2006 IRISH SCIENTIST YEAR BOOK

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University College Cork
William Reville
Explaining science

UCC's Nicolle Wilke, from the Department of Microelectronic Engineering and the Tyndall National Institute, won second place in an "Irish Universities Promoting Science"* an initiative, organised in association with The Irish Times and the RDS. This was the All Ireland Inter-University Final of the Science Postgraduate Students' Public Presentation Competition, held under the banner Science Speak. The event, chaired by Pat Kenny, RT�, was held at the RDS on 15th May 2006. Nicolle's presentation on micro-needles was a close second to the winner, Stephen Nolan of UCD who spoke on kidney disease. Postgraduate students from NUI Galway, NUI Maynooth, DCU, TCD and UL also took part in Science Speak.

Nicolle emerged as the UCC representative at Science Speak following the final of the second annual UCC Science Postgraduate Student Public Presentation Competition held on 22nd March 2006 at the Brookfield Health Sciences complex. The competition was greatly expanded this year, open to all senior postgraduate students in the new College of Science, Engineering and Food Science, compared with last year when it was confined to postgraduate students in biological sciences areas in the Faculty of Science.


The UCC Finalists L-R: Nicolle Wilke, Daniel Doolan, Robert Healy, Caroline Blackshields and Siobhain O'Mahony.

The purpose of the UCC Science Postgraduate Student Public Presentation competition is to encourage postgraduate science and engineering students to translate the results of their research into language that is readily understood by the general public. The competition is jointly organised by the College of Science, Engineering and Food Science and the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre (APC). The work of organising the event is carried out by Dr Catherine Buckley, Outreach Manager, APC, Dr Anne Cronin, Science Promotion Officer, Faculty of Science and Professor William Reville, Public Awareness of Science Officer, Faculty of Science.

Participants in the UCC competition each make 15 minute presentations of their research results in a manner understandable by non-scientists. Over 20 applications were received in the competition and 5 finalists were chosen in preliminary heats held during February and March. The 5 finalists, and the titles of their presentations were:

Caroline Blackshields (School of Pharmacy)
Something fishy about post-operative pain control

Daniel Doolan (Department of Computer Science)
Think BIG, play small, think mobile

Nicolle Wilke (Department of Microelectronics and Tyndall National Institute)
Microneedles � forget about pain and anxiety

Robert Healy (Department of Chemistry)
The chemistry of smog

Siobhain O'Mahony (APC/Psychiatry Department)
Irritable Bowel Syndrome: a miscommunication between the brain and the gut?

Nicolle Wilke's winning presentation described how she used fabrication processes from the semiconductor industry to make tiny needles, shorter than half a millimetre, that inflict no pain in use with patients. Such needles can be mass-produced for the medical industry and will be very important for treatment of children, for use in dentistry and with people who suffer from needle-phobia.

The UCC final was judged by a panel comprised of The Lord Mayor of Cork, Councillor Deirdre Clune (Chair); Peter Brabazon, Programme Director, Discover Science and Engineering, Forfas; Jennie O'Sullivan, RTE, Cork; Kathriona Devereux, Scope Science TV Programme Presenter; Mr Niall Murray, Education Correspondent, Irish Examiner.

The Science Postgraduate Student Public Presentation Competition at UCC flies under the general banner of Science for All and, building on the success of this competition, a new Science for All Design Competition is under development to run in parallel with the public presentation competition in 2007.

The aim of this new Science for All Design Competition is to encourage both final year undergraduate students and postgraduate students to communicate the results of their final year research projects or postgraduate research to the general public, by developing a display exhibit that explains their work in a visually stimulating, interactive and 'hands-on' way. The Grand Final of the Design Competition will be organised as a Display Day for schools and the general public in March 2007, when the final judging and prize giving will take place.

* The Irish Universities Promoting Science initiative involves the Science Faculties/Colleges of UCC, UCD, TCD, DCU, NUI Galway, NUI Maynooth and the University of Limerick working together to promote science and science education ( www.universityscience.ie )

Contact: Professor William Reville, UCC.
Tel: 00353214904127.
E-mail: [email protected]