A celebration of creativity, technology and talent at TU Dublin

27 Feb 2019

Image: Luke Maxwell/Silicon Republic

At an event to mark a strategic industry partnership, TU Dublin students showcased their creative tech talent and industry knowhow.

Ireland’s first technological university, TU Dublin, celebrated its students at a recent event and showcase at its Grangegorman campus.

At ‘A Celebration of Creativity, Technology and Talent’, industry professionals, academics and Government ministers gathered to admire the creativity of these young innovators and celebrate the presentation of seven Intel Ireland engineering scholarships to selected students.

The scholarships come as part of a five-year strategic partnership between Intel and TU Dublin that will help strengthen the pathway from education to industry. It also involves the opening of a 250-seater Intel Auditorium in September 2020, and an Intel Women in Technology scholarship.

These scholarships will be administered through the TU Dublin Foundation and, at the event, executive director Anne-Marie Corry commented on the impact these scholarships will have and said it was “incredibly gratifying” to know this. “We know how much of a difference it means and it’s incredibly important to [the students], but also to the foundation and also TU Dublin,” she added.

As well as major announcements and the presentation of scholarships, the event showcased the creativity of TU Dublin students in technology and design.

“Right now I’m working on virtual-reality technology, so it’s real cutting-edge stuff, and the college lets me have access to the kind of technology I need,” said Naoise Collins, one of the TU Dublin students who exhibited his work at the event.

Commenting on the critical link-building between the university and fast-moving STEM industries, fellow student Eoghain Meakin said, “A lot of the things that we can do in research and that we have time to do in research, the industry actually needs now.”

Daniella Kaligorsky explained how her project on show, and the process of constantly prototyping and working with different material, will help her in her career. “If I wanted to go and do any internships it would be a really good and strong portfolio piece,” she said.

“You can learn about STEM but seeing STEM working is always what got me going in physics in school,” said Claire Pentony, comparing the hands-on experience at TU Dublin to doing experiments in secondary school. “You can learn about it all day but when you saw the experiment work was really when everyone’s faces lit up and you got real excited, and I think that’s what this course has given me.”

Elaine Burke is the host of For Tech’s Sake, a co-production from Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network. She was previously the editor of Silicon Republic.

editorial@siliconrepublic.com