News & Events

The UCD Festival which takes place on Saturday 10 June 2023 is a fun-filled day and showcases the very best of UCD through performances, engaging talks, hands-on science, interactive exhibits and so much more. The UCD Festival is a day when we open our doors to the friends and families of our local community, staff, students and alumni, providing an opportunity to see behind the scenes, discover something new and meet our students and world-class academics. UCD is constantly evolving with the changing world and festival goers will get to see first-hand some of our breakthrough discoveries and how UCD is addressing societal challenges.

The festival is divided up into eight different zones which have numerous events and activities related to sustainability and environmental change:

Intel Science and Innovation Zone

• Ivan Lokmer (School of Earth Science) - Dynamic Earth: Attendees will get familiar with different processes in the Earth, such as building mountain chains, sedimentation caused by the rivers, seismic activity.
• Elspeth Sinclair (School of Earth Science) - ICRAIG - Geoscience for the Future:  An interactive exhibit and hands on event that engages our audience with geoscience via a 3D model of the earth and considers energy and where it comes from... using trampolines!
• Mary Kelly Quinn (School of Biology and Environmental Science) - What Lies Beneath: Come and see the wonderful range of amazing insects and other invertebrate life that live in our rivers.
• Susanne Schilling (School of Biology and Environmental Science) - UCD Evolution Garden: In order to understand the plants of today we first need to study the evolutionary forces that shaped them.
• Alva O'Loughlin Kennedy (School of Agriculture and Food Science) - Soil to Society: Become a researcher, examine soil and grass samples and try your hand at milking a cow!
• Laura Egan O'Brian (College of Engineering and Architecture): Various Events
• Amanda Mathieson (School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science) - Sustainable Living: We’ll be exploring three areas of everyday life where you can start taking sustainable action now: pets, plastic and food.
• BOOKING REQUIRED: Work Choc: Workshop on the Chocolate Value Chain By David Nyaluke, Proudly Made in Africa (PMIA): Join this interactive workshop to gain an understanding of the various processes and actions underpinning a sustainable value chain for chocolates.
• Sylvia Leatham (School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering) with I-Form, the SFI Research Centre for Advanced Manufacturing - Advanced Manufacturing: Visit the I-Form demo area to see a sneak preview of the next industrial revolution in action.
• Mark Pickering (School of Medicine) - JellyLab - Seeing the Unseen: JellyLab is focused on democratising discovery - putting the tools of scientific inquiry into the hands of curious people of any age. We do this by showcasing DIY scientific tools, from working microscopes made of Lego to lasers that let you see sounds, to let you see world in a new way.
• Eleni Mangina (School of Computer Science) - eXtended Reality (XR) for all7
• Abey Campbell (School of Computer Science) - VR LAB UCD Presentations: Experience the State of the Art in Virtual Reality. With three Presentations from UCD VR Lab, including a virtual performance from the UCD Symphony Orchestra and a virtual dissection in conjunction with UCD Veterinary Science.
• Andrew Smith (School of Mathematics and Statistics) - Beautiful Proportion: Find out what the golden ratio tells us about rabbit populations, prime numbers and computer optimisation, practise golden ratio origami and play the golden ratio bean game.
• Debbie Kileen (School of Medicine) - The Future of Surgery: Welcome to the operating theatre where you can witness a live operation and enjoy lots of opportunities to get hands on with surgery.
• BOOKING REQUIRED: Anna Wedderburn (School of Medicine) - Behind the Scenes of Research: Try your hand at micropipetting, see what cells look like under a microscope, and talk to scientists about their work.
• Susan Yeates (School of Medicine) - Systems Biology Ireland: Studying disease from the inside out: See how we study cancer in the lab using state of the art lab equipment and real human cells.
• Dylan Keegan (School of Medicine) - Learn about UCD Clinical Research Centre: The UCD CRC was established to deliver high-quality, world-class, patient-centred research.
• Jeremy Simpson (College of Science) - Fluorescent LIGHTS, Digital CAMERAS, Cell ACTION: Don't miss this showcase event, you'll get to see up close how fluorescent proteins from marine organisms have revolutionised biomedical research.
• Antonio Martin-Carrilo (School of Physics) - Passport to Space: Passport to Space is an event featuring the development and research around UCD’s and Ireland’s first satellite.
• Angela Hogan (Innovation Academy) - Ideation & Creation Station / DCC x UCD Water Saving 3D model: Experience Splash Dash - an interactive 3D model with augmented reality features demonstrating the effects of excess water on Dublin's drainage system.
• Aoibheann Bird (School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Sports Science) - Insights into your Data: Test your reaction times, explore our research areas and learn to code with our robot for ages 3 and up.
• William Gallagher (School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science) - The Vitruvian:  Uncovering the Layers of Cancer: 'The Vitruvian' is a bespoke piece of artwork painted by renowned Irish artist, Vincent Devine, which explores the labyrinth world of cancer research through visual media.

Other exciting and engaging events being delivered within the Engineering and Technology, Discovery, and the Family Fun Zones:

• Veronica Sofianos (School of Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering) - Green Hydrogen is our energy future: How can we split water into hydrogen and oxygen using renewable energy?
• Alva O'Loughlin Kennedy (School of Agriculture and Food Science) - BioBeo: BioBeo introduces new thinking and approaches in education on the circular economy across Europe.
• UCD Archaeology at our Centre for Experimental Archaeology and Material Culture (CEAMC): Visit an early medieval house reconstruction project, and learn about lifeways in the ancient world through special artefacts and bones from archaeological sites.
• UCD Estates - Sustainability Cycling Tour of Belfield: Take a trip around campus on the UCD conference bicycle and explore UCD's wildflower meadows, green roofs, and sustainability practices.
• UCD Estates - Insect Hotel Workshop: Use locally found branches, twigs, pine cones, and bamboo to fill in wooden structures to create a natural biodegradable habitat for the local insect life.
• Aoife Harbison, Sheryl Iim, and Sofia Gialamoidou (School of Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering) - Sweet Dreams & Biopharmaceuticals: An interactive educational workshop about improving medicines through glycoengineering. Budding biotechnologists will build and take home glycomodels, along with newfound interest in biopharmaceuticals.
• Slow it Down, Avoiding Fast Fashion: Would you like to know how to dress more sustainably? This presentation is a deep dive into the actual cost of fast fashion.
• Upcycled Rug Workshop: This is open to all ages, spend 10 minutes or a few hours making a fun group collaborative art piece.
• Dream Big: Engineering our World: Narrated by Academy Award® winner Jeff Bridges, Dream Big: Engineering Our World is film that will transform how we think about engineering. Dream Big celebrates the human ingenuity behind engineering marvels big and small, and shows how engineers push the limits of innovation in unexpected and amazing ways. With its inspiring stories of human grit and aspiration, Dream Big reveals the compassion and creativity that drive engineers to create better lives for people and a more sustainable future for us all. Produced for all ages, Dream Big showcases engineering’s impressive impact on our world and our lives.
• Curious Play with ReCreate in the Discovery Zone: Join ReCreate, the creative reuse company, for fun workshops and imaginative play. You and your family will unlock the true magic of 'creative reuse' through a reimagined world of salvaged materials.
• Yue Wang (Electronic Engineering) - Discovering Light and Human Vision: In this event we bring interactive hands-on experiments that allows the audience to find joy in the different properties of light.
• William Gallagher (School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science) - The Vitruvian:  Uncovering the Layers of Cancer: 'The Vitruvian' is a bespoke piece of artwork painted by renowned Irish artist, Vincent Devine, which explores the labyrinth world of cancer research through visual media.
• Elaine Quinn (Conway Institute of Biomolecular and Biomedical Research) - STEP Through the looking Glass: An exhibition comprising portraits and a set of travelling cabinets of curiosities conceived by artist Lorna Donlon.

See here for the full program of activities and events at the UCD Festival