The launch of the new Atlantic Technological University (ATU) in April 2022 marks an exciting future for the West and North West of Ireland. One of the main aims of the new TU is to increase its research capacity and further serve the regional needs. The Enterprise Ireland funded Medical Engineering Technology (MET) Gateway based in ATU Galway supports Research, Development and Innovation within the MedTech, LifeSciences and Engineering sectors. The MET biomedical engineering research centre addresses the needs of the Medtech sector by providing clinically relevant bio-simulators for advance testing of medical devices and surgical scenarios with the option of availing of MET’s state-of-the-art medical imaging facility. The main aim of MET is to address industry/clinical needs and supervise postgraduate research students at Levels 9 and 10. Since its inception in 2006 as GMedTech and then MET in 2014, some final year undergraduate students completing their BEng (Honours-Level 8) in Mechanical Engineering have completed their final year projects within this research centre. Unfortunately, this would only be one to three students per year that would have the opportunity to benefit from this experience. Third level research and undergraduate teaching are perceived as two diverse worlds that rarely meet.

Author: Liam Morris

Published in: Ireland International Conference on Education (IICE-2022)

• Date of Conference: 18-20 October 2022
• DOI: 10.20533/IICE.2022.10.0002
• ISBN: 978-1-913572-47-1
• Conference Location: Virtual (Dún Laoghaire, Ireland)