News and Events

Group Design Project Module

This week we had the conclusion of the Group Design Project module, where our 3rd year Civil Engineering and Structural Engineering with Architecture students presented their designs. The module requires the student to work in teams to develop their own scheme designs, and all within a digital / BIM environment. The students have a choice of briefs - this year they included a medical centre, a makerspace, a leisure centre and a student accommodation block. It's always inspiring to see how quickly the students take to new design processes, and the support of our industry mentors Ben Gallery (ROD) and Sorcha Van Dessell (CS Consulting) in advising the students is greatly appreciated.

Site visit to Uisce Éireann (Irish Water) Water Treatment plant at Ballymore Eustace

Class photo of students taking the CVEN40070 Water & Wastewater treatment processes module on a site visit to Uisce Éireann (Irish Water) Water Treatment plant at Ballymore Eustace, Co. Kildare on April 16, 2025. The water treatment plant at Ballymore Eustace is the largest water treatment facility in Ireland. The student group consists of masters students taking the ME (Civil) and MEngSc (Water & Envrionmental), as well as study abroad students from the USA, Canada and France.

Stage 2 Civil Engineering - Construction Practice

As part of the surveying component of Stage 2 Civil Engineering module CVEN20120 Construction Practice, Sisk Construction and Levelling Equipment Services (LES) came to the UCD campus to engage with the Civil & Structural Engineering with Architecture students. The Sisk personnel gave a presentation on the construction projects that they have undertaken and outline career prospects with the company. LES gave an overview and demonstration of the most modern surveying technology. These presentations were followed by a surveying exercise on the UCD campus conducted by SISK/LES that enabled the students to get some hands-on experience of using this digital surveying technology.

Exciting News: Sean de Courcy Student Award Winner

I am pleased to share that one of our master's students, Niall Hanratty, who graduated last year and was jointly supervised by Dr. Ciaran McNally and Dr. Mehran Khan, won the Sean de Courcy Student Award at the 42nd Irish Concrete Society Awards held in Dublin on Saturday, 29 March.

Tiernan Byrne Bursary 2025

Head of School, Assoc. Prof. John O'Sullivan, with the 2025 recipient of the Tiernan Byrne Bursary, Md. Ibrahim Patwary. The Bursary is awarded annually in memory of Tiernan, a past student of the School and recognises the positive impact he had on his fellow students and the staff in UCD Civil Engineering.

2025 School of Civil Engineering PhD Bursary

Presentation of Parchments by Engineers Ireland to UCD

Faculty of Civil Engineering receiving Accreditation Certificates from Engineers Ireland.

UCD researchers win Una Europa PhD Impact awards

Two UCD engineering researchers have been recognised at the inaugural Una Europa PhD Impact awards.

Ava Azadi Chegeni, from UCD’s School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, was named one of three overall winners, while Sohini Mishra, from UCD’s School of Civil Engineering, was Highly Commended by the competition judges. The awards recognise and celebrate the impact, and potential impact, of research and researchers across the Una Europa alliance in the area of Future Materials.

Ava will present her winning case study to the Una Europa General Assembly in Bologna this week

UCD Civil Engineering researchers named in top 2% of scientists globally

Four researchers from the UCD School of Civil Engineering have been named among the top 2% of scientists globally in the prestigious Elsevier and Stanford University’s 2024 rankings - Prof. Eugene O'Brien, Associate Professor Arturo Gonzalez and Dr. Abdollah Malekjafarian for their research in structural dynamics and Dr. Mehran Khan for his work in civil engineering and construction materials. The rankings recognise career-long impact and are based on established metrics that reflect scholarly influence and research excellence in their respective fields of study.

UCD Global Cultural Week

As part of UCD Global week in partnership with the Global Lounge, we gathered in celebration of our School's rich Cultural Diversity. The event showcased various aspects of culture from Spain, China and Pakistan. Presentations focused on influences of culture and landscape on unique national infrastructures. It was a wonderful opportunity for both students and staff to share, learn, and appreciate the diverse backgrounds that make up our community.

UCD Civil Engineering doctoral students win CERI 2024 presentation awards

Congratulations to UCD Civil Engineering doctoral students - Mohadeseh Ashkarkalaei, Md Arman Habib, Mahmoud Abdelhek and Muhammad Saqlain - who won best student presentation awards at the Civil Engineering Research Association in Ireland (CERI 2024) conference held in Alice Perry Engineering Building at University of Galway on the 29th and 30th of August 2024.

UCD congratulates its new CDIC Civil Engineering Infrastructure graduates!

Friday 28th of June marked the occasion of the 2024 UCD graduation ceremony for CDIC students of Civil Engineering Infrastructure. On the day, Professor Colin Scott, UCD Registrar and Deputy President/Vice President for Academic Affairs conferred degrees on 120 graduates. In attendance were UCD and CDIC staff.

Visit of Subject Extern Examiner, Professor Eleni Chatzi to the UCD School of Civil Engineering

The School of Civil Engineering was delighted to welcome Professor Eleni Chatzi, Chair of Structural Mechanics & Monitoring, ETH Zürich, on Friday 28 th June.
Professor Chatzi is the Subject Extern Examiner for the School, and this was the first of her visits in this capacity. She met with faculty members, and students on our undergraduate and taught graduate programmes.

Engineers Without Borders UK, Engineering for People Design Challenge 2024

The School of Civil Engineering incorporates the EWB UK Engineering for People Design Challenge into its Creativity in Design module which is taken by all 320 first year engineering students, along with elective students. This year two of our Creativity in Design teams were selected to compete in the Engineering for People Design Challenge 2024 Grand Finals, in Manchester Stoller Hall. This is a significant accomplishment for both teams so congratulations to both. We are delighted to announce that the UCD team who designed an affordable solar integrated purification system were crowned the winners!

Student Prize winner at 12 th International Conference on Environmental Modelling and Software 2024

Congratulations to Ms. Samira Islam, Master of Engineering student from the UCD School of Civil Engineering, who received third prize in the iEMSs Student Prizes at the 12th International Conference on Environmental Modelling and Software (iEMSs) held in East Lansing, Michigan, USA in June. Samira presented her work on leak monitoring in water distribution networks, which used multi-agent systems, machine learning and GPR. This was the topic of her masters research project, completed under the guidance of Assistant Professor David Ayala-Cabrera.

UCD Stormwater Runoff Research featured in Nicola Haines Team at this years bloom festival

Puneeta Sreenivas a PhD student working with Sarah Cotterill in the UCD School of Civil Engineering is evaluating a material called BlueLay for its potential use in Sustainable Drainage Systems.

Chang’an University Delegation Visit

The School of Civil Engineering was delighted to receive a visit from a high-level delegation from Chang’an University on 27th May. The aim of the visit was to explore the potential for strengthening the partnership between Chang’an University and UCD, with specific discussion around cognate research areas, and taught masters programmes. The delegation took a tour of the laboratories in the School of Civil, and met with research students.

Student Awards Evening 2024, sponsored by Winthrop Technologies

The Student Awards evening 2024 show student winners from our Case Studies module, Group Design Project module and Design and Communications module received prizes for their excellent academic performance. UCD Civil Engineering sincerely thank our sponsor, Winthrop Technologies, for their continued support and their recognition of student excellence.

UCD Awards Day 2024

On 8th March 2024 UCD welcomed award recipients, their families and friends, faculty and donors to the campus for the annual UCD Awards Day Ceremony. The School of Civil Engineering is very proud of all of those who received awards at the ceremony, and extends its congratulations to all of the awardees. A list of the Civil Engineering awardees can be found at the link below.

Irish Delegation Led by Minister Jack Chambers Attends TRB 2024 in Washington DC

The Irish delegation led by Minister Jack Chambers attends TRB 2024 in Washington DC in January 2024. Dr. Beatriz Martinez-Pastor joined the Irish delegation. As the coordinator of the Horizon Europe project aimed at supporting the preparation for the upcoming TRA 2024, Dr. Martinez-Pastor was part of the Irish delegation promoting the TRA2024 conference, scheduled to take place in Dublin in April 2024. The aim was to establish new connections and collaborations with the American event.