Making Waves: 2024 Bursary Students Make a Splash at Marine Institute Presentation Day

On Thursday the 25th of July the Marine Institute welcomed the 2024 cohort of Bursary Students to the Institute’s Headquarters in Rinville, Oranmore, Co. Galway. Presentation day is an important part of the Bursary Programme as it allows the Bursary Students to showcase their work over the course of their Bursary.

The Bursary Programme has been running since the 1960s and offers undergraduate students work experience in a marine science setting before concluding their undergraduate studies. Bursary Student contributions have been enriching the work of the Marine Institute for decades and will hopefully continue for decades more. Each year, the Bursary Students bring new ideas and innovations to the Institute while also benefiting from the expertise of the Marine Institute’s more experienced staff, many of who were themselves past Bursary Students.

Bursary Students were judged on both a poster and a short oral presentation. This year, Dr Rick Officer (Marine Institute CEO), Alan Drumm (Senior Laboratory Analyst, Marine Institute Newport), and Sheena Fennel (Senior Marine Offshore Services Technician, P&O Maritime Logistics) had the difficult task of judging on the day.

Eight students received an award in recognition of their outstanding work on a rich variety of topics:

• Niamh Longstaff and Albert Rubio – Fisheries Data and Sampling
• Eabha Melvin – Applied Computer Vision/Machine Learning Tools for Biological Species Identification
• Eva Cullen – Application of Machine Learning Tools and Algorithms to Fish Identification and Classification on Smartbay Observatory Video Datasets
• Leah Moynihan – Shellfish Safety Media and Communications
• Faye Maguire – Salmon and Eel Fish Stock Census
• Tom Keal – National Wild Salmon Assessment
• Liam Hegarty – Fish Rearing

Dr Rick Officer, CEO of the Marine Institute, said:

“The students selected onto the Marine Institute’s Bursary Programme represent the next generation of Irish marine scientists. The Programme helps them to develop the expertise required to generate the knowledge required to inform decisions about the future use and protection of our oceans. By providing undergraduates with the opportunity to work alongside experts in the field, the programme not only enhances their knowledge and skills but also helps them build a valuable network within the marine sector. The presentations showcased the diversity and high standard of work that involves our Bursary Students.”

Applications will open in early 2025 for next year’s Marine Institute Bursary Programme.