UCD Teams celebrate success at SimWars 2025 and SonoGames 2025

SimWars 2025

The National Emergency Medicine Simulation Competition 2025 (SimWars 2025) was held in UCC on Saturday, 8th March. SimWars was started in 2017 by two UCD students as a way for medical and nursing students to demonstrate their ability to assess and treat simulated emergency patients.

Three UCD teams competed this year alongside 17 other teams from medical schools around the island of Ireland. The day consisted of two heats, where each of the teams ran through two emergency simulations, followed by a semi-final, hosted in UCC's ASSERT Centre, and then a live-audience final with the assistance of paramedics.

Congratulations to all three UCD teams who competed, and a huge congratulations to the UCD team ''Don’t Blame It On The Bougie'' on winning the competition this year. We couldn’t be more proud. 

The SimWars 2025 organisers were Oisín O’Neill, Niroshan Kalaiarassan, and Stephen Connor. The UCD teams were represented by:

''Don’t Blame It On The Bougie''- Winners

  • Oisín O’Neill
  • Stephen Connor
  • Niroshan Kalaiarassan
  • Jason Dowling
  • Sarah Kelly
  • Victoria Williams Gaine

“Senior Help!” - Semi Finalists

  • Natacha Nurdine Rosa
  • Katarzyna Plesniar
  • Tavia Walsh
  • Mila Uzelac
  • Eugene Mech
  • Mira Wade

“Pulseless and Persistent”

  • Nick Sanfey
  • Peter Burke
  • Nicolas Wipf
  • Polina Mishkina
  • Kerrie Drum
  • Alex Sherry

Thank you to Dr. Michael Dover (Emergency Medicine CSTEM trainee) for the UCD training sessions.

The SonoGames Intervarsity Competition

The SonoGames Intervarsity Competition took place at The Pillar Centre in the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital. This year, UCD sent two teams to compete. SonoGames is an Emergency Medicine Point Of Care Ultrasound (POCUS) competition amongst medical students in Ireland. Teams of five move through different stations exploring the use of POCUS in various clinical scenarios. Competitors also take part in a pathology quiz, testing their knowledge of common clinical cases identified by ultrasound.

SonoGames training for UCD students was provided by UCD Emergency Society, with assistance from many emergency medicine doctors from St. Vincent’s Hospital and The Mater Hospital, over the last academic year.

Congratulations to the UCD teams who competed and well done on your great success.

The SonoGames 2025 organisers were Nicolas Wipf and Angela O’Donnell. The UCD teams were represented by:

Team 1:

  • Captain: Polina Mishkina
  • Andrea Popovici
  • Theodore Hanson
  • Peter Burke
  • Kerrie Drum

Team 2: - 2nd place overall

  • Captain: Jessica Emery
  • Donal Healy
  • Louise Lennon Malbasha
  • Rakesh Narang
  • Joseph Barry