Design and Testing of Reinforced Glulam Beams was the name of the project that earned National University of Ireland, Galway student John O’Malley top spot in the Wood Science/Engineering section, beating off competition from a further 193 projects entered by third-level engineering, architecture and design students from institutions in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic to take home one of the €2,000 prize pots.
Of the 194 initial entries, 19 teams from universities such as University College Dublin, the National College of Art and Design, the Dublin Institute of Technology and Queen’s University, Belfast were selected to progress to the final.
The 2007 award was split into three categories – Design, Architecture and Wood Science/Engineering – due to the success of the first event, with the WMF saying that it was “overwhelmed” by the volume of interest shown by students.
“Such was the diversity of the entries that we divided the award into three distinct areas,” said WMF chairman Gerard Murphy.
“We are overwhelmed by the volume of interest shown…this year…and we’re very impressed by the standard of entries submitted.”
The award was established in 2006 to promote the use of wood to architects and designers and the WMF has stated that it hopes that by getting third level students to use it in their projects, they will be more inclined to use timber during their professional careers.
