2007 Press Releases
'Design for All' Competition: Electrical and Electronic Engineering students win the top prize
'Design for All' is a new competition, under the umbrella of Science
for All, where UCC students design and build hands-on, interactive
science/engineering exhibits to promote scientific research to the
general public. The Grand Final of the competition took place earlier
this month as judges assessed how effective the exhibits were in
engaging visitors at the Spring Open Day. The judges were highly
complimentary about the four final shortlisted projects praising them
for the flair and originality they demonstrated in creating exhibits
which enthused prospective students whilst highlighting the range and
versatility of the students' research work in the College of Science,
Engineering and Food Science.
Organised by Dr Paul Callanan, Dr Anne Cronin, Dr Kevin McCarthy and
Professor William Reville of the College of Science, Engineering and
Food Science, the competition, says Dr Cronin, is designed to engage
young people in the high level and inspirational science and
engineering research undertaken in UCC by students only a few years
older than the Transition and Leaving Certificate students attending
the Open Day.
Simon O'Callaghan and John O'Callaghan, two final year students from
the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering were adjudged
the overall winners at the Spring Open Day and were presented their
€1,000 prize by Abdul Abdulsalam Abubakar from Synge St CBS in Dublin,
this year's 2007 BT Young Scientist Winner. Simon and John have
developed a fully autonomous mobile robotic vehicle which can be
automatically activated in the event of an emergency to act as a first
response unit. The robot is capable of navigating in unknown
environments and performing a number of tasks such as scanning each
room it enters for trapped civilians and extinguishing any fires
encountered.
Second prize was awarded to Catherine O'Mahony, a PhD student in
the Department of Biochemistry, UCC for her exhibit intriguingly
entitled 'Mutant Worms'. The purpose of the Mutant Worms exhibit is to
introduce students to the principles of genetic inheritance. C. elegans
are model worm organisms and they possess almost 70% DNA similarity
with humans. They are frequently used in biomedical research to examine
the effects of genetic disruption of DNA.
Third prize was awarded to Kenneth McDonnell, an MEngSc student from
the Department of Electrical Engineering, who developed a project to
demonstrate the principles involved in electricity generation through
the conversion of mechanical energy to electrical. Visitors to his
exhibit were impressed with the elegant simplicity of this
demonstration, manually turning cranks which then generated enough
energy to power light bulbs. Kenneth also showed how wind
turbines can rotate a DC generator rotor, creating electrical energy.
Jeff Hodnett, an MSc student in Multimedia Technology in the Department
of Computer Science was awarded fourth place for his exhibit which
allows video messages to be sent from a web camera, using a range of
video effects, such as chroma keying. This technique allows users to
replace the background with video clips, images or animations and was
popular with students throughout the day.
Design for All was sponsored by the President's Strategic Fund Awards
and Discover Science and Engineering and the competition has clearly
demonstrated that UCC students have the talent and capability to
develop and deliver high quality, interactive research led experiences
for visitors of all ages who come to UCC events.
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