Four recent NUI Galway grads received gold medals from the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, having won various categories in the 2012 Undergraduate Awards recently. The Ireland-based academic awards programme identifies top students across the island of Ireland for their innovative undergraduate research.  The awards ceremony marked the culmination of the Undergraduate Awards Summit, an annual three-day event in Dublin, Ireland that brought together some of the world’s most impressive budding academics. These are the top performing entrants in this year’s Undergraduate Awards programme, which received 2,890 submissions from third level institutions on the island of Ireland as well as elite universities primarily in the UK, USA, Canada and Ireland. Addressing the attendees, patron of the awards programme President Higgins commended the students on their remarkable achievement. “All of the submissions being recognised here today are a reassuring reminder of the great wealth of innovative and imaginative talent that exists amongst our young people – the leaders, policy makers, scientists and artists of the future. I would like to congratulate all of our awardees here today and wish them every success.” A “junior Nobel Prize”, the Undergraduate Awards is an initiative that aims to identify and connect the world’s top students, while also running a separate programme throughout all third level institutions on the island of Ireland. With 20 categories, it recognises excellence and innovation across the sciences, humanities and creative arts. The four recent graduates who were recognised for undergraduate coursework conducted at NUI Galway were: Neasa O’Callaghan, who won the Ancient & Classical Studies for her essay ‘Mapping Europa from Antiquity to Present: Contrasting Images of an Abductee and Queen’; Isaac Burke, who won the Mathematical & Physical Sciences category for his project ‘Finding a Non-Broken Circuit Basis for the Orlik-Solomon Algebra of an Arrangement of Hyperplanes’; Cathal Kelly, who won the Engineering & Mechanical Sciences category for his project ‘Phosphorous Removal From Wastewater Using Pyrrhotite’; and Marek Bohacek, who won the Psychology category for his essay ‘Process Timing and its Relations to the Perception of Tonal Harmony: an EEG Study’. Louise Hodgson, Programme Director of the Undergraduate Awards said: “Every year the Undergraduate Awards has recognised outstanding students and graduates, but I think our winners today are the most impressive bunch so far. Congratulations to them all! I know they’ll go on to be leaders and pioneers in their fields, and I’m glad the Undergraduate Awards can be one of the first to recognise their work.” ENDS

Music for Galway’s archive has been catalogued at NUI Galway’s James Hardiman Library and Erika Casey, founding Member of Music for Galway, will officially launch the archive on Monday, 19 November at 6pm in the Aula Maxima, NUI Galway. The evening will include an exhibition of material from the archive, an overview of the archive material and a performance from Con Tempo Quartet. Ranging in date from 1981 to 2011 the archive includes numerous series of original records documenting the Irish and international acts that played to audiences across Galway and the West of Ireland. The archive traces the relationship between Music for Galway and NUI Galway, as the group found a home for concerts and their grand piano at the Aula Maxima on the University's campus. The archive consists of nineteen boxes of records comprising of a comprehensive record of Music for Galway's legacy. These include records of productions including posters, flyers, invitations, programs, press releases and number of black and white and colour photographs of Music for Galway committee members, musicians and concerts. Financial records, details of membership and rates, correspondence between Music for Galway and various musicians and groups, newsletters and press cuttings of news and coverage of concerts and events are also included in the archive. Music for Galway’s archive will offer researchers a unique insight into the establishment and growth of one the West's premier music groups while documenting the creative and administrative processes of Music for Galway's numerous achievements. NUI Galway Librarian, John Cox, said: “The University was honoured to receive this important archival collection in 2007 and the James Hardiman Library is delighted to be able to open it for consultation now that it is fully catalogued. The catalogue is itself an excellent resource and will make it easy to use the archive productively.” -ENDS-

The NUI Galway Students’ Union Enterprise Awards, a competition to encourage enterprise and innovation among students, has been launched at NUI Galway. Now in its third year, the initiative invites students across campus to put forward proposals for a project or business, with a prize of €10,000 investment capital for the overall winner and two runners up prizes of €5,000 each. The NUI Galway Students’ Union Enterprise Awards aim to unlock the potential of NUI Galway students by providing financial support and expertise for students who wish to start a project in the areas of business and social entrepreneurship. The NUI Galway Students’ Union Enterprise Awards are generously supported by NUI Galway Students’ Union Commercial Services Ltd., NUI Galway and the NUI Galway Technology Transfer Office. Paul Curley, President of NUI Galway Students’ Union, said: “The Enterprise Awards are a showcase for the best and brightest student minds on campus and reflect the dynamic, innovative and creative graduates we all wish to see emerging from NUI Galway, now and in the years ahead.” Last year’s winner Niall O’Connor of SonorPlex said: “Participating in the NUI Galway Students’ Union Enterprise awards really helped me to develop a concept into a real-world proposition. The profile generated - even by taking part, not to mention winning was extremely valuable. The prize money is now helping me to take the project to the next level.”  The closing date for submissions is 5pm Friday 30th November. More information is available at www.su.nuigalway.ie  -ENDS-

Swim Ireland, in conjunction with Kingfisher Club and NUI Galway launched its new Connacht Swimming Performance Centre on Wednesday, 14 November at the Kingfisher Club, Galway. The event was attended by representatives from NUI Galway, the Irish Sports Council, Swim Ireland, Kingfisher Club, Connacht clubs, swimmers and coaches. The Connacht Swimming Performance Centre(in operation since September 2012) is based at the Kingfisher Club in NUI Galway and is led by swimming coach Pearse McGuigan, in conjunction with Peter Banks, National Performance Director. The Centre is designed specifically to provide additional training hours, develop skills, provide opportunities for the best swimmers to train together on a weekly basis and provide support to club, coaches and athletes.  A total of twenty five swimmers currently avail of the centre, across a variety of training programmes. Swimmers are offered a range of sports science services such as strength and conditioning, video analysis and physiology and they can avail of both full and part-time programmes. Swim Ireland’s National Performance Director, Peter Banks, said: “We are delighted to be working in partnership with Kingfisher Club and NUI Galway to develop swimming in Connacht. The new centre will help us to raise the level of training opportunities for Irish swimmers at home, and will also provide the structure and programmes to enable swimmers who are based in Connacht to achieve success at European, World, and ultimately Olympic level. We are grateful for the support of the Irish Sports Council, Kingfisher Club, NUI Galway and other partners in this regard.” Speaking at the launch Kingfisher Managing Director, Joe Cosgrove, commented: “The Kingfisher Fitness Club are honoured to be chosen as Connacht’s Premier Performance Centre. Through our partnership we strive to help the young talent steadily emerging throughout Connacht and allow them develop their skills to propel them towards successfully performing at international standard. We fully believe that we can support the new generation of Irish swimmers with better training facilities and opportunities. By setting ourselves high standards and living and working by these standards we cannot but see results.” Gary Ryan, Elite Sports Development Officer, NUI Galway, said: “This is an exciting development for Sport in the region. NUI Galway has a long history of supporting excellence in sport and this Performance Centre is an important venture for Swimming in Ireland. We hope that this will not only help the development of young sporting talent but encourage more students to study at NUI Galway and progress their sporting performance to the highest levels.” - ENDS –

Full Health Medical secures €20,000 in funding and go forward to national final Galway company, Full Health Medical was named the Best Emerging company at the Connacht and Leinster final of the 2012 InterTradeIreland Seedcorn all-island business competition. Full Health Medical which is based in the Business Innovation Centre of NUI Galway beat tough competition from the other Connacht and Leinster finalists in its category to win €20,000 to help finance the early stages of their ventures.  The company will now go on to compete in the all-island final of the competition, which will take place on the 28th November 2012 at the iconic Titanic Belfast building. Now in its tenth year, Seedcorn is the island’s biggest business competition for early stage/high growth companies in any sector, from any part of the island.  The competition, aimed at companies who have a new equity funding requirement, has a record prize fund of €280,000.  To date, InterTradeIreland has supported over 1,600 enterprising companies through the Seedcorn process and previous finalists have gone on to leverage around €159m worth of equity since taking part. The Seedcorn competition is considered an important barometer for new and emerging companies among the investment and business communities. Full Health Medical, has designed a system that addresses one of the most basic deficits in healthcare – the meaningful communication of test results in the context of a person’s own history and lifestyle.  Developed over three years by a team led by GP and A&E doctor Ann Shortt, the Full Health system uses a series of clinical algorithms and combines medical, family history and lifestyle information with the examinations and test results to generate a personalised report for the doctor’s approval.  The results are then presented in an easily understandable format, complete with recommendations and advice for the patient.  This system offers doctors a huge saving of time and expense, and allows a doctor to provide a better service to significantly more patients. Paul McCarthy, Managing Director of Full Health Medical said; “We are thrilled to have won the Connacht and Leinster Emerging Category award and we’re going to put all of our efforts into the national final at the end of this month.  Seedcorn is such a recognised competition so to win this accolade is a great milestone for us.  After years of extensive development and testing, winning the Seedcorn regional final really validates the hard work that our team has put into the company.  Although we have already secured a number of key contracts, it is only now we are launching for the wider primary care and corporate health market.” Thomas Hunter McGowan, Chief Executive, InterTradeIreland added; “It is inspiring to see the level of innovative thinking, determination and optimism for the future displayed by businesses coming through this process.  These companies have the potential to be a key driver of future economic growth.  The Seedcorn competition reaches out to businesses at the early stages in their development and it is exciting for InterTradeIreland to work with these companies at such a crucial stage of their business.  The quality of companies in the Connacht and Leinster final was outstanding and I congratulate Full Health Medical on its win today from these very competitive fields.” Full Health Medical will go head-to-head with the winners of the Northern Ireland, Dublin and Munster finals for the title of overall Best Emerging company. Finalist companies also benefit from being part of the Seedcorn Network – an extensive business and investment community that helps boost their profile, contacts and future potential investment opportunities. The all-island finals will take place at the Titanic Belfast building on the 28th November, where companies are in with a chance to compete for the overall ‘Best Emerging Company’ prize worth €50,000 or the overall ‘Best High Growth Company’ prize worth €100,000.  Previous finalists have included companies from sectors including technology, online, medical devices, green tech solutions, healthcare solutions and consumer products.  Further details are available on www.intertradeireland.com/seedcorn. Companies can follow the Competition on Twitter (@ITI_seedcorn) where they can get valuable information and advice.  ENDS