Dr. Aoife OBrien is a Lecturer in Mathematics and Statistics in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering in the Atlantic Technological University. She is a graduate of the University of Galway, with a degree in Mathematics (2001), a master’s degree in communications systems theory (2007) and an Irish Research Council funded PhD in Mathematics Education (2021). Aoife joined ATU Galway in 2017 as a lecturer for their engineering programmes. Prior to this she worked as a statistical consultant for a number of research projects in University of Galway including the Irish Research Council funded Diversity in Initial Teacher Education (DITE) national project, and the Wizard of Words (WOW) project conducted by the Child and Family Research Centre on behalf of Barnardo’s. Her previous experience was in finance where she worked as a risk analyst and business manager for a leading financial institution. Aoife’s research interests include students’ knowledge of initial algebra and development of algebraic thinking. She published a report for government in 2021 on Irish second year post primary students’ knowledge of initial algebra. Other research interests include assessment development and validation, task design and educational data analysis.