Excellence in Structural Engineering Education Award 2022 Winner

The Excellence in Structural Engineering Education Award celebrates innovative and effective teaching techniques to improve student learning at a tertiary level.

After an extensive judging process, we are pleased to announce the winner of the 2022 Excellence in Structural Engineering Education Award (ESEEA) is Cian Farrell from Technological University Dublin.

Innovative teaching techniques 

The judges were impressed with Cians clear passion for teaching engineering, as well as the innovative teaching techniques that could be rolled out across universities and other parts of the profession. A truly exciting concept that combines academica and industry. 

Runner up

The judges would also like to offer a commendation to the entry from Dr Mariateresa Lombardo and Dr Alessandro Palmeri, from Loughboruogh University. The judges had high praise for the entry due to the innovative use of digital tools to support the understanding of structural behaviour. 

A word from the winner 

Speaking on his entry, Cian said:

"As academics in the midst of the Covid 19’ pandemic, we find ourselves reminiscing over the educational approaches that were adopted during the recent remote learning period.

With students having found themselves in a time of Social, Mental, and Educational isolation, the absence of that positive learning environment lead to a greatly reduced engagement and interaction rate.

Through the application of Virtual Industry Visits as a hybrid educational tool, the approach not only reinforced the first principles being taught in class but acted as a reprogramming strategy for tackling the student’s accumulated barrier of not engaging or interacting in class.

Involving a shear transition that both distracted and refocused the student’s mindsets, the ‘Thrill of Engineering’ was incorporated bringing a sense of excitement and thrill that gained the full and utmost attention of almost all students.

In bridging that gap between educational content and industry intelligence, the hybrid educational tool has been adopted for multiple modules since returning to in-person conditions and has enabled industry leading firms to contribute towards the development of the next phase of Graduate Engineers."