DCU Community Responds to Ireland's COVID-19 Call
The Dublin City University community has responded to the COVID-19 pandemic in a number of different ways since February.
We outline below the ways in which this was done #AllInThisTogether
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DCU launched a new DCU Covid-19 Student Emergency Fund in response to the challenges and financial hardship facing students due to the Covid-19 global pandemic.
Leading communications services company, BT Ireland, has partnered with DCU to match the first €25,000 donated to the fund, meaning that DCU friends and alumni who support the appeal can double the impact of their gift for struggling students.
Below is some video featuring DCU President Professor Brian MacCraith and Dr David Dowling, a DCU Access Graduate and Vaccine Scientist with Boston Children's Hospital & Harvard Medical School
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Pictured are staff at the DCU Examination Support Centre (DESC) which was set up especially for online exams which began on Tuesday, May 5th. The centre will be in operation until May 18th, and is open from 8.30am to 6pm. They can be contacted on +353 1 700 6151 or examsupport@dcu.ie
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Pictured is DCU President Professor Brian MacCraith with Garda Superintendent Brian Conway and colleagues from Templemore Garda College to the National Institute for Digital Learning in DCU, where they will prodcue training and professional development videos. This is another example of DCU's support for the national effort during the COVID-19 crisis
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The HSE brought their weekly live COVID-19 media briefing to DCU on Sunday, May 3rd. Our pictures show HSE CEO Paul Reid address members of the media in the Solas Room, in the U, on DCU's Glasnevin Campus. A Contact Tracing Centre and a COVID-19 Assessment Centre have been set up by the HSE in DCU's Glasnevin campus as part of the national response to the global pandemic
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An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Minister for Health Simon Harris and HSE CEO Paul Reid are pictured in conversation with DCU President Professor Brian MacCraith as they visited the HSE COVID-19 Assessment Centre on DCU's Glasnevin Campus on Wednesday, April 29th
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The new HSE COVID-19 Assessment Unit in DCU has been completed. The HSE published these pictures recently on their social media as testing at the centre gets underway. DCU President Professor Brian MacCraith described the centre as "another example of DCU's commitment to supporting the national effort in tacklking the COVID-19 crisis". He said DCU was "delighted to assist the HSE on this initiative.
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Professor Turlough Downes, an astrophysicist with DCU School of Mathematical Sciences, talks about his work in developing mathematical models of COVID-19 spread.
Usually, Prof Downes applies his mathematical modelling skills to distant star planets - but things have taken a different turn in recent times.
“Like many people, when this virus started to spread around the world, I was alarmed and I wanted to do something,” Prof Downes told the 'Irish Times'. “I know nothing about epidemiology, but I work on the formation of black holes and planets around distant stars, so I do know about building mathematical models from sparse data with gaps in and lots of noise in it. I started to think about how to model the numbers and trends from the virus.”
Downes contacted infectious disease expert Prof Sam McConkey at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, and they set up a collaboration to try to improve mathematical models of Covid-19 spread.
You can read the full article from the Irish Times here
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In April, the Dublin City University Nano Research Centre (@DCUResearchNano) sent out a consignment of PPE - including 3D-printed visors - to St John Ambulance Service.
The delivery of this PPE consignment from DCU was made possible thanks to Aoife Howard, a Second Year Nursing student in the DCU School of Nursing, Psychotherapy and Community Health.
Pictured are Maurice Burke, Chief Technical Officer with the DCU Nano Research Centre , and DCU Nursing student Aoife Howard
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The DCU Community response has seen various supplies of PPE (mainly safety goggles and gloves) donated to a number of hospitals in our region, including Beaumont Hospital, James Connolly Memorial Hospital in Blanchardstown and the Midland Regional Hospital in Tullamore.
This was made possible thanks to our colleagues in the Faculty of Science & Health, and the DCU School of Chemistry.
More PPE was delivered to the HSE’s Northside Community Care - a special thanks here to Graham Dodrill, Chief Technical Officer at DCU School of Biotechnology, in the DCU Faculty of Science & Health
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DCU School of Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering of the Faculty of Computing & Engineering, & I-Form, the SFI-funded Research Centre for Advanced Manufacturing, are producing PPE for frontline health staff using state-of-the-art 3D printing equipment.
You can read the full article about their work on dcu.ie here:
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A contact tracing call centre has been operating in Dublin City University since the end of March, with many of its staff coming from the DCU community.
Dr Mary Rose Sweeney, Head of DCU School of Nursing, Psychotherapy and Community Health spoke to Claire O’Connell for this article about the centre in the Irish Times
Click to read the article here
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Technical staff at DCU’s Faculty of Science & Health and DCU’s Nano Research Centre produced hand sanitiser at the end of March.
The sanitiser - made in accordance with specifications issued by the World Health Organisation (WHO) - was delivered to St Francis’ Hospice in Blanchardstown, West Dublin.
It is also being used in DCU campus, including the contact tracing call centre where a number of DCU staff have volunteered
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DCU International student Vish Gain wrote an interesting article or the Irish Universities Association Digital Edition.
His feature article featured two of his fellow DCU International students - (pictured) - who are both in DCU Res and are finding innovative ways to keep themselves occupied.
Read the article here
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Dublin City University along with NUI Galway, and the Insight Centre for Data Analytics at NUI Galway, teamed up for a survey measuring the impact COVID-19 restrictions have placed on the Irish people.
More than 100,000 people responded to the survey, and spoke about they have implemented the principles of social distancing into their lives, how they do activity, what they are doing for education, and how they are working from home.
Click here to read more
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Three DCU artists are collaborating remotely at this time of social isolation to create an original piece of music, to be performed as a celebration when normal life resumes.
Composer Dr Seán Doherty, Assistant Professor in DCU’s School of Theology, Philosophy and Music in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Science,, and Ciara Ni É, writer-in-residence, are creating a work for massed choirs that can be learned by interested singers through online channels.
Dr Róisín Blunnie, Assistant Professor in DCU’s School of Theology, Philosophy and Music, will be the conductor for the project, and will record learning tutorials for participants.
For more information, click here
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The DCU School of Health & Human Performance, in the Faculty of Science & Health, have been hosting Facebook Live Q&A for people and families looking to stay active under the current COVID-19 restrictions. Their first three episodes have attracted close to 12,000 views. Go to DCU’s Facebook page here where you can listen back to the vlogs.
We’ve also published some takeaways from each Facebook Live session - click here
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