Regional Development CentRe & ReseaRCh offiCe

issue five winteR 2009

the link

Up for the Novation

Challenge

Where research & InnovatIon Meets enterprIse

entrepreneurs in the making Applying science

Creative space

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Great care has been taken to ensure that this information is accurate, but the Regional Development Centre, including its subsidiaries does not accept responsibility or liability for errors or information which is found

to be misleading.

Written & edited by Brian Skelly, The Write Business, + 353 86 857-5829

Regional Development Centre Dublin Road Dundalk Co Louth

T | +353 42 9331161 F | +353 42 9331163

W | www.rdc.ie E | info@rdc.ie

The Regional Development Centre (RDC) is a centre to promote innovation, technology transfer and enterprise in the wider region and is

based on the DkIT Campus.

Contents Foreword

A lot done,more to do

Irish third level colleges have come a long way in terms of cultivating entrepreneurship on campus. Most higher education institutes now have an incubation centre to house and assist campus companies. Structures are in place to support the transfer of knowledge from the lab to the marketplace. Students are much more business-savvy than they used to be, with TV programmes such as The Apprentice making them more interested in giving business a go. Yet, challenges still remain. Our cover story this month looks at a new report from the Accelerated Campus Entrepreneurship project, which is led by DkIT and involves several other third level institutes across the country. The report indicates that, despite all that’s been achieved and the supports that exist, it is not easy for students and graduates to start their own businesses in college. Barriers still exist and, the report concludes, key gaps in entrepreneurship education need to be plugged if Ireland is to deliver a generation of entrepreneurial graduates.

The good news is that DkIT’s own entrepreneurship programmes are as strong as ever. We report on a variety of projects that encourage business start-ups and promote creative thinking, from the Rookie Challenge and the Student Innovation Fund to Novation EPP and Pride.

Elsewhere in this issue, we anticipate the opening of two new applied research centres on campus - the Ion Channel Biotechnology Centre and Casala - and talk to their managers about what commercial deployments we can expect over the coming months.

We also showcase the exciting research under way within the Creative Media and Organic Resources research groups and find out why historian Martin Maguire is fascinated by civil servants!

We hope that you enjoy this edition of The Link. If you have any comments or suggestions regarding content, or would like to be included on the mailing list, please email anne.tinnelly@dkit.ie.

In the meantime, we would like to wish all our readers a very happy Christmas and enterprising new year.

Irene McCausland, External Services Manager, RDCDr Tim McCormac, Head of Research, DkIT.

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Regional Development CentRe & ReseaRCh offiCe

issue five winteR 2009

the link

Creating the entrpreneurial

graduate

Where research & InnovatIon Meets enterprIse

Carlingford challenge for start-ups

Vennetics wins innovation prize

Just reward for

enterprising student

ACE launched

at Farmleigh

Testing time for

business rookies

Bringing commercial

muscle to SMRC

Casala’s

helping the aged

Getting creative

with media

Meet the

waste warriors

History man

entrepreneurs in the making Applying science

Creative space

The 2009/10 Novation Enterprise Platform Programme launched in October with participants undergoing a challenging two days of training and personal

development in Carlingford.

The members of this year’s programme run businesses in a variety of sectors including sport, software development, renewable and sustainable energy, ICT and creative and digital media. The Novation EPP will support these entrepreneurs over the next nine months through training, one-to-one mentoring and extensive networking opportunities to grow and drive their businesses forward.

The residential team-building course was introduced last year. It helps the group to get to know each other and builds trust very early in the programme. It also sets the scene for the challenges ahead.

Funded by the HEA, the NDP 2007-2013 and EU Structural Funds, the Novation EPP has been running in DkIT for the past eight years, supporting over 85 participants in technology businesses. There have been many success stories from the programme over the years with participants winning either regional or national awards in InterTrade Ireland’s Seedcorn Competition. Successful graduates of the programme include Sean Gallagher, Smarthomes, Michael Armstrong, Armac, David Gillen, BlueAcre Technology and Deirdre MacCormack, MCOR Technologies. Former participants now employ over 300 people and have annual sales in excess of €27 million.

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Taking Pride in start-upsA group of budding young entrepreneurs will come together for a new business start-up course organised by Dundalk Institute of Technology and DCU.

The free three-month programme, called Pride, is primarily aimed at recently unemployed DCU and DkIT alumni. Many of these graduates are trained and experienced in technology-related fields but lack business experience. Several may have the genesis of a new business idea already in place. Pride is intended to provide a stepping stone to self employment from which graduates can acquire the necessary business skills required to research, plan and execute a new start-up.

What makes Pride stand out from other business start-up courses is its focus on the feasibility and viability of the new business ideas. This is done by means of a series of interactive workshops over a five-week period alternating between the two campuses.

The second stage of the programme will be to deliver an expert evaluation of these new proposals, along with potential space in one of the two incubation centres (Invent at DCU and the Regional Development Centre at DkIT). The participants are encouraged to go as far as they possibly can within the Pride programme and avail of the many supports that Invent DCU and the RDC have to offer.

An online business mentoring facility will be launched as part of the initiative to meet the practical challenges of current and past graduates. This is the brainchild of Pat McKeown, a successful entrepreneur who has worked closely as a mentor with DkIT for many years.

Sean MacEntee, Incubation Centre Manager at DkIT’s RDC, remarked, “We hope that Pride will unleash the entrepreneurial spirit and talent of many of our graduates who, with a little support and encouragement, can and will become successful in business.”

Get into the Zone at the RDCOn the last Friday of each month, the Regional Development Centre hosts the "Enterprise & Innovation Zone" – a topical forum for entrepreneurs and owner-managers of SMEs. Each session starts with a real-life story of enterprise and innovation in action. This describes in detail the challenges encountered and the steps taken by a successful owner-manager in establishing and developing their venture. There are also presentations on the types of supports available (both financial and technical) to inventors, entrepreneurs and growth businesses. The forum wraps up with a Q&A session which gives participants the opportunity to put their own questions to an invited panel.

The next Zone event will take place on Friday 29th January from 2pm to 4pm in the Regional Development Centre, Dundalk Institute of Technology. To book a place, please call 042 9331161 or email brona.macentee@dkit.ie.

Flying high with Novation EPP

Hard-hat time: Novation EPP participants get to grips with some of the

team-building exercises in Carlingford

Enterprise

Enterprise

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From top: Ivan McShane and John Hamill,

Vennetics; Tara Simpson, Instil Software;

Margaret Hearty, InterTrade Ireland; Irene

McCausland, RDC; and Elena Montes

Macías, Vennetics.

Vennetics has been awarded a share of InterTrade Ireland’s €4 million Innova R&D programme. The DkIT RDC-based firm, with its partner company Instil Software, will receive up to €300,000 from InterTrade to accelerate new product, process and service developments.

The product the two firms are jointly developing is called Moozler, which is aimed at the growing PC telephony market. Moozler, which is due to be launched in 2010, allows users to quickly create a low cost international web call and to move calls on the fly between their PC and mobile phone.

Not only is InterTrade Ireland supporting Moozler’s development, it introduced the two companies to each other initially, according to Ivan McShane, engineering director at Vennetics.

“Vennetics has been developing advanced voice over IP server technology for mobile operators for some time now but irrespective of how many innovative capabilities we support, if the experience on the PC screen of the end user is not compelling then the solution will not be used. We had looked for some time

to find a partner in this area and were delighted when InterTrade Ireland was able to introduce us to Instil through its business networking activities. We are now working together to ensure that when we do launch Moozler in 2010 that it will be simple, intuitive and fun to use."

InterTrade Ireland chief executive Liam Nellis said: “Innova helps companies to work together to develop new products with demonstrable commercial potential and bring them to market faster than if they were working alone. Vennetics and Instill were technically, commercially and financially assessed by a team of experts and the competition is tough. Both companies should be very proud of their achievement of making it on to the Innova programme and we look forward to releasing a further €7.6m later this year for other projects that make the grade.”

Vennetics wins share of €4m innovation fund

An award-winning start-up is building a reputation in the burgeoning social networking software market. Established in January this year, GecoLoco has developed an application called ‘BeeHerd’ which allows any organisation to attract and retain an online community.

BeeHerd enables online sports content publishers and website owners to create interactive, customised social widgets or mini-applications. The widgets allow fans to stay up-to-date with the latest news, photos, videos, fixtures and results as well as provide the facility to discuss and comment live using the Twitter platform. The look of BeeHerd can be branded and customised to a user’s liking and easily embedded in the business’ website. Businesses can also tailor the feeds and content, and so use BeeHerd as a marketing tool.

Based in DkIT’s satellite incubation

centre in Millmount, Drogheda, GecoLoco was founded by Polish friends Bartek Czerwinski, a web designer, and Tomasz Walkowiak, a software engineer. Czerwinski recently embarked on the Novation Enterprise Platform Programme (NEPP), a nine-month programme of support run by the RDC for graduate entrepreneurs with an innovative hi-tech business idea. The third founder is Jackie O’Sullivan, whose brief spans project management, marketing and investor relations.

GecoLoco was an Eircom Innovation Award winner in July. As a result, the company has received funding from Eircom to further develop the product. BeeHerd is currently available as an online application only but the company plans to develop mobile and desktop versions of the software as well.

“The funding made a huge difference as it has allowed us concentrate fully on developing and building the

product. Winning the award has also opened a lot of doors. It’s such a high-profile award in Ireland that it’s helped us win new clients and really establish ourselves,” says O’Sullivan, who adds that Louth County Enterprise Board has recently come on-board as an investor in the firm.

Moreover, as part of the prize, the company has been allowed to showcase its technology on Eircom.net, one of Ireland’s most popular websites.

BeeHerd creates a buzz

BeeHerd allows online sports content

publishers to create interactive widgets

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Lights, camera, action!DkIT student Francis Gorman became the first recipient of the Dundalk Credit Union Student Innovation Fund Award. He scooped the award for his business Join the Cue, which offers online ‘matchmaking’ services to the film industry. Francis, a third-year student, has been working on his business idea for the last 18 months. The award, a joint initiative between Dundalk Credit Union and DkIT, is the first of its kind in the country. The initial fund of €15,000, provided by Dundalk Credit Union, supports third-level student projects and innovation proposals that show commercial promise. Vouchers from the fund will provide for marketing, prototyping and other related costs for approved projects.

To qualify, students must demonstrate a potential market exists for the new business idea. All applications are assessed by a panel comprising Dundalk Credit Union and DkIT representatives. Successful projects will receive an innovation voucher to the value of €600 (€1,000 in exceptional circumstances).

The fund is open to undergraduate and postgraduate students from all schools at DkIT. Along with the Student Enterprise Intern programme, the fund is seen as critical to the successful promotion of an enterprise culture amongst the student population here at DkIT.

Further information www.studententerprisedkit.ie.

Enterprise

Want to be an entrepreneur?Are you an engineering student who is thinking of starting a business but unsure about jumping in at the deep end? Then you may be interested in an exciting new Level-8 programme being run at DkIT, which is aimed at equipping technical students with the skills to succeed in business.

The BSc (Hons) in Engineering Enterpreneurship programme is being developed by Colman Ledwith and Angela Hamouda (amongst others). To qualify, students must have an idea for a new product and the year will have a strong commercialisation focus to find out whether the project has commercial legs. The programme is aimed at engineering students from all disciplines in DkIT.

Successful completion of the course would allow you to go on and take a Masters (MSc) in Technology Entrepreneurship at IT Blanchardstown. This is a unique “pracademic” programme offering technology graduates the opportunity to acquire the entrepreneurial skills required to develop their own business idea. Through the MSc, you would network with successful entrepreneurs and enterprise development experts and develop an investor-ready business plan. You would also obtain a postgraduate qualification (postgraduate diploma or MSc) based on the experience of commercialising

your business idea.

For more information about either programme contact Colman Ledwith on 042 937-0200.

A quality operation The Regional Development Centre is a well managed, quality-assured operation – and that’s official. The RDC recently underwent its annual quality audit at the hands of the International Standards Organisation (ISO) – and again came through with flying colours.

The RDC was the first campus incubation facility to be awarded the ISO quality standard in Ireland and has continually met the stringent annual audit requirements, year after year. In November 2008, it was awarded the ISO 9001:2008 quality award – which it retained following the latest audit in November 2009.

ISO 9001:2008 is the world’s foremost quality management standard which

sets out the essential requirements for a practical and effective quality management system.

Irene McCausland, external services manager, RDC, said that this represented “a great achievement by all the team at the Regional Development Centre and highlights our commitment to providing our clients with a reliable and consistent quality of service and support.”

From left: Mario McBlain, lecturer, DkIT; Billy Doyle, general manager, Dundalk CU; Emma

Brabazon, student intern; Francis Gorman, Join the Cue; Tom D'Arcy, treasurer, Dundalk CU;

Ronan Lynch, student intern; Denis Cummins, President DkIT; and Sean MacEntee, incubation

centre manager, RDC.

Key gaps in entrepreneurship education need to be plugged if Ireland is to deliver a generation of business-savvy grads, says new report

Greater focus on entrepreneurism needed

While nearly four-fifths (78pc) of undergraduates would like to start their own businesses at some point in the future and many third level institutes have a formal strategy to encourage entrepreneurship, there are still major structural barriers that inhibit the flow of entrepreneurs from third level colleges. This is one of the findings of an important new report which was launched at Farmleigh last month by the Accelerating Campus Entrepreneurship (ACE) initiative.

Entitled “Entrepreneurship Education in Ireland: Towards Creating the Entrepreneurial Graduate,” the report was launched by An Tanaiste Mary Coughlan in the presence of Denis Cummins, president of DkIT and senior representatives from a range of third-level colleges.

The report assesses the current provision of entrepreneurship education within higher education institutes in Ireland and highlights the gaps that currently exist in its provision.

The report’s key finding is that entrepreneurship education is not readily available to all students in higher education. Blockages include poor infrastructure, insufficient resources and inappropriate pedagogies for third level. There is also, the study finds, a lack of joined-up thinking between higher education institutions and between academics and practitioners. The report’s main recommendation is that third level institutes embed entrepreneurship education into all disciplines.

Summarising the situation, the report states, “Irish higher education institutes (HEIs) face a steep learning curve in raising the standard of campus entrepreneurship education and activity. They also need to bridge the gap between academics and industry, which often results from practitioners not perceiving education provision as relevant and many time-constrained businesspeople seeing limited payback for active participation in the education process. Industry engagement with the tertiary education sector is neither widespread nor intensive despite initiatives to mainstream such collaboration. While private funding and active engagement with entrepreneurs in the teaching process is common within the entrepreneurial university culture of the US, this is a challenge for

Irish HEIs.“

ACE is a partnership between IT Blanchardstown, Cork IT, IT Sligo, NUI Galway and Dundalk Institute of Technology (the project leader). DkIT has secured project funding of almost €4 million, of which 50% is funded through the Higher Education

Authority’s Strategic Innovation Fund and 50% is match funded by the project partners.

ACE has developed a range of educational programmes aimed at creating entrepreneurial graduates who can create indigenous employment or benefit employers, be they multinational companies, small enterprise, public sector or voluntary organisations. These include:

A student entrepreneurship intern •programme rolled out in partner institutions.

A range of modules from NVQ Level •6 to Level 9 that will develop and grow entrepreneurial mindsets and behaviours.

New undergraduate and •postgraduate programmes in entrepreneurship education delivered collaboratively, including the BSc Hons in Engineering Entrepreneurship and the MSc in Technology Entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurship education •embedded into existing undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in non-business disciplines at partner institutions

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The SIF ACE management committee is pictured with An Tanaiste Mary Coughlan, TD, at the recent launch of the ACE

report at Farmleigh

DkIT President Denis Cummins with An

Tanaiste Mary Coughlan, TD

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including the B Eng Innovation – Electronic and Masters of Applied Science in Enterprise Systems, Bachelors in Early Childhood and Care Education and B Eng (Honours) in Biomedical Engineering.Entrepreneur Educators •Programme.

At the launch, Professor Paul Hannon, director of research and education at the National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship (NCGE) in the UK hosted a workshop on how to create self-funded entrepreneurial institutes. Professor Hannon spoke about the critical importance of visible leadership in successfully embedding entrepreneurship education at third level. He also demonstrated how individual institutions could become “entrepreneurial institutions” in a climate of diminishing state funds.

Other speakers included Tom Boland, chief executive of the HEA, and Irene McCausland, external services manager, RDC, Dundalk IT, who gave an overview of the ACE project and the key outcomes so far.

Rookie Challenge 2009 a Hardcore success

Dozens of aspiring Bill Cullens and Sarah Newmans lined out for the biggest business challenge of their young lives when they look part in the third annual Rookie Challege hosted by StudentEnterprise@DKIT.

Teams of business rookies were given a number of tasks to test their business skills over four days, before having to make a pitch to a panel of ‘Dragons’ in the final.

Some 28 teams competed in the first task: to develop a marketing campaign for a business based on an inflatable duck. Creative minds were put to work and the brainstorm resulted in a wide range of ideas, such as inflatable boat rentals, a duckometer – a device that indicates safe temperature for bathing young children – and a social enterprise for raising funds for the children of Africa.

After the judges whittled the teams down to 12, the remaining competitors faced the second challenge: to sell an oversized bag of almost unsellable goods – including damaged ceiling tiles, deodorising soap for dogs and keyboard keys. Amidst the dross, though, there was the odd jewel, such as a baby bouquet and the recently released Dundalk Photography Club Book.

Innovative selling techniques were to the fore as the ceiling tiles became the basis for a photography collage, while a travel sewing kit was sold to an unsuspecting chef

who had a loose button on his uniform! As the competition heated up, the judging panel further culled the contestants to three for the Rookie Challenge 2009 final.

The final task was inspired by ‘Teenage Millionaire’ (www.business-opportunities.biz/2009/10/20/teen-entrepreneur/). The finalists were set the challenge of creating a business from an everyday disposable item. Garrett Duffy from the Regional Development Centre MC’d the event, and was joined by a four-member judging panel comprising Billy Doyle, general manager, Dundalk Credit Union, which co-sponsored the competition; Sean MacEntee, incubation centre manager, DkIT; Cecilia Hegarty, Accelerating Campus Entrepreneurship project co-ordinator; and Angela Short, DkIT School of Business. Also present were student enterprise interns for IT Blanchardstown, Cork IT and IT Sligo.

The three ideas presented by the finalists were: a system for harvesting and recycling water, a book exchange platform and an idea for a new mobile phone application. Each team presented its idea in 'pecha kucha' format, showcasing its business idea under strict guidelines of 20 slides at 20 seconds each. Following their pitches, the teams faced a 10-minute Q&A session with the Dragons as each team vied for the coveted top prize.

As proceedings drew to a close the judges had the unenviable task of choosing a winner. Ultimately it was left to Sean MacEntee to announce the victor – ‘Team Hardcore’ (Computing) duly stepped forward to claim the award as Rookie Champions 2009 and team members got a netbook each for their efforts.

StudentEnterprise@DKIT warmly congratulates Team Hardcore and the finalists of this year’s Rookie Challenge and indeed all the participants of another fiercely contested Rookie Challenge. It is particularly grateful to the judging panel for its help during the competition and continued support for StudentEnterprise@DKIT. Dundalk Credit Union and Louth County Enterprise Board are also thanked for their invaluable support.

Research

The SIF ACE management committee is pictured with An Tanaiste Mary Coughlan, TD, at the recent launch of the ACE

report at Farmleigh

Student Enterprise interns from DkIT, IT

Blanchardstown, Sligo IT and Cork IT relax

after the Rookie Challenge finals.

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2010 will see an important development for research in DkIT: the opening of two new applied research centres funded by Enterprise Ireland through its Applied Research Enhancement (ARE) programme. ARE funds 17 applied research centres in 11 Institutes of Technology with seed funding of €1.25 to €2 million for a three-to-five-year period. To date, the programme has attracted a total financial commitment of approximately €23 million.

In early January, the Ion Channel Biotechnology Centre (www.icbc.ie), described as the “commercial wing” of the Smooth Muscle Research Centre, will open for business. This will be followed a few weeks later by the unveiling of Casala within the newly refurbished PJ Carroll building. Closely linked to the Netwell Centre, Casala will explore marketable technologies that can help the elderly live independently.

ICBC – bringing commercial muscle to SMRC“My job is to capture things that may have commercial potential and also to connect

with industry so that we become a centre that is led by industry.” So says Dr Mary Earle about her role as head of the newly formed Ion Channel Biotechnology Centre (ICBC) within the Smooth Muscle Research Centre (SMRC).

As well as help identify commercial and research opportunities, the ICBC aims to boost the commercial awareness of research students. “We have PhD and masters students that have their own

research projects and it’s very important that they are allowed to fully explore their scientific opportunities,” says Earle. “We’re also trying to train our graduates so that there’s some role for them in industry as well so that they can see other careers beyond academia and understand their value in the marketplace.”

Thanks to funding support from the ARE initiative, the ICBC has been able to create molecular biology and organic chemistry labs, something which Earle says has accelerated the flow of data around the research group and therefore the pace of development. “The benefit of that has just blown me away. I can’t believe how quickly the data is coming out and how active the group has become and how engaged everyone is in the process,” she enthuses.

One of the areas the SMRC is currently focusing on is developing compounds that relax smooth muscle. Medical conditions where this research may be of value include erectile dysfunction, arthritis, diseases of the cardiac system and urinary incontinence. With regard to the latter, the SMRC is exploring ways of opening certain types of ion channels in the membrane to allow ions to flood out and relax the smooth muscle, so relieving the urge to urinate. Earle points out that the approach being taken by the SMRC is unique in the field of incontinence, in that there are no drugs currently on the market that use the same mechanism as the SMRC.

The drugs being developed in the ICBC will require commercial partners to bring them to market The two basic options

In the coming weeks, two new applied research centres will open at DkIT. Their aim: to give research developed at the Institute a keener commercial edge

The appliance of science

Researcher Adebola Akande measuring ion channel activity as part of her PhD programme

Carl Flynn of Casala and Ann Marron of the Nestling

Project exploring the ‘Cave’ at Casala

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here are licensing out IP and collaborating with an Irish pharma partner that would develop a drug. Either way, the launch of an effective drug based on SMRC research would be a major achievement, she says.

Earle brings a mix of high-level research and commercial experience to her role as centre manager. She holds a PhD in ion channel physiology but she also spent six years running a Canadian biotech company, Theracarb, prior to joining the ICBC. Being able to return to familiar scientific terrain is what attracted her to the ICBC, she says.

“I decided it would be fun to come back to something I really understood in terms of the science. Ion channel biotechnology is an area of research I really understand and I’m brushing off the cobwebs. It’s really fun to get back into that level of science and it allows me to engage so much more closely with the researchers that I’m working with.”

England born but living in Canada for a number of years before moving to Ireland, Dr Earle says she’s enjoying being back this side of the Atlantic. “It was a bigger cultural change than I imagined but it’s nice to be back in this part of the world and I’m very much enjoying it.”

Research

Casala – helping the agedCasala’s mission can be summed up as developing ICT solutions that can help the elderly live independently at home. Casala (the Centre for Affective Software for Ambient Living Awareness) is based in the old PJ Carroll building on DkIT’s campus and is due to open by early February next year.

The new applied research facility is part of the Netwell Centre at DkIT. Run by principal investigator Rodd Bond, Netwell conducts research into technologies that can help an ageing population stay independent and active in their own homes. This is the so-called ‘ambient assisted living’ (AAL) sector. Casala’s role is to work with Irish industry to achieve product innovation, business competitiveness and market leadership in this emerging sector. Casala will incorporate a range of innovative features including a 3D home-in-a-lab ‘cave’ which will allow it to recreate any physical space using a 3D video projector. This will allow researchers to visualise how a particular home would look without actually having to build one and then kit it out with sensors and other devices.

As well as develop technology from scratch, Casala will also jointly develop solutions working with Irish and international technology companies active in the AAL sector. It has already begun one such collaboration in the telehealth area, partnering with German electronics giant Bosch on the one hand and a Lisnaskea Co-Fermanagh teleservices firm, McElwaine Smart, on the other. Casala will project-manage the initiative which involves putting a Bosch ‘health-buddy’ device into a number of homes to monitor the resident’s vital signs such as blood pressure, weight and blood glucose, and then managing that data through a call centre and referring any problems to clinical teams in a number of Louth-based hospitals. The project is set to go

live this month.

Casala/Netwell has also been involved in implementing AAL technologies within a development of 16 assisted-living apartments in Barrack St, Dundalk which is due to open in January.

The manager of Casala, in the post since October, is Andrew McFarlane, who says its mission will be to develop clever software and systems that build intelligence into elderly people’s homes.

“We’ll be developing what’s called a ‘context-aware broker’ or inference engine which internally we’re referring as ‘Cabi’. We’ll have multimodal sensors in the houses to detect motion, temperature and so on. We’ll collect a lot of data from these and, based on the inference engine, we can then decide what additional services need to come into play. So for example if a motion sensor has not picked up any activity for a period of time, this might suggest that a nurse be called.”

Before taking up the position, McFarlane built several software firms including Quantum Computing Healthcare and Quantum Healthcare Informatics. McFarlane says his motivation for joining the Casala team was to tap the potential of the so-called ‘silver economy’ – recognised internationally as a high-growth, high-potential market. “The silver economy in Ireland is set to double by 2020 and across Europe the elderly will make up 25pc of the population. So it’s a big emerging market and a big opportunity for businesses to supply services into it.”

As well as McFarlane, two researchers have already been recruited to the team with another two to follow in the near future. These will work alongside senior researchers from other research groups within the college, such as Netwell’s Rodd Bond and Dr Rónán MacRuairí, from the Software Technology Research Centre (STORC). Over the coming years, the team should grow significantly, says McFarlane. “By the end of the four year [funding] cycle, we should have 20 to 25 people on board, excluding postgrad students.”

Casala is being funded to the tune of just over €2 million, most of which has come from the ARE programme. This funding covers the fit-out of the building and the formation of a dedicated research team.

The silver economy is a big emerging market and a big

opportunity for businesses to supply services into it’

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Dr Mary Earle: 'It's nice to be back in this part of

the world'

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John Lawlor, final year Creative Media

student, preparing to kit himself out as

a cockroach.

Creating a new spaceThe Creative Media Research Group is looking forward to moving into its own dedicated research facility

There’s never a dull moment if you’re a Creative Media researcher. Whether it be dressing up as a cockroach to see life through the eyes of this pesky little predator or using guitars or toys as new ways of interacting with computers rather than keyboard and mouse, there’s always something novel or refreshing in the mix.

These are exciting times for Creative Media in DkIT. Last year it was formally designated as a research group by the Institute’s Research Office, and recently it received research delegation from HETAC (Higher Education & Training Awards Council) which means it can offer a research masters in creative media. But that’s not all. Next semester the group will be moving into the newly refurbished PJ Carroll building on campus – the first time they will have had their own purpose-built space to work from.

“We’ve had no home. We’ve been spread out in different rooms all over the Institute for the past number of years which makes it difficult to collaborate as researchers,” reflects Caroline O’Sullivan, head of Creative Media. “Moving into the new building will open up all sorts of research possibilities. We’ll have a dedicated recording studio, TV studio, radio studio and dark room/art studio and also a number of project rooms and a dedicated space for postgrads as well as visiting researchers. Also, because physical space

Research

won’t be an issue, we’ll be looking to take on more research students.”

One of the first projects it has received funding for since becoming a research group is to look at new and innovative ways of presenting creative media research. The group has created a web portal for this project and is now researching new types of web interface by conducting focus groups with undergraduate students.

“Presenting papers and making presentations at conferences doesn't necessarily get across all the time what it is we’re doing. A lot of our work would be based around exhibitions and public art pieces. So it’s looking at how you capture that and deliver it in an online environment without losing some of the essence of what it is,” O’Sullivan explains.

Eight staff members from Creative Media are involved in the research group. The group recently took on its first research student following the HETAC endorsement. According to O’Sullivan, the nature of creative media means there is a very close intertwining of research and teaching.

“Things go out of fashion very quickly so it’s vital that staff members are very active in research and very active in practice,” she remarks. “Our research is very closely embedded in the curriculum and in what’s being taught on our programmes in communications and creative multimedia and film.”

The Creative Media research group also keeps it finger on the pulse of international creative trends. DkIT co-hosted this year’s International Symposium for the Electronic Arts (ISEA) in August and a number of members of the research team will be presenting at ISEA2010 in the Ruhr, Germany next summer. At ISEA2009 the group hosted a workshop on campus attended by over 100 national and international delegates.

For more information on the work of the Creative Media research group go to creativemediaresearch.com.

Putting organic waste to good use is the aim of a new research group within the Centre for Freshwater Studies

How to dispose of waste in an environmentally responsible manner is one of the biggest challenges facing humanity. But it is a big opportunity too, according to Dr Caroline Gilleran, a researcher with the Organic Resources research group, whose mission is to convert organic waste into value-added products or technologies.

Martin Maguire: keeping a ‘lot of pots on

the boil’

Waste warriors

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“Our primary focus is developing environmentally benign technologies for treating organic waste and residues, things like the biodegradable fraction of municipal solid waste and agricultural residues,” she explains. “These have traditionally been viewed as a problem but we’re looking at them with a different hat on. We’re looking at how we can use them as a resource and convert them into bioenergy or use them for bioremediation – for cleaning up contaminated sites.”

The Organic Resources research group was established earlier this year within the Centre for Freshwater Studies in the Applied Sciences Department. The group consists of two principal investigators – Gilleran and her colleague Dr Siobhán Jordan – plus three postgraduate students Laura Holland, Michael Farrell and Mawuli Dzakpasu.

Three main projects are under way at present. The first is using agriculture (mushroom) waste to remediate acid mine drainage from Avoca. Funded by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to the tune of €200,000 and topped up by internal funding from DkIT, this involves passing the contaminated water through a series of wetlands built from mushroom compost in order to purify it.

The second uses integrated constructed wetlands to treat contaminated domestic waste water with the same objective in mind. The team is researching the overall efficiency of a wetland and associated groundwater interaction in Glaslough, Co Monaghan, which was established by Monaghan

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History manFor Martin Maguire, finding research topics is not the problem – it’s finding time to do them all.

With the Christmas holidays beckoning, many of us will be looking forward to the time off. Not so Dr Martin Maguire, who sees the break as an opportunity to forge ahead with some research projects he’s working on. The lecturer in Humanities has developed a broad range of research interests in the past number of years and rather than get engrossed in just one area prefers to keep “a lot of pots on the boil”. His research interests include: contemporary Irish history with a particular emphasis on the State and State-building; the Irish protestant experience; labour history; post-war Europe; the history of anarchist, socialist and communist thought; cultural history and the history of everyday life.

Maguire works on his own a lot of the time but he sees himself less and less as the “monk scratching away in the corner” and increasingly being involved

with large-scale research projects with other academics. One of these, funded by the An Foras Feasa – the Institute for Research in Irish Historical & Cultural Traditions – involves compiling a database of the senior civil servants of the Irish state between 1922 and 1972.

“Civil servants cultivate anonymity; they really do stay in the shadows. But there is a sense that they are very powerful figures and have a very strong influence on policy. The project is to identify them and find out about them and then to study their influence on policy and to see what extent they gave good advice or bad advice to their political masters,” he explains.

He plans to put his research findings up on the web so that it can be accessed by other academics and researchers who are interested in the pivotal role that the civil servant-politician relationship has played in the evolution of the State. “One of the advantages of digital is that the content can be constantly revised,” he says, adding that he plans to start putting his findings up on the web within 12 months.

Maguire has published widely. Last year, he authored a well received book, published by Manchester University Press ,‘The Senior Civil Service and the Revolution in Ireland, 1912-1938: Shaking the Blood-stained Hand of Mr Collins’ and recently a penned an article about the protestants involved in the 1916 Uprising, which is due to be published in the upcoming issue of the scholarly journal Studia Hibernica. He is also contributing a chapter on Gladstone and the Irish civil service in a book about the former British PM due for publication next year.

Other related projects include a history of the UPTCS, the trade union of the professional civil service of the state, and participation in the ‘Mapping the State’ project at the Geary Institute at UCD led by Dr Niamh Hardiman.

On the teaching front, Maguire is currently supervising an MA on the rural electrification scheme in the Cooley area and is co-supervisor along with Professor Vincent Comerford of NUI Maynooth on a PhD whose subject is Co Louth between the Civil War and the early 1930s.

County Council, and for this purpose is partnering with the University of Edinburgh on the project.

The final project is looking at the bioenergy potential of organic waste such as horse manure, farmyard manure and spent mushroom compost. The first stage of the project is looking at the composition of these residues and investigating their bioenergy potential. It is then hoped to convert those residues into biofuels such as bioethanol and methane through anaerobic digestion. With biofuels a major growth industry worldwide and Ireland almost wholly dependent on imported biofuels, the potential benefits of this project are obvious.

Jordan feels that although the research group is relatively new, it has hit upon a potentially rewarding area of research and has the capacity to transfer its findings to industry. “We’re at the early stages but we’ve recognised this gap within the current research that’s out there and we feel that, being an IoT as well, we can really transfer this technology to industry.”

Waste warriors

Laura Holland, research student (left), explaining her constructed wetlands trial to Dr Siobhan

Jordan (middle) and Dr Caroline Gilleran.

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A structured PhD programme for the IoT sector is being rolled out this academic year as part of a major national project aimed at implementing a more measurable learning system for postgraduates.

Spreadsheet engineering is one of two major research streams within STORC, whose members are drawn from the Department of Computing and Mathematics. Although some computer scientists see it as a rather peripheral subject for software engineering research, Coleman disagrees.“There are a lot of issues around it because you have non-experts doing software engineering tasks, such as writing code and macros and a lot of advanced development around spreadsheets with the risks that entails because they’re not formally trained software developers.”

Over the past two years, the spreadsheet team, led by Dr Kevin McDaid, has received funding from Enterprise Ireland

STORC to spin out spreadsheet start-up

(EI) of approximately €600,000 via EI’s Commercialisation Fund for proof-of-concept and technology development projects. EI was sufficiently impressed with its technology that it invited STORC onto its Business Partner programme. This involved twinning the research group with an experienced entrepreneur who could take the technology and develop it into a marketable product via a spin-out company. A business plan is currently being written for the spin-out.

“It was kind of like speed-dating,” laughs Coleman. “We were presented to a bunch of people and we had to decide if we liked them and they us.”The spin-out will follow the usual model of the licensing technology from the Institute in return for a stake in the business.

STORC’s other research focus is software process improvement for medical devices, which is spearheaded by Dr Fergal McCaffery. The big news here is that McCaffery was awarded Principal Investigator status by Science Foundation Ireland during the summer and with it funding of some €500,000 to further his research. The funding will allow him to take on two postdoctoral researchers for four years as well as several PhD students.

A third research stream is currently evolving. This comes out of joint research funding STORC secured with another DkIT research group, Netwell, from EI under its Applied Research Enhancement (ARE) programme. The ARE money will fund the creation of a research centre in the ambient assisted living (AAL) sector. (See story on p8.)

As STORC continues to grow, the challenge facing the research team is managing this growth effectively. “We are growing quite a lot so keeping a handle on all the activities can be quite difficult. It is a challenge but at the moment it’s a manageable challenge,” says Coleman.

Launch of Research AllianceA structured PhD programme for the IoT sector is being rolled out this academic year as part of a major national project aimed at implementing a more measurable learning system for postgraduates. The Research Alliance brings together all the IoTs with associate partners DIT, NUIM, NUIG, University

of Melbourne, the University of Ulster, the Irish Universities Association, IBEC, HETAC and the HEA. The project, which is funded by the HEA Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF), is being led by Dr Michelle Connolly and Dr John Bartlett of IT Sligo.

Minister of State Conor Lenihan is pictured

with Dr Michelle Connolly, joint project

leader, and partner representatives at the

launch of the Research Alliance.

Dr Gerry Coleman (seated, centre) with members of

the Storc team.

The management and staff

of the Regional Development

Centre would like to wish all our

clients, colleagues and partners

a very Happy Christmas and a

prosperous New Year.