prospective students DCU has over 25,000 graduates working in more than 30 countries in leadership positions in industry and academia, both in the private and public sector. Below are just a sample of the successful, rewarding career paths that graduates of our engineering and computing degrees have pursued.

Neil Costigan, Computer Applications graduate, started his career in software development for network management systems at Telecom Eireann and later worked as a consultant for three years in Stockholm, Sweden, including a project for the UN based in Bosnia during the Yugoslav war. In 1997 he co-founded a start-up, Celo Communications, focusing on Internet security software. He moved as chief technical officer of this company to San Francisco in 1998 prior to the company's acquisition by Gemplus  (a leading smart card manufacturer) in 2000. He then moved to France to lead the R&D division for finance and security for Gemplus. Neil is now vice president for R&D based near Aix-en-Provence. He manages a multi-discipline engineering team of about 150 engineers, split between software development, embedded systems and hardware in locations in Singapore, Germany, France and the States.   Computer Applications graduate, Michael Kelly, is chief executive and founder of Dublin-based banking and insurance software company FINEOS. Prior to setting up his own company, Michael worked for a company called Paxus, which implemented back-end insurance systems for European multinationals, earning valuable experience working in countries such as Denmark, The Netherlands and the UK. FINEOS’s customer base reads like a “who’s who” of the financial services industry of Ireland, the UK, Europe and North America, including companies such as Zurich, Aviva, Allianz, and ABN AMRO. With its emphasis on R&D and employing 250 highly skilled people, FINEOS almost represents a blue print for the type of indigenous company that Ireland is trying to foster. In 2002, FINEOS was was declared Software Company of the Year at the Irish Software Association Awards in recognition of the company's rapid growth in becoming a leading international supplier of enterprise banking and insurance software systems.

Electronic Engineering graduate Paddy Dillon  initially worked with Motorola as a test engineer developing hardware and software test solutions for 2-way radio systems. He became engineering manager in Motorola in 1995. Moving to DSC Communications as operations manger in 1997, he took responsibility for the operations and engineering teams. Paddy joined Lucent Technologies as director of technology in 1999. The company designs and delivers networks for the world's largest communications service providers. He is responsible for test, product and supply chain engineering in support of the EMEA (Europe, Middle East & Africa) business, including optical, data, voice and wireless communications.

Seamus Walsh, B.Eng. in Electronic Engineering, is currently the director of engineering with Esat Business, which is now part of BT Ignite's European telecommunications business. He is responsible for a staff of over 250 in Ireland who plan, design, build and operate Esat's network, which provides voice, data and IP services to over 12,000 corporate customers and 100,000 residential customers. He is also responsible for 150 network assurance staff in Europe, who manage the European network from centres in Brussels, Munich, Amsterdam and Madrid. Prior to this, he worked for Data Port International - a mobile technology company - and Galileo as a network engineer.

Eoin Kennedy, BEng in Electronic Engineering and current research student, became only the second Dubliner in 50 years to win an All-Ireland Senior Singles Handball final at Croke Park. In the final he defeated the legendary Michael ‘Duxie’ Walsh of Kilkenny, a man who has rewritten the handball history books throughout his career at the top level. The St Brigid’s clubman, Eoin added his All-Ireland Senior 60x30 Singles title to the All-Ireland Senior 40x20 Singles and Irish Open Singles crowns already captured earlier this year, thus completing a unique treble in the sport. His 2002 winning record includes the Irish Universities title in February, the Irish Open in March, the All-Ireland Senior 40x20 Singles title in May, the Munster 60x30 Open in July and now the 2002 Senior 60x30 title. Kennedy has proven himself over the last twelve months to be an outstanding Irish handballer.

Fiona McDonnell, BEng in Electronic Engineering, is a programme manager with Scientific Systems Ltd based in Dublin with responsibility for managing key accounts in Europe, US and Asia Pacific. Scientific Systems, incubated at DCU, is a designer and manufacturer of sensors and instruments for plasma process control and measurement in the semiconductor industry. She previously worked for Applied Materials, IBM and Lucent in roles ranging from global technical support, production management to new product introduction management.