Olympic medallists Paul O’Donovan and Emily Hegarty are among those to be honoured at the UCC Sport Star Awards tonight by Professor John O’Halloran, President of University College Cork.

University College Cork’s Professor Barry O’Sullivan has been elected a Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) -  the first time that someone based at an Irish university has been recognised in this way. Professor O’Sullivan, Chair of Constraint Programming at the School of Computer Science and Information Technology, who is also the founding director of both the Insight SFI Research Centre for Data Analytics at UCC and the SFI Centre for Research Training in Artificial Intelligence, has been recognised for his contributions to the field of constraint programming and his leadership within the AI community.

Flying reptiles could change the colour of their feathers, research finds 

An international team of palaeontologists has discovered remarkable new evidence that pterosaurs, the flying relatives of dinosaurs, were able to control the colour of their feathers using melanin pigments.

The study, published today in the journal Nature, was led by University College Cork (UCC) palaeontologists Dr Aude Cincotta (UCC & Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences) and Prof. Maria McNamara and Dr Pascal Godefroit from the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, with an international team of scientists from Brazil and Belgium.

A group of women from the Travelling Community yesterday graduated at a conferring ceremony at UCC having completed a ‘life-changing’ course designed to empower leadership in their community.

Developed in response to community need, the Level 6 Leadership in the Community programme was co-created by the Southern Traveller Health Network (STHN); Adult and Continuing Education (ACE) and supported by Access UCC and funded by the SOAR Project. It serves as a model of innovative practice in creating an inclusive learning environment that enables Traveller participation in higher education.

In response to conflicts across the world, University College Cork (UCC) today announces that it has created a Sanctuary Fellowship Scheme.

Through this scheme scholars and staff members from universities, and other third level institutes outside of Ireland, who are at risk as a result of conflict or other serious human rights violations can apply for a six month fellowship in UCC. It is the first fellowship of its kind in Ireland’s higher education sector. 

• Former Director of the US National Science Foundation in Cork to receive Honorary Doctorate
• Dr France Córdova, an award-winning astrophysicist, was the youngest person ever and the first woman to serve as NASA's Chief Scientist
• Eoin O’Driscoll, Chairman, Tyndall National Institute to receive Honorary Doctorate

Five trailblazing alumni will be honoured with an Alumni Achievement Award from their alma mater University College Cork (UCC).

• World’s most-consulted university ranking places UCC in top 100 internationally for four subjects
• UCC ranked first in Ireland for Nursing, Agriculture & Forestry, Anatomy & Physiology, and Law

A delegation of over 60 city, municipal, community, student, research and university leaders from across Europe gathered in Cork this week to discuss agreeing a joint declaration on a collaborative approach to tackling issues such as inclusion, societal transformation and sustainability.

The School of Microbiology has earned its first Athena SWAN award and the School of Pharmacy at UCC has successfully renewed its Athena SWAN accreditation.