February 2011 NUI Galway Postgraduate Students Win Bioengineering Research Awards

NUI Galway Postgraduate Biomedical Engineering Students collectively won four research awards at the recent annual Bioengineering in Ireland Conference which was held in Galway showcasing the state-of-the-art research developments in biomedical engineering in Ireland. At the conference there were 120 presentations from researchers North and South of the border including postgraduate students, postdoctoral researchers, senior researchers and researchers from industry. Consistent with its research-focus in the area, NUI Galway enjoyed tremendous success in terms of presentation awards at the conference. All awards won by NUI Galway were by PhD students of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering within the College of Engineering and Informatics. James Grogan from Renmore, Galway, won the prestigious Bronze Medal of the Section of Bioengineering, presented by the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland (RAMI). The award was given for best overall paper at the conference. James is supervised by Professor Peter McHugh and Professor Sean Leen. His presentation was entitled Computational and Experimental Characterisation of Bioabsorbable Metallic Stent Performance. Caoimhe Sweeney from Barna, Galway, also supervised by the same researchers as James, won best First Year Postgraduate Student, followed closely by Fiona Weafer from Mullingar, Co. Westmeath, who took second prize in the same category. Fiona was supervised by Dr Mark Bruzzi. Finally third place in the Senior Postgraduate Student category was awarded to William Ronan from Clonmel, Co. Tipperary, supervised by Dr. Pat McGarry. According to Professor Gerry Lyons, Dean of the College of Engineering and Informatics; "We are very proud of the performance of our students at this conference. The number and range of awards won is clear evidence of the strength and quality of biomedical engineering teaching and research at NUI Galway, and this has very positive direct impacts for the international standing of NUI Galway and on the continued growth and development of the medical technology industry locally and nationally." ENDS