Moate PhD candidate wins major University of Galway competition
by Emily Sheehan
Louise McCormack, originally from Moate, has won first prize in University of Galway's Threesis competition for her presentation, “Scoring AI for Ethical Trustworthiness.”
A PhD candidate at the University of Galway, Louise's research aims to develop a tool to monitor and score Artificial Intelligence (AI) for its trustworthiness, in line with the 'Seven Ethical Principals for Trustworthy AI' developed by the European Commissions High-Level Expert Group on AI.
Her research is supported by ADAPT - the Science Foundation Ireland Centre for AI-Driven Digital Content Technology.
Louise is the co-founder and CEO of the news start-up 'Lexe' – a creator economy publishing platform for journalists working in the environmental, sustainability and social-change sectors.
Harnessing ten years of industry experience, including her role as acquisitions manager for Mediahuis Ireland, Louise, alongside Lexe's co-founder Bronagh Loughlin, aims to position Lexe as the ethical, leading platform for news.
Additionally, Louise was awarded the 'one-to-watch' award from the Enterprise Ireland's New Frontiers programme in 2022 for her work on Lexe.
Twelve postgraduate students, selected from 80 participants, took part in the Threesis Grand Finale, in which candidates speak and present their research for three minutes, using only three slides, in front of three judges and a voting audience.
Commenting on the competition, Vice-President of Research and Innovation at the University of Galway Professor Jim Livesey said: “Threesis is one of the highlights of the year for our research community as it provides a snapshot of the ground-breaking research underway by our postgraduate research students.”
“Our 12 finalists were outstanding in their ability to condense their complex and specialised research into just three minutes for a public audience.
“My congratulations to the winners and finalists, and also to the 80 students who participated in training and heats, and the many colleagues across campus who support this programme.”
Threesis Programme Director, and Innovation and Engagement Officer at the University’s Research & Innovation Office Ruth Hynes said: “Ultimately, we aim to maximise the societal benefits and impact of research at the University. Achieving this often requires our researchers to engage across disciplines, collaborate beyond traditional boundaries, and connect with a range of stakeholders.”
The judges of the Grande Finale were John Crumlish, chief executive of Galway International Arts Festival, Sinéad Beacom, Head of the Researcher Development Centre at University of Galway, and Victoria Ward, the previous Threesis winner – with the university’s Dr Jessamyn Fairfield acting as MC for the event.
The Threesis competition began in 2012 and is open to all research students and postdoctoral researchers at the University.
Louise will continue on to compete in the national PhD Threesis final, alongside the winners from seven other Irish Universities.
The final competition will take place in November.