AIT academics win prestigious awards at virtual conference in Finland

Academics from Athlone IT recently won prestigious awards at a global technology education conference in Finland.

The PATT38 Conference was hosted virtually by the University of Turku in Finland at the end of April.

The AIT representatives, who are members of the Technology Education Research Group (TERG), received a variety of awards including the award for best paper, which was presented to Dr Jeffrey Buckley, assistant lecturer at the Faculty of Engineering and Informatics, Dr Niall Seery, director of the AIT-LIT technological university project and director of TERG, and Tomás Hyland, postgraduate researcher in AIT.

The winning conference paper, 'Examining the replicability of contemporary technology education research' discusses the replication crisis in research and the necessity to adopt appropriate methodological and reporting practices to ensure trust in published results.

The award for best presentation was presented to AIT postgraduate researcher and TERG member Clodagh Reid, and AIT academics Dr Jeffrey Buckley and Dr Rónán Dunbar.

Their presentation investigated the effect of engineering students’ spatial ability and expertise on general complex problem-solving. Dr Rónán Dunbar was also awarded the award for conference engagement.

Commenting on the success of the AIT & TERG delegation Dr Dunbar said: "We were delighted and very proud to receive these awards from our international peers in technology education research.

"It highlights and confirms the efforts of the group to make meaningful contributions to the development of technology education through our research activities, not only nationally but also on an international stage."

More than 60 higher-education institutions from over 15 countries took park in the virtual annual conference organised by PATT (Pupils Attitudes Towards Technology).

The winning papers can be accessed here:

Award for best paper - Jeffrey Buckley, Tomás Hyland, Niall Seery

Examining the replicability of contemporary technology education research.

https://journals.oslomet.no/index.php/techneA/article/view/4264/3825

Award for best presentation - Clodagh Reid, Jeffrey Buckley, Rónán Dunbar

Investigating the effect of engineering student’s spatial ability and expertise on general complex problem-solving.

https://journals.oslomet.no/index.php/techneA/article/view/4283/3868