Engineering Student Ambassador Ciara takes a look at some of the societies that Engineering Students can get involved with in UCD
Most courses in UCD have their own designated society – Vet Soc., Med. Soc., Arts Soc., etc. – but Engineering is special in that each of the streams also have their own society. This allows students from every discipline to organise and attend events specific to their Engineering interest.
The Electrical and Electronic Engineering Society is probably the most active of all the specific discipline societies, with numerous events on each week these soon to be professional mechanical engineers are stretching their minds and creativity. With talks from ElectroRoute, IEEE, EirGrid, Interxion, Movidius, Intel, Huawei, 3D-Assist, in addition to tours of the Poolbeg Generating Station and the Intel campus in Leixlip, Elec. Soc. definitely keeps you entertained and informed!
The highlight of their events last year had to be their talk from Dave Burke (V.P. of Engineering at Google) about “Android and the Mobile Revolution”, which featured a fascinating talk followed by a live coding session! The entire lecture theatre was full, with people sitting on the steps and crowds at the back!
However, hands down my favourite thing about the Elec. Soc. was the Robotics Club. Twice a week we got to work with some really cool projects in the lab including a robotic arm, Sumobots, and a quadcopter. I had no experience with Arduino before nor did I really know anything about robotics, but the two guys running the club were really helpful and patient. In fact, I became so interested in the club I went for a Robotics Officer position for next year!
Now let’s talk about Engineers Without Borders (EWB)! Affiliated with EWB Ireland, the UCD branch aims to promote sustainable development on campus and in local schools, through discussion, talks and workshops. Additionally, there is the annual “Where There is No Engineer” design initiative competition, coordinated by the Development Technology Research Group in Dublin Institute of Technology and delivered in partnership with Concern Worldwide, Engineers Ireland and Engineers Without Borders Ireland. This project is really cool to participate in as the overall project winners get the opportunity to travel to the focus country to implement their idea. There wasn’t any luck for the U.C.D. teams this year, unfortunately, but definitely an extremely interesting competition to be involved in!
We do, of course, have a general Engineering Society, which caters for all Engineering students from first year to final year. Most of the events organised by Eng. Soc. are social events focussed on building a relationship between new students and between students of different stages. At the start of every year, Eng. Soc. organise the “To Hell or to Connaught” Fresher’s trip to Galway with the Nursing Soc. – hey, they’ve got to even out the gender imbalances! Some of the other events on this year included “SESH0002 – Attack on Richview” with the Architecture Society – a night of Beer Pong, Flippy Cup, Twister, and Jenga with a bus into town afterwards; the Accenture Winter Formal, and the Engineering Ball. Also, let’s not forget EngDay and the infamous design-your-own trolley cart race across campus in aid of charity. A perfect challenge for any engineering enthusiast! But it’s not all trips away and nights out, last year Eng. Soc. organised talks from Xilinx, Bentley Motors, J.P. Morgan and Accenture, as well as weekly coffee mornings with lots of free tea, coffee and biscuits.
It is safe to say there is lots going on for Engineering students for sure! But as always, these societies are not exclusively for Engineering students and all the related Engineering societies welcome all students with open arms.
