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Castlebar’s James Swift and Ballyjamesduff’s Killian Smith named joint winners of ATU Galway’s 2025 Undergraduate Engineering Competition
ATU students James Swift and Killian Smith have been named as joint overall winners of the Undergraduate Engineering Competition at the 2025 ATU Galway annual Engineering Exhibition and Competition. Their work now gains them automatic entry into Engineer Ireland’s Innovative Student Engineer of the Year competition which will take place in Dublin in Autumn.
ATU students James Swift and Killian Smith have been named as joint overall winners of the Undergraduate Engineering Competition at the 2025 ATU Galway annual Engineering Exhibition and Competition. Their work now gains them automatic entry into Engineer Ireland’s Innovative Student Engineer of the Year competition which will take place in Dublin in Autumn.
James, from Castlebar, Co Mayo, also claimed the Energy Engineering Award for his winning project, “Harnessing Hydrogen – A Study into Renewable Energy Storage Using Hydrogen”.
“My project aims to provide a means of storing excess renewable electricity during times of low demand using a hydrogen fuel cell system. The prototype I developed uses electrolysis to produce and store hydrogen, which can later be converted back into electricity through galvanic operation when needed. The system is entirely emissions-free, with water as the only byproduct.” he said.
Killian, from Ballyjamesduff, Co Cavan, was also awarded the Agricultural Engineering Award for his project titled “Engineering Design & Development of an Easy-Lift Mechanism for Efficient Handling of Vacuum Hoses on Trailed & Mounted Vacuum Tankers”.
“The prototype I developed helps operators of vacuum tankers lift heavy vacuum hoses onto the side of the tanks without risking injury. It’s especially beneficial for elderly farmers, helping them continue working safely.” he said.
The winners were selected from 100 students whose work was electronically displayed. After a comprehensive shortlisting and voting process, 55 projects were selected for physical display in ATU Galway’s Café Foyer from 28 April to 2 May. The students’ work was carefully critiqued and evaluated by a panel of 40 external engineering professionals, from 30 sponsoring companies, during the formal competition held on campus on the afternoon of Wednesday, 30 April.
Other final year students won engineering awards in other categories such as Biomedical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering Design and Mechanical Engineering specialisation streams as follows:
Darragh Faherty from Gleann Na Ri, Galway, received the Biomedical Engineering Award for his project titled “Investigation of Vibration Assisted Kidney Stone Passage using a 3D Printed Anatomical Kidney Model”.
“For my project, I built a bespoke biomedical vibration platform which allowed me to investigate kidney stone size and frequency dependant displacement behaviour. A custom 3D printed renal pelvis model was printed in clear TPU and synthetic stone were casted in varying sizes.”
Jamie Flynn from Ballinasloe, Co Galway, won the Manufacturing Engineering Design Award for his research on “Optimisation of a 3D Printing Process using a Machine Learning Algorithms”. He said
“My project integrated Machine Learning into the 3D printing. I developed an artificial neural network to predict optimum tensile strength and print times based on user input constraints.”
Niall Mc Morrow from Sligo was awarded the Mechanical Engineering, Biomedical Stream Award for the “Design and Development of a Lumbar Interbody Fusion Device”. “For my final year project, I engineered and developed a more sustainable, cost-effective, and efficient alternative to existing spinal fusion devices currently available on the market.” he said.
Colm Nolan from Athenry, Galway, was awarded the Mechanical Engineering, Design Stream Award, for his “Machine Vision, Raspberry PI controlled Pick and Place Machine”
“I researched and designed, a smart, QR code–guided pick-and-place robot using a Raspberry Pi and stepper motors to automate item sorting with precision, speed and efficiency.” he said
Seán Cooney from Cloonfad, Co Roscommon, received the Mechanical Engineering, Energy Stream Award for the “Swing-Up and Stabilisation of a Rotary Inverted Pendulum with Machine Learning and Condition Monitoring”.
“I researched and applied machine learning algorithms to autonomously stabilise a custom-designed rotary inverted pendulum. The system collects and analyses vibrational and temperature data to assess motor conditions, enabling predictive maintenance.” he said.
Seán Abse from Athenry, Co Galway, was awarded the Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing Stream Award for his “PLA Waste Recycling Machine.”
“My project focuses on recycling waste PLA from 3D printing into new, reusable filament. The machine I developed makes recycling accessible and affordable for hobbyists, providing a proper process for reusing waste material.” he explains.
Two additional special recognition awards were given to Adam Pratt, Agricultural Engineering student from Co Cavan, and Damjan Arbutina, Mechanical Bio-Stream student from Oranmore, all of whom narrowly missed out on awards but produced extremely high calibre project work.
In the Postgraduate Category, Vahid Farmani from Galway won the Postgraduate Award for his poster titled “Estimating Individualized Treatment Effect of Successful Recanalization in Ischemic Stroke Patients”.
“Successful recanalization after mechanical thrombectomy is known to improve outcomes in stroke patients. However, to measure the treatment effect on individual patients, we need to know their outcomes under both successful and unsuccessful recanalization scenarios. In real life, only one outcome is observed for each patient. In this work, we use predictive AI modelling to estimate the missing outcome, so that we can compare the two potential outcomes and estimate the individual treatment effect of successful recanalization.”
Masoumeh Razaghi Pey Ghaleh, an ATU – Galway Biomedical Research student from Karaj, Iran, who is living in Renmore, won the Runners Up Award for her work on “Optimising Skin Graft Meshing Techniques to Improve Afterburn Care.”
Academic Excellence Awards and Integrated Project Awards were given to several Non-Award Year students as follows.
Academic Excellence Awards were presented to students based upon their retrospective stage performance in their chosen programme.
The stage 1 recipients were: Conor Moloney from Tipperary, Agricultural Engineering; Maksim Kurdyukov Espoo, Finland, Biomedical Engineering; Makenzie Martin from Cork, Common Entry Engineering; Max Dunst from, Energy Engineering; Conor Ryan from Galway, Mechanical Engineering; and David Cannon from Galway, Manufacturing Engineering Design.
The Stage 2 award recipients were: Liam Clabby from Longford, Agricultural Engineering; Helene Paty, originally from France now living in Galway, Biomedical Engineering; Sean Loewen from Galway, Energy Engineering; Daniel Keane from Galway, Mechanical Engineering; and Kevin O’Donoghue from Galway, Manufacturing Engineering Design.
The stage 3 recipients were: Adam Pratt from Cavan, Agricultural Engineering; Joel Trett Oliver from Spain, Biomedical Engineering; Ryana Maciel Miranda from Brazil, Energy Engineering; Sean Cooney from Mayo, Mechanical Engineering; and Jamie Flynn from Roscommon , Manufacturing Engineering Design.
The Brian Egan Memorial Award was presented by Brian’s father Paddy Joe to Cian Cosgrove, the best Year 1 student in Engineering Mathematics.
Integrated Project Awards
In stage one, Conor Fehilly received the Manufacturing Engineering Project Award.
In stage two, awards were presented to Josh Dobbyn-Butler, Ronan Conway, Calum McCaughan, Daryl Burke for their top-down design Computer Aided Design engine design, modelling, simulation and rapid prototype work; and to Karl O’Malley, Maksim Kurdyukov, SAm Sadaf Haque for their 3D Slicer organ reconstitution modelling work.
In stage three, awards were presented to Abby Jennings, Aine Gibbons, Aoibhin O’Brien, Caoimhe De Brun, Veronica Creaven for their integrated Design, Build and Test micro injection moulding machine; and to Dylan Collins, Brian McEvilly, Evan Hamilton, Rhys Rorke for their Year 3 BIM Project, Design and HVAC simulation work.
Organised annually by the ATU Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, this year’s competition was sponsored and adjudicated by 40 engineering representatives from 30 companies. The sponsoring companies included: Aerogen, BSCI (Boston Scientific), C&F Tooling, CBRE, Chanelle Pharma, Collins Plastics, Cook Medical, Engineers Ireland, Engineers Ireland West, Fort Wayne Metals, Glanua, Hollister, Impact Metals, JFC Group, Major Equipment, McHale, Medtronic, Merit Medical, PEM, PortWest, RPS Group, Stryker, TE Connectivity, TRANE Technologies, Transitions Optical, Unitherm Heating Systems, Valeo, Vantive, Ward and Burke and Zimmer Biomet
Event organiser and Mechanical Engineering Departmental lecturer Dr Oliver Mulryan said “The Engineering Expo is a flagship event that strengthens the connection between our department and industry. This year’s showcase featured an impressive range of innovative student projects across all stages, clearly reflecting the practical skills and creativity of our students. We commend our students for their ingenuity, and we are deeply grateful to the mentors, judges, and sponsoring companies whose invaluable support help make this event such a success. Your continued commitment to our students and programmes is truly appreciated.”
Professor Graham Heaslip, Head of School of Engineering, ATU Galway, said: “This year’s engineering exhibition was an outstanding success, highlighting the creativity, problem-solving skills, and future-ready thinking of our students. Each project reflected a deep understanding of real-world challenges and demonstrated the kind of innovation that defines the next generation of engineers.”
Head of Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Des O’Reilly added: “Congratulations Oliver and team on a wonderful event. The Engineering Expo comes together thanks to the close relationship between industry, ATU staff and students”.
For information on all programmes in the ATU Galway-Mayo School of Engineering
Study at ATU – Atlantic Technological University
Photo captions [Photos: Brad Anderson. No repro fee]
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ATU Agricultural Engineering award winner Killian Smith from Ballyjamesduff, pictured with ATU Head of Department Des O’Reilly, and Noel Sheridan, Senior Design Engineer, McHale.
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