Engineers TV

More than 100 primary school students went to battle with their custom-designed sumo wrestling robots at the ninth annual Analog Devices Primary School Robotics Competition recently.

Emerging victorious from this STEM-inspired challenge held at the Analog Devices Campus in Raheen, Co Limerick, were students from St Patrick’s Boys National School who secured the title of the 2024 Analog Devices Primary School Robotics Champions.

St Patrick's Boys NS previously won the competition in 2022.

Construct and program their robotic creations

Teams comprising fifth and sixth class students from 32 schools across Limerick city and county gathered early on Saturday morning to construct and program their robotic creations.

The afternoon saw the culmination of their efforts as the robots entered the ring for a sumo-style showdown. Parents, teachers and friends cheered on the children during the highly competitive finale where points were awarded for teamwork, design, and innovation.

Following an intense competition, Theo Costello, Jan Makowiecki, Dillon Hinchy and Farooq Muniru from St Patrick’s Boys National School emerged as the overall winners, while Mick O’Connell, Dylan Clifford and David O’Sullivan from Dromtrasna NS secured the runners-up position.

The primary goal of this hugely popular event is to promote STEM among primary school students, providing them with a hands-on experience in engineering. The competition encourages teamwork, creativity, problem-solving, and fun, all while imparting essential STEM principles.

Kader Ibrahim, managing director, manufacturing operations at Analog Devices, announced the winners, and said: “Analog Devices is honoured to support the Primary School Robotics Competition as a platform to propel creativity into the future. In order to inspire the next generation of engineers, inventors, and problem solvers, we think it is important to develop young minds and provide them with the freedom to explore the fascinating field of robotics.”

In advance of competition day, Analog Devices partnered with LearnIt to deliver complimentary Robotics workshops to all registered primary schools. Over the nine years, Analog Devices has enabled 6,600 students across Limerick city and county to participate in the workshops where they learn to build and program a robot using Lego kits.

The competition day commenced with an advanced robotics workshop, building on the learnings from the initial classroom sessions. A new challenge required students to design and program robots for sumo wrestling. In the afternoon, teams competed in pool stages, with top teams advancing to thrilling play-offs where final points determined the winners.

Previous champions include Scoil Ide (2015), St Patrick's Girls NS (2016), Our Lady Queen of Peace NS (2017), Killoughteen NS (2018), Scoil Mhuire Broadford (2019), St Patricks N.S Bruree (2020), St Patrick’s National School, Dublin Road (2022) and Scoil Mhuire, Broadford (2023).

Catriona Kenny, of Tyndall National Institute, has fond memories of those who encouraged her to pursue her chosen career path. She elaborates on the exciting projects she’s working on, her passion for raising the visibility of women in engineering and other under-represented groups in STEM. She talks in detail about her Sensational STEM project which aims to deliver sensory friendly experiments for autistic students.

Catriona Kenny, senior engineer, Specialty Products & Services (SP&S),Tyndall

Did you have a role model that influenced your decision to work in engineering? 

From an early age I was fascinated with how things worked, and my parents encouraged this by letting me take apart objects such as old radios! During first year in secondary school, I was a student in the first technology class, in an all-girls' school.

My science teacher, who was learning the ropes of this new alien subject, motivated me to build electronic circuits in my spare time, and share with her my discoveries and how they worked.

The encouragement that I received – and the freedom to explore electronics outside of the curriculum as a 13-year-old – really influenced my decision to become an electronic engineer. My parents also gave me great support and, in place of clothes and games for birthdays, they gave me the requested microscopes and soldering irons!

What research area are you working on at the moment?

I started working in Tyndall in 2001 when it was formerly known as the NMRC (National Microelectronics Research Centre), and have worked in what is now called the SP&S (Specialty products and services) group since I joined. My roles have been focused on industry projects, in the areas of IC circuit analysis, device characterisation and destructive physical analysis of components for space applications.

The project that I am currently working on involves analysing components for use in a project called Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), for the European Space Agency. LISA will be the first-of-its-kind space-based gravitational wave observatory.

This novel technology will address the science theme of the gravitational universe. LISA will consist of three spacecraft separated by 2.5 million km in a triangular formation, following Earth in its orbit around the Sun. The exciting launch is expected to take place in 2034.

It’s great that even after 20 years in Tyndall, the work continues to evolve in line with changing societal and economic challenges, and there is always an opportunity to learn and add to my skillset along the way.

What do you think could be done to raise the profile of women working in engineering?

STEM outreach has a very important and influential impact on young girls, offering a great opportunity to show them that engineering is a career that is very much open to them.

Every year, I return to my old all-girls' primary school for Engineers Week and practise simple electronics with the sixth class girls. I share with them my career path that spun out from the very classroom that we are in, to my current role as senior engineer.

More female engineers need to take part in STEM outreach, to share their engineering experience with young girls, to cultivate and empower them to make an informed decision about STEM careers and to not think of it as a career that is out of their reach.  

Part of the STEM outreach we do in schools, also targets another group that are underrepresented in engineering. I received funding under the SFI Discover call in 2019 to deliver a programme known as Sensational STEM. The programme is aimed at autistic students who may otherwise find existing STEM programme settings distressing. Typical STEM events use what is exciting, loud and bright to highlight the brilliance of science.

This can induce sensory overload and upset in students with ASD. The programme focuses on delivering sensory friendly experiments for these students by providing schools with the necessary resources required. We work with both autistic boys and girls in primary school and the experience is as enjoyable for us as it is for the students.

Many of these students have a natural gift in many areas of STEM and so it is important to provide them with these opportunities at an early age in an environment that they are comfortable in.

What advice would you give your younger self?

You have made the right career choice in engineering. You may meet hurdles along the way, but you will be successful and will hopefully encourage many others to follow in your footsteps.

Almost four in five – 79% – of engineering organisations are planning to recruit staff this year despite the severe impact of COVID-19 and Brexit, an Engineers Ireland report has said.

The report, based on a survey of engineering professionals and organisations across Ireland, also found that the engineering sector has remained resilient in the worst of the pandemic last year, with two-thirds – particularly electrical, electronic and public administration engineers – actually increasing their salary in 2020, and 81% saying they had not been in receipt of COVID-19 wage subsidies at any point since the onset of the pandemic. Some engineering-related activity in ICT and pharmaceuticals also experienced strong growth in 2020.

94% of utility organisations to hire engineers

Utility organisations (which include electricity, water, gas and telecommunications) were most optimistic about 2021, with 94% looking to hire engineers in the year ahead.

With COVID-19 restrictions hitting construction hard since the pandemic started, the report found civil and building engineers were more impacted than the average engineer, although the proportion of those on a state wage subsidy did not exceed 25%. This compares favourably with the generally high rates availing of wage subsidies across and professional, scientific and technical activities.

The fourth in the annual series, ‘Engineering 2021: A barometer of the profession in Ireland’ report was launched as Engineers Ireland’s ‘STEPS Engineers Week 2021’ kicked off featuring hundreds of online events across for young people, their families and teachers.

Engineers Ireland president Maurice Buckley said: “Engineers and engineering organisations across the various economic sectors demonstrated great resilience throughout the very challenging year of 2020.

"The results presented in this report show that the profession remains robust in terms of remuneration, job opportunities and outlook in the face of the pandemic, Brexit and the general economic strain. 

"As we look optimistically to 2021 and beyond, there are currently plenty of job opportunities in the engineering sector in Ireland according to our members, although there is understandably more uncertainty than at this time last year.”

Caroline Spillane, director general of Engineers Ireland, said: “The Engineering 2021 barometer report’s insights are timely as we kick off STEPS Engineers Week 2021, which is very much focused on celebrating the world of engineering in Ireland. 

'Inspire students'

"And with opportunities very visible across the sector, in particular for junior engineers, we hope to inspire students around the country through stimulating online events, shows, workshops and movies, to consider a career in our industry to meet the ongoing robust demand. 

"Our STEPS team has shown great creativity against a difficult backdrop of COVID-19 restrictions to bring STEPS Engineers Week 2021 to life in homes and schools across Ireland. 

"We are now looking forward to an exciting week that will showcase the profession to primary and secondary school students in the hope of capturing the imagination of the next generation, and encouraging them to explore the endless opportunities that a career in engineering can offer.”

The ‘Engineering 2021: A barometer of the profession in Ireland’ is the latest in an annual assessment of employment trends in the sector by Engineers Ireland and featured nearly 2,000 responses to a survey of Engineers Ireland members conducted online between January 12-26, 2021.