Engineers TV

Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT) unveiled its inaugural Dr Niamh Shaw Award at an event that also hosted its annual Peter Rice Medal award, it has announced.

The institute was extremely honoured on the day to have Dr Niamh Shaw on campus who gave a keynote speech. From Dundalk, she is an Irish engineer, scientist, writer and performer, and recently voted one of Ireland’s leading science communicators and STEAM specialists.

L-R: Dr Niamh Shaw; Seamus O'Grady, award winner; Pat McCormick.

Dr Shaw believes in ‘Dreaming Big’ and she is currently on a mission to get to space. At the event she gave a phenomenal speech which was immensely inspiring for all the attendees.

The inaugural Dr Niamh Shaw, PhD Award sponsored by Engineers Ireland North East Region was awarded this year to Seamus O'Grady. His award-winning project was based on 'waste-water treatment' in the Carlingford area.

Colin McGuinness, left, Peter Rice Medal Winner, with Pat McCormick.

Solar tracking systems

O'Grady expertly demonstrated an investigation into a relevant real world engineering challenge that impacts a community within the North East Region. Other finalists of this award included Cryslen Gabrielle Soares De Silva for her project on solar tracking systems. 

Dr Shaw said: “I’m so honoured that DkIT and Engineers Ireland North East Branch created an award in my name to acknowledge project excellence from their undergraduate engineering students. And it was so cool to present the award at their project event. Thank you DkIT!”

This event also saw DkIT student Colin McGuiness being awarded the Peter Rice medal award. An engineering graduate who studied part-time in DkIT, he won this prestigious award for his project on 'Carbon fibre reinforced polymer used in concrete beams'.

McGuiness’s project demonstrated an in-depth investigation into materials and physical reactions through theory and experimental validation. Other finalists of this award included Ewan Yiik Tung Sia for his project LIDAR based obstacle detection.

The annual Peter Rice Medal Award, which is also sponsored by Engineers Ireland North East Region, honours the renowned Dundalk-born engineer Peter Rice who worked for Ove Arup on major global projects such as the Centre Pompidou, Lloyd’s of London, the Louvre Pyramid and Sydney Opera House.

The judging panel for the awards consisted of Breen Jackson, Engineers Ireland North East Region committee member, Peter Nowak, a previous winner of the Peter Rice competition in 2020, with special thanks to Sean McCarthy and the Engineers Ireland North East Region committee.

Dr Breda Brennan, head of School of Engineering, DkIT, said: “These awards are extremely important for us as an Institute as the enable us to highlight the quality of engineering education in DkIT. This event is a great opportunity for students to showcase their hard work. This year we were delighted to introduce the Dr Niamh Shaw Award alongside our Annual Peter Rice Medal Award and we were absolutely delighted to welcome Niamh on campus and have her give the keynote address on the day.”

Thanks to Pat McCormick who was master of ceremonies at the event; he is the chair of Engineers Ireland North East Region and was supported by Maryellen Kelledy who is vice chair. The event was proudly sponsored by Engineers Ireland North East Region and the DkIT School of Engineering.

Ireland's Illaun Farm-Forest Alliance has won the 'sustainable forest management' category of this year's EIP-AGRI Innovation Awards.

Illaun Farm-Forest Alliance won the award for its work on developing a new approach to farm forests in Ireland. Collaborating closely with farmers and other stakeholders, their work included planting thousands of trees and helping create a practical transferable model for achieving sustainability and enhancing water quality and biodiversity in forests.

The awards are organised by the EU CAP Network support unit for Innovation and Knowledge exchange. 

 

The EIP-AGRI Innovation Awards

Since the establishment of EIP-AGRI in 2012, more than 3,400 Operational Groups (OGs) have contributed to the increased productivity and sustainability of agriculture and forestry in the EU.

In order to celebrate the great variety of innovative OG projects and their achievements over the past eight years, the EU CAP Network support unit for Innovation and Knowledge exchange | EIP-AGRI organised the EIP-AGRI Innovation Awards 2024.

The main objective of the awards was to recognise and reward outstanding EIP-AGRI OGs which have developed innovative practices, solutions, products and processes. 

Illaun Farm-Forest Alliance

This Operational Group has developed an innovative approach to farm forests in Ireland, fostering habitat restoration, improved biodiversity, social engagement and knowledge dissemination.

Pioneering a catchment-sensitive farming approach, the project collaborated closely with farmers to enhance forestry management, water quality and biodiversity.

Measures included fencing, connective planting and understory enhancement. Landowners, forest managers and industry professionals took part in the development of the collaborative project.

The project has resulted in securing afforestation licences, planting thousands of trees, overcoming landowner scepticism and delivering a practical, transferable model for achieving sustainability and creating on-farm value.

ORS, Ireland's multidisciplinary building consultancy, has cemented its reputation as an employer of choice within the construction sector, having won multiple awards, it has been revealed.

The Mullingar firm recently took home the 'Best Company to Work For' Award at the prestigious Irish Building and Design Awards. 

Additionally, the firm has been recognised by Great Place to Work for the sixth consecutive year as one of Ireland's Best Workplaces. Receiving special recognition for their best-in-class Cultural Development Team, which was awarded the Great Place to Work Team Award.

Initiated in 2015, this team is integral to ensuring employees live by the ORS values and mission to create a supportive workplace for their people. 

Autonomy to choose

Its progressive, award-winning hybrid remote working model is built on trust, empowering team members with the autonomy to choose their place of work.

On a day-to-day basis, employees can use their home office as a base or any of their eight offices nationwide. This approach has enabled ORS to attract and retain talent from all corners of the country, with more than 50% of employees working remotely within the midlands.

The firm has expanded significantly in recent years and, through organic growth and acquisition, will hire more than 150 people nationwide over the next three years.

The firm's leadership team has cultivated a unique work environment by listening to and acting upon employee feedback, providing work-life balance training, meeting individual preferences, and participating in both in-person and online knowledge-sharing initiatives.

Cultural development

Committees were established for cultural development, continuous professional development, health and safety, and social and marketing, which have boosted employee engagement and fostered innovation and collaboration. 

John Brennan, managing director, said: "As a company that places people at the forefront of everything we do, we are thrilled with our recent award wins, which demonstrate the remarkable success of several of our internal committees, whose efforts over the years have been focused on ensuring that every individual's experience within ORS is both professionally and personally fulfilling.

"We firmly believe that our success in attracting and retaining exceptional talent lies in our commitment to hybrid working, granting employees the autonomy they deserve, and offering flexible work options. Our team is in control of their workday, and the benefits to them and our business have been substantial." 

"These factors have become the cornerstone of our talent strategy, unlocking the full potential of our workforce while creating a culture that fosters innovation, collaboration, and work-life balance," added Rachel Murray, head of employee experience at ORS. 

The recipients of NovaUCD’s annual innovation awards, which highlight successes made in areas of knowledge transfer, consultancy, entrepreneurship and the promotion of an innovation culture, by members of the UCD research, innovation and entrepreneurial community, have been announced.

A total of seven awards, including the main 2024 NovaUCD Innovation Award, were presented by Professor Orla Feely, President, University College Dublin (UCD) during an event held in the UCD University Club.

Prof Feely, UCD president and former Engineers Ireland president, said: “The NovaUCD Innovation Awards have become a key annual event highlighting the University’s commitment to innovation and recognise the achievements of our research, innovation and entrepreneurial communities and I congratulate all who have received this year’s awards.

Delivering economic and societal impact

"I would also like to wish the awardees future success as they continue to work towards delivering economic and societal impact in Ireland, and further afield, through their commercialisation, consultancy, entrepreneurial and innovation activities.”

Professor Therese Kinsella, CEO and founder of ATXA Therapeutics.

The 2024 NovaUCD Innovation Award, which recognises excellence in innovation or of successes achieved in the commercialisation of UCD research, or other intellectual activity, over a number of years, was awarded to Professor Therese Kinsella, CEO and founder of ATXA Therapeutics. ATXA Therapeutics is a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company committed to the advancement of innovative, life-changing treatments for cardiopulmonary diseases.

The company was founded by Prof Kinsella, a biochemist and a leading expert in the field of prostanoid biology, in 2015 as a spin-out from the UCD School of Molecular and Biomedical Science based on over 20 years of research carried out by her and her team at the UCD Conway Institute.

The company’s focus is the development of its lead candidate drug NTP42 for the treatment of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH). PAH is a devastating disease of the lungs and heart with an urgent unmet need for new improved therapies.

While the condition itself is classed as a rare or orphan disease, affecting 15-50 patients per million of the population, it carries an enormous health burden with an annual spend in excess of $8 billion globally on prescribed medicines alone in 2023.

Improved treatment options

Through NTP42, which has orphan drug designations from both the EMA in Europe and the FDA in the US, ATXA aims to offer improved treatment options to prescribing physicians. The company has successfully completed initial First-in-Human Phase I clinical trials for NTP42 in healthy male volunteers. Earlier this year, the company successfully completed a bridging clinical trial testing of a novel oral capsule formulation of NTP42 in men and women.

On receiving the 2024 NovaUCD Innovation Award, Prof Kinsella, CEO and founder, ATXA Therapeutics, said: “It is indeed a great honour for me to accept this Award from UCD both personally and on behalf of everyone on the ATXA team who have been part of our success journey so far.

“The company is working towards commencing Phase II clinical trials in PAH patients to demonstrate NTP42’s clinical efficiency. Depending on securing approval from the EMA and FDA regulatory agencies, as well as the necessary inward investment, the Phase II trials are due to run from 2025 through to late 2026.”

ATXA Therapeutics, headquartered at the UCD Conway Institute, has raised over €17m in funding (equity and grant) to date, and Prof Kinsella and ATXA have a patent estate of 16 granted patents, in Europe, USA, Canada, Japan, and Australia, with numerous others filed globally protecting their drugs out to the mid-2040s.

Associate professor Nan Zhang, recipient of the 2024 NovaUCD Invention of the Year Award.

Among the other award recipients are, associate professor Nan Zhang, recipient of the 2024 NovaUCD Invention of the Year Award and Professor Fiona Timmins, UCD Dean of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Systems, recipient of the 2024 NovaUCD Consultancy of the Year Award.

The recipient of the 2024 NovaUCD Invention of the Year Award is associate professor Nan Zhang, UCD School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering.

He received this award in recognition of a patented microfluidic system and process for the formulation of nanomedicines, which was developed by him and his research team.

The invention consists of a high-throughput microfluidic system, featuring a cartridge with a uniquely designed mixing channel, coupled with a desktop machine for conducting nanoparticle synthesis. This system is designed to accelerate formulation screening and to enhance formulation optimisation, crucial for the development of gene therapy, cell therapy, and vaccines.

Prof Nan Zhang, said: “The Covid-19 pandemic has led to an unprecedented loss of lives, and the development of mRNA vaccines has underscored the critical importance of nanomedicine in today's world. I sincerely hope that our high-throughput microfluidic formulation solution will significantly accelerate the development of nanomedicines.

"Our aim is to enable patients suffering from cancer, infectious diseases, and rare conditions to have access to more effective and targeted treatments and to access the medicine as fast as possible, ultimately saving lives.

“We have established a commercialisation team focused on bringing the technology into a stage ready for external investment with the support of the NovaUCD team. Our plan is to launch a first laboratory-oriented system by mid-2025.”

Professor Fiona Timmins, UCD Dean of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Systems and Head of the UCD School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Systems.

The recipient of the 2024 NovaUCD Consultancy of the Year Award is Professor Fiona Timmins, UCD Dean of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Systems and Head of the UCD School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Systems.

Prof Timmins, who has a strong interest in consulting, is an active researcher within the field of nursing and nurse education and has a strong track record in writing for publications, both as author and as an Editor.

In recent years Prof Timmins has carried out, or is carrying out four consultancy projects, through ConsultUCD, for clients including, Irish Hospice Foundation, UniGe (the University of Genoa) and the HRB. These consulting projects result in a high level of national and international collaboration and impact that serve to increase the reputation of UCD.

There is also a high level of impact upon the nursing profession and clients that they serve, through the enablement of upskilling of nursing professionals and the provision of robust evaluations of health-related projects to inform service delivery.

Prof Timmins is also a strong advocate and supporter of ConsultUCD within her School and within the UCD College of Health and Agricultural Sciences.

On receiving the 2024 NovaUCD Consultancy of the Year Award, Prof Timmins, said: “I have had a very positive experience of collaborating with ConsultUCD.

"The support received enables the UCD School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Systems to deliver high level consultancy services in a professional and efficient manner.

"I am grateful to all of my colleagues involved in these projects who have worked tirelessly to ensure a quality service and outcome that supports the school’s growing reputation as a centre of excellence globally and ultimately informs improvements in health and social care which is at the core of the school’s mission.”

The other four recipients of 2024 NovaUCD Innovation Awards

1. 2024 NovaUCD Spin-out of the Year Award: EpiCapture
2. 2024 NovaUCD Licence of the Year Award: Go Eve
3. 2024 NovaUCD Founder of the Year Award: John Byrne, CEO and Founder, Corlytics
4. 2024 NovaUCD Innovation Champion of the Year Award: Professor Nick Holden, UCD School of Biosystems and Food Engineering.