Niall is pictured with Chair of the Irish Concrete Society, Robert Laird, and his supervisor, Dr Ciaran McNally.
ROD Graduate Engineer, Niall Hanratty, won the Sean de Courcy Student Award at the 42nd Irish Concrete Society Awards, which were held in Dublin last Saturday, 29 March.
The Sean de Courcy Student Award is given to the best final-year project on a concrete-related topic from the engineering faculties of higher education institutes in Ireland. It is named after the late Professor Sean de Courcy, a former chairperson of the Irish Concrete Society and a life-long educator at UCD.
Niall graduated with an ME in Structural Engineering and Architecture from UCD in 2024. His thesis, jointly supervised by Dr Ciaran McNall and Mehran Khan, explored the fresh-state property requirements for 3D printing concrete, which can be modified using admixtures in terms of concrete rheology - the mechanics of flowable materials.
Niall said: “I’m incredibly thankful to the Irish Concrete Society for this award and for an amazing evening. Working hands-on with an emerging method of construction was massively rewarding, and it has been amazing to see the positive response to the work being done in this area.”