Courses
ATU students recognised for engineering innovation at annual Expo
Atlantic Technological University (ATU) student Sean Loewen has been named overall winner of the Undergraduate Engineering Competition at the 2026 Annual Engineering Exhibition and Competition, held at ATU’s Galway City campus.
His success secures automatic entry to Engineers Ireland’s Innovative Student Engineer of the Year competition, which will take place in Dublin this autumn.
Sean, from Killimor, Co Galway, also received the Energy Engineering Award for his project, Direct Electrical Induction for Heat-treating Metal Finishes.
Describing his work, Sean said: “For my final year project, I designed, built and performance-tested a Direct Electrical Induction heat-treatment machine, which can be used for the decarbonisation of heat-treatment surface finishes such as powder coating.”
The winners were selected from 120 students whose projects were electronically displayed. Following a comprehensive shortlisting and voting process, 70 projects were selected for physical display in the café foyer at ATU’s Galway City campus from 27 April to 1 May. The projects were evaluated by a panel of 50 external engineering professionals representing 40 sponsoring companies during the formal judging event held on campus on Thursday, 1 May.
Other final-year students received awards across categories including Agricultural Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering Design, Software and Electronic Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering specialisations.
Eoin Clune from Barefield, Co Clare received the Agricultural Engineering Award for his project titled Engineering Design and Build of a Multi-Harrow Grass Sward Reseeding and Rejuvenation Machine.
He said: “For my project, I built a new style of machine that reseeds ground while carrying out minimum tillage by combining multiple types of harrows and tines into one machine. This machine is particularly suited to low-cost reseeding and shallow stony ground where ploughs and discs cannot be used, as well as for sowing crops such as kale and redstart.”
Sophie Curran from Bray, Co Wicklow received the Biomedical Engineering Award for her project titled The Engineering Design and Evaluation of Lattice-Structured Porous Femoral Implants.
She said: “Femoral implants are used to restore mobility and reduce pain in patients suffering from osteoporosis and osteoarthritis. Traditional solid implants have limitations such as stress shielding and aseptic loosening due to the mismatch in mechanical properties between the implant and bone. Using femoral anatomy and computer-aided engineering, the aim of the project was to create an implant that replicates the properties of bone, reducing stress shielding and promoting osseointegration.”
Gary Moore from Sligo received the Mechanical Engineering – Energy Stream Award for his project titled Safe and Stress-Free Mounting System for Tractor Mowers.
Describing his project, he said: “I engineered, designed and manufactured a new rigid mounting system for side-mounted conditioner mowers, which greatly reduces the load on a tractor’s three-point lift caused by unbalanced loads.”
Niall Kennedy from Galway received the Manufacturing Engineering Design Award for his project titled Automated Vision Guided Robotic Inspection and Sorting System.
Describing his work, Niall said: “For my project, I developed an automated vision-guided robotic inspection and sorting system. It uses a SensoPart visor vision system to inspect trays of medical-style lure lock caps integrated with a robotic arm. The Kuka robotic arm handles the trays and sorts them into approved or reject locations based on the inspection result.”
Aidan Malone from Ennistymon, Co Clare received the Software and Electronic Engineering Award for his project titled Autonomous Drone Detection and Response System.
Describing his work, Aidan said: “My project detects drones and alerts the user through audible alarms and a servo targeting system. The drone is detected using a machine-learning model that I trained. The system runs on a single Raspberry Pi 4 edge system, which has the potential to be rapidly deployed in temporary environments to provide cost-effective drone detection.”
Sean Forrest from Rosscahill, Co Galway and Tom Maye from Moycullen, Co Galway were joint winners of the Mechanical Engineering – Product Design Stream Award for their projects titled Design and Test of a Sustainable Sound Absorbing Window Shutter for Domestic Use and Design and Development of a CNC Plasma Cutter Suitable for SMEs and Educational Institutions.
Describing their work, Sean said: “I developed a low-cost and sustainable solution to help reduce noise pollution in the home,” while Tom said: “I developed a CNC plasma cutter from the ground up, giving SMEs and schools the ability to prototype and create small production runs of metal parts.”
Thomas Duff from Tuam, Co Galway, who is studying Biomedical Engineering, received a Special Recognition Award for his project work titled Design and Development of a Filter Device for Placement into the Pulmonary Artery.
Describing his work, Thomas said: “I investigated a filter device designed to catch and prevent emboli travelling to the lungs during the removal of infected cardiovascular devices. Infected cardiovascular devices can form vegetations on leads in the heart, and removal of these leads poses a risk of pulmonary embolism.”
Postgraduate Awards
In the postgraduate category, Ali Al Abbas from Galway, who is completing a PhD in Robotics and AI, received the postgraduate award for his poster titled Safe and Self-Paced Robotic Rehabilitation via Video-Based Learning from Demonstration.
Describing his work, he said: “The aim of my research is to make rehabilitation more accessible remotely. The system learns exercises demonstrated by an expert from video recordings, and a robotic arm then replicates the exercise for the patient. The system also independently learns safe interaction force profiles from the patient by interacting with the healthy limb using AI.”
Joyce Mathew from Galway, who is completing a PhD in Biosensors, received the runner-up award for her poster titled Multimodal Wearable Sensor for Muscle Fatigue Monitoring of the Upper Limb.
Describing her work, she said: “Post-stroke rehabilitation involves repetitive upper-limb exercises that can lead to muscle fatigue, affecting recovery outcomes. Current monitoring methods rely on subjective assessment or single-modal sensors, which are often unreliable. This study proposes a multimodal wearable sensing approach integrating electrical, mechanical and physiological signals to capture different aspects of fatigue. The approach suggests potential improvements in monitoring reliability and provides a foundation for future development of data-driven rehabilitation systems.”
Organised annually by the ATU Galway School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, this year’s competition was sponsored and adjudicated by 45 engineering representatives from 36 companies. The sponsoring companies included: AbbVie, Aerogen, Boston Scientific, Carragh Precision, CBRE, Chanelle Pharma, Collins Plastics, Cook Medical, Engineers Ireland West, Engineers Ireland, Fort Wayne Technologies, Freudenberg Medical, Glanua, Hollister, Horner Automation Group, Impact Metals, JFC, MathsWorks, McHale, Medtronic, OCC Construction PEM Engineering, Portwest, Reliance, RPS Tetra, SE Systems, Sky Bridge Technologies, SPECO Sustainability, Stryker, TE Connectivity, Trane Technologies ThermoKing, Unitherm Heating Solutions, Valeo, Vantive – Baxter, Ward and Burke and Zimmer Biomet.
Event organiser and Mechanical Engineering lecturer Dr Oliver Mulryan said:
The Engineering Expo stands as a signature event that strengthens our School’s partnership with industry. This year’s event showcased a remarkable breadth of innovative student projects at every stage of development, demonstrating practical skill, innovation and creativity. We applaud our students for their ingenuity, and we extend our sincere thanks to the mentors, judges and sponsoring companies whose support makes this event possible.
Eamon Walsh, Head of Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering at ATU, added: “This year’s Engineering Expo was an outstanding success, showcasing the creativity, innovation and problem-solving abilities of our students. The event reflects the strong collaboration between industry partners, ATU staff and students, with each project demonstrating future-focused thinking and a deep understanding of real-world engineering challenges. Congratulations to everyone involved in delivering such a successful event.”
Photo captions:
- Featured Photo: Undergraduate – PCAs Departmental overall winner Sean Loewen pictured with all sponsors
- Undergraduate – PCAs Mfg. Eng. Design Niall Kennedy (Sponsor: Zimmer biomet)
- Undergraduate – PCAs Biomedical Sophie Curran (Sponsor: Stryker)
- Undergraduate – PCAs Mechanical Product Design 2 Tom Maye (Sponsor: BSCI)
- Undergraduate – PCAs Energy Sean Loewen (Sponsor: Thermoking)
- Undergraduate – PCAs Software & Electronic Eng Aidan Maline (Sponsor: JFC)
- Undergraduate – PCAs Agricultural Eoin Clune (Sponsor: McHale)
- Undergraduate – PCAs Mechanical Product Design 1 Sean Forrest (Sponsor: Fort Wayne)
- Undergraduate – PCAs Mechanical Energy Stream Gary Moore (Sponsor: Medtronic)
- Postgrad Runner-up Ali Al Abbas (Sponsor: Chanelle Pharma)
- Postgrad Winner Joyce Mathew (Sponsor: Hollister)
- Faculty Award Thomas Duff (Sponsor: SPECO)
For media enquiries, contact:
Catherine Howley
Digital Communications Officer
Tel: 089 219 0501
E: catherine.howley@atu.ie
