7 Questions with Lorraine McGinty
Professor, University College Dublin
Professor Lorraine McGinty (she/her) carried out her PhD work in the School of Computer Science at University College Dublin (UCD) in the area of personalized route planning (using collaborative data). Since 2003, she has been an academic member of staff (joining only four female academic staff at that time). Much of her research has concentrated on development of personalization techniques in a variety of real-world user domains.
In her spare time, she enjoys the outdoors, eating out, music, reading, and comedy. Her priorities in life are her 18-month-old son and her husband. As a family, they enjoy frequent trips to the West of Ireland.
1. Where’s your hometown?
Achill Island, off the west coast of Ireland.
2. How did you get into STEM?
I grew up in a very rural community with enviable student/teacher ratios and an extraordinary emphasis on the importance of going to University. Science subjects and mathematics were strong areas for me in my second-level education program, which saw me moving to Dublin in 1994 to complete a BSc in Science. At that point in time, I had never even turned on a computer before! Computer Science was one of the areas I had the opportunity to specialize in for the fourth year of my degree program. It was a very exciting time to be studying the subject as the World Wide Web was at a very early stage, in its infancy. I was fascinated by the possibilities that seemed likely with this new “information age”. In fact, much of my early research centered on developing content-based, collaborative, and hybrid recommendation algorithms, which were very similar to many that everyday people engage with daily for activities such as online shopping, entertainment, and dating.
3. What is a piece of advice that you have found especially useful?
If you think you can, or if you think you can’t, you are right!
4. What’s a challenge you’ve faced, and how did you deal with it?
I’m still trying to deal with it! I recently became a mum for the first time in my 40’s and am keen to continue my career. While I am very fortunate that my employer is very considerate of staff returning back to work after maternity leave, I will admit it’s exhausting and pretty challenging at times to keep all of the plates spinning. I know I’m not alone, and many others have traveled this journey and survived. I take comfort in this! I have such respect and admiration of single parents and parents of multiple children who manage to continue full-time work. Luckily, I am a pretty organized individual, so with careful planning, lots of list-making, coordination, and communication, I have a system that is working well right now. ;-)
5. What’s something you’ve done that you’re really proud of?
I feel it’s a rare privilege for anybody to be afforded the opportunity to do something for their University that nobody has done before. In my case, that privilege was successfully establishing the first model of negotiated learning in our University. Our award-winning MSc in Computer Science by Negotiated Learning program has been a wonderful success, attracting hundreds of applications annually from students based worldwide seeking flexibility in the design of the curriculum they study. I was very proud to later be asked to take on the role of Director of Taught Graduate Studies with a view to restructuring our school in this area. It was a great deal of work but very enjoyable. I am especially proud of the fact that our taught graduate student numbers had reached nearly 500 at end of my term in that role, up more than 400% in a five-year period!
6. What are you most excited about right now, in or outside of STEM?
Education at post-primary level in Ireland is going through an exciting period of change, which will soon see Computer Science (CS) added to the curriculum. I feel that this move will radically change the CS graduate landscape in a variety of positive ways. For example, providing this education earlier to all post-primary students will help to squash many of the myths about what type of person can or should be a computer scientist. This, in turn, will introduce a welcome diversity into the student pool coming into our third-level programs and will also likely significantly increase the numbers of female students. Ireland’s thriving tech scene is world-renowned with many of the world’s top companies having established a base here. They are always looking for smart people to join their workforce, so it’s a really exciting time to be learning, teaching, and employing in this area.
7. What is your favorite source of inspiration?
My parents have always been an inspiration to me in life and have always encouraged me to be the best version of myself. Whenever I hit a mental block on a work task, I find that, more often than not, simply taking time out to reflect helps. I am very lucky that I can escape to go for walks along the Wild Atlantic Way when I travel from Dublin to Achill Island. I can recall quite a number of occasions where I came away feeling very inspired and mentally refreshed. It’s good for the soul!
