Profile

I’m originally from Mayo but have lived in Galway since I started University in 2010. I decided to do Mechanical Engineering after doing Engineering for my Leaving Cert. I loved the subject because you had so much freedom to design and build something from scratch, and it also allowed you to be really creative. Mechanical Engineering is probably the most broad discipline and allows you to work with biomedical, electronic and computer areas as well. Since I finished I have worked in research on things ranging from energy and power generation to biomedical implant design and manufacturing. In my spare time I play football with a local GAA club and socialise with friends.

In University, we had to opportunity to study lots of different subject and do projects based on them. Some of the best ones were making a bridge completely out of pasta and glue, and making a race car out of things you find in Tesco. As we went through University we were taught how to design things for certain applications and what materials are best to use, you could have a great design but if the material is too weak or strong, the end product is useless! Since then I have been working as a researcher – which doesn’t really tell you much. There is lots of engineering research going on in NUI Galway, including people working to make better wind turbines, self-driving cars, and testing your bones to see what happens when you have different diseases. Right now I’m working on 3D printing shoulder implants – the main reason for using 3D printing is because you can’t make the design any other way! Luckily I have access to a metal 3D printer and can make prototypes quickly to figure out how good (or bad) my design is. This work is sponsored by a company so hopefully someday my design will actually be used in people suffering with arthritis.

A number of workshops where students are taught about how to design things for 3D printing, based in the Advanced Manufacturing Lab in NUI Galway. The students would use the printers and see how their designs are actually made and what can go wrong. Students would also be shown how parts are tested to figure out why something should be designed a certain way and what materials are needed.