June NUI Galway Students to Attend International Summer Academy in Engineering for Women in Austria

NUI Galway’s Science and Engineering students are making travel arrangements to participate in the International Summer Academy in Engineering for Women at the Univer­sity of Applied Sciences Upper Austria in July.

Computer Science student, Emma Urquuhart from County Galway, and Engineering students, Niamh Hennigan from County Clare, Aoife Roche from County Wexford, and Aoife Prendergast from County Galway, were awarded scholarships in 2020 in a highly competitive environment to attend the academy in July 2020, but their plans were put on hold due to the global pandemic. Following rigorous safety procedures developed by NUI Galway for outward student mobility, the students are able to travel to Austria in July and attend the academy.

The Academy, offered to only 30 female students from 15 different countries, is a two and a half week intensive programme com­bining theory with hands-on practical experience in engineering, informatics and natural sciences. In addition to knowledge transfer in these fields, social, cross-cultural and gender aspects are covered and discussed during lectures and workshops. The academy supports female students as they pursue their education goals.

The Academy programme is based around thematic areas of Natural Sciences, Engineering and Technology, and Computer Sciences and Informatics. Specific subject areas look at issues such as Synthetic biology: promises and dangers for society; Molecular biology: forensic DNA profiling and its computational analysis; Special high voltage applications in modern day technology; What computer science can learn from nature - Evolutionary optimization algorithms and data mining; Importance of online privacy; and Human and computer interaction.

Speaking about the scholarships and the International Summer Academy, Mary Dempsey, Vice Dean in the College of Science and Engineering, NUI Galway, said: “Whilst our students have demonstrated extraordinary resilience in adapting to remote learning over the last 15 months, peer learning opportunities have been limited. Following a rigorous outgoing mobility assessment process, Emma, Aoife, Niamh and Aoife will be the first Science and Engineering students from NUI Galway to travel abroad for study since 2020. They will have an opportunity to; work with other students in STEM fields, broaden their technical and scientific knowledge and once again experience learning in a collegiate environment.”

NUI Galway Computer Science student, Emma Urquuhart said: “We are really looking forward to embarking on our trip to Upper Austria to participate in the Summer Academy. After our initial applications to the Academy was accepted, we completed outward mobility assessments in NUI Galway to ensure that we are prepared for our first foreign excursion since the beginning of the pandemic. We are eager to embrace this opportunity to broaden our knowledge of our respective fields of study, and hope to learn about how different areas of engineering can complement each other through the teamwork projects and variety of workshops we will be partaking in. The unique cultural experience will undoubtedly be a highlight of the trip for us. We are excited to explore the region of Wels, make friends from different countries and gain new perspectives on engineering on the global scale. We appreciate the support of the scholarships and are very grateful to NUI Galway for granting us this wonderful opportunity.”

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