Quarterly Newsletter
Issue No 3
January - May 2026
Dear Colleagues,
As we close out another busy teaching cycle, I want to acknowledge all your continued hard work and dedication. We recently received the great news of Jim and Mamoona's promotions which deserve huge congratulations, and signpost another phase in the evolution of our school. Our recent successes with promotions within the school are a strong vindication of the outcomes being achieved among the staff collectively, and show how the school is now maturing into having a wider distribution of grades. Having our first female academic promoted to senior level is a major milestone and hopefully just an indication of many more to come.
Our feedback from IRRP was particularly timely, and should be carefully reflected upon by us all. It called out the need for increased feedback and related staff development actions on the research side. This will ultimately mean exploring how we can stitch in more quantifiable components into PFG and also Workload. The action plan to be settled upon which arises from the IRRP process will focus on these actions mostly, and will give us an opportunity to start exploring how research tracking and development can be implemented with minimal additional overhead.
We look forward to a summer period that will hopefully calm down post exam board and allow some time and space for research, and importantly some time off. Before then I would like our academic staff to take a little bit of time to privately write down some thoughts and reflect on the past semester or two. Reflect on things that you feel could be easily changed, and might have a major impact on how you approach next year. This could help inform your inputs to the workload committee, it might even inform how you redesign some assessments. But now is the time so give this some thought while its fresh in your mind and you are reviewing the grades of your students alongside other modules they have taken.
Wishing you all the best
Dr Enda Howley, Head of School, School of Computer Science
Promotions & Programme Director Updates
Prof Jim Duggan
A massive congratulations to Prof Jim Duggan on his promotion to Established Professor in the School of Computer Science.
This is a huge accomplishment for Jim, his family and all the collaborators and colleagues he has worked with down through the years. His contribution in our unit since its earliest years has been outstanding.
Dr Mamoona Asghar
A big congratulations to Dr Mamoona Asghar on her promotion to Senior Lecturer / Associate Professor at the School of Computer Science. This is a very proud moment for Mamoona, her family and all her colleagues and collaborators.
Mamoona will also now be a Research Pillar lead as a member of senior academic staff with the Cybersecurity and Cyberphysical Systems Pillar within the School.
Dr Priyanka Verma
Congratulations and the best of luck to Dr Priyanka Verma, School of Computer Science, who is the Programme Director for a new Springboard+ funded programme, the PDip In Applied Cybersecurity (part-time).
This programme is a fully online professional upskilling diploma, very similar in structure and format with the PDip in Practical AI for Software Developers. A thank you also to Dr Mamoona Asghar for her great work on the initial proposal, and ongoing support towards launching this exciting new offering.
The programme is now live on our Computer Science website.
New School Members
A Warm Welcome to our new School Board members:
- Marcel Šimon, Research Assistant. Supervisor: Prof Ed Curry
- Olusegun Agbabiaka, Postdoctoral Researcher. Supervisor: Prof Ed Curry
- Parisa Zangeneh, Postdoctoral Researcher. Supervisor: Prof Ed Curry
- Aaron Flanagan, Postdoctoral Researcher. Supervisor: Prof Michael Madden & Dr Ihsan Ullah
- Eleá Thuillier, Teaching Support (TSS). Supervisor: Dr Michael Schukat & Dr Attracta Brennan
- Xue Yang, Teaching Support (TSS). Supervisor: Dr Michael Schukat
Events
Pictured l to r: Mike Conroy (Data2Sustain), Declan McCormack (Department of Enterprise), Dr Ann Ryan (College of Science & Engineering, University of Galway), Sharon Walsh (Fidelity Investments), Prof David Burn (President, University of Galway), Prof Michael Madden (School of Computer Science, University of Galway)
Pictured l to r: Mike Conroy (Data2Sustain), Declan McCormack (Department of Enterprise), Dr Ann Ryan (College of Science & Engineering, University of Galway), Sharon Walsh (Fidelity Investments), Prof David Burn (President, University of Galway), Prof Michael Madden (School of Computer Science, University of Galway)
Itag hosted the annual AI Summit: Practical, Legal and Ethical AI, at The Hardiman Hotel Galway on 11 February 2026.
This year's summit brought together international policy-makers and industry leaders, providing a roadmap for responsible AI deployment in 2026.
Dr Malika Bendechache (pictured above) presented her talk on "Developing Codes of Conduct for AI"
Dr Malika Bendechache (pictured above) presented her talk on "Developing Codes of Conduct for AI"
There was also a dedicated session at the AI Summit presented by Women in AI, exploring regulatory sandboxes and testing facilities for SMEs across Europe in which Dr Malika Bendechache, School of Computer Science, presented.
GY350 Hackathon Organiser Waqar Shahid Qureshi (seated above) pictured alongside participating members at the award cermony in SULT
GY350 Hackathon Organiser Waqar Shahid Qureshi (seated above) pictured alongside participating members at the award cermony in SULT
A GY350 BCT Computing Hackathon took place at the School of Computer Science on 18 March 2026. Our first year BCT students delivered a live public demo to a panel of judges at the semester's flagship showcase event, demonstrating technical depth, teamwork, and creative problem‑solving.
Many thanks to Dr Waqar Shahid Qureshi, School of Computer Science, for curating the event as well as the judges, student facilitators and professional services staff members for assisting with the running of the event.
On 14 April 2026, Prof Jim Duggan, School of Computer Science, presented research outputs from the EU RAPIDE project at the ORAHS International Seminar Series, University of Twente, Netherlands.
Title: 𝐀 𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐬𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦 𝐝𝐲𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐜𝐬 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐜 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬
You can find out more about the ORAHS research series on their webpage.
Dr James McDermott (pictured above) , School of Computer Science, giving his Taster Day session to students on "AI for Music"
Dr James McDermott (pictured above) , School of Computer Science, giving his Taster Day session to students on "AI for Music"
The School of Computer Science hosted a Taster Day for TY students in CSB G001 on the 15th and 16th of April 2026.
The event was well attended with over 100 students in total over the course of the two days, with a balanced mix of male and female attendees reported (M:56, F:46). Students attending the day were from schools in Galway, Mayo, Offaly, Cavan, Clare, Kildare, Wicklow, Westmeath.
Many thanks to Dr Frank Glavin, Dr Nazre Batool, Dr James McDermott, Dr Mamoona Asghar and Dr Sam Redfern for their demonstrations on the day as well as the organising team consisting of Dr Enda Barrett, Seán Walsh, Zuha Hussain and Hazrat Bilal.
The School of Computer Science was proud to host the second annual AtlanTec AI Challenge which took place on 17 April 2026 as part of this year's AtlanTec Festival 'Human Intelligence Driving Transformative Innovation'.
This event included a collaborative hackathon as well as talks and workshops from a number of leading experts including Prof Padhraic Smyth of the Univeristy of California, as well as our Head of School, Dr Enda Howley.
Many thanks to Prof Michael Madden who cordinated the event alongside Itag.
GRC Presentations - CSB 1003
GRC Presentations - CSB 1003
GRC Presentations - CSB 1007
GRC Presentations - CSB 1007
The School of Computer Science's Postgraduate Research Students presented publicly on their research in connection with this year's Graduate Research Committee (GRC) process. Presentations took place on Monday, 27 April 2026 in Rooms CSB-1003 and CSB-1007 (Parallel Sessions) in the Computer Science Building, followed by a post-GRC gathering in SULT (college bar).
The schedule is accessible here: GRC Parallel Sessions Schedule 2026
The School of Computer Science hosted a TY Taster STEM pilot event at the Cairnes building on 5 May 2026.
Many thanks to Dr Frank Glavin, School of Computer Science, who ran 2x2 hour 3D Modelling sessions with over 60 students in attendence throughout the day.
Thanks are also due to Pearse Carroll, Senior Technical Officer, School of Computer Science, for bringing along our robot dog "Scratch", which he gave a demonstration of to the students at the end of each session.
Other Notable CS Events
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Date |
Event |
|---|---|
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January 21 |
CompSoc Coffee Morning A CompSoc Coffee Morning took place in late January taking place in CSB-2006. Many thanks to the professional service staff that helped promote the event. |
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January 29 |
PG Open Day |
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February 7 |
Compsoc Hackathon A CompSoc Hackathon Morning took place in late February taking place in Bailey Allen Hall. Many thanks again to the professional service staff that helped promote the event. |
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February 17 |
Pancake Day Many thanks to School Operations Officer, Thérèse McIntyre, for organising the annual staff pancake day which took place at the School's canteen. |
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April 8 |
BCT Pizza Gathering A post-Final Year Project pizza gathering took place in early April in SULT to acknowledge the students' achievement. |
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April 9 |
AI4Debunk - AI and Disinformation The School of Computer Science hosted this virtual event in which leading voices across research, technology, and policy discussed the evolving challenges of disinformation in the age of AI. School of Computer Science lecturer, Dr Jamal Nasir is the Principal Investigator for the AI4Debunk project. |
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April 21 |
School of Computer Science Research Workshop A Research Workshop was arranged by the Research and Graduate Studies Committee (Lead by Dr James McDermott and Dr Nazre Batool) with talks on research data management, AI impacts on research, and knowledge-sharing with regard to research funding. Thanks to all who attended and contributed, between organisation, talks, discussions, and refreshments. A record on Sharepoint has been assembled and the commitee is following up with several actions. |
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April 24 |
School of Computer Science Threesis The School of Computer Science’s Threesis Competition celebrated outstanding student presentations, with Muhammad Adeel Hafeez, Evan O’Riordan, and Alamgir Munir Qazi taking the top three places. Many thanks thanks to Threesis co-ordinator, Dr Ihsan Ullah as well as professional services staff for helping on the day. |
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April 30 |
Academic Promotion Workshop An Academic Promotion Workshop took place in late April led by Dr Mamoona Asghar. This was an EDI initiative. Many thanks to Mamoona and also Geraldine Healy whi assisted with the event organisation. |
Research
Research Spotlight
Congratulations to Dr Takfarinas Saber, School of Computer Science, for his 2 research projects being recently accepted for funding.
1. Title: BIO-INSIGHT: BIOeconomy INdicators for foreSIGHT
Role: Co Principal Investigator
Funder: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Funding that would accrue to the School: €329,421
No. of PhDs/Researchers to be hired: 1 Research Fellow and 2 Postdocs
The overarching objective of BIO-INSIGHT is to translate state-of-the-art evaluation on the sustainability of promising bio-based value chains (BVCs) into meaningful and practical indicators that can guide decision making for sustainable bioeconomy deployment.
2. Title: OPEN-TWINCORE: Open Source Digital Twin for 6G-Ready Autonom Multi-Dimensional Elastic Optical Networks
Role: Principal Investigator
Funder: ROSETTA (Marie Skłodowska-Curie COFUND and Lero)
Funding that would accrue to the School: €160,000
Number of PhDs/Researchers who would be hired: 1 Research Fellow
Other CS contributors: Farhad Arpanaei (Researcher to be hired)
This proposal (OPEN-TWINCORE) addresses a critical gap in the field: the absence of a real-time, open-source digital twin (DT) platform tailored for multi-dimensional, elastic optical networks.
Dr Ayse Keles delivered a talk as part of the seminar series organized by the Galway Neuroscience Centre at the University of Galway on 25 March 2026, in the Hardiman Building. Her presentation, titled “Anatomy-Aware Deep Learning for Pediatric Brain Tumor Localization,” explored how advanced artificial intelligence techniques can incorporate anatomical knowledge to improve the detection and localization of brain tumors in pediatric MRI scans. The work forms part of Dr. Keles’s ongoing research on trustworthy AI-driven tools for pediatric neuroimaging, contributing to the broader goal of improving clinical decision support in neuro-oncology.
Dr Keles was also recently featured as a Researcher Spotlight on the Galway Neuroscience Centre LinkedIn page, recognising her contributions to interdisciplinary research at the intersection of computer science, artificial intelligence, and neuroscience:
Funding Success – ARC Hub for ICT
The EU-MSCA SISSViD project (led by postdoc fellow Dr. Amna Shifa) established a strong proof of concept, resulting in subsequent funding from the ARC Hub for ICT to develop a TRL 6 prototype.
The funded project, “PrivacyGuard: Fully GDPR-compliant CCTV Video Management System for Privacy-protected Storage and Retrieval,” is a 15-month initiative (€149,709.45) that supports two research staff members (a Translational Researcher (Dr Amna Shifa and a Research Assistant) under the mentorship and supervision of Dr Mamoona Asghar (pictured above), School of Computer Science.
Artificial Intelligence
Articles and Discussion
On 24 April 2026, Dr James McDermott, School of Computer Science, was on Irish-language news programmes Nuacht TG4 and Nuacht RTÉ discussing Meta's global workforce reductions and the growing influence of AI in shaping tech industry employment. You can find the article in the link above (at 8.49 minutes in).
In episode 2 of In Conversation with the President Prof David Burn sits down with Prof Ed Curry, Director of the Insight SFI Research Centre for Data Analytics, to explore one of University of Galway's core research pillars: Data and AI.
Prof Michael Madden, School of Computer Science, featured on RTE Radio 1's This Week show on 11 January 2026, where he shared his thoughts on the prevalance of AI in third level education, as well as its impacts on the future of the workplace. You can find the article in the link above (at 5.50 minutes in).
A fresh promotional video has been published for the Postgraduate Certificate in AI for Professionals which is delivered through itag Skillnet and Storm Technology.
You can access the video above which features Dr Enda Howley, Head of School, School of Computer Science.
"The fact that it's pitched at professionals that don't need to code and don't need to understand code is quite unique"
Awards & Achievments
Congratulations Eoghan Fallon and Fintan Geraghty for receiving the Storm Technology Scholarship 2025/26. Both are students from our PDip Software Development, Cloud Computing and DevOps. Each received €2,500 to support their studies.
Congratulations to Kelly Ebalu who was awarded the Insight Scholarship supported by Google. Kelly is a first year student from our BSc Computer Science & Information Technology programme. He receives €5,000 per year for every year of the programme, with mentorship support provided.
Congrats Leah
A massive congratulations to Leah Farrely, a third year student from our BSc Computer Science & Information Technology programme, who received the Johnson & Johnson Winning in STEM Scholarship in December 2025.
This programme provides a range of initiatives including female mentoring, site tours, workshops a bursary and a WiSTEM2D Conference.
Successful Vivas
Congrats Irish Senthilkumar!
12 January 2026
Supervisors: Dr Enda Howley & Dr Eoin McEvoy
Examiners: Dr Karl Mason & Prof José Manuel Garcia Aznar
Chair: Dr Colm O'Riordan
Thesis Title:
"A computational investigation of stress-dependent growth in breast cancer"
Congrats Aaron Flanagan!
26 January 2026
Supervisor: Dr Frank Glavin
Examiners: Prof Michael Madden & Prof Thomas Bocklitz
Chair: Dr Enda Howley
Thesis Title:
"Spectral Data Augmentation and Classification: Methods, Resources, and Applications for Raman and Near-Infrared Spectroscopy"
Congrats Gearóid Reilly!
27 January 2026
Supervisors: Dr Attracta Brennan, Dr Sam Redfern & Prof Gabriel-Miro Muntean
Examiners: Dr Owen Molloy & Prof Paul Best
Chair: Dr James McDermott
Thesis Title:
"Multi-user Activity Based Virtual Reality to facilitate social interaction for older adults with and without dementia"
Congrats Mian Ibad Ali Shah!
10 March 2026
Supervisors: Dr Enda Barrett, Dr Karl Mason & Prof Maeve Duffy
Examiners: Dr Takfarinas Saber & Prof George Vouros
Chair: Dr Enda Howley
Thesis Title:
"Artificial Intelligence for Multi-Agent Peer-to-Peer Energy Trading in Agricultural Microgrids"
Congrats to Oksana Dereza!
16 March 2026
Supervisors: Dr John McCrae & Dr Theodorus Fransen
Examiners: Dr Marcel Bollmann & Dr Simon Gabay
Chair: Prof Edward Curry
Thesis Title:
"Diachronic Embedding Models for Ancient and Historical Languages, with a focus on Irish: Evaluation and Applications"
Congrats to Seán Caulfield Curley!
9 April 2026
Supervisors: Dr Patrick Mannion & Dr Karl Mason
Examiners: Prof Alison Heppenstall & Prof Jim Duggan
Chair: Dr Michael Schukat
Theis Title:
Thesis Title:
"Microsimulation for National Planning: Demographic and Health Projections for Ireland to 2057"
Congrats Thérèse
Congratulations to Thérèse McIntyre, School Operations Officer, who recently completed An Dioplóma sa Ghaeilge A2 (Diploma in Irish, Level A2) at the University of Galway.
Míle comhghairdeas!
Thérèse partakes in the University's Health and Wellbeing initiative in which a photo she took was selected as one of their brand icons for 2026.
The yellow flower and bee reflect sustainability and regeneration.
Upcoming CS Events/Dates of Interest
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Date |
Event |
|---|---|
|
May 14 |
AtlanTec Conference 2026 University of Galway is set to host the AtlanTec Conference 2026, bringing together global voices to explore how AI can evolve with human values at its core. Tickets available via Eventbrite. |
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May 15 |
FEP Scheme Applications The scheme is to support staff undertaking part-time study to enhance their professional and personal development. To support this commitment, the University’s Further Education Policy (FEP) Scheme provides support and funding for staff. The application deadline is Friday, 15 May 2026 and further information can be found on the webpage. |
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June 9 |
External Examiner Visit/Meeting |
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June 11 |
Summer Conferring 2026 For more information see the webpage. |
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August 4-14 |
Autumn Repeat Exams 2026 |
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September 7 |
Start of Teaching AY 26/27 First Year UG - TBC. |
Thank you for reading
Quarterly Newsletter
Issue No.6
January - May 2026