March 2008 NUI Galway launches new Degree in Sports & Exercise Engineering

A new Engineering degree programme in Sports & Exercise Engineering is to be offered by the College of Engineering & Informatics in collaboration with the College of Medicine, Nursing & Health Sciences at NUI Galway. The B.E./M.Eng.Sc. Sports & Exercise Engineering degree will be offered for direct entry in September 2008 and CAO entry in September 2009.

The programme will allow successful students to exit after four years with a level 8 B.E. degree or after five years with level 9 M.Eng.Sc., however the full benefits to the students of the programme will be achieved with the five year programme.

This programme offering represents the first degree programme in Sports & Exercise Engineering on the island of Ireland.

Professional sport is a worldwide multi-billion euro industry and plays a central role in most western societies. Today technology is used on a regular basis to improve sports performance in elite athletes. The new Sports & Exercise Engineering programme at NUI Galway will provide the graduate with the skills and expertise to design systems and devices for the evaluation and execution of sport performance across a broad range of sports.

Professor Padraic O'Donoghue, Dean of Engineering and Informatics, NUI Galway, says, "This new degree programme represents an exciting venture for Engineering at NUI Galway. It is an excellent example of a focused interdisciplinary programme whereby some of the latest engineering techniques are meshed with medical and scientific concepts to train a cohort of students with a unique skillset. Thus, graduates of the programme will be able to address a range of highly relevant problems associated with sports and exercise".

The professional Engineering degree programme will have a strong multi-disciplinary focus and will create a new type of Engineer whose training and education will provide the graduate with the skills and expertise to design innovative systems and devices for the assessment and performance of sport and exercise with a particular emphasis on elderly participation in exercise and on increasing participation of children in sport & exercise.

Professor B.G. Loftus, Dean of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, NUI Galway, says, "The evolving obesity epidemic reflects an imbalance between energy ingested and expended. The decline in levels of physical activity at all ages is, in large part, responsible for this epidemic, and also contributes to increased risk of many other illnesses. It is incumbent on us to remedy this at societal level through initiatives like this new Engineering programme, which will produce a new generation of engineers with the skills and expertise to design novel systems and devices to increase participation in exercise across the age groups.

The programme will incorporate significant elements of Anatomy, Physiology, Mechanical Engineering and Sport & Exercise Engineering practice and a major input of Electronic Engineering to reflect a particular focus in the programme on the development of a range of ambulatory electronic devices for movement assessment in sport & exercise, ambulatory monitoring of human performance in sport & exercise and the design of systems & devices for the performance and assessment of exercise, rehabilitation and sport.

Professor Gearóid Ó Laighin, Head of Electronic Engineering and course co-ordinator, says, "This programme will benefit from two major infrastructural developments on the NUI Galway campus: the completion of the €20 Million, 6,500 sq. meter Sports Centre by June 2008 and the expected completion of a €60 Million, 14,000 sq. meter New Engineering Building, which will feature state-of-the-art Engineering teaching and research laboratories, including a multi-purpose motion analysis laboratory, by September 2010."

For further information on the new programme contact Prof. Gearóid Ó Laighin at 087-6504801 or email: gearoid.olaighin@nuigalway.ie

ENDS