Area of Expertise:
Engineering education; Problem based learning and collaborative learning; Critical thinking in the curriculum; Transport equity and access to services; Rural Transport; Public transport operations and planning; Sustainable infrastructure development; Road engineering safety – self-explaining roads, vulnerable road users
Biography:
Dr. Ahern graduated from Trinity College Dublin with a degree in civil engineering in 1998, before going on to obtain a PhD in Transportation Engineering from University College London in 2001. She was appointed as a lecturer in the Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering in Trinity College Dublin from 2000 to 2003. In 2003, she joined UCD and has been a Senior Lecturer since 2008. She is Head of Teaching and Learning at the School of Civil Engineering in UCD, a role which involves providing academic leadership for the development of the Subject within and outside the University. Most recently, she was involved in a national research project as part of a multidisciplinary team looking at Critical Thinking in the University Curriculum. She was Chair of the Irish Transport Research Network from November 2009 to August 2013 and is still a committee member of this network, and she has been a Teaching and Academic Development Fellow in UCD since 2009.
At the time of start of the TRUSS project, Dr. Ahern was supervising 3 PhD students in UCD and 1 PhD student in DIT, and she had published in both engineering and educational journals and conferences.
Selected Research Outputs:
- Davison, L. , Ahern, A. and Hine, J. (2015), “Travel, transport and energy implications of university-related student travel: a case study approach”, Transportation Research D Transportation Research Part D: Transport and the Environment, 38, 27-40. [DOI]
- Caulfield, B. and Ahern, A. (2014), “The Green Fields of Ireland: The Legacy of Dublin’s Housing Boom and the Impact on Commuting”, Case Studies on Transport Policy, 2, 1, 20-27. [DOI] Link to full text
- Ahern, A., O’Connor, T., McRuairc, G. and McNamara, M. (2012), “Critical thinking in the university curriculum – the impact on engineering education”, European Journal of Engineering Education, 37 (2):125-132.[DOI]
