May Ezine 2019
May Ezine 2019
It was a great pleasure to recently confer DCU honorary doctorates on two iconic figures in Irish sport. Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh and Joe Schmidt are truly deserving of the honour of Doctor of Philosophy (Honoris Causa), and unsurprisingly, the ceremony was full of warmth, wisdom and wit.
Micheál is the voice of our national games - Guth na gCluichí Gaelacha. A champion, not just for sport, but also for the Irish language and for our country’s older citizens. Joe is Irish Rugby’s most successful ever national head coach. He’s an inspirational leader who encourages and cultivates not only excellence but also important values.
Both men started life as teachers, and have continued their dedication to the development and education of young people, on and off the pitch. Indeed, Joe Schmidt once said, “a lot of coaching is just teaching and learning”.
The honorees’ charity work was also highlighted. In his citation, Jim Dowling, the former Deputy President of DCU noted Joe’s work for Epilepsy Ireland. Meanwhile the citation delivered by Larry Quinn, Chairman of the DCU Educational Trust, described Micheál as “a standard bearer for healthy and active aging in Ireland”.
The hard work of so many staff and students in making DCU a more sustainable University is really starting to pay off. Dublin City University has been ranked in the world’s Top 100 in the inaugural Times Higher Education (THE) University Impact Rankings.
The rankings rate universities on their positive impact on the social and economic fabric of society, using the framework of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The University’s strong performance in the areas of climate action, sustainability, health and wellbeing were singled out as strong factors in DCU achieving it’s ranking at 98th in the world.
In its commentary, Times Higher Education said: ‘DCU’s inclusion in these rankings is in itself a great achievement and it marks DCU out as a global pioneer – demonstrating the institution’s commitment not just to supporting the Sustainable Development Goals through its teaching, research and knowledge transfer, but also to embodying the goals in DCU’s internal practices, policies and procedures...’.
DCU ranked in eleven of the overall seventeen United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and performed most highly in three:
● Climate Action (SDG 13) DCU is ranked at no. 28
● Responsible Consumption and Production (SDG 12) DCU is ranked at no. 42
● Partnership for the Goals (SDG 17) - DCU is ranked at no. 48
It was a real pleasure to welcome Bank of Ireland CEO Francesca McDonagh to DCU last month, as part of the Mary McAleese Women in Leadership series.
It was interesting to learn that Francesca’s rapid rise to the higher echelons of the banking sector didn’t come with the support of expensive private schooling or family advantages. Her story stands as a reminder that those with talent, dedication and ambition can get to the top of their field.
As with other speakers in the series, she offered many valuable insights. When asked about the role of mentorship in a career path, she suggested keeping it simple: “find someone you respect and admire and buy them a cup of coffee once a month.”
She also acknowledged imposter syndrome as something she has experienced at various stages, but urged women to embrace leadership roles and develop confidence: “I think self-belief is really important and having a few people in your life who really give you that backbone or confidence... the belief that you’re good enough. Take on the risk of failing, apply for jobs even if you don’t think you’ll get it.
Francesca added that she had benefited greatly from “being very receptive to feedback, even from people whom you know don’t like you, and being self-correcting.”
It was a real pleasure to attend the recent event in the U celebrating a record-breaking year for DCU Women’s Rugby. DCU is the first club ever to win a ‘Clean Sweep’ of Intervarsity Women’s Rugby competitions in a single season.
They are champions of Division 1 and Division 2, All-Ireland Cup Winners, Winners of the Kay Bowen Intervarsities Cup, and All Ireland Sevens Champions. By any standard, in any sport, and indeed at any level, that is an incredible achievement.
I congratulate all the players involved in the club. A season like this does not happen without an incredible amount of hard work and dedication on the part of everyone involved. Congratulations also to Head Coach Eddie Fallon, Assistant Coach Ailsa Hughes and Rugby Development Officer Rob Mullen.
The sale of a DCU-born tech startup made headlines last month. Touchtech emerged from DCU’s student entrepreneurship programme, UStart, which was coordinated by the team at the DCU Ryan Academy for Entrepreneurs. It was acquired by online payments giant Stripe (another Irish-led success story) last month for an undisclosed sum.
Touchtech was established in 2014, while co-founder Shekinah Adewumi was studying Mechatronic Engineering at DCU. The company was later scaled up at the DCU Alpha Innovation Campus in Glasnevin.
It was one of the first financial technology companies in Europe to develop a solution that uses biometric scanning to authenticate online payments. It also became the first Irish company to offer a MasterCard and Visa certified payment authentication system using fingerprinting in 2015.
The Touchtech story shows how DCU’s support for student entrepreneurship enables new ideas to develop and flourish. In this way, the creativity of students can be translated into economic and societal benefits, and the students themselves benefit hugely from the experience.
There was an undoubtedly emotional edge to the recent launch of ‘Fearless: The Journalism of Mary Raftery’. The opening of this excellent new exhibition, at the O’Reilly Library on our Glasnevin Campus, came just days after the murder of investigative journalist Lyra McKee. The killing provided a stark reminder of the real dangers faced by reporters who investigate the dark corners of our society.
Mary Raftery was one such reporter. Indeed, her legacy as one of the most influential journalists of the past half-century has yet to be surpassed. She continues to inspire successive generations entering the profession.
The exhibition launch coincided with the 20th anniversary of the airing of Raftery’s groundbreaking television documentary series ‘States of Fear’ (RTÉ, 1999). Based on extensive research and the personal testimony of survivors of the industrial school system, the series prompted an apology from the Irish Government and resulted in the establishment of a commission of inquiry into the schools. Congratulations must go to all those involved in the exhibition, particularly Mark O’Brien, Miriam Corcoran and David Meehan (as seen in the photo above)
The event also provided the opportunity to announce details of a new journalism industry prize for investigative journalism - The Mary Raftery Prize. This honour will be awarded annually to an individual or small team responsible for journalistic work produced on the island of Ireland that demonstrates the rigorous analysis and commitment to social justice which characterised Mary Raftery’s journalism, and also resulted in a significant impact on society.
Last month saw another step forward in DCU’s efforts to improve pathways to third level education for all, with the launch of the new DCU Access to the Workplace Programme. This pilot initiative will provide up to 45 DCU 2nd Year Access students with a high quality work placement this summer, hosted by 30 leading Irish companies participating in the scheme.
The scheme was developed through a collaboration between DCU’s Access Service and DCU Educational Trust. It came about due to an understanding that Access students rely on summer employment to save for the upcoming academic year. The companies involved will offer placements that will allow our students to not only generate a modest income this summer but also to prepare for working in a professional environment and to gain experience in their chosen field.
Participating enterprises will also benefit greatly from the programme. With over 28 years’ experience of running Ireland’s largest Access programme, we know that our Access students excel academically. But they also possess other attributes that employers value, such as resilience, adaptability, and the ability to apply analytical skills to new challenges.
The companies taking part in Access to the Workplace in 2019 are: AIG Europe Ltd, Aon Ireland, B.C. McGettigan Limited, Bonnington Hotel, Britvic International and Ireland, CAE Parc Aviation, Cityjet Ltd, Codex Office Solutions, Collen Construction, County Monaghan Fund, CRH Plc, Fenergo, Marks and Spencer Ireland Matheson, Matthews Coach Hire Limited, McGarrell Reilly Group, McKeon Group, Mondelez Ireland Ltd, National Treasury Management Agency, Oracle, Pigsback.com, PwC, Verizon Media Group, Vodafone, Willis Towers Watson, Highfield Hospital Group, Irish Aviation Authority, Irish Distillers Pernod Ricard, Neogen, William Fry Solicitors.
DCU has a well-established reputation for Innovation based on our effective translation of knowledge created through research into outcomes that benefit society and the economy. The achievements of DCU staff and students in this area was celebrated last month at the presentation of the 2019 President’s Awards for Innovation.
The Academic and Research Category Award was won by Dr Finbarr O’Sullivan from the National Institute of Cellular Biotechnology (NICB). Dr O’Sullivan’s research has focussed on addressing sight loss, and in particular on the development of cultured cornea-limbal stem eye cells to regenerate the cornea surface for the treatment of patients.
In the Student Category, PhD student, Eva Vanmassenhove took the award for her work on tackling the issue of gender bias in machine translation.
Undergraduate Computer Applications student, Kevin Cogan, was also an award-winner for his Dyslex-E programme. This application creates a dyslexic-friendly online environment to reduce the number of reading errors on screen, and increase user reading speed and accessibility.
The achievements of staff and students in working with a variety of communities was also celebrated at the event, where the 2019 President’s Awards for Engagement were presented. This year’s award winning contributions embodied the mission of DCU to ‘transform lives and societies’.
Dr Elizabeth Mathews, from the School of Inclusive & Special Education, was winner of the Staff Category. Dr Mathews has been working with the deaf community since 2003. During her time at DCU, Dr Mathews has made a leading contribution to the opening of BEd Irish Sign Language (first of its kind in Ireland), and the development of an ISL STEM glossary, as part of an SFI-funded project.
A Special Merit Award went to Prof Barry McMullin, from the School of Electronic Engineering, for his public policy engagement and leadership in the area of climate change and sustainability.
The Student Category Award went to Austin Campbell (MSc PR and Strategic Communications) for My Streets - a social enterprise that engages homeless trainees on a three month programme based around storytelling and confidence, creative writing and tour guiding skills delivered by professional trainers.
A Special Merit Award went to Jennifer Harrington (School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering) for her role in promoting the greater female participation in engineering through activities such as establishing the DCU Women in Engineering Community and organising the Women in Engineering Open Day at DCU.
It’s an alarming fact that Ireland throws away 200 million single-use coffee cups every year. In an effort to play our part, DCU recently entered an exciting new partnership called CoCup that will be rolled out across our campuses shortly.
This is essentially a Deposit and Return scheme for coffee cups. You simply pay a deposit for a reusable takeaway cup, and you get your deposit back when you return it to any participating coffee outlet.
This pilot scheme, brings together DCU and Trinity College with our local authority, Dublin City Council, to provide a leadership example in the area of sustainability. Along with your commitment to phase out single-use plastics, this is an important part of our efforts to ‘place sustainability at the core of the University’ (Strategic Goal #8).
DCU’s Sustainability Manager Samantha Fahy is to be commended for driving this partnership. I was also delighted to discover that the enterprise that is operating the initiative, 2GoCup Ltd, was founded by DCU Business School student Kevin Murphy.
None of us working in Irish Universities doubts the positive impact our activities have on our society, but a new report prepared by consultants Indecon lays out the socio-economic benefits in black and white, and the figures are impressive.
The report (the first undertaken on the impact of Universities on the economy and society) found that Universities generate €386 million per annum from international students and €1.5 billion in R&D impacts. The study, commissioned by the Irish Universities Association (IUA), found that the Irish economy benefited by €8.9 billion last year from Ireland’s seven universities.
In one regard, the report is extremely positive, and stands as an endorsement of the sector’s achievements. However, it comes against a background of ever-increasing student numbers, and the continued under-resourcing of Irish Universities.
The month began with a celebration of arts, ideas and creativity, in the shape of our second annual Anam festival. Anam 2019 enlivened all of our academic campuses with music, art, discussion and literature.
The programme highlighted the impressive talent of both our staff and our students. Congratulations must go to the programme curators South Wind Blows, led by Philip King, our team in DCU President’s Office, and the many staff and student volunteers who helped make events such a success.
It is hard to pick out highlights, but it must be said that The Heart of the Rowl (in All Hallows Church) featured some remarkable performances from the likes of David Keenan, Cormac Begley and Libby McCrohan, Síle Denvir and DCU Trad Soc. The Visual Voices exhibition (part of DCU’s University of Sanctuary Mellie storytelling initiative) was a moving and impactful exploration of life in ‘direct provision’, and it was a privilege to catch Five Cities, a unique musical collaboration between Ireland and India led by our own Ronan Guilfoyle and renowned percussionist Ramesh Shotham.
Anam is an integral part of DCU’s Strategic Goal to “nurture creativity and culture across the University, as well as a commitment to developing a North Dublin Cultural Quarter.