May Transition Year Students Attend Civil Engineering Programme at NUI Galway

The programme saw an increase of over 40% in the number of female participants

NUI Galway recently held its Transition Year Civil Engineering programme, which is open to all Transition Year students across Ireland. The programme is designed by NUI Galway Civil Engineering Lecturer, Dr Indiana Olbert, and delivered by University staff in partnership with Arup Consultancy.

This year, 44 students from 21 schools across Galway, Mayo, Clare, Roscommon, Longford, Westmeath, Limerick, Offaly and Donegal participated on the three-day programme.

The programme aims to provide a specialised, first-hand experience of the diverse and exciting opportunities an engineering career can offer, and showcases areas such as Structural Engineering, Environmental Engineering and Marine Renewable Energy Engineering. Activities included lectures, laboratory sessions and practical workshops including the design and construction of a prototype lollipop stick bridge, with a prize awarded for best bridge construction. The first prize was awarded to the group of three students of St. Enda’s College Galway, Ben O’Sullivan, Barry Murphy and James Parnell.

Dr Olbert said: “I want to pass on my passion for engineering to the next generation. Programmes like this enables Transition Year students to understand what engineers do and helps them to make good career choices.”

Now in its fourth year, NUI Galway’s Transition Year Civil Engineering programme highlighted a significant increase in the number of female participants at 41% - almost double the number from last year.

Mary Dempsey, Vice Dean for Equality Diversity and Inclusion in Engineering and Informatics at NUI Galway, said: “The substantial increase in demand for engineering courses by females is a very positive indicator. Engineering is a great career for women as we bring a different perspective to the world and it is important to increase and embrace diversity in our student population. Global academic leaders such as MIT have achieved gender balance in their undergraduate engineering programmes and NUI Galway is firmly on the right trajectory to achieve a similar balance through its Athena SWAN agenda. I highly commend Dr Olbert on her diligent work in making the Transition Year engineering programme such a success. As an engineer, Dr Olbert is a wonderful role model for prospective female engineers. Interestingly, her research area is numerical and physical modelling of surface water which is very relevant to Galway, bordered by lakes, rivers, canals and sea.”

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