Owen Higgins

Member of the Executive Committee, responsible for handling the association's finances, managing sponsorships and requests for grants.

Part of the informal, voluntary Management Team for IFISO. Responsible for organising two online forums in Spring and Autumn 2020. In addition, assist IFISO members in collaborating and sharing knowledge between IFISO meetings, and organise to admit new members.

Member of the IAPS Executive Committee with responsibility for coordinating events organised by and sponsored by IAPS.

Represented Ireland’s student physicists on the first IOP Student Committee. Contributed to initial formation, direction and tasks of the committee. Organised events and conference on behalf of the committee and the IOP. Liaised with IOP staff, with universities and with students and groups in Ireland. Promoted the activities of the IOP locally.

Chairperson of the society committee, responsible for overall direction, finances, etc. Duties included: Planning and organising astronomy events for students and the public - Oversight and management of finances, securing grant funding for society - Cooperating with committee members to ensure completion of tasks - Liaising with academic and industry contacts across Europe and with guest speakers - Principal organiser twice of the Joint Congress of University Astronomy Societies

Completed a research project under Dr.Ray Butler entitled ‘A GIS System for Optimally Siting a Small Observatory’. The project involved using ArcMap, a geographic information systems application, to develop a tool which could automatically select an area to site an observatory based on given criteria. Data including altitude, light pollution, roads and utilities locations was utilised to select the optimal area. The tool developed with ArcMap is flexible and can be used to automatically select a site given appropriate data for anywhere in the world.

Teaching Assistant and Lab Demonstrator for CS211 Programming and Operating Systems. I was responsible for: Supervising scheduled laboratory exercises; Assisting students with work and assignments in Python programming; Liaising with students and lecturer to co-ordinate assignments; Testing and correcting assignment submissions; Providing feedback to students.

Responsible for advertising all society events to members via the mailing list and with posters on campus; assisted in responding to queries from members and the public.