The 2023 Undergraduate Research Symposium took place on Tuesday, October 24th as part of Research Week.
The Summer Programme for Undergraduate Research is an active research based and paid experiential learning programme for successful undergraduate students who wish to learn more about the postgraduate experience and possibly pursue a career in research. The Programme is held for six weeks (full time) or twelve weeks (part time) during the summer, and affords students the opportunity to work closely with faculty mentors on research projects across a range of disciplines, offering an academically enriching environment and exposure to a myriad of learning and research opportunities, thereby enhancing students’ confidence and discipline knowledge.
The programme culminates in the Undergraduate Research Symposium, which presents a forum for SPUR students from all faculties to showcase their research project posters and present cutting edge research topics to their peers, mentors and the wider University community. The winners from each faculty, alongside the Audience Choice Awardee, were presented with their prizes by Professor Eeva Leinonen during the MU Research Week Prizegiving Ceremony 2023.
The faculty winners and audience choice awardees of the 2023 Undergraduate Research Symposium are:
Faculty of Arts, Celtic Studies, and Philosophy: Adam Cullen (pictured above) mentored by Dr Veronica Johnson, for the research project “Tracing the first Irish female film pioneer” (Media Studies Department).
Faculty of Social Sciences: Lionel Swan, mentored by Dr Abdul Aziz Mohibbi and Dr Helen Shaw, for the research project “Measuring change in peatland by remote sensing and GI” (Geography Department and ICARUS). Lionel Swan was unable to attend the prizegiving ceremony and as such his prize was collected by Dr Helen Shaw (pictured above)
Faculty of Science and Engineering: Áine O’Brien (pictured above), mentored by Prof Karen English, for the research project “Can mesenchymal stromal cells calm macrophages?” (Biology Department and Lonsdale Institute for Human Health).
Audience Choice Award: This year, an audience choice voting system proved very popular. Congratulations to Dearbhla Brady (pictured above), the Audience Choice Winner, mentored by Dr Lorna Lopez and Dr Laura Fahey, for the research project “Post genome-wide association analysis (GWAS) results for ADHD and sleep related phenotypes, a comparison” (Biology Department).
A sincere thank you to the faculty mentors and students that have been involved in this programme to date.SPUR 2024 will reopen for faculty staff applications in early January. For further details on SPUR and the additional programmes the Careers and Employability Service delivers, visit www.maynoothuniversity.ie/careers