Technology and Design

The Department of Technology and Design (T&D) provides a high-quality and unique learning experience for our students. Our central aim is to stimulate our students' curiosity and provide them with the essential skills and knowledge so that they may engage, by means of effective and innovative pedagogy, young people in a technological education that is relevant to the world in which they live. We have over many years established strong links with industry in order to ensure that our students develop an in-depth understanding of the work that product designers, technologists and engineers carry out within local industries. We both encourage and enable our students to be resourceful, innovative and enterprising by their engagement in the solving of authentic, real-life design problems. This, in turn, enables our students to be suitably prepared, in their role as future teachers of T&D, to enable young people to acquire those essential skills which are necessary for their ongoing development as individuals, and as contributors to society, the economy and the environment. This is linked to providing the opportunities for young people to unlock their ability to be the designers and innovators of tomorrow.

The department has a staff of two lecturers and two senior technicians who provide the backdrop to a high-quality and user-friendly teaching and learning environment.

The department is research active with academic staff having had recent, and ongoing, experience in working with European colleagues in both Comenius (https://stimula.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/00_posterra_txikia_stimula.pdf) and Erasmus+ (http://stingeuproject.com/) funded research programmes. The department also acted as a lead partner in both the design and delivery of various programmes with SENTINUS, with one recent example being the SMART TECHNOLOGY PROJECT. Staff are also currently working with colleagues from Stranmillis University College on a research project titled "STEM Education in Primary Schools: The MicroBot Project" that involves upwards of 120+ pupils from local primary schools which are representative of the educational spectrum in Northern Ireland. Academic staff are also serving as external examiners to both undergraduate and masters technology education-oriented programmes in universities based in Great Britain, as well as advisors to CCEA and members of the boards of governors for local schools.

The department has also strong professional links with The Institution of Engineering and Technology, who sponsor the department's annual Graduate of the Year Award, and The Arkwright Scholarships Trust. These partnerships ensure that our students have many opportunities for engagement with those working in the engineering and technology-oriented industries within Northern Ireland and beyond.

Course Team Leader: Mr Joe Hughes

Associated Staff