School of Engineering and Informatics 

Biomedical and Mechanical Engineering - Engineering in Society

Duncan Betts former 3rd year Biomedical Engineer, “After two years of studying engineering, which involved hellish amounts of maths and other analysis subjects, you really fool yourself into thinking that you’ve got everything is in your stride. ‘Engineering in Society’ tested a completely different skill set to what we had studied. It had two cruxes, the first was being able to approach someone who may have a disability, just suffered an injury or was disadvantaged (within your perception) and ask if they felt you could improve they’re quality of life through some sort of device or project.  The other  was being creative about doing this, a skill which is immeasurable hard, for every twenty ideas you’re lucky if one is worthwhile pursuing, I probably got through a small rainforest with the amount of sketches which I binned.
Finally at the end of it all the entire years work was presented with 20 odd projects on display, which gave a good opportunity to see what the other people in the class had created, the people they had chosen to work with and benefit, and how they had chosen to solve the problems they had come across.

Service learning is similar in some ways to volunteering, but its purpose is unique. Like volunteering, it requires a commitment of time and energy for the benefit of local communities and individuals. What makes service learning unique is that it is a particular type of experiential learning where students apply academic knowledge and skills they have gained to address genuine community needs while students attain academic credit for their learning. During this experience, students learn through active and organised service by applying concepts presented in their general academic curriculum and reflect on the experience throughout the process to enhance learning. Both students and the community benefit from the experience.

Department of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering offer ‘Engineering in Society’ as a mandatory third year module which introduces students to the concept and purpose of service learning.  Students are made aware of local community needs and from this awareness chose a site to which they can contribute in a meaningful manner 20 hours of service though an engineering lens.  In the recent years the students have worked with Enable Ireland, local retirement communities, special needs schools, refugee communities identifying their specific needs and have designed tools and devices that assist them in their daily living. Students reflect via a journal and will submit reports on the experience.  After the service placement, students create a poster on engineering designs created, which will later be exhibited in a public venue, highlighting the needs of the group and the outcomes of the service learning experience.   Students are able to become members of ‘Engineers without Borders’, which acts as a network for students and professionals who wish to help establish and take part in projects of appropriate technology.

The aim of this module is to:
• develop engineering skills through self-directed projects.
• develop a sense of commitment to local communities by making a contribution of time and expertise to an individual or community group.
• reflect on the experience and share this information with the university community.
• learn how engineers in-career make contributions to their communities.
• meet and interact with people from different backgrounds in a role of service.

Biomedical Science

 

Course Coordinator: Dr. Lynn O'Connor

Course Title: Biomedical Science
Subject: Biomedical Science
Year: 2nd Year
Participants: Approx 60 Students
Hours: 10 hours student contact time with project supervisor. Approx 40 hours student-directed effort
Credits: 4 ECTS
Length: 10 weeks
Community Partners: Multiple. Past partners include local secondary schools, the Irish Kidney Assocaition, Croí, local youth organisations and the African Community in Galway

 

The Community Knowledge Initiatives in Biomedical Science aim to foster an awareness of the benefits that this student group can bring to the community and in so doing develop additional personal and academic skills.  The projects are largely student-driven and as a result they learn to take control of their own learning and to develop imaginative ways to bring that learning to the community.

Students work in groups of ten with each group having a different project.  Typically groups meet for one hour each week with academic supervisor for brain storming and update session.

In the past year projects included an awareness campaign for organ donations.  The students firstly researched the topic, dividing up the research between the group members.  Subsequently they set up a Facebook© page to promote awareness, they visited local schools and gave a presentation of the topic, they met with recipients of organs and those waiting to receive organs.  Towards the end of the project they ran a fundraiser and raised 400 euro which on the final presentation day they donated to the Irish Kidney Association.  The final presentation included the research they had carried out and how they brought that research and awareness to the community.

Another project aimed to provide an online Biology resource to Irish secondary schools, teachers and pupils. The students surveyed schools to assess the level of interest and specific requirements, they developed laboratory practicals, set up and carried out the lab work, filmed the work and uploaded the final project to a web site that they set up themselves.  Included on the web site was a section on “case histories” a component of the LC which students identified as difficult from the survey.

Another project aimed at researching the Biomedical Research that takes in the University. The students then wrote a total of eight articles for the local newspaper

These represent a snapshot of the projects that are completed.  Different projects develop different specific skills.  All projects aim to foster an ability to work as a team, to take control of their own learning, to use their imagination and to generate creative ways to complete a task.  In addition we aim to raise awareness of community responsibility and civic duty and worth.  We also aim to empower students by revealing their self worth in the self-directed learning process by experiential learning.
 

Civil Engineering

 

Gordon Baylor received his BE (Civil) in 2002 and his PhD in 2008 both from the Civil Engineering Department in UCC. During his PhD he worked for 2 years as a part time lecturer in UCC before moving to NUI Galway to work in the Timber Engineering Research Group as a Researcher. He has since worked as a lecturer in Civil Engineering, NUI Galway. His main areas of interest are structural optimisation, engineered wood products, finite element analysis, energy efficient buildings and embodied energy.
Course Title: BE in Civil Engineering/ BE in Environmental Engineering/ BSc in Project & Construction Management

Community Partners: Partners to date have included: Ability West, Alan Kerins African Projects, Ballyglass Preschool, Clann Resource Centre, Corrach Bui community centre, Creagh N.S. Ballinasloe, Galway Rape Crisis Centre, Galway City Partnership, Portlaoise parish church and Salthill Devon FC.

All under-graduate students in the Departments of Civil Engineering, Environmental Engineering and Project and Construction Management must complete the Years Work Module in 2nd year (module code CE208, CE209 or CE214 depending on denomination). Communications forms one part of this module for which students present a community-based project as a group. The project itself is carried out as part of the CE202 Principles of Building module. Each student is assessed verbally for their technical knowledge on some of the aspects of Principals of Building encountered during the project. This assessment is carried out during a Q&A session following each presentation during which feedback is also given aid student’s future presentations both as individuals and as a group.

 

Civil Engineering

 

Jamie Goggins received his Bachelor in Civil, Structural & Environmental Engineering [BAI(Hons), BA] degree in 2000 and his PhD in 2004, both from Trinity College Dublin. He joined the academic staff in the College of Engineering & Informatics at NUI Galway in 2008. He has worked as a Consulting Engineer in Ireland and the UK on both national and international projects. Before that, he worked as a Site Engineer and Project Manager in both Australia and Ireland. Jamie’s research interests are in a wide range of fields. His current research activities include projects in the areas of earthquake engineering, structural health monitoring, ocean energy, cost-effective sustainable construction materials, sustainable technologies, computational mechanics, condition monitoring, and health and safety in construction. He is working closely with industry and other research institutes on many of these projects.
Course Title: BE in Civil Engineering/ BE in Environmental Engineering/ BSc in Project & Construction Management

Community Partners: Partners have included: Ability West, Alan Kerins African Projects, Ballyglass Preschool, Clann Resource Centre, Corrach Bui community centre, Creagh N.S. Ballinasloe, Galway Rape Crisis Centre, Galway City Partnership, Portlaoise parish church and Salthill Devon FC.
All under-graduate students in the Department of Civil Engineering undertake the module CE202 Principles of Building.

The course is designed to introduce students to the basic principles of building with the aim of creating a sound fundamental knowledge. The subject matter covers the make up of the building team; planning and development acts, byelaws and building regulations; ground works, drainage and foundations, superstructures and stability; floor, wall and roof types; construction methods and the appropriate use of materials including steel, concrete, masonry and timber.   Principles of building physics include heat and sound insulation, ventilation and light provision.  Sanitary and other building services, architectural principles and internal and external finishes are also covered.

As part of this module, the students complete a mini-project in groups of two or three. The project is also linked to the modules CE208/ CE209/ CE214 Year’s Work in Environmental Engineering/ Project & Construction Management/ Civil Engineering: Communications. Each group researches one particular aspect of the building process that is chosen from available community-based projects.  Several groups can work on a single community-based project, with each group researching a different aspect of the building process for that project. This is written up in the form of a professional report to a client, or as information for inclusion in a technical encyclopedia, or as an article for communicating with the engineering community at large. If appropriate, students in subsequent years can further develop and advance the work completed by their peers.

The objectives include:
1. Develop engineering skills through a self-directed project.
2. Develop a sense of commitment to local communities by making a contribution of time and expertise to an individual or community group.
3. Learn how engineers in-career make contributions to their communities.
4. Apply knowledge or skills you have learned in this module (and others) to a real-world context.
5. Produce a technical engineering report.
6. Deliver a high quality oral presentation on a particular subject.

Electronic Engineering

 

Dr. Martin Glavin graduated from NUI, Galway in 1997 with a B.E. in Electronic Engineering, and with a Ph.D in 2004 in the area of algorithms and architectures for high speed data communications systems. He was employed as a Lecturer and became a permanent member of academic staff in January 2004. In 2007 he received a Higher Diploma in Teaching & Learning with Higher Education Third Level Education. He has worked in collaboration with local industry in the area of digital signal processing for automotive and biomedical applications. He currently has a number of M. Eng. Sc, Ph. D and Postdoctoral researchers working in the areas of signal processing and embedded systems for biomedical and automotive applications. He has received funding from local industry and from Enterprise Ireland under the Innovations Partnerships and Proof of Concept schemes.

This third year module, entitled ‘Professional Studies, in Electronic Engineering and Electronic & Computer Engineering’ covers topics such as ethics, continued professional development (CPD), communications, health and safety and contribution to society.  As part of this module the university students are credited academically with their contribution to the delivery of a course of laboratory exercises on electronics for second level students studying Physics for the Leaving Certificate and will include assessment on background preparation, delivery of taught elements, demonstration of equipment/procedures and adherence to health and safety guidelines and supervision.  The students take on the responsibility of supervising a laboratory session in which the secondary school pupils are taken through a set of experiments based on the fundamentals of electronics. For many of the secondary school pupils, this is their first experience of a university laboratory and hands-on experience with modern electronic test equipment. Issues such as health and safety in the laboratory are as important as the technical detail of the laboratory. For the university students, this is their first experience in teaching others, and can be quite a challenge undertaking a laboratory demo for a group of teenagers.   Over the past three years, schools from within the city, along with schools from Tuam, Dunmore, Oranmore, Gort, Clifden, Oughterard and Ballinasloe have attended the laboratories. Reaction from the school teachers has been very positive and the students have greatly benefited from the experience.

Electronic Engineering Projects in the Community

 

Liam Kilmartin received his BE (Electronic Engineering) degree in 1990 and his M. Eng. Sc. degree in 1994, both from NUI, Galway. He joined the academic staff of the department in 1992 and was appointed to a permanent position in 1994 specialising in the fields of fixed and mobile communication systems. His current research interests are in the area of bio-electronics include the application of signal processing and classification algorithms for EEG analysis with specific interest in Brain Computer Interface applications, image processing for biomedical imaging modalities and the application of signal processing to bio-signal analysis in general. In addition, he has more general research interests in the areas of speech and audio signal processing and wireless networking technologies.

All under-graduate students in the Electronic Engineering at NUI Galway undertake projects in the third year (group projects) and final year (individual projects) of their degree programme. This initiative optionally allows a student to complete a service learning based project in either third or fourth year in partnership with external organisations representing individuals with disabilities. These project modules run for the complete duration of the first and second semester and the expectation is that students will design and build a prototype system for use and evaluation by clients of the partner organisations at the end of the project.

The key objectives of the of service learning are to enhance students engineering and technical skills through the project work and to increase their awareness of inclusiveness when designing electronic and computer systems. The initiatives attempt to foster a close interaction between the student and the partner organisations by ensuring there is co-operation throughout the project life cycle from the initial technology and needs review stage to the final delivery of a prototype system and its use and evaluation by clients of the organisations. At all stages in the project, the student meets with the partner organisation and their clients to present their design ideas and to receive feedback from the future users of their proposed systems in order to enhance their designs.

IT Project

 

Pat Byrne is a lecturer in the Information Technology department in NUI, Galway. She has an MSc in IT & Applied Computing from NUI Galway, an MRes in Science and Technology Studies (University of Edinburgh), and is currently researching mobile phone use in the community for her PhD. She is also director of the Masters in Information Technology (MIT) programme. This is a two year masters degree with one year of coursework covering the three areas of Information Technology (IT), Business and Human Behaviour. During their second year, students spend 6 months in placement in industry and then write a theses on a related topic.

Community Partners: Previous partners have included: Macnas, Galway Association, Galway Centre for Independent Living, Irish Film School, Galway Civic Trust, Ballinfoyle Youth project and the GAF Youth Café.

An ‘IT Project’ module on the  MIT offers a service learning experience whereby students work with a community agency and build the capacity of the organisation through the Information Communication Technology development technologies they have acquired. This project acts to unite the three strands of the programme and gives the students experience of real-life IT applications which can have many constraints. It also makes them aware that IT is useful in all areas of society and that they, as technology workers, have much to offer in terms of community action.

“We have things here that we can offer the community and if we can do it as a kind of side effect of the student’s learning, that’s a positive thing,” Pat Byrne

In 2008/2009 the GAF Café, Galway’s youth café launched their first website, which was created by students of the NUI Galway Masters IT students (www.thegaf.ie).
The GAF is a highly regarded drop-in centre in Eglinton Street for Galway young people where they can socialise in a comfortable safe environment. The Gaf Youth Health Advice Café opened in 2002 and is funded by the Department of Health and Children through the Health Service Executive fund the project. The aim of the youth café is to improve young people’s awareness of health and health related issues and provide an adolescent-friendly place for young people to meet both formally and informally.

Following a community needs analysis that the CKI undertook in 2008, the GAF’s manager, Frances Ford, highlighted that the GAF needed a website to help publicise the many activities in the GAF, and to communicate with existing members.

The website was developed by students on the Masters in Information Technology programme, as a service learning project that ran through second semester. All of the work in creating the website was done in collaboration with the youth council of the GAF who gave their ideas on the design and content of the site.

Pat Byrne has been engaging her student learning in community through service learning for over five years and has made strong links with community groups in order to both provide practical experience for these students and to help out small local charities that might need some IT services. She makes links with local groups through the CKI and other projects her students undertook this year included staff training in the GAF and giving some basic computing skills to disadvantaged young people in the Foroige project in Ballinfoyle.