The Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (RIAI) Premier Awards Exhibition 2012will be on view in NUI Galway’s new Engineering Building, winner of the 2012 Best Sustainable Project and the RIAI Public Choice Award, which runs until 26 October. The 2012 Exhibition is a major component of the RIAI efforts to illustrate and inform members of the public of the impact of good architecture on their lives. With over 120 entries for this year’s award, the 14 different categories include housing, conservation, sustainability, accessibility, retail, leisure, public choice and culture.  Founded in 1839, the RIAI is the regulatory and support body for architects and architectural technologists in Ireland. The organisation promotes the activities and achievements of the Irish architectural profession - both in Ireland and abroad - through a wide variety of initiatives including the prestigious Irish Architecture Awards and through publications. Professor Gerry Lyons, Dean of the College of Engineering and Informatics at NUI Galway, said: “Having received two awards from this year’s competition we are delighted to host such a diverse and highly regarded exhibition. The show, which is open to the public, features 120 entries across the design spectrum. Their collective display in the area of sustainability ties in perfectly with the ethos of the Engineering Building.” The exhibition is opened Monday to Friday from 9am-5pm. -ENDS

                       EU briefing for students of Ireland’s only conference interpreter training programme The European Commission's Directorate-General for Interpretation, Mr Marco Benedetti today visited Galway where he met President of NUI Galway, Dr Jim Browne plus staff and students of the MA/PDip (Conference Interpreting) currently being taught at the University. Mr Benedetti addressed a group of language students at NUI Galway on issues related to the use of languages and multilingualism in the EU, with a special emphasis on interpretation. Emphasising the importance of interpreter training, Marco Benedetti said: “The primary responsibility for training conference interpreters lays with the member states and in particular their universities. NUI Galway and in particular Acadamh na hOllscolaíochta Gaeilge is the only Conference Interpreter training course on the entire island of Ireland and the only source of Irish language interpreters in the world so its activities should be nurtured.” “The Directorate General for Interpretation has been able to build up its interpreting resources for Irish and in fact for English over the past few years largely due to solid relationship with the MA in Conference Interpreting at NUI Galway,” said Susan Folan, Programme Director at the University. “Cooperation began in 2008 with DG Interpretation providing regular teaching assistance by experienced staff interpreters and trainers from the institutions. Every year students of the MA in Conference Interpreting come to Brussels for a study visit, including practical work experience, in real meetings, in a dummy booth,” she said. To highlight the importance that prospective employers place on language skills in today’s market, a career event will take place later today (Tuesday, 9 October) in the Siobhán Mc Kenna Theatre at NUI Galway. Mr Benedetti and Joan Flanagan, Education Officer of the Parliament Representation in Ireland will outline the employment opportunities available to language graduates in the European Union, while speakers from SAP Software Solutions will discuss opportunities at home and abroad in multilingual  tech support. During his Irish visit, the Directorate-General in his Government meetings with Lucinda Creighton, Minister for European Affairs at the Department of the Taoiseach, will discuss the finalisation of preparations for interpretation during the Irish Presidency of the European Union from January 1 to June 30, 2013. This is will also be an opportunity for the Director-General and the minister to exchange views on multilingualism, language teaching and interpreter training in Ireland. The EU has always considered cultural and linguistic diversity a richness and a strength and as something to be safeguarded. Reliable interpreting services will be essential to the Irish Presidency and NUI Galway is committed to providing the requisite skills to their graduates to enable them to avail of these opportunities. ENDS

NUI Galway’s Professor Colin O’Dowd was in London last week to collect the Appleton Medal, awarded to him by the Institute of Physics for his ‘distinguished research in environmental and atmospheric physics’. In particular, the NUI Galway physicist was lauded for his work on the formation and transformation of aerosols, the tiny particles which can effect cloud formation and impact climate change. Sir Edward Appleton was a British physicist who received the Nobel Prize in 1947 for his achievements in ionospheric physics. His experiments proved the existence of a layer of ionised gas in the upper atmosphere, known now as the Appleton layer. The Institute of Physics, which has its headquarters in London, awards the medal every two years to identify and honour physicists who are today making remarkable contributions to science. Professor O’Dowd is internationally renowned for his research into atmospheric composition, air pollution and climate change and has previously received the Smoluchowski Award and a Doctorate of Science from the University of Manchester for his research achievements.  Much of his work involves NUI Galway’s Mace Head atmospherics research station, which is one of the most advanced and sophisticated research stations of its kind. Data from Mace Head, located in Connemara, is used by climatologists and modellers around the world to predict global climate change. Previously, Professor O’Dowd’s research has been recognised through the award of Fellow of both the Institute of Physics and the Royal Meteorological Society and with Membership of the Royal Irish Academy, the latter being regarded as the highest academic honor within Ireland.  -ends-

A new app developed at NUI Galway now provides a directory of numbers for local hospitals, pharmacies, GPs, support and leisure services. The free app was launched this week by Helplink, a new Irish social enterprise which provides easily accessible and affordable online counselling, as well as other award winning affordable or free health and support services nationwide. The launch of the app marks the first consolidated listing of mental health, health, leisure, charity and support services in Ireland, both private and public. Lochlann Scott, Managing Director of Helplink and psychological studies graduate from NUI Galway explains the motivation behind the app: “We at Helplink want to be at the forefront of e-health and tele-health, this App brings us one step closer to achieving this. On a number of occasions over the past few years I have needed to access numbers or addresses for local hospitals, pharmacies, GPs etc but I was frustrated that I had to pay significant amounts of money through my phone to get them. I thought services like these should be easy to find and free. I am proud to say that we at Helplink in conjunction with NUI Galway and Enterprise Ireland have created just that; a directory that is comprehensive, easy to use and free.” The technology was developed by researchers at the discipline of Information Technology in NUI Galway. Research engineer Stephanus Meiring explains, “We were able to pack a lot of functionality into this app. You can call your chosen listing’s number directly, send an email, get a Google map up of their location or get the main contact details sent to your phone for free. The main challenge was to enable the app to run across a multitude of smartphone platforms” NUI Galway’s Dr Michael Schukat, Principal Investigator on the project, added that, “As an academic institution it is important for us to collaborate with industry and the Enterprise Ireland Innovation voucher scheme provides us with this opportunity.” There are many ways of using the directory, you can download the Helplink directory App for free from the 'App store' or 'Google Play' store. You can use the mobile browser by clicking on the icon on the website, or you can simply just use the directory page from your home or office computer by using the directory page at www.helplink.ie/directory. “The new app is just one of a number of award winning services offered by Helplink. The others, like our affordable online counselling and innovative employers’ assistance programmes, have been established with the goal of providing affordable and accessible mental health and healthcare services nationwide”, added Lochlann Scott. For more about Helplink or to find quick links to the app visit www.helplink.ie ENDS

NUI Galway’s Law Society, in conjunction with its Literary and Debating Society, will host a public address by world renowned economist Professor Edmund Phelps on Monday, 15 October. In 2006 Professor Phelps was granted the Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences for his analysis of intertemporal trade-offs in macroeconomic policy. During the address the Law Society and the Literary and Debating Society will present its prestigious President’s Medal to Professor Phelps. Professor Phelps’ work has had a profound impact on economic research as well as policy. Born in Evanston, Illinois, he went to Amherst College for his undergraduate education in 1951, where in his second year he quickly became aware of an important unsolved problem with the existing theory, and the existing gap between microeconomics and macroeconomics. In 1959 he received his PhD from Yale where he studied under future Nobel Prize winners James Tobin and Thomas Schelling.   In 1961 Professor Phelps published a famous paperon the Golden Rule savings rate, one of his major contributions to economic science, which started a wave of research on how much a nation ought to spend on present consumption rather than save and invest for future generations. From the 1980’s he increased his collaborations with European universities and in 1990 took part in a mission where he designed a proposal for the reform of the USSR. Cathal O'hÁodhagáin, Auditor of NUI Galway’s Law Society, said: “It is an honour and a privilege for our society to host such a brilliant mind as Professor Phelps. His economical works has rightly led to him being honoured with a Nobel Prize and it is apt that the 2012 Noble Prize winner for Economic Science will be announced this Monday, the same day as his address in NUI Galway. We look forward to welcoming him as our honoured guest.” Professor Phelps holds many honorary doctorates and professorships. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Science and a Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association, and in 2001 a Festschrift Conference was held in his honour. In 2008 he was named Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur and awarded the Premio Pico della Mirandola and the Kiel Global Economy Prize. The same year UBA Law School established the Catedra Phelps and the Phelps Medal for Innovation. In 2010 he was appointed Dean of New Huadu Business School at Minjiang University in Fuzhou and awarded an honorary doctorate degree by the Université libre de Bruxelles. In 2011, Professor Phelps received the Louise Blouin Creative Leadership Award and was named a Full Foreign Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Maria Keenan, Auditor of the Literary and Debating Society at NUI Galway, said: “During the event Professor Phelps will be presented with President's Medal. We pride ourselves on awarding these medals to those we view as having put the power of such platforms to their optimum use within the wider spheres of society, understanding that discourse is the only real means by which resolution can be found. To this end, the society's highest accolade, the President's Medal, is awarded to those the society views as having particularly excelled in their chosen fields. Previous recipients of the award include Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Brian Friel and Bob Dylan.” The address will take place at 2pm, in the Siobhan McKenna Theatre, NUI Galway. -ENDS-