From Saltmarshes to Soil: Our 2024 Earth Day Flash Talk Competition celebrates diverse early career research across UCD
One of the highlights of our spring calendar is our annual Earth Day Flash Talk competition for early career researchers working on environmental, climate and sustainability topics. For our 2024 Flash Talk competition, we hosted an exciting lineup of twelve speakers from seven UCD schools engagingly discussing topics as diverse as soil, urban governance, saltmarshes, pollinators, biosynthesis, sustainable energy and more - with each presentation lasting just two minutes!
Presenters were judged on clarity, content and charisma of the presentations by our three judges, Dr Karen Foley, Emeritus Assistant Professor in UCD Landscape, Architecture, Planning and Environmental Policy; Dr Rajat Nag, Assistant Professor in UCD School of Biosystems and Food Engineering; and Dr Marta Talevi, Assistant Professor in UCD School of Economics. The event was looked after by our entertaining and engaging MC, Dr Shane McGuinness, Assistant Professor in UCD School of Geography.
Despite the time constraints, participants delivered succinct and engaging presentations, impressing both judges and audience members alike. Following careful deliberation, the winners of the competition were announced:
- Aisling Moffatt from the School of Agriculture and Food Science received the Overall Prize (€150) for her presentation titled “Operation Soil Appreciation.”
- Andrea Fuchs, representing the School of Biology and Environmental Science, won the Most Creative Presentation Prize (€50) for her talk on “Saltmarshes to the Rescue! How Managed Realignment Could Offset Ireland's Greenhouse Gas Emissions.”
- Mehran Alizadeh Pirbasti from the School of Computer Science & ML-Labs was awarded the Audience Vote Prize (€75) for his work on “Machine Learning-Based Detection and Mapping of Water Hyacinth Growth Cycle.”
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Earth Day Flash Talks 2024 winners (left to right) Mehran Alizadeh Pirbasti, Andrea Fuchs, and Aisling Moffat with MC Shane McGuinness and judge Karen Foley.
Earth Institute director Eoin O'Neill remarked, “The Earth Day flash talk competition continues to be a valuable platform for showcasing the talent and dedication from our early career researchers towards addressing environmental, climate and sustainability topics and presenting their research in an engaging and accessible way.”
Thanks go to the presenters, the judges and MC and to everyone who supported and attended this event.
The full list of speakers and presentations were:
- Saule Akhmetkaliyeva | School of Biology and Environmental Science | Unlocking the carbon secrets of Ireland's saltmarshes
- Boris Morin | School of Mathematics and Statistics | Comparing PV and wind models to analyse RES droughts events in Ireland
- Ruodi Yang | School of Geography | Urban governance of public space in London
- Theresia Krausl | Lund University | All by myself - grassland plants under pollinator decline
- Shivani Khatri | School of Biology and Environmental Science | Comparative analysis of soil microbial communities in different barley genotypes
- Amber Barry | School of Chemistry & BiOrbic | Synthesising a greener future
- Mehran Alizadeh Pirbasti | School of Computer Science & ML-Labs | Machine learning-based detection and mapping of water hyacinth growth cycle
- Gabrielle Young | School of Agriculture and Food Science | Novel casing materials for mushroom production - evaluation using microcosms
- Andrea Fuchs | School of Biology and Environmental Science | Saltmarshes to the rescue! How managed realignment could offset Ireland's greenhouse gas emissions
- Pablo Vizcaino Garcia | School of Mathematics and Statistics | How and why we can model and understand wind flow through mathematics
- Charlene Vance | School of Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering | Comparing apples to oranges: Life cycle thinking for sustainable decision-making
- Aisling Moffatt | School of Agriculture and Food Science | Operation Soil Appreciation
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