DkITimes December 17th 2007

Compiled and edited by Angela Short.

Paul wins Indoor Athletics title for DkIT.

International team win through to the Semi-final of Newstalk Student Enterprise Competition.

Paul Fitzpatrick, a first year Building student, broke new ground for the Institute when he won the first ever title for Dundalk at the IUAA indoor Athletics championships in Nenagh recently. Com-peting in the 2km racewalk, an event at which he has represented Ireland on the international stage, Paul led the race from gun to tape in an impres-sive winning performance. Paul is coached by DKIT lecturer John McGeever who was on hand to congratulate him on his achievement in Nenagh. Pictured here is Paul being congratulated by his trainer, DkIT lecturer John McGeever after the win-ning performance.

The local finals of the Newstalk Student Enterprise Competition took place on Thursday December 6th at DkIT. The four finalist teams were given a case study to work and present their business solutions to the judging panel made up of local Entrepreneurs Sean Gallagher of Smarthomes, Mark Lowth of Dannucci and Louth County Council Director of Enterprise Mi-chael Curran. In what was a a tough decision for the judges, second year group of Marisa Lutter, Emma Matthews, Brian Nordon and Antonio Manuel Braga Santos, were chosen to represent DKIT at the na-tional semi- final in Galway on 27th January. Marisa and Antonio are Erasmus students from Germany and Spain respectively who are studying at DkIT this year. The successful team was mentored by DkIT lecturer Mario McBlain who will accompany them to the semi-finals. The winning team received €600 along with accommodation and hospitality in Galway for the National semi-finals. Pictured receiving their cheque are the winning team with the judging panel; Left to right; Mark Lowth, Antonio Manuel Braga Santos, Emma Matthews, Marisa Lutter, Brian Nordon, Michael Curran and Sean Gallagher.

Volume 2, Issue 12

Marketing 4th years win Rookie Challenge. See pages 4 & 5.

Page 2 Volume 2, Issue 12

Late writing your Christmas or holiday cards? Here’s one solution.

Christmas cards go mo-bile www.itext.ie

RDC client company Itext have launched Ireland’s first Christmas cards for mobile phones, the Mobi-Card, and are donating a portion of the proceeds to charity. Currently participants on the Novation Enterprise Platform Programme, iText have developed a fully integrated new media publishing platform for the mobile phone.

Mobi-Cards are a unique way of sending your Christmas cards via your mobile phone. With a range of pre-designed cards available users can choose their image and greeting. Each card costs 60 cents to send, of which 10 cents will be donated to the Dublin Simon Community, the organization working with homeless people across Dublin.

“We are delighted to launch this product and help the home-less at the same time. Mobi-Cards are a great method of getting your Christmas greeting directly to friends, family and business associates. It is especially useful for those who leave things to the last minute and want to make sure their greet-ings reach the desired destination on time,” explains David Gillick, managing director of iText and mastermind behind Mobi-Cards.

“Usually, when a print card arrives to an office, it gets auto-matically pinned to the notice board. Most MDs will never even see the card. This is the best way of reaching the spe-cific person in a business environment,” he adds. “But it is also a faster, effective and ecological way of wishing friends and business partners a happy Christmas as it cuts out paper and it won’t be lost in the post.”

iText is Ireland’s first fully integrated new media publishing platform that enables small to medium businesses (SMEs) to market their brands and services to their consumers via mobile phones. iText solutions can provide interactive mobile websites for both business and consumers, instant mobile publishing and advertisement, company branding and mobile messaging.

“With our platform, businesses can have the same abilities to reach the consumer as big brand names without having to spend a fortune on infrastructure development and/or expen-sive mobile marketing agencies,” Gillick adds.

iText is also the first to offer voluntary, community and per-sonal users free access and use of its applications to help pro-mote their services via the mobile phone.

Attention Readers! How would like to test or improve your vocabulary and help the starving in the developing world at the same time. If so log on to

http://www.freerice.com

Page 3 Volume 2, Issue 12

Early Perspectives: 1969 References in the Dundalk Democrat to the RTC.

In this issue I have researched any references in the Dundalk Democrat to DkIT which was of course known as Dundalk RTC . Feb 22: Louth Vocational Education Committee have applied to Louth County Council for a grant of £400,000 towards the cost of a new Junior Day Technical School on the Dublin Road and to-wards extensions at Ardee and Bush. The Irish Vocational Educational Association in a letter to the committee indicated that the management structures of the new Regional Technical College is provided for under the terms of the Vocational Educational Act 1930. May 10: Carroll’s £2 Million Factory due to open late in the year. Sept 13: A portion of Dundalk’s new £550,000 RTC opened its doors to students last Monday morning and the 40 students who enrolled are not only the first to enrol but the first to participate in a leaving Certificate course held in Dundalk by the Vocational Committee. At present only a number of classrooms and laboratories are completed, and the remainder of the college, consist-ing of classrooms, laboratories, workshops, a canteen, a library and a gymnasium, will be com-pleted about this time next year. Oct 11: The report of the HEA calls for an investment of £24 million in higher education. It deals with the new colleges of technology such as the new establishment in Dundalk. It stresses the need for students who did not reach the standard for University or who may not wish to take a de-gree but would rather have their education in specialised fields. The report suggested the estab-lishment of a Council of National Awards for degrees and diplomas equivalent to those of the Universities. Students could train at any college and be examined by the Council for National Awards. The Council would also be responsible for the programmes of study in-cluding the commercial and industrial experi-ence. Members of the HEA include Louth men, Mr Donal S A Carroll. Chair, PJ Carroll’s and Mr Martin McCourt, Director of Electrical Industries of Ireland, both also the only two independent businessmen on the 15 “man” authority. Go raibh maith agaibh to those who contrib-uted to the column during the year: Peter Fuller, Concepta Woods, Sean Redahan, Columb Collins, Susan Hannaway, John Con-nolly, Michael Mullin, Antoinette O’ Rourke, those who helped with the appreciations of the late John Minogue and John Kerr and in particular to Pat Clinton for his contributions, to Angela for facilitating the column. Contribu-tions would be very welcome in the new year. Nollaig Shona Dhíobh Go Léir. Seamus.

Page 4 Volume 2, Issue 12

‘The Rookie Challenge’ Submitted by Mary Larkin, Student Enterprise Intern

Pictured left are the Rookie Recruitment Team of Maria Clarke, Cheryl Banbridge, Bernadette Larkin from NUI Maynooth and Mary Larkin, Student Enterprise Intern.

On Thursday the 22nd of November, the ‘Rookie’ recruitment team set out on its mission to find twelve teams to compete in ‘The Rookie Chal-lenge’ a four day apprentice style competition on DkIT campus. An astounding 37 teams registered consisting of students from various different course stage and from all academic backgrounds, Electronic Engineering, Mechanical, Marketing, Plumbing, Public Relations, Business Information Systems, Building Survey-

ing, Cultural Studies, Accountancy, Music and Creativity were all represented in the competition. A large proportion of entered teams were made up from different disciplines. To be fair to all teams, a draw was held between the 37 entrant and twelve teams were drawn to compete for the prize of €4,000 and a trip to the SIE Student International Summit to be held in Dundee, March 2008. Monday 26th - Task 1 – Sell-Sell-Sell For Mondays task competitors had to sell a basket of goods making as much profit as they can. Simple? Not so. Items range from household goods such as toilet rolls, air fresheners and sweets, to more challenging items such as Men’s chest wax (Soul Retreat), Electric skateboard (Dundalk Appliances), DkIT Raven’s Jersey and fishing kits (Greenore Co-Op), Sporttracker Diary (sporttracker.ie) . Teams then presented to an audience and panel of judges. Profits recorded by the teams ranged from 20 cent to €92. After presenting how they achieved the task and telling their success stories (Toilet roll reached a lofty height of €10, another team offered bad exchange rate by selling £5 for €10), judges then eliminated 3 teams leaving the re-maining 9 teams to proceed to task 2.

Tuesday 27th- Task 2-Design an Advertising Campaign for a Never-Before-Seen-Product The product is a canopy for a rotary clothes line that deploys automati-cally when rain is detected thus pro-tecting the clothes. Each team received a CD containing drawings and a short video of new product and must produce a suitable poster advertisement and a story-board or short film for a 30 second TV or Radio advertisement. In this task, teams excelled and the judges found it extremely difficult to eliminate three teams.

Page 5 Volume 2, Issue 12

‘The Rookie Challenge’ Submitted by Mary Larkin, Student Enterprise Intern Wednesday 28th- Task 3- The Start Up With only 6 teams remaining in the competition and the pressure is mounting….So far competitors have completed a day of hard sell, produced an advertising campaign to promote a product. They should now have a good under-standing of how to identify customers and their market. Maximum investment is €100.

For task 3, the remaining teams had to set up a business and operate it for a day. They needed to get an idea, pro-mote it, buy stock, operate it and produce a profit state-ment. One team recorded an incredible €520 profit by using their marketing skills, others teams produced smoothies, gift ideas such as unique balloons, another team were aware of a company which had gone into liquidation and bought €20 worth of stock with a retail value of €300+. Yet again the judges had a difficult job of eliminating three teams. The standard of the competition was continuously gain-ing momentum.

Thursday 29th Final- Task 4- The New Development The remaining teams, must conceptualise a new building top replace the prefab building located near the crèche and must pitch their idea to a group of investors (The Judges) The two teams competing head to head for the prize of €4000 and trip to International Summit, Dundee were Colm McAlarney, Maria Farrelly, Alexander Nobel and Danielle Fisher, First year Business Information Systems Students, who pitched their idea of an nightclub with exceptional finan-cial projections and reasoning. However, they were pipped at the post by Clodagh McDonnell, Alan Wilson and Neil Rogan, 4th year Market-ing Students, who pitched their idea of an Itower pictured here receiving their prize from Student Intern, Mary Larkin. Congratulations to the winners and all those who participated in the competition. A word of thanks to the Judges: John Sisk DKIT, Sean Mc Entee RDC , Mario Mac Blain DKIT, and Aidan Devenney RDC and Colin O’Brien Obridry. A special word of thanks to Louth County Enterprise Board for their continuous sup-port throughout the Student Intern Progamme. Dundalk Institute of Technology (DKIT) has recently appointed a student intern to promote enterprise and entrepre-neurship amongst the student body. The Intern, Mary Larkin, is a student in DkIT who is undertaking a Masters in Entrepreneurship and Marketing and took up the Intern role in September. This approach is unique amongst college and universities in Ireland and is modelled upon the Scottish Institute of Enterprise programme, which has been running successfully over the past number of years. Experience shows that young people tend to take advice and encouragement from their peers rather than their elders, teachers or parents. The Intern will organise competitions and seminars and will host events with successful business owners as guest speakers, thus opening the world of enterprise throughout the student body.

Page 6 Volume 2, Issue 12

Public Relations Team

Killian and Kevin - Question time

Page 7 Volume 2, Issue 12

Electronics Department Christmas Gathering. Submitted by Chris Ryan,

Irish students joined with their classmates from France, Germany, Spain, India, Pakistan, Nepal, China, Sudan, Congo, Zimbabwe, Nigeria and So-malia and department staff and guests at the Electronics Department Christmas Gathering on Thursday, 6 December. The highlight was the switching on of 3 Christmas trees: traditional, elec-tronic and virtual. This multicultural event included the signing on the Christmas Card and was organised by students studying Electronics on the DREAM pro-gramme. A Podcast of the event is now available on DKITalk.

Photographs from the Electronics Department Above right. First Year Electronics Students Philip McGovern, Kevin Butler, Carl Tighe, James Kelly, Ferghal Cotter, Wayne Hall and Ciara Byrne at the Electronics Department Christmas Gathering Pictured above are Electronics Students from France, Ger-many, Spain, India, Nepal and Ireland at the Electronics Depart-ment Christmas Gathering

Centre picture: Electronics Students Ferghal, Monica and Ciara celebrate after turning on the Traditional and Electronic Christmas trees.

Bottom right: Raj Duhoon from India signing the Christmas Card.

Page 8 Volume 2, Issue 12

IFS Bursary Awards.

On Tuesday, November 20th DkIT Registrar Stephen McManus hosted a lunch for the five suc-cessful students who were awarded IFS Bursaries for the Academic Year 2007/8. The bursaries sponsored by Drogheda based International Fund Services will be a welcome addition to the pockets of the lucky students who have received the scholarships and we wish them all well in their studies. Pictured at the luncheon are; : Cathal Forde International Fund Services (Sponsor), Gerard Mc Hugh - Access Office, Juliet Erhahon Business & Information Systems Yr1, Stephen Mc Manus Registrar. Front row left to right : David Garvey, Applied Cultural Stud-ies Yr1, Annastasia Kapinga, Applied Social Studies (Social Care) Yr1, Candy Bai Xne Mur-phy Business & International Mgt Yr1, Rebecca Moran Midwifery Yr1.

ABOUT IFS Today, with three locations in Ireland - Dublin; Naas and Drogheda and two locations in the US - New York and Princeton, New Jersey, IFS delivers custom business solutions to asset management groups with trading operations throughout the world. Their people and technology work together to support global, multi-strategy and multi-currency trading activities across all equity, bond and currency markets in addition to the universe of exchange traded and over-the-counter derivative products.

Page 9 Volume 2, Issue 12

Civil Engineering Book Collection Donated to DkIT Library

Farewell to Chris.

Dundalk Institute of Technology recently received a collection of civil engineering books and historical pamphlets. The collection was donated by Canice O’Mahony, former Dundalk Town Engineer. The collection, built up by Canice during his civil engi-neering career, includes sev-eral French language books on bridges and railways. It provides a valuable addition to the Institute’s reference stock.

Pictured at the formal pres-entation, held in the Insti-tute’s Library on November 8th 2007, are (left to right): Canice O’Mahoney, Lorna O’Connor (Librarian), Bill McCarthy (Senior Lecturer), Denis Cummins (Institute Director), Pat Feenan (Head of Department) and Eilish O’Mahoney.

Members of staff gathered last week to bid a fond farewell to Chris Bellew who has left DkIT after nine years of service. Chris man-aged the DkIT Canteen for eight years and moved over to work with Campbell catering when the New restaurant opened last Spring. Chris is moving on to pastures new and staff marked her departure with a get together and presentation. Pictured here is Chris with colleagues who organised the event. From left to right; Mary Kavanagh, Rose-mary McArdle, Chris Bellew, Bernie Cassidy and Fionnuala Dullaghan. We wish Chris the very best for the future.

Page 10 Volume 2, Issue 12

The DkiT Harvard Referencing Book; your feedback.

Camerata Ireland with their dynamic conductor and solo pianist, Barry Douglas, have recently completed a three day residency in Dundalk Institute of Technology. The professional all Ireland orchestra is under the joint pa-tronage of President McAleese, and her counterpart from our neighbouring island, Queen Elizabeth. Barry Douglas has been described as ‘a musician whose talent, vision and energy has imbued his orchestra with not just a drive for excellence but also self belief, clarity and a sense of restrained proportion.' The residency at DkIT culminated in a concert performance in the new campus theatre. Barry, with members of Camerata Ireland worked with students and staff of Ceol Oirghialla, DkIT's Music Department in one of an ongoing series of master-classes in the Institute. There were also open rehearsals for students to at-tend and a workshop with Camerata Ireland and local school pupils. Dr. Eibhlis Farrell, Head of Music and Creative Media said that it was a great honour for the Institute to be able to have an ongoing relationship with of the internationally acclaimed all-Ireland orchestra. Camerata Ireland Barry Douglas founded Camerata Ireland in 1999 as an orchestra of Irish musicians determined to match the best in the world. Through its tours in USA, South America, China and most of Europe it has quickly developed a reputa-tion for excellence and for creating a particularly distinctive Irish string sound. In 2004, President McAleese and Queen Elizabeth II became joint Patrons of Camerata Ireland, testament to Camerata Ireland’s all Ireland commit-ment and to its determination to create opportunity for the very best young Irish musicians.

Martha Hogan in the library has sent me this feedback from students on the Harvard Referencing booklet which was compiled by Martha and is available in the bookshop for €5 or to download from the internet .

Q. What was most useful? A. The booklet gives all the information about referencing and it’s easy to

access on the DkIT website.

A. The new booklet- as it’s well designed and easy to understand.

Q. How could we improve? A. Do it before we started our assignment.

A. We were told to print Harvard referencing off the dkit website and it cost us nearly €10 when all along there was a book for €5. Should have this course in September before we started our assignments?

A. Do it before we start assignments on the first week of college.

A. Have more Harvard system of referencing books available to buy.

A. Have a booklet set out for everyone.

A. Do it before we start assignments in the first week of college.

A. Have these classes earlier to find out these things before we actually do assignments- should be done with new students in first or second week, because there is nothing done in classes then really.

The booklet is available from the College Bookshop at a cost of €5.

Page 11 Volume 2, Issue 12

Ten members of Dkit@s Photography Club traveled to Ravensdale recently to take photos of the Winter nights drawing over Dundalk.

DkIT Mountaineering and Hill walking Club enjoy a hike in Carlingford on December 1st before the exam pressure starts.

Page 12 Volume 2, Issue 12

DkIT Gospel Choir in full voice.

DkIT Crib 2007.

The recently formed DkIT Gospel Choir had an outing last Tuesday when they performed at the installation of the DkIT Crib in the foyer. The choir under the di-rection of Paula Reilly added a welcome di-mension to the occasion and were accompanied by Enda Finn on organ. Anyone interested in joining the choir is wel-come to come along to practices next semester. Contact paula.reilly@dkit.ie for further information.

The now familiar DkIT Crib is once again in-stalled in the Foyer signaling that the Christmas Season is well and truly upon us.

Caption describing picture or graphic.

Page 13 Volume 2, Issue 12

DkIT Fencing Club. Everything you wanted to know and were afraid to ask.

When someone asks you what sport you take part in and your reply is fencing…a strange and confused look appears on peoples faces… “What type of nails do you use for the fencing?” or “I used to do a bit of fencing, around the garden that is!” are the usual jests made. However, we just smile and nod…because we are being taught the sport by none other than Marcos Simpson, a man who will forget more fencing in his life than we will ever learn (he is getting old ) A martial art that dates back thousands of years. now in today’s society fencing is regarded as one of the more promi-nent and indigenous hobbies going. Considered a gentleman’s sport…thought upper class? Well DKIT has other things in mind…a new grasp of the sport, a new look and a whole new wave of enthusiasm. We supply more new recruits than any other college, nearly the others combined. We are striving towards one goal, that when students start thinking of challenging the best fencers in Ireland or training to become the best, they come to DKIT. On September 20th 2006, DKIT students for the first time had a chance to join a more than uncommon sport, Fencing. More than sixty joined…and began training under the watchful gaze of Marcos. Our Sports Administrator in the college is as open minded as our coach, and they work well together. Together they brought a new club to DKIT, one that in the future will rival the likes of Trinity and UCD. The DKIT Sabres. Over the later weeks, the novelty wore off for some, which happens with all clubs…however, there were many of which that stayed on with the club. As the work got harder, the crowd dwindled until there was a group of fencers that were constantly entering competitions and leaving a mark in the Fencing Society. Of the sixty odd that joined over a year ago…six remain, teaching the first years and assisting Marcos any way we can. Since it was our first year, there was pressure on us to perform well, even though nobody expected much from us. We were after all, just new to the sport…which is probably why is came as such a surprise when we did the following: Finished 5th out of ten Universities at the Intervarsity Competition. Managed to get 3 fencers into the top 20 in Ireland, 6 in the top 35. When we reached the Quarter Finals on numerous occasions during Fencing Competitions. Have our Team Captain represent Ireland during a competition in Scotland. Won the “Best New Club” award at the Clubs and Societies Awards Ceremony in the College. Now for a common misconception in regards to the sport. Most people, when they think of the sport, they think of people poking each other with bendy wire…Fencing is divided into three main disciplines. Sabre: The Fastest of all the disciplines, points can be scored by attacking any part of your opponents body from the waist up with any part of the blade. Epee: Slower than Sabre, points can be scored by attacking any part of your opponents body, including feet…must use the blunt tip of the sword to score. Epee is what most people consider to be fencing. Foil: Similar to Epee in the sense that points can only be scored by the tip of the blade. Points can be scored only on the torso, nowhere else. All three disciplines rely on different strategies, fencing is not a sport to blindly attack in, especially in Sabre, where it takes mere seconds to win or lose a point. Thankfully the club received both funding from the college and the Governmental Fencing Body based in Ireland. An expensive sport if you buy all the gear, but the club is able to loan out to fencers for competitions. A physically demanding sport that anyone can take up, a great form of exercise and a fantastic way to meet new people. This year we are hoping to dominate the fencing league in Ireland with the large amount of new recruits that have showed encouraging amounts of enthusiasm to date. With a whole new group of fencers this year, we are proud to announce that we plan on entering a female team into the next Intervarsity competition. With training on twice a week, we are more and more confidant that this year is going to be more successful than the last. We even hope to even travel across to Britain to make more of a name for ourselves. Lastly, we would like to thank those who have supported us throughout the year, and we hope to gain even more support for this year and the next. Christopher Mooney, Captain, DKIT Fencing Club and Brian Nordon, Public Relations, DKIT Fencing Club If you have any questions on the fencing club email Brian at - brian.nordon@gmail.com

Page 14 Volume 2, Issue 12

Santa comes to DkIT.

A Santa wish list…..

Once again Santa turned up at DkIT to meet the children and de-liver some small gifts for all the awaiting children. Children and their parents were treated to bouncy castles, magician’s tricks and of course sweets. The organizers of the annual party once again wish to express their thanks to all Santa’s helpers at DkiT who help to make this a spe-cial event every year. Pictured here are Lucy and Maebh McManus having had a chat with Santa at last week’s party.

“Can Santa bring the Liam McCarthy cup to Tipperary this year Daddy?”

“ Well he might if he could get rid of Cork and Kilkenny son, but now that would be asking a lot, even of Santa”

Father and Son, Pat and Conor O ‘Neill at the Santa Christmas party last week.

“To catch the reader's attention, place an interesting sentence or quote from the story here.”

Caption describing picture or graphic.

Page 15 Volume 2, Issue 12

Staff Christmas Party

Inside Story Headline

Inside Story Headline

This story can fit 100-150 words. The subject matter that appears in newsletters is virtually endless. You can include stories that focus on current technologies or innovations in your field. You may also want to note business or economic trends, or make predictions for your customers or cli-ents. If the newsletter is distributed internally, you might comment upon new procedures or improvements to the business. Sales figures or earnings will show how your business is growing. Some newsletters include a column that is updated every issue, for instance, an advice column, a book re-view, a letter from the president, or an editorial. You can also profile new employees or top customers or vendors.

This story can fit 75-125 words.

Selecting pictures or graphics is an important part of adding content to your newsletter. Think about your article and ask yourself if the picture supports or enhances the message you’re trying to convey. Avoid selecting images that appear to be out of context. Microsoft Publisher includes thousands of clip art images from which you can choose and import into your newsletter. There are also several tools you can use to draw shapes and symbols. Once you have chosen an image, place it close to the article. Be sure to place the caption of the image near the image.

Page 16 Volume 2, Issue 12

Science Week 2007 at DkIT.

Science Week 2007

Page 17 Volume 2, Issue 12

On November 29th last , Mr Tommy Fegan, Director of the North South Exchange Consortium was a guest speaker at DkIT at the initiation of Business Lecturer Mario McBlain. Mr Fegan has accumulated some thirty years of experience managing international events across Ireland, the UK and the USA. His portfolio includes contacts with most of the senior political and business figures on a global platform. Previous to this present post, Mr Fegan held the position of director of The Prince’s Trust Northern Ireland during which time he steered development within inner city deprived groups and fostered youth development through many multi cultural events and programmes. Previous to his stewardship of the Prince’s Trust, he headed up the ‘Co-operation Ireland’ team and over saw the delivery of many successful major cross border events. In those difficult days of Ireland’s present his-tory, Co-operation Ireland’ was the only light on the horizon fostering and promoting cross border multi religious events.

Happy Christmas to all our readers from the DkiTimes.

A Happy Christmas to all our readers and a Happy and Healthy 2008. Please keep your ar-ticles, pictures, letters and opinions coming. A special thank you to all those who contrib-uted articles for the Times. Thank you in particular to Seamus Bellew who has been a con-sistent and reliable contributor of interesting articles for our Early Perspectives section. Thank you also to Diarmuid Cahill of Clubs and Societies for coordinating and forwarding information about our very active and successful clubs and societies. Finally a big thank you to Andrew Clarke and Paul Scollon in the IT department, without whom none of this would be possible. Míle Buíochas Díobh go léir!

Angela.