Welcome from the Editor, Anne Donnelly

Dear Reader,

I am delighted to welcome you to the 6th issue of our ATU Magazine. We are now only days away from our first anniversary as a technological university. On 1 April 2022 we said goodbye to GMIT, LYIT and IT Sligo and hello to ATU.

Even though we are only one year old there are many significant moments to remember.

There is still a lot of work to do to make ATU the best university it can be and we are looking forward to continuing to build on what we have achieved in our first year.

In this issue we look back over some of the memorable moments of the past year and our President, Dr Orla Flynn reflects on her experience as President in year one of ATU.

We had a lot of firsts as a university, first open days, first new student welcome programme, first conferring to name but a few. And recently we appointed our first ATU alumni officer, Lauren Reynolds who took time out of her busy schedule to talk to us on page 11.

In our research round up Jess Mannion talks to us about widening participation in higher education, and Dr José María Fariñas-Franco tells us about the humble horse mussel.

We interview ATU’s Swift whisperer in our sustainability section. Some of our lecturers travelled from Donegal to Wicklow in electric powered vehicles and you can find out more about that on page 25.

In our innovation and engagement section we bring you news of recent activities including an event for local businesses, industry and prospective students on how to break into human resource management and an article on our collaboration with local and regional bodies to reduce alcohol harm.

Our equality, diversion and inclusion team ensured we celebrated International Woman’s Day on 8 March with a series of events to mark the day. You can find out more on page 26.

In our final section in this issue, we bring you news of a significant toolmaking anniversary and recent literary, culinary and student sports successes.

The purpose of this magazine is to keep you updated on our activities and initiatives. So, whether you’re a member of our student or staff body, or are one of our regional, national or international stakeholders, we hope you find something of interest here.

If there is anything you would like to see in future issues of this magazine, please email me at anne.donnelly@atu.ie

Dr Orla Flynn, ATU President plants a tree at ATU Connemara in April 2022 to mark the birth of ATU.