School of Computing

The School of Computing building has been formally renamed to the McNulty building in honour Kathleen (Kay) McNulty (1921-2006).  The Donegal-born computer programmer was one of the six original programmers of the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer), the first general-purpose, electronic, digital computer developed in the US in 1946.

A total of six building in DCU were renamed as part of the DCU Women in Leadership initiative, Project 50:50 representing a commitment by DCU to name 50% of its major buildings after inspiring female figures.

Kathleen McNulty emigrated to the US with her family when she was just three years old to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She graduated with a degree in mathematics from Chestnut Hill College for Women in June 1942, one of only a few mathematics majors out of a class of 92 women. During World War II, she was hired by the US Army to calculate bullet and missile trajectories at Ballistic Research Laboratory in Aberdeen, Maryland using mechanical desk calculators. The ENIAC was developed for the purpose of performing these same ballistics calculations between 1943–1946. In June 1945, Kay was selected to be one of its first programmers, along with several other women from the computer corps department.

Insight PhD candidate David Azcona (pictured centre with fellow awardee David Collings and DCU President Brian MacCraith) has been named by Minister Charlie Flanagan of the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Mr Reece Smyth, Chargé d’affaires of the US Embassy in Ireland, among this year’s Fulbright Irish awardees.

Azcona is a PhD candidate in Insight@DCU. As a Fulbright Student Awardee to Arizona State University, he will research the differences in learner behaviour in Computer Science between Ireland and the U.S., and how student collaboration with a university comprising such a large student body can be enabled.