Mary Dempsey is an Associate Professorin Mechanical Engineering and Vice Dean for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in the College of Science and Engineering. Mary is a member of Lero, the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Software. She also served as an elected member of Academic Council (2018-2021). Mary was awarded a B.E. and M.Eng.Sc from NUI Galway. Her postgraduate work was funded as part of the European Community S.P.R.I.N.T. RA302 TULIP and DEFMAT projects and focused on Concurrent Engineering and Design for Manufacturing Practice and Software design amp; Development. She has industry experience as part of a start-team of 8 personnel for an American Multi-National Enterprise. Mary has over thirty years experience in academia and her research has been funded by Science Foundation Ireland, Health Research Board, EnterpriseIreland, Ireland-China Fund and industry sources. From 1994-1995, Mary worked on a European Social Fund project collaborating with 3 SMEs and the Irish Productivity Centre. Marys early career established links with a number of Universities including Montana State University to develop and test inventory simulation scenarios. University.She also established links with Sydney University and set up an international Wiki platform to facilitate project work with students from Australia, USA and Europe. Since 2012, Mary has studied the benefits of Lego Serious Play (LSP) as an enabler to develop process and conceptual frameworks. She has designed more than 30 WorkshopsSeminars on invitation for national and international forums including Germany, Portugal and China where shefacilitates LSP enabled design thinking processes. She collaborates on a research project to develop predictive models for illness and clinical events for a global population. Mary is an invited academic to Tsinghua University, TU Chemnitz, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston College, Minho University, Mikkeli University of Applied Sciences and she also collaborates with NGOs, Industry and Service Organisations.Mary has supervised over 30 Postgraduate students. In 2012, Mary co-founded University ofGalways Youth Academy, and in 2018 she secured a donation of 250k to support the DEIS component of the projectfor a further 6 years.In 2017, Mary also volunteered her time to professional societies where she had previously held officer positions at national level with the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) Ireland and she was one of two Presidents international nominees and representative on the SME Board working group. In 2016, Mary was selected by University ofGalway for the Aurora Womens Leadership Development Program, andin 2017 shewas subsequently selected by the Advance HE, Leadership Foundation for Higher Education to act as a Role Model. In 2020, Mary wonthe College of Science and Engineering Deans Award for Teaching Excellence and the Presidents Award for Teaching Excellence. In 2022, she was selected for the Academic Advancement Programme. Mary set up a number of scholarships for underrepresented groups in the University of Galway through industry sponsorship. In 2021, Mary led and piloted the design and implementation of a new Education Pathway in the University of Galway as part of the EU Passworld project for partnersUNHCR Ireland and nasc and presented on this novel pathway at the GRF in 2023.

My Research Vision aims to address the major challenges facing our society and the world, now and in the future. I use my engineering, research and mentoring skills and collaborations as enablers of solutions and discovery. Collaborators include undergraduates and graduate students and local and international colleagues. My research domain is the study of engineering systems and the solution of challenges of great societal importance, for example as postulated by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals including; poverty, inequality, prosperity and peace through the improvement of the quality of life. My research intersects the social sciences and considers the study of human behaviour in addition to quantitative reasoning. My research is divided into 3 areas; Operational Excellence, Predictive Medical Systems and Engineering Education. Together they achieve to develop methodologies and process optimisation that together aim to increase efficiencies for better performance. Operational ExcellenceSince 2012, I have studied the benefits of LSP as an enabler to develop process and conceptual frameworks. I have designed and delivered more than 25 WorkshopsSeminars on invitation for national and international forums including Germany, Portugal and China where I presented an LSP enabled design thinking process.I also collaborate with Prof. John Carey, School of Medicine, Dr. Attracta Brenna, School of Computer Science and Professor Ming Yu, Tsinghua University creating models to identify predictors of multiple illnesses, and common predictors of illness to identify those most amenable tointervention.Engineering EducationI have established links with a number of Universities across Europe and beyond. I worked with Montana State University to develop and test inventory simulation scenarios in conjunction with Prof. Bruce Redmond. I established links with Sydney University and set up an international Wiki platform to facilitate project work with students from Australia, USA and Europe. Since 2012, I studied the benefits of Lego Serious PlayLSP as an enabler to develop process and conceptual frameworks. I designed and delivered more than 25 WorkshopsSeminars on invitation for national and international forums including Germany, Portugal and China where I presented an LSP enabled design thinking process.Funding agencies supporting our work include; Science Foundation Ireland, Health Research Board and Industry partners.

My Teaching, Learning and Assessment (TLA) philosophy is to build sustainable learning communities of Systems Engineering professionals who are resilient and adaptable in a dynamic environment and who are committed to, and passionate about, lifelong learning. My students voice is very important to me. In challenging my diverse range of students to achieve learning outcomes (LOs), I develop a partnership approach with them, employing the principles of fairness, engagement, guidance, support and encouragement in my teaching. I simultaneously challenge my students in their learning to enable them to develop academic rigor and to be the best they can be. In order to enhance my students capacity to act as responsible global citizens and ethical leaders, I endeavour to embed opportunities and scaffolds to nurture exemplary graduate attributes including; independent critical thinking, teamwork, innovation, visualisation and analytical skills. Values of honesty, care, dignity, inclusion, empathy and respect underpin my TLA philosophy. I base my teaching on the Community of Inquiry framework which combines Social, Cognitive and Teaching presences (M. Koehler and P. Mishra, 2009) and provides me with a structure to deepen my students educational experience and I inject a seasoning of fun in my TLA to enhance the experience. I also employ the Technological, Pedagogical and Content Knowledge framework for technology integration (Mulryan Kyne, 2010) to extend my TLA scholarship. This combined focus challenges me to deepen my responsibility to provide a more positive student learning experience and align with NUI Galways Strategy 2025 and HEAs Strategy. I was a visiting academic to Mikkeli University (on a bi-annual basis) from 1995 to 2001 where I taught many international students (including Chinese executives at MBA level). I was also invited to give seminars to groups of international students as part of an international speaker series in University of Minho, Portugal from 1999 to 2018. Since 2005 I have co-ordinated the Erasmus exchange between TU Chemnitz and NUI Galway for the provision of staff and student mobility. I also co-ordinated the Malaysian students who enrolled in third year of the Industrial Engineering programme. I was invited to visit Tsinghua University, Beijing as part of the Ireland-China programme in 2007 and 2018. In 2019, I co-ordinated the IMEM Tsinghua University industry and academic visit in Galway. I am working with UNHCR Ireland as a partner on the Education Pathways Project in Ireland (EU-Passworld) to expand higher education pathways for refugees in Europe.