Architecture and Engineering

PROFESSOR FINOLA O’KANE CRIMMINS

BArch 1993, PhD 1999

In March 2021, The White House Historical Association published an edited collection of eight essays titled James Hoban: Designer and Builder of the White House. Three of the eight essays were written by graduates of the Masters of Urban and Building Conservation programme at UCD.

PROFESSOR FINOLA O’KANE CRIMMINS (BArch 1993, PhD 1999), Professor of Architecture at UCD and a member of the Royal Irish Academy, wrote “Eighteenth- Century Irish Landscape Design, and its Translation to America by James Hoban”.

BRIAN O’CONNELL

BArch 1968, MUBC 2012

In March 2021, The White House Historical Association published an edited collection of eight essays titled James Hoban: Designer and Builder of the White House. Three of the eight essays were written by graduates of the Masters of Urban and Building Conservation programme at UCD.

The essay “James Hoban and George Washington Devise the President’s House” was written by BRIAN O’CONNELL (BArch 1968, MUBC 2012). O’Connell is Director and Founder of O’Connell Mahon Architects. He has advised on the conservation of numerous hospital campuses across Ireland.

MERLO KELLY

BArch 1996, MUBC 2011

In March 2021, The White House Historical Association published an edited collection of eight essays titled James Hoban: Designer and Builder of the White House. Three of the eight essays were written by graduates of the Masters of Urban and Building Conservation programme at UCD.

The essay “The Building Line in Ireland”, written by MERLO KELLY (BArch 1996, MUBC 2011), focuses on the influences of Irish architecture known to James Hoban in his youth. Kelly is a Design Fellow in the UCD School of Architecture and a conservation architect.

BEN RALPH AND TADHG CROWLEY

BE Mechanical Engineering 2020

Ben Ralph and Tadhg Crowley’s sustainable energy solution, DemRes, was one of 38 finalists at the Red Bull Basement 2020. DemRes is a demand response platform that aims to solve the challenges of intermittency and lack of grid scale storage that causes potential problems with wind and solar energy. The app enables consumers to schedule their electricity demand over the course of a day, thus reducing their carbon footprint by reducing their electricity consumption.

COLIN KEOGH

BE Mechanical Engineering 2011, ME 2012, PhD 2020

In January 2021, co-founder of Sapien Innovations Dr Colin Keogh received the Irish Research Council Impact Award for impact outside of academia. Dr Keogh began a global open-source response to the global ventilator shortage, assembling a team of 2,000 engineers, designers and medical practitioners in the global fight against COVID-19. As co-founder of The Rapid Foundation, he largely focuses on using low-cost disruptive technology and innovation to solve global problems.

NÍALL MCLAUGHLIn

BArch 1984

In May 2021, Níall McLaughlin was honoured with the 2021 Outstanding Contribution to Architecture Award at the Building and Architect of the Year Awards, in recognition of his contribution to the advancement of architecture. In October 2020, McLaughlin was awarded an honorary MBE for services to architecture. His practice has been shortlisted for the Stirling Prize on three occasions, in 2013, 2015 and 2018.

PAUL CUFFE

BE Electronic Eng 2009, PhD 2013

In March 2021, Dr Paul Cuffe received the NovaUCD Innovation Champion of the Year Award for his work with UCD engineering students, to unlock the commercial trajectory of their final year projects. In 2020, he supervised Philip Snell’s thesis project to prototype a new MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) controller, the Joyst JV1-MIDI. In September 2020, Dr Cuffe co- founded Joyst Instruments to commercialise the controller.

AISLING MULLIGAN

BSc Arch 2017, MArch 2020

In December 2020, UCD architecture alumna Aisling Mulligan was presented with the Award for Sustainable Design Part 2 by the Royal Institute of British Architects for her post-graduate thesis, “A Methodology for Reuse: Embracing a Circular Economy in a Carbon- Conscious Construction Sector”. The concept aims to increase a building’s use by changing individual components of its structure to adapt to the community and its users’ needs.

CONOR AND RONAN BURKE

BE Electronic Engineering 2017

In April 2021, twin brothers Conor and Ronan Burke, co-founders of fraud detection company Inscribe, announced that the company had raised $10.5m in Series A funding. Dual-headquartered in Dublin and San Francisco, Inscribe detects fraud in customer supplied information, such as online documents given by customers to companies to prove information about themselves when applying for mortgages or insurance. They were listed in Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe 2020 list.

EDMOND HARTY

PhD Biosystems Engineering 2001

Professor Edmond Harty, Adjunct Full Professor in the School of Biosystems and Food Engineering in UCD College of Engineering and Architecture, became Vice-President of Engineers Ireland in June 2021. He is a chartered engineer with Engineers Ireland and a European Engineer with the European Federation of National Engineering Associations (FEANI). In February 2021, Professor Harty joined the Board of Governors of the Irish Times Trust.

ORLA FEELY

BE Electronic Engineering 1986

In June 2021, Professor Orla Feely, Vice-President for Research, Innovation and Impact and Professor of Electronic Engineering at UCD, was inaugurated as the 129th President of Engineers Ireland. Professor Feely became a Fellow of the organisation in 2012 and was the first Irish woman elected a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Professor Feely is also a Fellow of the Irish Academy of Engineering and a Member of the Royal Irish Academy.

AONGHUS SHORTT

BE Mechanical Engineering 2008, PhD 2013

Aonghus Shortt’s breath- analysis device, FoodMarble AIRE, was chosen as one of 15 finalists of the Amazon Launchpad Innovation Awards 2021. The Bluetooth- enabled device measures fermentation in the gut and identifies foods and ingredients triggering users’ digestive issues. Within seven months of its launch in 2018, FoodMarble AIRE recorded 300,000 breath tests. In April 2021, the free mobile app had logged one million tests.