Visit of Iraqi Academics

UCD Today February 08_fp 20/02/2008 15:12 Page 1 8 0 0 2 Y R A U R B E F www.ucd.ie/ucdtoday Climate Change Planning for our future Featured in this issue: • Investigating Adolescent Eating Disorders • Fighting Cybercrime with Forensics • Interview with former writer-in-residence Evelyn Conlon UCD Today February 08_fp 20/02/2008 15:12 Page 2 e d i s n i Climate Change 3 The possibility of sudden climate changes is not just speculation, the historical climate record has what’sshown that the temperature has changed Perceptions: dramatically, by five degrees Celsius or more, over a period as short as a decade. Professor Peter Lynch talks to Sean Duke about the unpredictability of Climate Change and future abroad and at home... measures for predicting Climate Change both in Ireland and globally. Fighting Cybercrime with Forensics reality hits 9 Computer evidence, like that of a fingerprint or a human hair, tells a story about the crime committed and can be an essential part of the body of evidence Now that the flurry of the CAO deadline is complete and sixth year students get down to in a murder trial. Like forensic detectives that collect the business of their mock Leaving Certificate exams, we have some space and time to physical evidence such as DNA, digital data review our own communications with prospective students. detectives need special training. Marie Boran talks to Dr Pavel Gladyshev who lectures on the master's Three years ago we launched UCD Horizons in order to let prospective students - and their degree in Forensic Computing and Cybercrime families - know that UCD had reformed our undergraduate curriculum and would be introducing Investigation from the UCD Centre for Cybercrime a modular teaching and learning structure in the coming year. We believed that students had to Investigation. be given as much information as possible about the changes before they filled out their CAO Revealing the Writer forms, even though the full structure was not completed. The thrust of the message was about 11 Siún Ní Dhuinn speaks to Evelyn Conlon, a multi- change and explained that the new system would offer more choice and flexibility. dimensional writer, who looks back on her time as writer-in-residence at the UCD School of English, The following year, the communications focused on explaining how modularisation, and in Drama and Film from September to December particular the elective element, works as prospective students and their advisors needed to 2007. A member of Aosdána, awarded Arts Council understand the 10 + 2 model. The message - ‘how deep’ ‘how far’ ‘how high’ expressed the of Ireland bursaries in literature 1988 and 1995, choices available to students. shortlisted for Irish Novel of the Year for ‘Skin of Dreams’ in 2004 and founding member of the Rape This year, the message evolved to reflect the interests and experiences of our students. Crisis Centre, Evelyn speaks about her time in It was quite a natural process to invite students to become directly involved in the CAO residency at UCD, about her writing, the vocation communications process. We started with seven students, drawn from the large degree of the writer and the difficulties a writer can face. programmes: BA, BSc, BComm, BEng, BSocSc, BCL and MB, BCh, BAO (Medicine). We built a special microsite for visitors to ‘meet the students’ and as they told their stories in their own words the Eating Disorders microsite popped up lots of facts about UCD spanning many aspects of academic and social life 13 Adolescent attitudes towards food, diet and body image were recently examined by Professor Fiona on campus. McNicholas, professor of child psychiatry at UCD and her colleagues at the Lucena Clinic and Our The microsite is integrally linked with the new student admissions web area. This area focuses on Lady's Children’s Hospital, these attitudes had not providing prospective students with relevant information and presents summary course details in been looked at in Ireland before now, with no a concise and easy to follow manner. previous studies examining the rates of dieting or eating pathology in an Irish adolescent population. Readers can access the microsite via www.myucd.ie. I would invite you to take a look and as you Professor McNicholas talks to Danielle Barron. do, remember this is targeted at 17 year olds! Eilis O’Brien Director of Communications Contributors: Thanks to: Karl Abbey, Richard Aldous, Graham Armstrong, Maurice Padraic Conway, JP Donnelly, Catherine Godson, Boland, Pat Butler, Marc Caball, Elaine Cregg, Mary Daly, Ann Lavan, Maurice Manning, Cliona de Bhaldraithe Marsh, Damien Dempsey, Orla Donoghue, Marie Ennis, John Damien McLoughlin, Patrick Wall Feehan, Ruth Ferguson, Anna Germaine, Pavel Gladyshev, Geraldine Grenham, Christina Haywood, Eoin Healy, Tom Cover Image courtesy of NASA Inglis, Olivia Jackman, Peter Lynch, Fiona McNicholas, Tara In the compilation of this publication, every care has been McGivern, Clár Ní Bhuachalla, Professor Séamas Ó taken to ensure accuracy. Any errors or omissions should be Catháin, Tadhg O'Keefe, Muiris O' Sullivan, brought to the attention of UCD University Relations James Reilly, Gillian Reilly, Miceal Whelan. ([email protected]). We also welcome your Produced by: suggestions for articles in future editions. Eilis O'Brien, Mary Staunton, Claire Percy, This publication is also available online at Dominic Martella, Yvonne O'Dowd and Siún Ní Dhuinn. www.ucd.ie/ucdtoday Design: Loman Cusack Design Print: Fine Print Ltd Please Recycle 2 3 UCD Today February 08_fp 20/02/2008 15:12 Page 3 Climate Change Professor Peter Lynch talks to Sean Duke “It was only afterwards that chemists and you give a prediction of future climate, EC-Earth Programme, an international (BSc 1987) about the unpredictability of atmospheric scientists managed to determine there is a measure of confidence. The prediction collaborative project aiming to simulate and Climate Change and future measures for what was going on - complicated chemical may be drawn up from, an ensemble of 100 predict the entire global climate system. predicting Climate Change both in Ireland interactions involving Chlorofluorocarbons simulations. The more scenarios that are looked UCD is a partner in EC-Earth. The group plans and globally. (CFCs)," explains Professor Lynch. at and analysed in terms of computer to develop a computer model that will improve simulations, the better the chances are of predictions of global climate for the rest of Professor Peter Lynch, the first Chair of Professor Lynch also uses hurricanes as another accurate predictions. this century. Meteorology at UCD took up his post in example of Climate Change. Hurricanes would September 2004 from Met Éireann, where he not happen if the ocean temperature did not “We want to know what is the probability, Speaking at the opening, Minister Gormley said was Deputy Director. The position at UCD reach 260 Celsius. If we lived on a planet where or likelihood of different things happening?” that projects such as EC-Earth are "absolutely presented an opportunity to combine education the temperature of our oceans never reached explains Professor Lynch. “In that context we essential if we are to predict the global climate and research. Professor Lynch had previously this level, then we would be unaware of the might find that in our ensemble, most of the conditions with accuracy. Climate change taught third-level courses in Meteorology and existence of hurricanes. “The point is,” says predictions cluster in a certain region, with threatens our very existence and we must Atmospheric Physics at TCD. He also has a Professor Lynch, “as our climate changes, there maybe one or two wildcats. These could give tackle it now. We also want to expand the links passion for mathematics and its application in may be other phenomena that could appear. an indication of extreme unanticipated events. to international research to ensure that Ireland particular, the Mathematics of Atmosphere They might be triggered into life - perhaps For example the possibility of abrupt climate has an advanced capability for predicting future Dynamics. Since 2004, he has been steadily devastatingly - given changes in certain change and this is an area where we don’t know climate conditions". working to build up the various teaching and parameters.” enough, so far. Ireland and the rest of the world research programmes at UCD. could benefit from this approach, as unexpected Sean Duke is a UCD graduate and joint editor of Serious flooding has become a regular feature of events may become more predictable.” Science Spin Professor Lynch’s primary research interest Ireland’s climate in the past decade. This has area is that of abrupt climate change. For become a major issue for government, Professor At a national level, there is a collaborative example, the idea that something could happen Lynch and his colleagues are looking at project between UCD and Met Éireann are For some time, many had felt that the that would trigger very rapid climate change. developing ways of predicting floods in advance. working on a collaborative project, the training in meteorology in Ireland was not at Or, more interestingly, but more dangerously, Community Climate Change Consortium for the level it should be nor was there enough something could happen that could trigger a A computer model was developed of the River Ireland (the C4I Project), the aim of which is to research happening in the field here. Irish new climate phenomenon, one that is totally Suir Basin, it was found that the system was model and predict climate change in Ireland. students had to go to universities abroad for unexpected, and has never been seen before. quite sensitive to even small changes in rainfall. This involves running regional climate models, training.

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