Bursary Students Make a Splash at Marine Institute Presentation Day

30th July 2024

On Thursday last (25 July) the Marine Institute welcomed the 2024 cohort of bursary students to its headquarters in Oranmore, Co Galway for their Presentation Day.

The day is an important part of the bursary programme as it allows the students to showcase their work over the course of their bursary.

The Summer Bursary Scholarship 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 its more experienced staff, many of whom were themselves past bursary recipients.

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 Officer 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 Summer Bursary Scholarship Programme.

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