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. 

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.

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.”