Welcome

A Message from Head of Civil Engineering

I would like to welcome you to the Civil Engineering section of the NUI Galway website.

Since its foundation in 1849, the National University of Ireland, Galway has served as a centre of excellence for teaching and research in Civil Engineering, equipping thousands of graduates with the skills needed to make substantial contributions to the profession all around the world. The move to Ireland’s largest engineering education building in 2011 has further helped to propel us to the forefront of teaching and research on an international stage.

At undergraduate level, we offer a 4-year BE degree (Level 8) in Civil Engineering, which is constantly evolving with the needs of the profession. This is coupled to our one year taught ME programme (level 9) in Civil Engineering. These degree programmes are fully accredited by Engineers Ireland and the ME programme meets the educational standards for progression to Chartered Engineer. The degree programmes at NUI Galway are accredited by Engineers Ireland and are recognized internationally by professional institutions under the Washington Accord, allowing our graduates to travel widely. Two other degree programmes are also offered by the discipline. At the undergraduate level, we offer a 4-year BSc degree in Project and Construction Management which teaches management principles for construction and other professionals. In addition there is a one year MSc programme in Water Resources. This niche programme provides engineers with the advanced technical competences necessary for the delivery of safe/clean water, on the understanding and use of modern hydraulic modelling tools and working in design groups.

The emphasis on research in Civil Engineering is particularly strong with staff involved in a wide range of projects. Research activities span a broad spectrum of Civil Engineering subjects, which include (but are not limited to) concrete, steel and timber structures, environmental engineering, highway engineering, geotechnical engineering, earthquake engineering, wind engineering, building energy management, offshore and coastal engineering, construction management, advanced materials and computational mechanics. Thus, the discipline offers both PhD (level 10) and research masters (level 9) programmes, with approximately 50 students registered for these programmes. This research is funded by industrial partners and several national and international funding agencies, including Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and the European Union (EU). Much of the research is interdisciplinary and is aligned with the University's major research themes; for example, some academic staff work within research institutes such as the Ryan Institute for Environment, Marine and Energy and Insight. We welcome applications from suitably qualified candidates to these research programmes and also look to recruit researchers at the post-doctoral level.

If you would like to discuss our programme offerings or research possibilities, please contact myself at padraic.odonoghue@nuigalway.ie or +353 (0)91 492214, or our Civil Engineering Administrator Brid Flaherty at brid.flaherty@nuigalway.ie or +353 (0)91 492170