Profile
Catherine Conaghan
Final two :O Thanks to anyone who voted!! Keep the votes coming - as a Mayo person I've no idea what it feels like to win a final! :)
Curriculum Vitae
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Work History:
Castlecool Ltd
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Current Job:
R&D Project Manager
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Employer:
Intergrated Environmental Solutions (IES)
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My Work: I manage large European engineering projects that develop brand new ways to save energy in buildings
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I work for IES which is a company that has software that can be used to design new energy efficient buildings or to create models of buildings that already exist to find ways to save those buildings energy. The pictures below show some examples of buildings models created in the IES software.
I work in the Research and Development (I’ll call it R&D from now on) part of the company. R&D means finding new way’s to do something, or to do something that hasn’t been done before. This is what we do with our software in this department – find brand new ways to use and develop the software so that it can be used to save more energy for companies, schools, hospitals, home owners, airports, supermarkets, city planners etc. The plan is to make cities, towns and buildings across the world as energy efficient as possible, which is a good plan for everyone’s future!
My job is to develop ideas for these projects and then manage them. Usually the projects last around 3 or 4 years, involve a number of other companies in Europe and can be worth several million Euro. They are usually partly funded by the European Commission or something similar.
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My Typical Day: Typical is not a word I would use to describe any day in my work :) Everyday can be very different and can often involves travel to different countries
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What I'd do with the money: I am planning to do something for school kids in Kosovo to raise their awareness on energy and engineering, as €500 would go a long way over there.
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Energy efficiency is a big problem in Kosovo (eastern Europe), and they often have power cuts during the day with no warning because they don’t have the money to create enough energy for the whole country. I would plan to give the money to an engineer I know in Kosovo and create an energy demo and visit schools so the kids in Kosovo know more about it, and maybe even get some of them to think about becoming an engineer so they could help to solve some the problems it has in the future.
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My Interview
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How would you describe yourself in 3 words?
Ambitious, Outgoing and (kind-of-a) nerd
What's the best thing you've done in your career?
Redesign of a refrigeration process over a weekend that allowed the company to take on a large new customer and employee 8 new people for almost no upfront cost.
What or who inspired you to follow your career?
I can’t really remember a specific person who inspired me. I was always interested in how things worked or trying to fix them if they were broken.
What did you want to be after you left school?
I knew I wanted to do engineering from when I was about 14
Were you ever in trouble at school?
Can’t think of anything. So either I was really really good, or I have blocked it out :)
If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?
Probably some to do with media or TV actually – like editing or graphic design
Who is your favourite singer or band?
I love music and can’t pick just one – Arcade Fire, Haim, Hozier, Ed Sheeran are high on the list at the moment. Also, although I try, I can’t stop listening to Taylor Swift these days!
What's your favourite food?
Can’t beat homemade Irish stew
What is the most fun thing you've done?
Cycling down death road in Bolivia (the most dangerous road in the world). A great day.
If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!
1) Make a positive difference in the world with my work 2) To always be Happy and 3) …fly :)
Tell us a joke.
This one is best said out loud Q: Why are there no painkillers in the zoo A: Coz the parrots eat em all. (Paracetamol)
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