视频文字:Former British female inventor of the year Queen’s lecturer Dr Máire O’Neill has been awarded £1.23m from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) for her work on cybersecurity.
She is one of the speakers at an event at W5 at Odyssey today to encourage school pupils to study science subjects at Queen’s so they can help Northern Ireland compete on the global stage.
At the event entitled Computing and Electronics - Creating the Technology of Tomorrow, they will learn about the exciting career prospects a degree in electronic engineering, computer science or technology could hold.
Dr O’Neill said: “Undertaking studies in science, technology, engineering and maths can lead to very exciting careers - ranging from electronic engineers, forensic scientists and meteorologists to cryptographers and zoologists!
“I work in the field of electronic engineering and I would strongly encourage students to consider it as a career choice.
“Electronic engineering is a very rewarding career that involves finding new solutions to practical problems that affect our daily lives.
“The starting salaries of last year’s Queen’s graduates in the subject were up to £36,000.
“Although most graduates use their degree to enter the engineering industry, it's also a passport to careers in education, health, law, management, marketing or finance.”
The talk to around 200 A Level and AS students is aimed to help achieve the government’s target to increase the number of students involved in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) subjects at undergraduate level by 25% by 2015.
From this academic year Queen’s is offering scholarships of £1,000 to all students achieving three As at A-level (or equivalent) and enrolling on a STEM subject at the university.
The EPSRC Leadership fellowship Dr O’Neill has been awarded is a prestigious five-year project.
The scheme targets talented mid-career researchers across the engineering and physical sciences considered to have the potential to be the UK’s international research leaders of tomorrow.
Dr O’Neill added: “As the demand for higher levels of security continues and pervasive computing matures, the provision of effective security architectures that can provide data confidentiality, integrity and authentication will be vital
“My project, entitled Next Generation Data Security Architectures, will focus on the design and development of low-cost solutions to data security attacks.
“New technologies that can provide efficient and effective data security resistant to attack will also be investigated.”
The research will be conducted in collaboration with the University of Texas at Austin, Orange Labs, France and Atmel Corporation, Colorado.
Professor John McCanny, Head of the School of School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Queen’s said: “The EPSRC Leadership Fellowship that Maire has received provides five years of funding to allow her to concentrate on research that is already recognised as being world-leading.
“Her work is not only very timely, but is also very relevant to the public at large - creating novel computer processors for the protection and privacy of information.
“Only a very small number of the most talented university scientists and engineers are given such awards, namely those deemed to have the most potential to develop as the international research leaders of tomorrow.
“Maire provides an exemplary role model for an exciting career for talented young people studying mathematics and science at school.”
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