Research

‌‌The School of Engineering has an active programme of research in each of its constituent disciplines. Much of this work has already achieved a degree of scale with the creation of reasonably well-funded research groups and research centres within various disciplines. Some of the School research is now managed as part of larger University-wide institutes, such as:

• Data Science Institute
• Network of Excellence for Functional Biomaterials
• National Centre for Biomedical Engineering Science
• Ryan Institute for Environment, Marine and Energy
• MaREI Research Center/SFI Collaboration

Members of the School have been significant contributors to the successful development of these institutes and will remain core participants in the future.

The Data Science Institute (DSI) is one of six designated research institutes at NUI Galway. We carry out research into the techniques and technologies that are at the convergence of Computer Science, Web Science and Artificial Intelligence. Our research furthers the fundamental understanding of how data-fuelled information nad knowledge are increasingly driving society. Researchers at DSI investigate both basic research and the application of this research in multiple domains including Smart Enterprise, Digital Humanities, Connected Health and eGovernment. DSI has a long history in this space, originally as the Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI) from 2003-2013, and since 2013 as one of the four co-founding parterns in the SFI-funded Insight Centre for Data Analytics. Our researchers are also involved in other SFI Research Centres with DSI serving as the NUI Galway home to the Confirm SFI Research Centre for Smart Manufacturing and the Vistamilk SFI Research Centre. Research on the SFI funded Lero Software Centre is also carried out at the institute. In addition to the SFI centres, DSI members are continuously attracting significant funding from a wide variety of sources including EU Framework Programmes, Enterprise Ireland, IRC and industry. 

The Network of Excellence for Functional Biomaterials (NFB) is a dynamic group of research scientists based at the National Centre for Biomedical Engineering Science at NUI Galway. While NFB’s core service centres on academic research and development within the University, much of our work facilitates the development of collaborations with the medical device industry both nationally and internationally through technology transfer initiatives.

The National Centre for Biomedical Engineering Science's ethos is the cultivation of an interdisciplinary environment, with scientists, engineers, IT specialists and clinicians working together to answer questions of scientific and clinical importance. The strength of the Centre lies in the combined expertise, skills and creativity of a wide range of scientific, engineering and clinical disciplines, working side by side on challenging research programmes.

The Ryan Institute for Environmental, Marine and Energy Research at the National University of Ireland, Galway, was formed in 2010 as a result of the strategic merger between the Environmental Change Institute and the Martin Ryan Institute for Marine Science. The Ryan Institute's affiliated researchers are committed to knowledge sharing and collaboration across the sciences, engineering, social sciences and medicine
In pursuing the goal of achieving international scale and prominence for our broader research programme, the recent academic plan for the College identified a number of areas of strength across the College and beyond. These priority research areas include:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Enterprise Computing
• Environmental Engineering
• Computational Methodologies
• Communications and Intelligent Devices
• Electronic Systems
• Manufacturing

A number of other areas will continue to develop and build upon their international profile, but are less amenable to inter-departmental collaboration and are more specific to their departmental disciplines. These include: Power Engineering, Control Systems Engineering, Aeronautical Engineering, Human Factors and Socio-Economic Impact of ICTs.

Link to research groups within the College

• Insight Centre for Data Analytics
• National Centre for Biomedical Engineering Science
• Computational Intelligence Research Group
• The Ryan Institute
• Micromechanics Research Unit