Profile

I’ve always been interested in science and maths, and in trying to find out how things work. I also like making things.

I knew I wanted to study Engineering from the time I started secondary school. After the Leaving I did Engineering in UCD. I choose Electrical Engineering. When I finished the degree I started working on a higher degree, eventually becoming a “Doctor” or “PhD” in Engineering.

In addition to learning about things I also liked teaching. After working outside the university for a few years I came back to UCD to teach part-time on a Master course, and eventually to take up a full-time position. My areas of interest are “Dynamics” (which is like Applied Maths, if you know what that is) and “Control”.

My hobbies are guitar, tennis, cycling, hill-walking and philosophy.

I work in UCD in Engineering, giving lectures, doing research, and helping students doing research. I spend a lot of time on the computer.

Engineering is about using maths and physics to make new things, or to make things better. Nowadays, this work often begins using a computer to try to work things out. But sooner or later you need to build and test things.

Recently I have been helping in work on making the first Irish satellite. This is very exciting.

I would give half the money to help Citywise (www.citywise.ie) in their progrmmes to promote STEM activities (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths). This activity is in Jobstown, Tallaght, for teenagers of all backgrounds, some of them finding it hard to stay in school

I’m also involved in making the first Irish satellite, EIRSAT-1.

While most of this work is done by students, I’m involved in supervising some of the work.

If I win the prize money, I would use half of it to tell young people all about the project: what the satellite will do; how it was planned, built and tested; how the experiments on board work; what will happen to it over time; and so on.