chair of Energy Cork.

Congratulations to Dr David Wall, Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering, recently promoted to Senior Lecturer. Dr David Wall is a Senior Lecturer in Transport Engineering for the School of Engineering and Architecture and a Funded Investigator in the SFI MaREI Centre for Energy, Climate and Marine. Prior to joining UCC, David obtained a Teagasc Walsh Fellow PhD and a Masters in Biosystems Engineering from Michigan State University, USA. David has published ca. 50 peer reviewed journal papers in the research area of circular economy, energy and environmental systems. David is also an Irish delegate for the International Energy Agency (IEA) Bioenergy: Task 37 and a committee member of the Irish Transport Research Network (ITRN). 

Congratulations to Dr Ken Bruton, Lecturer in Civil Engineering, on his recent promotion to Senior Lecturer in the School of Engineering & Architecture. 

Ken is a graduate of the UCC School of Engineering with over 20 years’ experience working within the industrial sector in the area of data driven sustainability. While working directly in industry, he worked as an Energy Agreements Support Manager with SEAI, where he mentored many of the largest energy users in Ireland in the implementation of the IS393, EN16001 and ISO50001 energy management system standards.

Since returning to academia in 2011, Ken has worked closely with industrial partners to research and develop data driven solutions to assist them in reaching their carbon reduction ambitions. He also previously worked on the i2e2 Technology Centre (www.i2e2.ie) Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning Automated Fault Detection and Diagnostics tool development project, which won the UCC ICT Invention of the year in 2013 and the SEAI Energy Research Award in 2014.

Ken currently co-directs the Intelligent Efficiency Research Group (https://www.ucc.ie/en/ierg/description/) with colleague Dr Dominic O’Sullivan where they strive to unlock the potential of the twin transition of digitalisation and sustainability to decarbonise the industrial sector.

Dr Marguerite Nyhan, Academic Director of Sustainable Futures, was recognised at UCC's Research Excellence Awards recently. Dr Marguerite Nyhan won the Consultancy Project of the Year Award with her ground-breaking research with Microsoft Ireland. 

This research aimed to assess how prepared Irish businesses are for the sustainability transformation including significantly reducing emissions by 2030 and becoming net zero by 2050. Microsoft Ireland sought out Dr Nyhan's leading sustainability expertise to research almost 400 businesses and large corporations in Ireland, publish a report, and deliver a keynote speech to 800 audience members at Microsoft's Envision conference at the Convention Centre in Dublin. 

This work was featured widely on Irish media including RTE and the Irish Times. The School of Engineering & Architecture is absolutely delighted to see Dr Nyhan and her research recognised.

The School's Annual Prizegiving Ceremony took place last week on June 9th. This event recognises all the hard working students who were awarded School prizes and scholarships in 2022 and 2023. Head of School, Professor Jorge Oliveira hosted the event which was attended by family members and friends. Industry representatives, former UCC president Professor Gerry Wrixon and friends of Dr Elmer Morrissey, were also in attendance and spoke about the high achieving students, presented medals and certs and gave a background on the individual scholarships and prizes. Monetary prizes had all been awarded in advance.

Congratulations to Dr Emanuel Popovici, Electrical and & Electronic Engineering (centre in photo) who recently received an award for Research Supervisor of the Year at the UCC Research Awards.

UCC is an internationally competitive, research-led university that plays a key role in the development of Ireland’s knowledge-based economy and provides the insight and understanding on the challenges facing our society. The UCC Research Awards embrace this excellence in research, innovation and entrepreneurial activity, across the entire university research community and from all disciplines.

Congratulations to PhD student, Shiyao Li who has successfully passed her VIVA. We are extra proud to announce that Shiyao Li is the first female PHD in Mechanical Engineering at UCC !

Congratulations to our 5th year Process & Chemical Engineering ME student, Shona O'Brien on becoming the All-Ireland Intervarsity 1500m champion in Dundrum recently, adding to her indoor Intervarsity 1500m title, won earlier this year.

Well done Shona!!!

Congratulations to Hannah Mealy, PhD Student jointly supervised by Dr Paul Leahy in the School of Engineering and Dr Fiona Cawkwell in Geography who recently received the “Best presentation” award in the biodiversity category of the ENVIRON 2023 conference in Donegal. Hannah’s presentation was on her measurements of carbon dioxide and methane fluxes at a revegetated cutaway peatland.

A new piece authored by Dr. Elena Tsalaporta, Process and Chemical Engineering, UCC for RTE Brainstorm, discusses the role Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) will play in meeting Ireland’s climate goals, noting that carbon capture is 1) not a new concept and 2) Is an essential tool to reducing carbon emission from hard to abate sectors

We are now recruiting under Future Pharmaceuticals, the next phase of UCC Futures. Building on established expertise across the pharmaceutical sciences and engineering, and cognizant of the location of the University at the heart of a globally significant cluster of pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies, UCC Futures – Future Pharmaceuticals advances interdisciplinary collaboration among world-leading scientists and engineers advancing knowledge to underpin the discovery, development, and manufacture of pharmaceuticals, spanning small molecules to biopharmaceuticals.

The School of Engineering has achieved full accreditation from Engineers Ireland for the 8 programmes in the School. The ME degrees in Civil Structural & Environmental Engineering, Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Energy Engineering and Process & Chemical Engineering all achieved accreditation from Engineers Ireland for the first time. The 5 year ME degrees were introduced by the School of Engineering to fulfil the educational requirements for Chartered Engineer. Attending the presentation was Professor Stephen Byrne, Deputy President and Registrar of UCC; President of Engineers Ireland, John Power CEng FIEI, who presented the accreditation parchments; Michal Dymet, Chair of Cork Region of Engineers Ireland; Richard Manton, Interim Registrar Engineers Ireland and staff from School of Engineering UCC.

The annual Process and Chemical Engineering Awards provides a showcase for UCC’s engineering talent and rewards student achievement. The event demonstrates how the School of Engineering & Architecture has positioned proactive engagement with industry at the heart of its curriculum. 

The Awards recognise student achievements across a diverse range of academic and extracurricular activities, and showcases student excellence in advanced process design, operation and innovation, with the philosophy of sustainability production at its core.

The event highlights how the School of Engineering & Architecture UCC, in particular Process and Chemical Engineering, works with some of the most significant process industries globally to educate graduates who are actively contributing to a more sustainable world.

The Awards provide a showcase for emerging engineering talent and demonstrates the key role the School of Engineering & Architecture in supplying industry with the highest quality graduates. We are grateful to PepsiCo for sponsoring this year's event.

Students at University College Cork (UCC) are to benefit from the very latest state-of-the-art Electronic Design Automation lab which has been officially opened by Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Mr Simon Coveney TD. 

Electronic design automation helps product companies achieve more complex chips used in consumer electronics such as mobile phones, laptops, game consoles, with a lower cost, and shorter time to market.  The new lab facilities at the Electrical and Electronic Engineering Building will enhance the student learning experience, providing advanced technologies that will inspire future innovators to drive progress.

We were delighted to welcome over 320 fifth and sixth year students from schools all over Munster to our 9th Industry and Careers Open Day. With a fantastic line up of speakers and attentive and interested students it was a very successful day. 

Professor of Energy Engineering, Hannah Daly,  opened the event, welcomed the students to our campus and gave an overview of the talks ahead.

The event was closed by Professor Nabeel Riza, Chair Prefessor of Electrical and Electronic Engineering who is also a Former Head of School.  

Professor Gregorio Iglesias recently delivered an engaging talk on his research in the area of wind energy under climate change as part of the SEFS College Inaugural Professorial Lecture series.

Prof Iglesias is Professor of Marine Renewable Energy at UCC and Honorary Professor of Coastal Engineering at the University of Plymouth. He held a Marie Curie individual fellowship focused on the effects of wave farms on coastal processes (WaveImpact), and recently acted as an expert witness on behalf of Spain’s State Ports on the new, €500M breakwater at the Port of Gijon (Spain).

The International Society for Imaging Science and Technology (IS&T) in a ceremony held in the USA has presented its IS&T Fellow Award to Professor Nabeel A. Riza (2019 IS&T Edwin H. Land Medalist) of University College Cork (UCC), Ireland. The Fellow Award of the IS&T is awarded for outstanding achievement in imaging science or engineering.  Prof.

Congratulations to Timothy McGrath, 3rd Year Computer Science, Elvis Seporaitis, 5th Year Electrical & Electronic Engineering, and Sam Spillane, 2nd Year Civil & Environmental Engineering, who were part of the UCC Enactus team that represented Ireland at the Enactus World Cup 2022 in Puerto Rico.

Team Ireland was awarded as one of the Top 16 countries in the world, advancing further than countries including the USA, Australia and China putting Enactus UCC in the top 1% of universities worldwide. The competition welcomes business, philanthropic, student and education leaders from around the world who are committed to using entrepreneurship and innovation to solve the world’s biggest challenges.

One of the largest scholarship programmes for STEM students in Ireland, €5,000 bursaries were awarded to fifty students from TU Dublin, UCD, Trinity College Dublin, DCU, UCC, UL, NUIG, Maynooth University, and Griffith College. 

The successful students were selected based on their performance during this year’s initiative which took place online in October. Now in its seventh year, the 2021 Seeds for the Future programme was Huawei’s most successful yet, achieving a 333% increase in applications from STEM students in Ireland.

(pictured l to r - Jack Connolly and Andrew Jones, Electrical and Electronic Engineering. 

More details can be found on the awards here 

Huge congratulations to the following students who each were awarded a bursary of €2,000 for their performance in their respective years. 

Aoibheann Maxwell – best 2nd year Energy Engineering student 2021/22

Thomas Beese - best 3rd year Energy Engineering student 2021/22

Kate McDermott - best 4th year Energy Engineering student 2021/22

These are the first of the bursaries to be awarded since the launch of the initiative in November 2021.

Statkraft, Europe’s largest renewable energy producer,  announced its funding of three scholarships for students of the Honours Bachelor of Energy Engineering degree at UCC.

The company, which has its Irish base in Cork, will donate €18,000 to support the university’s top Energy Engineering undergraduate students for a period of three years, commencing this academic year. Each successful student will receive a bursary of €2,000.

Aoibheann, Thomas and Kate were invited to the Statkraft offices where they were personally commended on their achievement.  

We are pleased to announce that all our BE and ME programmes have just received full accreditation by Engineers Ireland, with no conditions, for a full 5 year period. In the case of the BE programmes this is a renewal whereas for the ME programmes it is the first accreditation, which covers all our cohorts (graduation class of Electrical & Electronic since 2019 and the other 3 ME degrees since 2020). 

We note that these accreditations are recognised worldwide – via FEANI in all European countries and via the Washington Accord in non-European English-speaking countries (e.g. Canada, USA, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand).  

The BE(Honours) programmes are accredited for chartered engineer with additional learning required and the ME are accredited for chartered engineer with no further learning requirements. The ME qualifications are level 9 in the Irish Qualification Framework, which is the required level for international recognitions for chartered engineer status.

Guangbo Hao, a Senior Lecturer with School of Engineering and Architecture, has been elected a Fellow of ASME, having the privilege of being one of only 3513 Fellows in the world (ASME elected its first Fellow in 1958).

Hao was nominated by Prof. Clément Gosselin from Laval University along with other three international leading researchers as sponsors. 

Founded in 1880 as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, ASME is a not-for-profit professional organization that enables collaboration, knowledge sharing and skill development across all engineering disciplines, while promoting the vital role of the engineer in society. ASME codes and standards, publications, conferences, continuing education, and professional development programs provide a foundation for advancing technical knowledge and a safer world. 

Congratulations to the Embedded Systems group from the School of Engineering and Architecture who celebrate a significant award for their publication at a major international biomedical and health conference.

A publication by researchers from the group entitled 'An implementation of an AI-assisted sonification algorithm for Neonatal EEG Seizure detection on an edge device', has won the best paper award (third prize) in the prestigious IEEE-EMBS International Conference on Biomedical and Health Informatics (BHI) held in Greece.

The paper is co-authored by Feargal O'Sullivan (who also presented at the conference), Sergi Gomez Quintana, Andriy Temko and Emanuel Popovici. The project is co-funded through the School of Engineering and Architecture, industry support (Qualcomm and Dell) and the SFI Insight Centre.

This paper follows a milestone publication in Nature Scientific reports, and forms part of the high-impact research carried out by the group on a project that focuses on improving health outcomes for newborns.

Dr Emanuel Popovici, director of the Embedded Systems group commented: "The incredible track record of 50+ awards in the Embedded.Systems@UCC group is testimony to the outstanding individual researchers. We are delighted with this award, and well done Feargal for bringing it home!"

Find out more about the Embedded Systems Group

At the recently held ICO: International Commission for Optics 25^th General Congress, Dresden, Germany https://www.ico25.org/, Chair Professor of Electrical & Electronic Engineering Nabeel A. Riza of University College Cork (UCC), Ireland was honoured with appointment as Chair of the Nobel Prize Lecture Plenary Session held September 6, 2022. The Nobel Lecture was delivered by Prof. Dr. Stefan W. Hell, Director, Max Planck Institutes at Göttingen & Heidelberg & Professor, Universities of Göttingen and Heidelberg, who was co-awarded the 2014 Nobel Prize for his work in high resolution optical microscopy. Prof. Hell is also the 2000 ICO Prize winner. Prof. Riza received the 2001 ICO Prize. Prof. Riza was also Chair of the Optical MEMS and Micro-Optics Conference, one of 19 Conferences held at the ICO-25 Congress.

The School would like to welcome newly appointed lecturer in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Herman Alexander Jaegar (MIEEE). Alex obtained the B.E, M.Eng.Sc and Ph.D degrees from University College Cork in 2014, 2015 and 2018 respectively. In 2015 he worked in Imperial College London at the Hamlyn Institute for Robotic Surgery developing novel camera tracking algorithms for minimally invasive surgery. From 2016 to 2017, Alex was a visiting researcher in the Institute for Image Guided Surgery (IHU) in Strasbourg where he developed the world's first open-source magnetic tracking system for guided surgical interventions. 

Former UCC Civil Engineering Student, David Wallace, has been awarded the Institute of Structural Engineers Prize for Best Final Year Project/Dissertation across all third level institutions in Ireland in the area of structural engineering. Dr Páraic Ryan, Senior Lecturer of Civil, Structural & Enviromental Engineering,  supervised the 2020/21 ME thesis which was entitled Modelling the Impact of Climate Change on a Novel Irish Concrete Bridge.

Huge congratulations to co-authors Gray N., McDonagh S., Smyth B., and Murphy J.D. on their work on the paper ‘Decarbonising ships, planes and trucks: An analysis of suitable low-carbon fuels for the maritime, aviation and haulage sectors. Advances in Applied Energy 100008 – This has come in the top 96th percentile in Scopus and has 50 citations. 

The paper deals with sustainable development goals 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy) and 13 (Climate Change). 

Authors have been invited to attend ICAE2022 for certificate presentation.

We had a great response to our School Research Image Competition, with 37 entries overall, and some outstanding research images submitted across the range of disciplines. After a thorough shortlisting and voting process by seven members of the School Research Committee, we have selected the winners: 

• 1st prize – Elvis Seporaitis
• 2nd prize – Jiaxiang Zhu
• 3rd prize – Aldert Otter 

A special mention goes to the entries from Aohui Ouyang, Justin Rutherford, and Siyuan Ye, these were shortlisted for the prizes but narrowly missed out.  The winners and some of the other best images received will soon be featured on the School’s research webpage, social media, and other School promotional materials.

 Thanks very much to all who participated in the competition, to the Research Committee for their work in judging the entries, and finally, congratulations to our winners!

An interdisciplinary team from UCC led by researchers from the School of Engineering and Architecture, has discovered an ingenious method for analysing neonatal brain waves through artificial intelligence-assisted sonification. The findings have been published in the prestigious international journal Nature Scientific Reports.

The study proposes a revolutionary method which will empower healthcare professionals to leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI) decision-support using the auditory perception of brainwaves, leading to faster response times and the potential to save many vulnerable newborn babies.

Congratulations to Prof Dimitra Psychogiou on her appointment as a member of Tyndall’s Institute Leadership Team!  We look forward to her inputs and influence further strengthening the links between Tyndall and the School of Engineering

Students from secondary schools around Munster (Christ King Cork, Christian Brothers School Charleville, Colaiste Daibhead, SMGS Blarney, St Colman’s College Fermoy, Christian Brothers School Cork) presented their projects at the grand final of the FIRST Lego League on May 8th.

This event is all about providing hands-on STEM experience to these students through  three FIRST® LEGO® League programmes, delivered throughout Ireland by the IET and Learnit.

Our own event was overseen by staff from the School of Engineering and Architecture, UCC and students from the Engineers without Borders Society took place in the Student Hub recently. The competition was opened by Professor Sarah Culloty, Head of the College of Science, Engineering and Food Science, followed by introductions from Dr Emanuel Popovici of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE) at UCC and Ethan Hussey from the Engineers without Borders society (EWB).

Rose Delaney from the EWB Society commented:

"We were delighted to be part of the FIRST Lego League. Inspiring future engineers and scientists is at the heart of EWBs mission as we strive to build a more sustainable future for all. Events such as this one allow young students to experience what it is like to be an engineer in a very enjoyable way."

Help us to showcase the quality and diversity of our research in the UCC School of Engineering and Architecture and win up to €500 by entering your photos in the SOEA Research Image Competition. The competition is open to all SOEA staff and students involved in research, including those in the School's associated research centres and units. 

• 1st prize - €500
• 2nd prize - €200
• 3rd prize - €100 

To be in with a chance of winning, send us the most interesting and eye-catching images of your research to schoolofengineering@ucc.ie by 31^st May 2022.  The image could be a photo from an experiment or field trial, or an interesting graphic or visualisation produced from your research – be creative! These images will feature on the School websites, newsletters, electronic screens, social media and more. 

Nabeel Riza, Chair Professor of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, elected 2022 Fellow of the AAIA: Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Academy.

The Fellowship of the AAIA is by invitation only and acknowledges Professor Riza’s high level of achievement as an internationally and publicly recognised researcher in optical wireless communications and sensing technologies, including pioneering use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) methods in optical sensors.

https://aaia-ai.org/fellows?words=Nabeel%20A.%20Riza

Two distinguished speakers recently presented to first-year Engineering students at UCC as part of the award-winning EE1007 Introduction to Electrical and Electronic Engineering module.The speakers were Young Scientist winner Robert Troy, a student from CBS Charleville, and John Holland, Director of Engineering at Qualcomm.

Robert Troy discussed his winning project at BT Young Scientist 2022  'Smart Yard'. The project is highly relevant in the context of sustainability, green agriculture and energy.

Robert designed an Internet of Things(IoT) system and associated decision support which allows farmers to better plan slurry use, reduce cost of required fertilizers, or biogas generation. There were many questions from the audience and attendees were impressed with his depth of knowledge. Robert won two major awards at the competition this year - the Fr. Tom Burke Award and an award from Communications Regulator. This achievement complements the other two awards Robert won in the same competition three years ago with a project called “Smart Sliotar”.

Congratulations to Professor Dimitra Psychogiou who has recently been presented the very first annual Roberto Sorrentino Prize for brilliant young engineers. 

This prize, named in remembrance of Roberto Sorrentino, recognizes an outstanding young professional who has distinguished technical achievements within the microwave field.

On the eve of International Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day, University College Cork (UCC) announced that its current Civil Engineering Building is to be named the Iris Ashley Cummins building, in honour of UCC’s first female engineering graduate.

Iris Ashley Cummins, born in Glanmire Co. Cork in 1894, graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering from UCC in 1915 and would become the first female land surveyor for the Irish Land Commission and the first female Associate Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers of Ireland. Iris was also a talented hockey player, representing both UCC and Ireland at senior level.

A group of enterprising engineering students from UCC’s Enactus Society have spearheaded an innovative campaign with Cork-based multinational Qualcomm Technologies to donate 13 laptops to students and parents in direct provision. The donation forms part of the Enactus Society’s ‘Ceangal’ project, which aims to improve the lives of residents in direct provision in Ireland. 

Enactus is a worldwide organisation for student entrepreneurs dedicated to making the world a better place. UCC’s Enactus team founded Ceangal in 2019 to create opportunities for entrepreneurship for asylum seekers in direct provision centres in Ireland.

Ceangal is a local candle project with all products handmade by asylum seekers, with profits helping communities within direct provision. Ceangal plans to improve its social impact by upskilling participants and engaging in outreach activities and diversifying into other products. 

Congratulations to Energy Engineering's Dr Hannah Daly who was recently awarded the President's Award for Excellence in Teaching.  Dr Daly is a lecturer in Sustainable Engineering in the School of Engineering and was nominated by her students for the award. This award recognises the high quality of the learning and teaching experience received by the students. 

Well done!!

The School of Engineering would like to say a very special thank you to Dr Alan Morrison for his  dedicated service to the School, the Discipline of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and its staff and students. 

Dr Morrison recently appointed Vice Dean for Undergraduate Affairs for the College of Science, Engeineering and Food Science was distinguished by UCC in acknowledgement and appreciation of his contribution and commitment to the continued success of The School of Engineering and the University. 

Congratulations!!

Statkraft, Europe’s largest renewable energy producer, has announced it will fund three scholarships for students of the Honours Bachelor of Energy Engineering degree at UCC.

The company, which has its Irish base in Cork, will donate €18,000 to support the university’s top Energy Engineering undergraduate students for a period of three years, commencing this academic year. Each successful student will receive a bursary of €2,000.

Many households across the country have recently received notification from their electricity supplier advising that their bill will be increasing. This reflects a broader trend seen across Europe where the cost of generating electricity this month has surged to record highs.

The root cause is not one single issue but rather a series of events that have tended to reinforce and amplify a problem of demand outrunning supply, and at its core is the story of natural gas and the role it plays in our modern economy.

Read more here

School of Engineering's Professor Nabeel Agha Riza has been inducted as an International Fellow Member of the Royal Academy of Engineering. In joining the Fellowship, one of four international inductees, Professor Riza  will add his capabilities to the Academy’s mission to create a sustainable society and an inclusive economy for all.

Dr. Emanuel Popovici, Director of Embedded.Systems@UCC in the School of Engineering's Discipline of Electrical and Electronic Engineering wins the highly prestigious Reed and Mallik Medal for Urban Planning and Design from the Institute of Civil Engineers in London. The award is given to authors from both industry and academia who have produced work judged by their peers to be of exceptional quality and benefit to the civil engineering, construction and materials science community. 

Chair Professor of Electrical & Electronic Engineering Nabeel A. Riza of University College Cork (UCC), Ireland has been named as a 2021 Fellow of the Institute of Physics (IOP). The IOP was originally two bodies, the Physical Society of London (founded 1874) and the Institute of Physics.  The merger of these two bodies in 1920 formed the current IOP. 2020 marked the 100th anniversary of the IOP. The IOP is a world leading Professional Society for Physicists. The Fellowship of the Institute of Physics (FInstP) is an award granted by the IOP which indicates a very high level of achievement in physics and an outstanding contribution to the profession. Prof. Riza’s world leading research contributions in physics includes the study of high temperature Silicon Carbide materials for optical sensing to the design of precision high stability optical interferometry techniques.

August 23, 2021. Cork, Ireland

SoE first-year PhD student in Mechanical Engineering, Jiaxiang Zhu, has been selected into the finalist of 2021 ASME Student Mechanism & Robot Design Competition (SMRDC) for his work entitled: “A High Precision Mirror Symmetric XY Positioner”. This work is supervised by Dr. Guangbo Hao with the fabrication beautifully done by Tim Power and Mike O’Shea. Jiaxiang is one of four selected in the Graduate Category. Further details can be found here: https://sites.google.com/view/2021smrdc/smrdc-2021-finalist

On March 29th Process & Chemical Engineering held their annual awards. The online event was hosted by Dr Denis Ring with Professor Stephen Richardson, President of the IChemE (2019-21) as honoured guest speaker and Professor Stephen Byrne UCC (Interim Registrar) providing the closing remarks for the event. 

We would like to congratulate Jorge Oliveira, Maria de Sousa Gallagher and Padraig Cantillon Murphy on their recent professorial promotions. 

Congratulations to Billy Hennessy on winning the School of Engineering's John Joseph McCarthy Prize. This prize of €750 is offered to the final year students of Civil and Environmental Engineering who have contributed significantly to sport at UCC.

Many thanks to Qualcomm, who recently donated 20 laptops to support teaching and learning activities in the School of Engineering and Architecture at UCC. Students who may find themselves in a challenging situation aggravated by COVID-19 will benefit from this generous help just in time through their winter exams and Semester 2.

Johnson & Johnson’s WiSTEM2D programme champions and promotes women in STEM careers.  For the 2020-21 UCC programme, 11 undergraduate students have been selected from 98 applications to receive a bursary of €3000, as well as early career development opportunities including a comprehensive mentoring programme and networking with J&J.  We would like to say a very well done to Rose Delaney, a 2nd year student of Electrical and Electronic Engineering who is one of the bursary recipients. 

World-leading academics in science and engineering at University College Cork (UCC) have received prestigious European funding worth a combined total of €6.4m to support research into diverse topics such as animal evolution, how viruses impact gut bacteria, and ways to revolutionise surgery. 

One such academic is Dr Padraig Cantillon Murphy, lecturer in Electronic Engineering and researcher based in Tyndall who together with his research team was awarded 2M Euro. 

We are delighted to announce that Áine Walker of the Centre for Architectural Education  - MArch student 2019-2020: Lisbon - has been awarded the distinguished "Serjeant Prize" in the Royal Institute of British Architects [RIBA] President's Silver Medal Awards 2020. 

Developed under the year thematic "City as Odyssey" which sought to encourage critical new architectural proposals for Lisbon - by understandings the tension between the experience of space (the real) and the conception of space (the ideal) and between the fictional and the logical - her proposal "Anamnesis: Connective (Re)Collections" investigates the connective agent of storytelling in architectural drawing and social practices. It proposed a new Bazaar-like urban space for the city that formally shifts between urban artefact (Baixa Pombalina) and material object (restored dolls, curious cabinet displays) - producing a social interface and heterogeneous space where hierarchies are displaced in a welter of gestures, (written) words, and sounds. 

Professor Edmond Byrne, Chair of Process & Chemical Engineering has welcomed the appointment of Dr Chen to the Eli Lilly lectureship in Process & Chemical Engineering: 

"We are delighted to warmly welcome Xizhong to UCC Process & Chemical Engineering at this time. The generous support of Eli Lilly in facilitating this appointment means that we now have a core team of Lilly supported academics who will appreciably and significantly contribute to our goals of maintaining the delivery of appropriately accredited programmes, as we welcome our first batch of 5 year ME graduates in 2021, and further developing research capacity in the strategically important area of bio/pharmaceutical engineering in line with School, College and UCC imperatives."

We would like to congratulation Brian Ó Gallachóir,  Professor of Energy Engineering (UCC) and Director of MaREI, the SFI centre for energy, climate and marine on receipt of this very prestigious award.

This award recognises the accomplishments of a researcher/group specifically in the context of their international activities.

Nabeel Riza, Chair Professor of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, University College Cork (UCC), Ireland has been inducted to the Royal Irish Academy (RIA). Membership to the RIA (www.ria.ie) is the most prestigious honour awarded to scholars in Ireland across all disciplines. The RIA was founded in 1785 and past renowned RIA members include Mary Robinson, former President of the Republic of Ireland, Nobel Prize winner in Literature, William B. Yeats and Nobel Prize winning physicists Erwin Schrödinger and Ernst T. S. Walton. At the RIA Induction Ceremony on May 22, 2020, RIA President Dr Mary Canning added: “Ireland should be immensely proud of these women and men who have brought international acclaim to our country. As members of the Royal Irish Academy, they will strengthen our capacity to provide the expert advice Ireland needs at this time.”

Due to Covid 19 our School of Engineering STEPS Transition Year Programme due to take place this month was cancelled.  But we are delighted to direct you to the Engineers Ireland STEPS webpage.

STEPS EYF programme at home have developed three engineering themed videos and challenges aimed at TY students who are interested in finding out more about engineering as a career. The video content is developed and delivered by Mark Langtry Head of Science and Sport at Explorium. 

Congratulations to George O'Mahony who virtually presented his paper recently IEE 2020 Wireless Telecommunications Symposium (WTS) 2020 and was awarded the Most Outstanding WTS 2020 Paper Submitted and Presented.

Mark O’Sullivan currently pursuing a PhD in Engineering on the Neurobell project in the Infant Research Centre, was announced the winner of the 2020 UCC Entrepreneurship Awards which took place at the UCC Boole Library.

Mark was awarded the prize for his work on the Neurobell project, which aims to develop a portable brain monitor for diagnosing brain injury in newborns.  Early identification of brain injury in newborns is vital as the therapeutic window, in which treatment is most effective, is less than six hours after the injury.

Please visit here for more information.

Prof. Pat O'Shea, UCC president, with Mark O'Sullivan, PhD student with the Embedded Systems Research Group and INFANT Research Centre, who won the "Clinical Impact Award" in the Annual Gateway UCC Business Incubation & Innovation Centre Awards. Well done Mark!!

UCC engineering alumnus and former president, Professor Gerard T. Wrixon, was recently awarded the MIDAS Ireland Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to the development of the microelectronics industry in Ireland.

The award ceremony was held during the MIDAS Ireland Annual Gala dinner which took place at the Strand Hotel in Limerick on 21/11/2019.

The award citation was read out by Dr. Sean Foley, VP Design, Cypress Semiconductor Corporation and presented by Leonard Hobbs, General Manager, MIDAS Ireland.

The Annual Process & Chemical Awards night took place on Monday 25th November. A very enjoyable night all round, we would like to say a very big thank you to all of the representatives from our industry award sponsors, Janssen, Eli Lilly, MSD Ballydine, Abbvie and PM Group for taking time out of their busy schedule to attend. Professor Ed Byrne Head of Discipline, Process & Chemical and Professor Liam Marnane Head of School opened the event.  

STUDENTS, parents and teachers travelled from all over to attend the inaugural STEM South West student showcase at Rochestown Park Hotel yesterday.

SOE was representated at this annual event which provides a unique opportunity for attendees to directly connect and engage with people who work in STEM on a daily basis and to learn about the wide variety of exciting STEM careers available in the South West region.

UCC School of Engineering are delighted to welcome Professor Jarka Glassey as Eli Lilly Adjunct Professor in Biopharmaceutical Engineering. Professor Glassey has been appointed to the role for a three year period from 1 September 2019 until 2022 and works at the School of Engineering at Newcastle University.

Congratulations to our two School of Engineering Intel scholarship recipients, Esha Hourihane Clancy (3rd year Elec) and Ruth Wheelan (1st year General Engineering)The Intel Women in Technology Scholarship includes a financial bursary of up to €3000 per annum, a summer placement at an Intel campus and an Intel mentor.

On November 11th Deputy President, Professor John O'Halloran, along with Head of College of SEFS, Professor Sarah Culloty and Head of School, Professor Liam Marnane, hosted the Launch of 3 new Eli Lilly appointments. 

Third year Process & Chemical Engineering student Daniel Maguire has been awarded the Quercus University Scholar for the College of Science, Engineering and Food Science for 2019/20.

SOUTH AFRICAN asylum seeker Wongwa Giqwa said she has a new lease on life since starting her Sanctuary Scholarship at UCC last year.

The winner of the School of Engineering postgraduate publication of the year award for the best peer-reviewed academic paper published in 2018 is Colm Gallagher. 

The IET (Institution for Engineering & Technology) at the IET awards ceremony November 14, 2018 in London has awarded Professor Nabeel A. Riza, the IET Achievement Medal. The IET Achievement Medals are globally competitive and awarded to individuals who have made major and distinguished contributions with sustained excellence in the various sectors of science, engineering and technology. 

Several prizes were presented at an award ceremony today for the B.E. (Hons) Electrical and Electronic Engineering final-year class at UCC. These are as follows:

Aimed at secondary 5th and 6th year students, we are delighted to confirm our 7th Industry & Careers Day is now scheduled for Tuesday, 5th March.  Schools will be notified in due course but if you would like to register please email r.oflaherty@ucc.ie

This year's EngSummit run by UCC’s Engineering Society and proudly sponsored by Tandem Project Management was a great success. Ciara Leonard, (UCC Engineering Society) introduced the first of the speakers, Patrick O’ Shea (President of UCC) who informed the crowd of his own involvement in engineering in the past and how it’s played a big role in his own life. 

Congratulations to our Gantly award winner Sara Abu Selmia, Process and Chemical Engineering for the best Work placement 2019. Pictured here with Dr Maria de Sousa Gallagher, Process and Chemical Engineering and Head of School, Professor Liam Marnane.  

School of Engineering graduates, Darragh Lucey and Nathan Mayes, have won an AWARD for Best Business Idea at the Ireland's Best Young Entrepreneur Cork Finals. Their company Yooni, aims to help students make better choices of 3rd level courses. 

Yesterday the School of Engineering was  formally presented with Engineers Ireland and European Certificates following on our successful programme accreditation visit from Engineers Ireland last year.  The presentations were made by Engineers Ireland President, Mr Peter Quinn at a reception held in UCC's Aula Maxima.

More than 6,000 new jobs are being planned by Engineers Ireland members next year, however the vast majority of firms are also seeing an ongoing skills shortage.A new survey has found that almost 60% of organisations were planning to hire civil and building engineers next year, while close to 40% would be looking for mechanical and manufacturing talent. However at this stage it is hard to know how many of those will find suitable candidates.

The first ever Liebherr Lecture, hosted by the School of Engineering and Engineers Ireland, Cork Region, was held on 14 March at UCC.

The School of Engineering, welcomed Dr Barry Hayes, who took up appointment as a lecturer in Electrical Engineering this week.  Dr Hayes comes to UCC, having previously lectured at National University of Ireland Galway.  He has substantial International and industrial experience, including a three year Marie Sklodowska-Curie research fellowship at the IMDEA research institute in Madrid, Spain; four years as an engineer working for Intel and his PhD studies were undertaken at the University of Edinburgh.  He as also had visiting research periods with the National Grid UK, and at the University of Tennessee in the USA.

Congratulations to Dr. Guangbo Hao, School of Engineering who is the recipient of the ASME Compliant Mechanisms Award again this year. The Award was presented in Quebec City at the flagship conference ASME IDETC2018.

We would like to welcome Dr David Wall who has taken up his post in the School of Engineering as a lecturer in Transportation. He was a previous Teagasc Walsh Fellow and completed his PhD in Energy Engineering on the concept of biomethane production from grass silage in 2015.

Professor Gregorio Iglesias has joined UCC as Professor of Marine Renewable Energy and will be lecturing to Energy students this semester. His previous position was Professor of Coastal Engineering and Head of the COAST Engineering Research Group at the University of Plymouth (UK).

Lizzy (Elizabeth) Lee an Electrical Engineering graduate of 2002, came 3rd in the Dublin  Marathon and won the Irish national title. What an achievement!! Everyone in the School is very proud. 

The Cork-based Infant Research Centre has scooped an award for its algorithm that helps detect seizures in newborn babies.

The perinatal research centre won the Best Application of AI in an Academic Research Body category in the inaugural AI Awards, beating competition from Trinity College’s Adapt Centre, Prolego Scientific in UCD, and University of Limerick.

In two years, School of Engineering graduate Fiona Edwards Murphy has gone from winning UCC’s Ignite Business of the Year award to closing a €1.5m financing round with international venture capital investors. Pollination is a burgeoning billion dollar industry — and Cork native Fiona Edwards Murphy is at the forefront of revolutionary technology aimed at safeguarding a third of the food we eat daily.

School of Engineering's Dr Padraig Cantillon-Murphy, is a member of the team leading the exciting project Mariana:  A group of leading European universities, research organization, and industrial SME entities met this week in Amsterdam to kick-off a Euro 2,1m research project named Mariana to develop tracking, navigation, and catheter technology for accurate, more effective and less expensive management of early stage lung cancer. 

Researchers in UCC Energy Engineering are collaborating with others in the United States and Northern Ireland on a reuse project for wind turbine blades. They’re working on a sustainable approach that benefits local communities and sets a new course for the wind power industry. The project is funded under the US-Ireland Tripartite Research Program and is named RE-WIND.

Congratulations to David O'Callaghan who recently received the CEIA Electrical and Electronic Engineering Graduate of the year for 2017. 

Qualcomm recently sponsored the upgrading of the CAD lab in the Electrical and Electronical Engineering Building where students across the School of Engineering can now benefit this state of the art computing. 

Recently graduated with a PhD in Energy Engineering and on the same week published a journal paper on decarbonising road freight in collaboration with MoMo team at the International Energy Agency. Well done!!

The engineering industry in Ireland continues to see significant growth, with over 79% of organisations stating that their business will grow in 2018 and the same number planning on hiring engineering professionals in the year ahead. 

A Brain Stethoscope Design scoops first prize in the Collaboration Achievement at the 2018 Irish Laboratory Awards. This work is focussed on the development of a ‘brain stethoscope’ -  a portable device that will allow a medical professional to listen to an infant’s brainwaves and quickly assess their brain health status. 

University College Cork, in conjunction with ESB, hosted a series of enlightening lectures on Thursday, 12th October, examining electricity’s role in Ireland’s past and future development.

President of UCC, Professor Patrick O’Shea delivered an address reflecting on Prof Kane’s extraordinary study, which was ultimately realised in the 1920s through the construction of the Shannon Scheme at Ardnacrusha.

This is one of the exciting SFI projects being exhibited at Science Week next week as part of the What If? Campaign. Professor Marcel Jansen, Biological Earth & Environmental Sciences, UCC and Dr Alan Morrison, School of Engineering, UCC are tackling this problem by exploring ways to make the current food production processes more sustainable as well as increasing the nutritional value of the crops.

Congratulations to 1st Year Engineering Student, Esha Hourihane Clancy, one of 9 Scholars awarded but the only UCC recipient of the 2017 Intel Women in Technology Scholarship. 

Engineering graduate, Michelle Donovan (25) and her father Tony are the main drivers behind a plan to allow people to interact with any show, event, service or product using just one mobile app.

We would like to congratulate Vera O'Riordan, 2nd year Energy Engineering Student who is this year's recipient of the Elmer Morrissey Memorial Scholarship award of 1,500 Euro and David Barry, 4th year Civil Engineering,  who won the Gantly Award and received a cheque of 750 Euro. Both were presented at a recent ceremony. 

Irish engineering students have devised expandable pod-like shelters with roll-out roofs, some of which can be erected in just 40 minutes, which could help refugees fleeing conflict or famine around the world. Civil engineering students at UCC designed and built the refugee shelters as part of a course project designed to test their ability to respond to real-life issues.

We would like to congratulate Fiona Edwards on her recent achievement ath the Bank or Ireland IGNITE Buisness of the year Awards. 

You might like to know a little about a remarkable graduate of UCC, being highlighted this week in the conferring booklet.

A pioneering civil engineer and inspirational International hockey player, Iris entered UCC in 1912, a time when there were comparatively few female students.  She studied engineering and became active in college life.  During her time in UCC she edited the Journal of the Engineering Society, put herself forward in student elections, played sportand contributed to debate & discussion, reading a paper on ‘Women in the Learned Professions’. She graduated BE in 1915, the first female engineer from UCC and only the second in Ireland.

MaREI director Professor Jerry Murphy based in the Environmental Research Institute in UCC  was ranked amongst the most cited researchers worldwide according to ShanghaiRanking’s Global Ranking of Academic Subjects 2016 by Elsevier. 

Simon Coulter, School of Engineering PhD student and Jonatan Poveda a visiting student from Barcelona proudly represent the School of Engineering at this year's  BT Young Scientist competition at the RDS in Dublin (11-14 January 2017). 

Designed to manipulate organs that obscure and limit the ability to perform keyhole surgery, SecuRetract is UCC’s latest foray into medtech. Through a new licensing agreement, it’s now on the market.

The CAOS Camera invention has been selected by The International Optical Society (OSA) as a 2016 breakthrough in the field of imaging. Each year OSA highlights these world-wide breakthrough innovations in optics and photonics in its year end December issue of its OPN Magazine. OPN’s Optics in 2016 Special Issue carries an article by Professor Nabeel Riza (UCC School of Engineering) describing his CAOS camera invention. 

Professor Edmond Byrne and fellow book Editors Dr Ger Mullally and Dr Colin Sage were invited to Áras an Úachtaráin on Wednesday 14^th December to present a copy of 'Transdisciplinary Perspectives on Transitions to Sustainability' to President Michael D. Higgins. 

A new book on ‘Transdisciplinary Perspectives on Transitions to Sustainability’ will be launched on Monday evening 19 Sept. (5.15pm) in the Aula Max.

This Routledge publication involves four authors from the School of Engineering (Prof. Edmond Byrne (editor), Prof. Brian Ó Gallachóir, Dr Paul Deane and Dr Alessandro Chiodi) as well as authors from across the Colleges of SEFS, CACSS and B&L at UCC.

The programme "Ulysses" is designed to support new research collaborations between Irish and French researchers. It is named Ulysses after James Joyce’s famous novel to celebrate the Joycean links between Ireland and France. The programme facilitates the exchange of innovative ideas and approaches between Irish and French researchers and the development of mutual research projects involving young Irish researchers visiting France and reciprocal visits involving young French researchers to Ireland.

We are delighted to announce our Third School of Engineering Industry and Open Day on 20^th March 2015 in Devere Hall, UCC. If you are interested in attending, please contact Anne-Marie McSweeney in the SOE at A.McSweeney@ucc.ie to register. As noted below we will have speakers with expertise across the engineering spectrum from buildings to energy to IT to medical technology and pharmaceuticals to global project delivery. We look forward to interesting and informative presentations and some lively debate to follow.

Engineers without Borders have enjoyed great success at this years UCC Society Awards

Dr Alan Morrison is the Invited Guest Editor for the upcoming Special Issue of Electronics, focusing on the topics of Photovoltaic Energy Systems and Storage. The Special Issue is now inviting contributions for this special issue. Details of the scope and topics of interest for this special issue, as well as submission details can be found on the Journal’s website (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics/special_issues/PESS). Further information can be obtained by contacting Dr Morrison directly (a.morrison@ucc.ie).

The Friends of Elmer Morrissey have established a fund to provide engineering students at UCC with the opportunity to apply for an annual scholarship worth €1,500. The scholarship will help with their course fees and living expenses, enabling them to have the kind of fulfilling college experience that Elmer enjoyed.

The first scholarship was awarded in February 2015.

Congratulations to Tadgh Buckley, a 4th year Civil & Environmental Engineering student who was awarded the Joe Gantly Prize in Engineering 2015. 

David McCarthy, a postgraduate research student of Embedded Systems Group at EEE won the gold medal(individual session) in the Irish Intervarsities Maths contest. His UCC team won the second prize in the same contest.

The 2014 Irish Intervarsity Mathematics Competition was hosted by the UCD Maths Society and was held on the 13th April in UCD.

‌‌Each year maths societies from around Ireland participate in the Irish Intervarsity Mathematics Competition. This is a 3-hour exam consisting of 10 difficult questions that push the mathematical skills of the students to their limits. 

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Thursday, 22^nd May 2014 – EirGrid, the operator of the national electricity grid, today awarded its annual prize for UCC’s top Masters graduate in Sustainable Energy. Peter Hourihane is this year’s winner and was presented with the prize by EirGrid’s Chief Executive, Fintan Slye, at its National Control Centre in Dublin.

Peter, (30)from Rosscarbery, Co. Cork, received the highest results in UCC’s MEngSc (Masters of Engineering Science) in Sustainable Energy 2012 - 2013. His thesis was in the area of tidal energy and focused specifically on the hydrodynamic design of a tidal energy converter. Having completed the programme, he is currently working in the MaREI (Marine Renewable Energy Ireland) Centre in UCC. 

Two EEE students(Tadhg Lambe and Alex Jaeger) supervised by Dr. Emanuel Popovici of the Embedded Systems Group received the runner-up prize in the MIDAS Ireland 3rd Level Project Competition 2014 at a ceremony in NUI Galway on the 28^th of May. Their final year project entitled Smart Toy Interfaces: Towards Collaborative Signal Processing and Smart Interaction received the recognition of the esteemed MIDAS jury and a prize of 250 euro. This great achievement comes after another international recognition in the IEEE/IBM Smarter Planet Challenge(second prize).

http://www.midasireland.ie/news/2014/06/05/MIDAS-announces-3rd-Level-Project-Competition-Winners

Alison O’Shea final year Electrical Engineering student has won one a 2014 The Naughton Fellowship awards which allows Irish students the opportunity to study in the University of Notre Dame, Indiana.  The opportunity is open to students in UCD DCU Trinity and UCC and four fully funded scholarships are given out by the Naughton Family each year which cover tuition and living expenses. 

Alison will be completing the “ESTEEM” (Engineering, Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Excellence Master's) program which takes in students who have excelled at a STEM undergraduate degree and wish to explore the area of entrepreneurship and business development. 

Ms. Megan Flanders and Dr. Richard Kavanagh have received the Editor’s award for the best paper published in the Engineering Design Graphics Journal in 2013 (Volume 77), for the paper  “Visualizing Compound Rotations with Virtual Reality”. The awardees were presented with framed citations. The Journal is published by the American Society for Engineering Education.  

Award recipients were blindly selected by the College of SEFS Teaching Learning & Student Experience (TLSE) Committee following a two stage process organised through the College of SEFS Office, whereby students across the College were initially invited to nominate lecturers they deemed worthy of the award from which an initial shortlist was drawn, followed by a second stage whereby (other) students taking modules of lecturers on the shortlist were randomly selected and invited to provide additional feedback.

Overall, the TLSE Committee was highly impressed by the incredibly high esteem that shortlisted candidates were held by their students. The award attracted wide engagement from across the student body; over 90 nominations were received for the lecturer award.

Our wind energy work was featured in the Science is Everywhere documentary aired on Newstalk at the weekend. Jimmy Murphy of HMRC was also featured talking about their wave tank facilities. A podcast is available at http://www.newstalk.ie/player/podcasts/Documentary_on_Newstalk/Newstalk_Documentaries/48761/0/science_is_everywhere_part_4__weather

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It is with pleasure that the School of Engineering announces a new engineering textbook published by John Wiley & Sons.

Electric Powertrain, Energy Systems, Power Electronics and Drives for Hybrid, Electric and Fuel Cell Vehicl