President's Awards
President's Awards Archive
DCU President’s Awards 2021
President's Awards for Research 2021
Early Career Researcher Category: Dr Lisa van der Werff, DCU Business School
Science, Engineering and Computing Category: Prof Gareth Jones, School of Computing
Humanities, Business, Education Category: Prof Federico Fabbrini, School of Law and Government and Director of the DCU Brexit Institute.
President's Awards for Impact 2021
Prof James O’Higgins Norman, National Anti Bullying Research and Resource Centre and UNESCO Chair on Tackling Bullying in Schools and Cyberspace.
Dr Carol Barron, School of Nursing, Psychotherapy and Community Health.
Dr Diarmuid Torney, School of Law and Government.
President's Awards for Engagement 2021
Staff Award: Dr Martin Brown and Dr Paddy Shevlin, School of Policy & Practice at DCU Institute of Education, for the DCU/EQI Shaped Professional Learning Network.
Staff Special Mention: PE at Home. Team members: Dr Sarahjane Belton, Dr Maura Coulter, Dr Úna Britton, Mr Nathan Gavigan, Dr Áine MacNamara, Dr Mika Manninen and Dr Bronagh McGrane, DCU School of Health & Human Performance.
Student Award: DCU Neurodivergent Society. Team members: Ross Boyd, Jenny Dunwoody, Luke Conlon, Laoċín Brennan, Oskars Veide, Conor Marsh, Mia Duffy, Derek Walsh.
Student Special Mention: Cathal Canavan, (Bachelor of Business Studies) for his contribution to Social Entrepreneurship.
President's Awards for Innovation 2021
Undergraduate Category: Seán Fradl for the creation of Equine App.
Postgraduate Category: Mohammad Hosseini for the creation of the MyCites a digital tool.
Administrative & Support Staff Category: Mark Argue, DCU Estates, for campus energy saving initiatives.
Academic & Research Staff Category: Dr Gary McDarby, Insight SFI Research Centre for Data Analytics for the creation of the EdgeAI Project.
President’s Awards for Excellence in Teaching and Learning 2021
Overall Academic Award for Excellence in Teaching: Dr Monica Ward, School of Computing
New Lecturer: Aishling Silke, School of Language Literacy and Early Childhood Education, Institute of Education
Distinctive Approaches to Teaching: David Kennedy, School of Human Development
Distinctive Approaches to Assessment: Dr Barbara Dignam, School of Theology, Philosophy and Music
Distinctive Approaches to Innovation in Teaching: Dr Diarmuid Torney, School of Law & Government
Teaching Support: Dr Cameron Peers, Faculty of Science and Health
Team: B.Rel.Ed. School Placement/TOP Online Programme Team, School of Policy and Practice - Dr Audrey Doyle, Dr Enda Donlon, Marie Conroy Johnson, Dr PJ Sexton, Dr Elaine McDonald.
DCU President’s Awards 2020
President’s Awards for Engagement
- Student Category
John Noone, Volunteering, science outreach, fundraising
- Staff Category
DCU Ability Team, Promoting the Employability of young people with disabilities
- Special Merit Award – Student Category
Daniel Kyne and Darragh O’Flaherty, Opinion X
- Special Merit Award – Staff Category
Dr Yvonne Crotty, Creativity and Arts, Entrepreneurship and Science Promotion
President’s Awards for Innovation
- Student Category (Undergraduate):
Amy Ní Lionnáin and Ciara Williams (BA Gaeilge & Gnó)
Development of a ‘Sip N’ Safe biodegradable straw that can detect if drugs are present in both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks.
- Student Category (Postgraduate):
Anastasios Karakolidis, Centre for Assessment Research, Policy and Practice in Education (CARPE)
Using animation to improve the assessment of complex competencies.
- Administration & Support Category:
The Discover DCU Team
Eight short interactive online courses to help first year students settle in to university
- Academic and Research Category:
Dr Caroline Murphy and Prof Richard O’Kennedy, DCU School of Biotechnology
Biosafety for Environmental contaminants using Novel Sensors
President’s Awards for Research
President’s Award for Research (Natural Sciences, Health, Engineering and related areas):
Professor Fiona Regan, School of Chemical Sciences
Marine and Freshwater monitoring
President’s Award for early career Research:
Dr Garrick Allen, School of Theology, Philosophy, and Music
Titles of the New Testament (TiTO) Project
President’s Award for Research (Humanities and Social Sciences, Business, Education and Related areas):
Professor Sharon O’Brien, School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies
Research in crisis translation
Professor James Kelly, School of History and Geography
Social and political history of late early modern Ireland
President's Awards for Impact
Professor John Crown, Thomas Baldwin Chair for Translational Oncology
Research from CCRT team results in launch of CAROLINE-1 clinical trial
Dr Sarahjane Belton, School of Health and Human Performance
Transforming the national approach to Physical Education
Professor Mathias Urban, DCU Institute of Education
G20 acknowledges importance of integrated early education systems
Dr Mary Rose Sweeney, School of Nursing, Psychotherapy and Community Health
Understanding of neurodiversity amongst employers across many settings
President’s Awards for Staff Recognition
Mick Burke, Faculty of Science and Health
Mary Colgan, President’s Office
Goretti Daughton, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Liam Gaughran & Seamus Keating, Estates Office
Billy Kelly, Office of Vice President Academic Affairs
Ann Largey, DCU Business School
Paul Leahy, Estates Office
Martin Leavy, Human Resources
Teresa Leeper, Trispace Catering
Aisling McKenna, Quality Promotion Office
Ian Spillane, ISS
Joe Travers, School of Inclusive & Special Education
President’s Awards for Teaching and Learning
- Teaching Support:
Suzanne Stone, Teaching Enhancement Unit
- Team Category:
DCU Life Module Team, DCU Business School
Team members: Dr Roisin Lyons, Dr Peter Robbins, Dr Catherine Faherty, Prof Colm O'Gorman, Dr Shadi Karazi, Dr Philip O'Donnell and Karen Maguire.
- Distinctive Approaches to Teaching:
Dr Martin Brown, School of Policy & Practice
- Distinctive Approaches to Assessment & Feedback:
Joanne Lynch, DCU Business School
- Distinctive Approaches to Innovation in Teaching:
Dr Stephen Blott, School of Computing
- New Lecturer Category:
Orla Bourke, School of Communications.
- Overall winner:
Ann Marie Farrell, School of Inclusive & Special Education
President's Annual Awards 2019
President’s Awards for Innovation
The Academic and Research Category Award was won by Dr Finbarr O’Sullivan from the National Institute of Cellular Biotechnology (NICB). Dr O’Sullivan’s research has focussed on addressing sight loss, and in particular on the development of cultured cornea-limbal stem eye cells to regenerate the cornea surface for the treatment of patients.
In the Student Category, PhD student, Eva Vanmassenhove took the award for her work on tackling the issue of gender bias in machine translation.
Undergraduate Computer Applications student, Kevin Cogan, was also an award-winner for his Dyslex-E programme. This application creates a dyslexic-friendly online environment to reduce the number of reading errors on screen, and increase user reading speed and accessibility.
President's Awards for Engagement
Dr Elizabeth Mathews, from the School of Inclusive & Special Education, was winner of the Staff Category. Dr Mathews has been working with the deaf community since 2003. During her time at DCU, Dr Mathews has made a leading contribution to the opening of BEd Irish Sign Language (first of its kind in Ireland), and the development of an ISL STEM glossary, as part of an SFI-funded project.
A Special Merit Award went to Prof Barry McMullin, from the School of Electronic Engineering, for his public policy engagement and leadership in the area of climate change and sustainability.
The Student Category Award went to Austin Campbell (MSc PR and Strategic Communications) for My Streets - a social enterprise that engages homeless trainees on a three month programme based around storytelling and confidence, creative writing and tour guiding skills delivered by professional trainers.
A Special Merit Award went to Jennifer Harrington (School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering) for her role in promoting the greater female participation in engineering through activities such as establishing the DCU Women in Engineering Community and organising the Women in Engineering Open Day at DCU.
President’s Awards for Research and Research Impact
The recipients of the 2019 President’s Awards for Research were as follows:
Dr. James J. Walsh (School of Chemical Sciences). For his research into a new method of turning atmospheric CO2 into liquid fuels, Dr Walsh was presented with the DCU President’s Research Award for Early Career Research Staff
Dr. Jane Suiter (School of Communications). For her research on data-journalism including issues such as the rise of ‘Fake News’, Dr Suiter was the recipient of this year’s President’s Research Award in the area of Humanities and Social Sciences, Business, Education and related areas.
Prof. Gabriel Muntean (School of Electronic Engineering). For work that includes research to improve communications in Internet of Things networks, Prof. Muntean was the recipient of this year’s President’s Research Award in Natural Sciences, Health, Engineering and related areas.
The inaugural President’s Awards for Research Impact were also presented at the ceremony. For the purpose of the awards, "research impact is understood as an effect on, change or benefit to the economy, society, culture, public policy or services, health, the environment, or quality of life, beyond academia".
The recipients were:
Professor Kate Irving (School of Nursing and Human Sciences). For the extensive range of work she has done and continues to do on the dementia service and policy landscape in Ireland.
Professor Regina Connolly (DCU Business School). For the impact of a report that she prepared for the Department of Agriculture aimed at Improving ICT uptake and reducing the Digital Divide in Agricultural and Rural Communities.
President’s Awards for Excellence in Teaching
Teaching Excellence Award: Anne Kirwan, School of Nursing and Human Sciences
Teaching Support Award: Shirley O’Brien, Open Education Unit/DCU Connected
Team Award: DCU Careers Service, Student Support and Development
Distinctive Approaches to Teaching Award: Dr Eabhnat Ní Fhloinn, School of Mathematical Sciences
Distinctive Approaches to Assessment & Feedback Award: Dr David Robbins, School of Communications
Distinctive Approaches to Innovation in Teaching Award: Paula Murphy, School of Arts, Education & Movement
New Lecturer/Tutor Award: Padraig McKeon, School of Communications
President's Awards 2018
DCU President's Awards for Engagement 2018
The 2018 President’s Awards for Engagement were presented at a ceremony on 18th April, 2018 by DCU President Professor Brian MacCraith. For the first time, the event was held jointly with DCU Invent who announced the winners of the Presidential Award for Innovation.
The 2018 award winners are:
| Student Category €1,000 Winner: | Special Merit Award; Student Category €500 Winner: |
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| Ornella Nana (MSc International Relations) for her work as a youth advocate and in youth empowerment, for educating young people on sustainable development goals and wide-ranging public engagement. (on the photo: Ornella’s colleague receives the award on behalf of Ornella) | Biological Research Society for their student driven, creative and fun science promotion activities and workshops for young people and children linking in with the Aisling Project, Ballymun. |
| Staff Category €1,000 Winner: | Special Merit Award; Staff Category €500 Winner: |
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| Dr Briege Casey (School of Nursing and Human Sciences) for her work in the areas of homelessness, poverty, substance misuse, intellectual disability, art and creativity and in particular leading on the Certificate in Homeless Prevention, Object Poverty exhibition and Love Loss Life project. | Dr Mary Rose Sweeney and Prof Theresa Burke (School of Nursing and Human Sciences) for leading the whole-university, multi-campus research activities laying foundations for and informing the designation of DCU as the world’s first Autism Friendly University. |
| Special Award in Enterprise Engagement; €500 Winner: | |
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| Prof Deirdre Butler (School of STEM, Innovation and Global Studies) for her work in the development and engagement of “Smart Partnerships” to develop STEM competencies and multiple initiatives in the area of STEM education |
Speaking after the ceremony, Professor Ronaldo Munck said: “The President's Award for Engagement competition 2018 saw a record amount of entrants. This reflects the vibrant community of engaged scholars at DCU across the disciplines. Also the student body for the first time saw a greater number of applications that those for the staff category.
That reflects the work of Clubs and Socs and the newly appointed DCU Volunteer coordinator. Across the board then, amongst staff and students DCU presents as most engaged university that is, one committed to addressing the needs of society together with local communities and relevant communities of practice.
We would like to congratulate all entries to this year's award and commit ourselves to work with you all for an even more engaged and committed DCU in the year ahead.”
President's Awards for Excellence in Teaching and Learning
DCU Business School’s Next Generation Management Team has won a Team Award and Dr Dónal O’Brien has won an individual award for distinctive innovation in teaching at the 2017/2018 DCU President’s Awards for Excellence in Teaching.
The awards recognise and reward excellence in teaching and facilitating learning in DCU. They reflect many important factors in quality teaching and learning, among them: use of methods that help students to develop as independent, critical thinkers, approaches that stimulate creativity in students, empathy, respect and support of students and the diversity that they bring, use of creative formative assessment and research activities that enhance the learning experiences of students.
The Next Generation Management team won the Team Award, recognised for their excellence in student feedback and developing critical thinking skills. The programme was commended for its value among alumni, employers and external bodies. The use of customised learning to enhance the abilities of students within the class and the implementation of a personal development plan for each student was also recognised. The team includes Gerry Conyngham, Terry O’Brien, Grace Fox, Professor Maura McAdam, Jennifer Farrell and Jona Kalemi. Well done to all!
Dr Dónal O’Brien won a special award for distinctive innovation in teaching for his Global Virtual Teams. His programme was recognised for exposing students to different cultures and norms in the increasingly-internationalised workplace. Use of technology, focus on team work and reflective practice, alongside Dónal’s subject expertise, were recognised in granting this award. Congratulations Dónal!
Several DCU Business School staff members were nominated for awards:
Team Award category:
The Executive MBA team, Programme Director, Claire Gubbins and Ruth Finnegan, was recognised for its excellence in seeking feedback, encouraging evidence-based decision making, delivering careers days and for the level of service provided by Ruth Finnegan to MBA students in answering their queries in a timely and professional manner.
New Tutor or Lecturer
Dr Lisa van der Werff was nominated for making her class on research methodologies come alive, and engaging students in developing thorough research.
Academic category
- Dr Janine Bosak for her promotion of deep learning and critical enquiry, and for being an approachable and conscientious mentor.
- Gerry Connyngham for his passion in the area of data analytics, for being highly approachable and excellent at delivering highly constructive feedback.
- John Nolan for delivering accessible content that is interesting and professionally practical, particularly using online tutorials and step by step videos to explain complex areas of accounting.
- Joanne Lynch for standard setting, motivating students to work hard and for her expertise in her area.
- Professor PJ Byrne for his real world teaching, making his material very interesting, for the quality of guest speakers in his class.
- Dr Artemisa Jamarillo her teaching on the Marketing, Innovation and Technology course at PNU.
Congratulations to the winners and to all of the nominees, for their work in advancing students’ learning at DCU.
President’s Awards for Innovation
2018 President's Awards for Innovation
- Student Category (joint overall winners) Russell Brady and Cathal Hughes for their skin condition classifier app which uses image analysis and machine learning to automatically diagnose the most commonly occurring skin conditions. Over 73,000 people suffer from psoriasis while eczema occurs in 1 in 10 children and 1 in 20 adults. One peculiarity about skin conditions is that they are difficult to diagnose and can be costly and expensive. The award winning project by the two School of Computing students set out to create an app that saves people time and money and can provide an assessment of what the condition is. The app also includes a link to the Health Service Executive website giving an indicator of the likely type of skin conditions and the next steps to follow.
- James Gallagher was also among the winning recipients for founding Giveback.ie a social enterprise based on an innovative App with a mission to tackle the homelessness crisis through crowd-funding. The mission of Giveback.ie is to become a catalyst for real social change funding Housing First initiatives by the Peter McVerry Trust which builds social housing and renovates existing derelict buildings to provide the homeless with suitable long-term accommodation. Giveback.ie enables socially conscious individuals to give back to Irish homeless charities through the click of a mouse by partnering with hundreds of Irish retailers so that when you make a purchase online a portion of your total spend will go to the Peter McVerry Trust.
- In the Academic and Research Category, Professor Robert Forster, Dr Elaine Spain and Dr Kellie Adamson and Ms. Eadaoin Carthy from the School of Chemical Sciences and National Centre for Sensor Research respectively were recognised for the development of a patent pending platform technology SepTec that combines smart microfluidic engineering and sensor technology to enable the rapid capture, detection and differentiation of micro-organisms that can cause infection in the blood. SepTec will target the sepsis diagnostic market. Sepsis is a life-threatening inflammation from infection and represents 30% of all hospital-based deaths and up to 40% of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patients. Throughout developing countries sepsis is accountable for up to 70% of deaths annually and globally there are over 30 million cases of diagnosed sepsis each year. SepTec aims to revolutionise healthcare by developing easy-to-use clinical diagnostic solutions that can provide rapid and accurate results enabling clinicians to effectively treat patients faster than has been achieved before.
- In the Administration and Support Category, the DCU Registry Team were honoured for the development and implementation of a Digital Records Projects, which involved taking permanent ownership of tens of thousands of student academic records from multiple institutions following Incorporation. It involved the safe processing and storage of up to 40,00 academic records, available on request from relevant parties.
President of Dublin City University Professor Brian MacCraith said:
“This year's Innovation Awards celebrate the excellence of staff and students in transforming lives and societies by combining enterprise and creativity in their daily activities. They also reflect the university’s strong commitment to engagement with wider society as evidenced by award-winning projects. This year's entries and overall winners are a testament to the mission of this university.”
President's Awards 2017
President's Awards for Civic Engagement 2017
The 2017 President’s Awards for Engagement were presented on Thursday, April 13th at the Helix by DCU Deputy President Professor Daire Keogh to recipients from the worlds of engineering, physics, humanities, social sciences and community engagement.
The 2017 award winners were:
• Veronica Crosbie, University of Sanctuary outreach programme (President's Award for Engagement - Staff Category €1000)
• Eilish Mc Loughlin, Leadership in Public Engagement and Education in Science (Special Merit Award- Staff Category €500)
• DCU Media Production Society - 24 hour broadcast (President's Award for Engagement - Student Category €1000)
• Helen Concannon, Chief Commissioner Girl Guides (Special Merit Award- Student Category €500)
• Brian Corcoran et al Siemen's Greenpower Challenge (Special Award for Enterprise Engagement €500)
DCU President Professor Brian MacCraith said,
“For Dublin City University, engagement with the wider society is a key plank of our philosophy. It promotes many of our own key values such as equality, inclusion and sustainability. The entries, and particularly the winners of the 2017 President’s Awards for Engagement, are a fine testimony to that mission.”
Special invited guest speaker, Deirdre Mortell, CEO of Social Innovation Fund Ireland delivered an enlightening speech on civic engagement and social innovation. Speaking at the event she commented that “it is fantastic to see DCU lead the way in student and staff community engagement. The winning projects are impressive and inspiring and I wish them the very best of impact too.”
For further details see: https://www.dcu.ie/community/presidents-awards-for-engagement-2017.shtml
Presidents Award for Innovation 2017
A gel for treating cerebral aneurysms, a DIY robotics kit that teaches children the basics of coding in a fun and intuitive way, and a research infrastructure database that enables wide access to DCU’s state-of-the-art research equipment and facilities are this year’s winners of the DCU President’s Awards for Innovation.
Presented by Professor Brian MacCraith, President of DCU, this afternoon (26th April), the awards encourage and recognise innovative achievements by DCU students, researchers and staff. Speaking at the awards ceremony, Professor MacCraith, praised the creative thinking behind the successful projects,
“The wide range of innovations showcased here today highlight how enterprise and creativity are fostered into the everyday activities of DCU students and staff, reaching every part of our three campuses. The winners bring to life the university’s mission of transforming lives and societies.”
The three winners are:
1 Academic & Research Category
Dr Owen Clarkin of DCU’s School of Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering has developed a minimally invasive solution for the treatment of brain aneurysms, a bulging blood vessel surrounding the brain. EnduraGel is a hydrogel which can be injected through small tubes from the groin into the brain. Once injected into the affected area, the gel hardens, closing the aneurysm and preventing blood ingress and continued expansion. It is estimated that 1 in 50 people have a brain aneurysm which, if untreated, can rupture, causing bleeding into the brain, often resulting in severe disability or death. Owen and his team hope that this new technology will improve the clinical outcomes of patients with cerebral aneurysms and allows doctors to treat aneurysms currently thought to be untreatable.
Watch Owen describe his research here.
2 Student Category
Founded by first-year DCU students, Adam Dalton (Bachelor Business Studies) and Evan Darcy (Bachelor of Engineering), along with BT Young Scientist winner, Shane Curran, Robotify produces a DIY robotics kit. Aimed at parents who want to introduce their children to the world of coding, and at teachers who are interested in running their coding course, Robotify also runs a number of courses and summer camps throughout the year to encourage young people to get interested in STEM subjects.
Watch Adam and Evan describe their product here.
3 Administration & Support Staff Category
Robbie Sinnott of DCU Research & Innovation Support has developed the Research Infrastructure Network which provides an online booking system and access to DCU infrastructure for researchers, both within and outside the university, and for industry collaborators.
Watch Robbie explain the service here.
Other shortlisted innovations included:
- Lego Education Innovation Studio - an initiative that is preparing the next generation of teachers and learners to confidently engage with the technologies which surround them every day;
- A novel anti-inflammatory drug that could have significant health impacts for patients with chronic conditions such as atopic dermatitis in children;
- HealthPath - a digital health platform that gives migrants and refugees access to medical professionals who literally ‘speak their language’;
- Lifestyle Insurance for Millennials – an app to make life insurance relevant to millennials;
- safer.place - a website which allows students to safety-check the area they would like to live in;
- A Customer Relationship Management system to build and capture relationships with prospective DCU students;
- A process to facilitate a new BA Joint Honours curriculum redesign, timetabling and academic structure as a result of the DCU Incorporation.
The keynote speaker at the event was Kieran Curran, founder of GenCell Biosystems, who shared his experience of designing, developing and commercialising a new approach to genetic testing.
Presidents Award for Excellence 2017
L-R Dr Mark Glynn, Professor Brian MacCraith, Dr Dónal Mulligan, Pat Wogan, Dr John Buckley, Professor Patrick Flood, Charlie Daly, Deirdre O'Reilly and Anne-Marie Caherty (representing the GSA Project Team), Orna Farrell, Billy Kelly and Professor Eithne Guilfoyle
Teaching Support Category: Patrick (Pat) Wogan, School of Physical Sciences
Team Award: General Sports Authority (GSA) Project Team - Dr Artemisa Jaramillo, Ms Caroline McGroary, Ms Rhea George, Ms Mary Finnegan, Dr Michele Lundy, Ms Ieva Masevic, Ms Justina Setkute, Ms Raja Clouse, Dr Ann Largey, Dr Audrey Nicholls, Dr Anne Morrissey
Special Awards:
Distinctive Approaches to Teaching: Dr John Buckley, School of Theology, Philosophy and Music
Distinctive Approaches to Assessment & Feedback: Dr Dónal Mulligan, School of Communications
Distinctive Innovation in Teaching: Charlie Daly, School of Computing
New Lecturer/Tutor Category: Orna Farrell, Open Education
Overall Winner for the President’s Awards for Excellence in Teaching: Professor Patrick Flood, DCU Business School
https://www.dcu.ie/teu/news/2017/May/Presidents-Award-for-Excellence-Te…;
President's Awards 2016
President's Awards for Engagement 2016
The 2016 President’s Awards for Engagement were celebrated at a ceremony in the Helix on Monday, April 25th. The awards recognise the outstanding contributions by staff and students in the wider community across a range of activities.
The recipients of the 2016 awards are as follows:
Bernadette Dwyer, Institute of Education, St. Patrick’s College – Chekhov E-book Lit4Life Project
Special Mention Staff Category: Vincent Hooper and Brian Kelleher, School of Chemical Science, DCU – Teach to Learn and Science Promotion Collaboration with Trinity Comprehensive School, Ballymun
Winner Student Category: DCU Raising and Giving Society – Local Community Projects
Special Mention Student Category Cody Byrne – Outstanding Individual Contribution: Global Brigades
Special Award in Enterprise Engagement Michael Henry – Special Recognition for Enterprise Engagement – Novel LC-MS-MS-Workflow for Proteomic Profiling of Biological Samples
For more information please click here
26th April, 2016
President's Awards for Innovation 2016, sponsored by Fujitsu
DCU Innovations improve drug discovery, making science fun and enhance campus teaching & learning
Technology to improve drug discovery, a fun science education toy and and an integrated campus video system to enhance teaching and learning are the creative innovations which have claimed this year’s DCU President’s Awards for Innovation sponsored by Fujitsu.
The winners are:
1 Academic & Research Category - DiCAST (Direct Clone Analysis and Selection Technology)
2 Student Category - Matthew Hewston.
3 Administration & Support Staff Category - UniCam
Click on the links to view short videos about each of the shortlisted student, academic and staff innovations.
For more information click here.
President's Awards for Excellence in Teaching & Learning 2016
Left to Right - John Doyle, Dr Roddy Flynn, Dr Yseult Freeney, Prof Brian MacCraith, Muirel Keegan (representing the SAMA project), Keith Hickey, Michael Farrell,
Academic Category: Dr Yseult Freeney, DCU Business School
Academic Support Category: John Doyle, ISS
New Lecturer/Tutor Category: Michael Farrell, DCU Business School
Special Award for Distinctive Teaching Approaches: Dr Roddy Flynn, School of Communications
Special Award for Distinctive Approaches to Assessment & Feedback: SAMA Project, PNU
For more information please click here
President's Awards for Research 2016
The President’s Awards for Research have been presented to Professor Jens Ducree, Professor Gerry McNamara and Dr Prince Anandarajah at this year’s Research Day.
Professor Ducree, DCU School of Physical Sciences, received the President’s Research Award in Science and Engineering for his outstanding contribution to the field of microsystems. Such highly miniaturised devices have already pervaded our modern lives, for example as embedded sensors measuring location, speed, acceleration and location in our cars and smartphones. The field of microsystems will continue to form a key link at the interdisciplinary cross-roads of many translational science and engineering initiatives in DCU, thus playing a vital role in promoting its strategic vision as Ireland’s University of Enterprise.
In the course of a varied and dynamic career Professor Gerry McNamara of DCU School of Education Studies has been a teacher, a curriculum developer, an evaluator, a researcher and an administrator. In each of these roles he has excelled and at all times has remained committed to the idea that everyone who encounters our education system deserves an experience of the highest quality no matter who they are or where they are from. His award for research excellence in the area of Humanities, Social Sciences, Business & Education recognise his national and international reputation in the field of Educational Evaluation.
Dr. Prince Anandarajah of the School of Electronic Engineering receives a President’s Research Award in the Research Staff category. This is the first time that an award has been made in this category. Prince’s research is in the area of high-speed photonic and optical networks, an area of enquiry that has transformed the world over the last 40 years and shows no sign of slowing down. In particular he has pioneered the development of optical comb sources, optical return to zero transmitters, and spectrally efficient modulation formats. Simply put - innovations like these are what allow us to transmit ever-increasing amounts of digital data more quickly, and over longer distances, than ever before.
Read about some highlights of DCU's research here.
President's Awards 2015
President's Awards for Engagement 2015
The President's Awards for Engagement 2015 were celebrated at a ceremony in the Helix on 28th April 2015. These awards recognise the outstanding contributions by staff and students, in the wider community, across a range of activities such as social regeneration and community empowerment, social enterprise and local economic development, sustainability and voluntary activities.
The 2015 winners are:
- Overall staff award: The ComputeTY Team – Dr Jennifer Foster, Mr Gary Conway and Ms Christine Stears (School of Computing)
- Special merit staff award: Service Improvement with Cooperative Learning - Deirdre Corby, Richard Jackson, Therese Danaher and Liz Hartnett (School of Nursing and Human Sciences)
- Overall student award: DCU Students’ Union E-Voting - Steven Conlon, Returning Officer DCU Students’ Union (in collaboration with Dr Mark Glynn and the Teaching Enhancement Unit)
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Special Merit student award: Disability and Learning Support Service – Student Volunteer Team on the “Addressing the Double Disadvantage” Programme
For more information click here.
President's Awards for Innovation 2015
Winners of President's Awards for Innovation 2015, sponsored by Fujitsu
The President's Award for Innovation 2015, sponsored by Fujitsu took place in DCU on 23rd April 2015. Speaking at the awards, David Delaney, CEO of Fujitsu Ireland said "The high standard of entries for this year’s awards, once again demonstrates that DCU is fostering the knowledge, attitudes, confidence and tenacity required of its students and staff to realise their potential in these exciting times.”
The 2015 winners are:
1. Academic & Research Category: Joint winners in this category were:
- The research team at DCU’s Biomedical Diagnostics Institute who have developed a bowel cancer screening test in collaboration with Randox Laboratories which could save thousands of lives by spotting the disease at the earliest possible opportunity; and
- AmbiSense, a DCU spin-out created by Professor Dermot Diamond which uses sensor technology to monitor greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane. AmbiSense platforms are used in landfill management, coal mining safety and for monitoring fracking processes.
2. Student Category: Liam Sexton, a final year Biomedical Engineering student, has developed a mobile app capable of generating a Computer Aided Design (CAD) drawing file of an object captured on a phone’s camera feed. The app uses reverse engineering to extract information from the physical object, using it to create a computer model.
3. Administration & Support Staff Category: David Molloy, an analyst programmer in DCU’s School of Electronic Engineering has developed GURU, a fully secure, cloud-based system for monitoring student academic performance which eliminates wasteful paper processes.
President's Awards for Research 2015
This years President's Research Awards took place on Friday, 23rd January in the Helix.
The winners of the President's Research Awards for 2015 are:
Professor Andy Way, DCU School of Computing and Professor David Collings, DCU Business School in recognition of their commitment to excellence in their respective fields of research.
More Information about President's Research Awards 2015
President's Awards 2014
President's Awards for Innovation 2014
The President's Award for Innovation 2014, sponsored by Fujitsu took place in DCU on 3rd June 2014. The President, Prof Brian Mac Craith, praised the number of high quality applicants shortlisted for this award.
The 2014 winners are:
- Student Category: Anoop Sebastian, a final year student in Digital Media Engineering, has created a web-based programme to tackle the difficulties experiences by Android app developers. His Integrated Development Environment (IDE) provides easy access to Android development tools allowing the user to focus their attention purely on app development.
- Academic and Research Category: Enda Donlan, Mater Dei Institute, for his work on the METIS (Mater Dei Education Teaching for Information System). METIS is a custom-built web-based environment for School Placements. The database facilitates the professional growth of student teachers by compiling information relating to placements undertaken as they progress through their degree.
- Administration and Support Staff Category: Peter Dudley, Siobhan Dunne and Paraic Elliott, DCU Library, have implemented a suite of Augmented Reality (AR) services to improve the learning experience for DCU students. AR allows users to view digital content on smartphones and tablets which has been blended with live views of the real-world environment.
President's Awards for Civic Engagement
The 2014 President’s Awards for Engagement were celebrated at a ceremony in the Helix on the 27th May. The awards recognise the outstanding contributions by staff and students, in the wider community, across a range of activities such as social regeneration and community empowerment, social enterprise and local economic development, sustainability and voluntary activities.
The 2014 winners are:
- Student Category: Michelle O’Donnell Keating, PhD student in the School of Law & Government.
Michelle is co-founder of Women for Election and has received this award for her efforts to increase the number of women actively involved in all levels of political life. - Staff Category: Dr Eithne Kennedy, St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra.
Dr. Kennedy received the award for her Write to Read project, a literacy intervention for disadvantaged communities in urban areas. - Special Merit Award, Staff Category: Dr. Raphaela Kane, DCU School of Nursing and Human Sciences and Mr Tom Bisset from Finglas Addiction Support Team for their work for the Recovery Coaching and Addiction in the Community Project.
- Special Merit Award, Student Category: DCU Horticulture (Grow Your Own) Society for the DCU Community Garden revival project, which transformed a disused land into an educational, research and outreach space.
More Information about President's Award for Civic Engagement
https://www.dcu.ie/community/presidents-award-2014.shtml
President's Awards for Excellence in Teaching
DCU's annual Teaching and Learning Day took place in the Helix on Wednesday, 16th April 2014 which celebrated innovation and excellence in teaching and learning at DCU. As part of the day DCU President, Professor Brian MacCraith, announced the 2013/2014 winners of the President's Awards for Excellence in Teaching. These awards recognise outstanding contributions to DCU's Teaching and Learning activities, and are broken into three different categories.
The winners for 2013/14 are:
- Academic Category: Dr. Lorraine Boran, School of Nursing & Human Sciences
- Special Award for Distinctive Teaching Approaches: Dr Tom Hickey, Dchool of Law & Government
- Special Award Distinctive Assessment and Feedback: Jennifer Bruton, School of Electronic Engineering
- Academic Support Category: Liam Domican, School of Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering
More Information about President's Award for Excellence in Teaching