On behalf of the faculty and staff, I welcome you to the School of Science & Informatics (SoSI) website. Here you will find a vast array of information about our graduate and undergraduate academic programmes, departments, and research.  Check back regularly and keep up-to-date with the latest news about our School.

As an introduction about who we are and what we do, the School of Science & Informatics provides high quality educational opportunities in the disciplines of biological, chemical and physical sciences, mathematics and computing.  Application of this knowledge through ‘hands-on’ internships, practical and laboratory-based research experiences offers our undergraduate students the opportunity to gain skills and experience future employers desire, or to prepare for postgraduate study.

Our postgraduate programmes train highly competent early stage researchers and we offer opportunities at both Masters and Doctoral (PhD) level with an offering of both research and taught courses.  We aim for international standards of excellence across the spectrum of research, from fundamental, curiosity driven work that builds the stock of knowledge and leads to new research questions to applied research and innovation with direct application to industry and communities.  Whether you pursue a research or taught programme through the SoSI, you can expect to work on solving complex problems in cutting-edge research and innovation linked directly to Ireland’s smart economy in areas such as bioinformatics, optoelectronics, medical devices, healthcare, information technology, big data, and cloud computing.  Of course, it also helps greatly that the SoSI boasts the CREATE building with its world-class facilities that enable our postgraduate students to reach their full potential. The fact that our researchers attract funding from enterprise and from a wide range of National, European and International funding programmes provides the financial engine to support our graduates in following their postgraduate dream.

The SoSI have a truly extraordinary range of academics many of whom are engaged in research and all of whom are committed to providing our 1700+ undergraduate and 200+ postgraduate students with an excellent education across each department, and a wide range of disciplines.  Departments comprising the SoSI include:

• Department of Biological Sciences
• Department of Physical Sciences
• Department of Mathematics
• Department of Computing

The SoSI has strong ties and a demonstrated track record of meaningful engagement with other third level providers and industry at both a local, national, and international level and we aim to continue to expand our portfolio of collaborative partners.  Our current list of collaborators includes amongst other the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), St. Petersburg University, University of Djion, University of Burgundy, University College Dublin (UCD), University College Cork (UCC), Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre (APC), Tyndall National Institute, Teagasc, EMC, VMware, Pfizer, and Glaxo Smith Kline (GSK) Ireland.

With many of our PhD and Masters candidates undertaking applied and translational research, we take pride in our capacity to partner with a wide range of industry partners to help them solve the problems they may be facing.  And, we work to make the process of engagement as smooth as possible for all stakeholders.   SoSI aims to address the commercial and innovation challenges facing our industry partners and to prepare our graduates with the skills, knowledge and attributes that make them highly employable.  In fact, the skills being acquired by our graduates not only position them for exciting and productive careers but also to drive innovation and growth.

The SoSI are very proud regional hosts and sponsors of SciFest in Cork.  We actively engage with local secondary schools to promote an understanding and appreciation of science and highlight career opportunities in science.  Sessions can be booked by Schools, and in particulur CIT Access linked and DEIS schools in our laboratory facilities through the CIT Science 4 Life Programme.  A wide range of experiments are available to choose from including the mandatory experiments of the Leaving Certificate Biology, Chemistry, and Physics syllabii.

Please take time to browse our website for additional information on the range of research and teaching activities across our School.  You are very welcome to contact us directly for any further information or for an informal discussion.

Dr Brendan O'Connell
Head School of Science & Informatics (Acting)
Cork Institute of Technology
E: brendan.oconnell@mtu.ie