Official launch at DkIT of NEFHEA

Last Tuesday saw the official launch at DkIT of the North East Further and Higher Education Alliance (NEFHEA) with the signing of a memorandum of understanding between DkIT, Cavan Institute,

Drogheda Institute of Further Education, Dunboyne Institute and Monaghan Institute of Further Education. The signing of the memorandum puts in place an official alliance be-tween DkIT and the colleges that will ensure increased ac-cess to DkIT for students coming to Higher Education via the Further Education colleges.

Pictured signing the memoran-dum are L-R Padraig McGovern, O ’F iach Co l lege , M ar t in Lonergan, Dunboyne College, David McDonnell, Drogheda Institute, Dr. Fiona McGrath, Monaghan Institute, Anne Marie Lacey Cavan Institute and Denis

Cummins, President DkIT.

MCOR joins list of Seedcorn Winners The Regional Development Centre at DkIT wish too offer hearty congratulations to MCOR Technologies, participants on the RDC's Novation Enterprise Platform Programme 2007/08 . The Ardee based company walked away with the top prize last Thursday night at the Intertrade Ireland Seedcorn Business Competition. Their prize achieved in the - Emerging International

Category recognised the innovative work of the company which has developed a 3D printer, a printer that uses standard reams of A4 paper to produce 3D models with multiple applications. Following the recent launch of the MCOR Matrix at the TCT 2008 conference, the company received over one million hits on their website www.mcortechnologies.com achieved more than one million hits during the first six days of operation, resulting in many enquiries from household names such as Dyson, Nickelodeon, Nintendo and Stanford University.

MCOR Technologies owners, Connor, Deirdre and Fintan McCormack join a ever-growing list of National Seedcorn winners all of whom were participants on the North East Platform Programme. participants on the NEPP programme, including, Sean Gallagher, Smarthomes, Overall Winner 2004

Micheal Armstrong, Armac, Regional Winner 2005, and David Gillen, Blue Acre Technology, Regional Winner 2006. For more information on MCOR Technologies and to see the MCOR Matrix Find out abou t t he NEEP a t t he RDC on December 10th when the doors open for Global Incubation day. Read more on

pages 4&%

visit www.mcortechnologies.com

DECEMBER 3RD 2008 VODECEMBER 3RD 2008 VOLUME 3 ISSUE 11LUME 3 ISSUE 11

You Can't Get There from Here!

Problems and Potential Solutions in Developing New Classes of Complex Computing Systems

On Monday 1st December Prof. Mike Hinchey, the former Head of Software Engineering at NASA, will give a talk in Dundalk Institute of Technology as part of the Computing and Maths Department's research seminar series. It is a great honour to have such a distinguished researcher within the international software engineering community participate in this series of research presentations. In recent weeks other world-class researchers such as Professor Jarmo Ahonen from the University of Kuopio, Dr Rory O’Connor from Dublin City University, and Dr Benjamin Knapp from the Netwell Centre also accepted invitations from Dr Fergal Mc Caffery (Department of Computing and Maths) and have presented as part of this programme. The title of Professor Hinchey’s talk was “You Can't Get There from Here! Problems and Potential Solutions in Developing New Classes of Complex Computing Systems”. This talk describes how the explosion of capabilities and new products within the sphere of communications and information tech-nology (ICT) has fostered widespread overly-optimistic opinions regarding the industry, based on common but unjustified assumptions of quality and correctness of software. NASA faces this dilemma as it envisages advanced mission concepts that involve large swarms of small spacecraft that will engage cooperatively to achieve science goals. Such missions involve levels of complexity that beg for new methods for system development far beyond today's methods, which are inadequate for ensuring correct behaviour of large numbers of interacting intelligent mission elements. New system development techniques recently devised through NASA-led research will offer innovative approaches to achieving correctness in complex system development, including autonomous swarm missions that exhibit emergent behaviour, as well as general software Until recently Professor Hinchey was Director of the NASA Software Engineering Research Centre. He is now Co-Director of Lero-the Irish Software Engineering Research Centre and Professor of Software Engineering at University of Limerick. Professor Hinchey received a BSc from University of Limerick, MSc from University of Oxford and a PhD from University of Cambridge. He previously held positions as a professor at Universities in Ireland, UK, Sweden, Australia and USA. He is the author/editor of more than 12 books and over 100 technical articles, he is Chair of the IEEE Technical Committee on Complexity in Computing and Vice Chair of the IEEE Technical Committee on Autonomous and Autonomic Systems. He is also the IEEE's representative to IFIP TC1 (Foundations of Computer Science) which he currently chairs. DkIT’s Dr. Fergal McCaffery is the holder of the holder of a Stokes SFI Lectureship award, a award allocated by Science Foundation Ireland to researchers with internationally-recognised independent research accomplishments. The Stokes Programme is named after Sir George Gabriel Stokes (1819-1903), the Irish mathematician and physicist who was born in Skreen Co. Sligo. Stokes made several important contributions to fluid dynamics (c.f., Navier-Stokes equations), optics and maths physics (c.f., Stokes Theorem). Like Isaac Newton, he was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University, a Parliamentary representative for Cambridge University and a President of the Royal Society. Stokes made key contributions to the foundations of, what we now call, Information & Communications Technology and

Biotechnologies.

Time and Date; Monday December 1st (Today) in the Whitaker Theatre from 1-2.

'One of the youngest and most exciting third level music departments in Ireland', is how one critic described DkIT's Ceol Oirghialla, which is now in its sixth year, and has just said goodbye to its third batch of graduates. The destinations of these former music students reveal a wide variety of specialism's from performance, composition and education to technology, the recording industry, broadcasting, business and arts administration. Performance alone has produced graduates who have chosen careers in opera, traditional music, rock and pop.

Last week the grey cubed building on the Ramparts, known as the 'Town Campus' opened its doors to potential students, giving them an opportunity to view the day to day life of a music student in DkIT. Work in the Mac Labs, recording studio, composition classrooms and practice rooms went on as usual, while the fourth years students presented a lunchtime concert for their visitors, showcasing the three performance groups specialising in traditional, contemporary and popular music.

With over one hundred undergrads opting for the Honours B.A. course, and thirty postgraduates engaged in research at both masters and doc-toral levels, every inch of space is utilised and the 'grey cube' is burst-ing at the seams. The choir, orches-tra, guitar ensemble, brass ensem-ble, traditional groups, the music-theatre ensemble, rock and jazz groups now rehearse in the new Black Box Theatre on the main cam-pus, which is the venue for weekly concerts, recitals and master classes. In the past few years, stu-dents have staged some wonderful examples of music theatre, the most recent being Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro which received considerable critical acclaim. Yet everyone is looking forward to the big move to the new home of the School of Informatics, Music and Creative Media after the multi-million development of the historic Carrolls' factory. Music technology and recording suites, a state-of-the-art recital hall, dedicated research facilities and dance studios, as well as fully equipped practice chambers and lecture theatres will fill the space of the old cigarette factory, leading to rumours that Bizet's 'Carmen' will 2010's music theatre

project!

Music students at DkIT are a varied bunch, with Italian, Swiss, Chinese, Nigerian and German students among their ranks. Several DkIT undergrads have taken the opportunity to study abroad with DkIT's sister universities in Germany, Italy, Norway and Spain for one or two semesters as Erasmus students, while a number of exchange students have come to Dundalk, including Meri Raita from Norway, a wonderful oboist and a gifted composer, who is currently enjoying her time in Ireland.

Yet many of our most talented students come from very nearby…. from Dundalk and district. Local students, including those from just across the border, bring their own high standard of musicianship and a tradition of musical excellence of which Dundalk can be justly proud.

Presentation of Certificates to Operations Management (elearning) and Personnel Practice lifelong learning

students.

Certificates were presented by Denis Cummins to students who successfully completed two continuing education courses run via the Lifelong Learning Centre at Dundalk IT . First up were students who took part in the innovative e-learning based Operations Management course run by DKIT lecturers Kevin Starrs and Angela Short. Students on this course were able to take their lectures and complete their course work by logging on to the Dundalk IT virtual learning website Moodle and were supported throughout their studies via text, email and phone calls with

lecturers. Commenting on the success of this course Denis Cummins noted that higher education institutions in Ireland have to become ever more flexible in how they provide courses to future learners who will need to continuously engage with continuing education throughout their work life and identified this e-learning Operations Management course a prime of example of how this can happen.

Stephen Brady (Front Left), Denis Cummins, President Dundalk Institute of Technology and Braimoh Ojlekhebholo with (Back L-R) Angela Short, Lecturer, Cillian Maguire, Ray Murphy and Kevin Starrs, Course Leader at the presentation of Operations Management (via e Learn-ing) Certificates held in Dundalk Institute of Technology (Missing from photo Clare Corcoran, Hubert Garvey, Darren Griffin and Pat Kiernan)

Certificates were also awarded to students who completed the Certificate in Personnel Practice, a course certified by Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD). This course was sup-ported by FAS and prepares participants for a career in HR. Maeve Caraher, principal lecturer on the course, congratulated the certificate recipients noting how much the world has change since they started the course only 13 months ago but added that they were better able to manage in-creasing work demands and advance their careers in a fast changing business environment by participating in quality lifelong learning courses.

CIPD Class

Maeve Caraher (Front Left), Lecturer, Jane Daly, Giedre Keliotyte, Mark McGivern, Lecturer, Bridget Amara and Eithne Ross with (Back L-R) Kevin Clarke, Cherie Coburn, Ciara Dillon, Anthony Collier, Rhona Nesbitt, Jacqui Browne and Denis Cummins, Preasident Dundalk Institute of Technology at the presentation of Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development Certificates in Personnel Practice held in Dundalk Institute of Technology (Missing from photo Marina Brannigan, Karen Coyle, Aine Fitzgerald, Kelly Grant, Emma Griffin, Sharon Jenkins, Ciara Kennedy, Teresa Linden, Sinead Matthews, Patrice McDonnell, Lynda McGuill and Mary White)

Join us in celebrating the global impact of business incubation on Wednesday December 10th in the Regional Development Centre at DkIT. Worldwide celebrations will highlight the role that business incubation has in developing and growing innovation and entrepreneurship. During the week beginning December 2008 will see the first ever global celebration of innovation and entrepreneurship through business incubation. Although the process of business incubation has been utilised to regenerate and revitalise economies across the global for over 50 years, never before have practitioners and supporters all focused on one day to detail how they are growing the enterprises for the future.

Invitation.

From Sean MacEntee.

To coincide with the celebration of International Incubation Day, I would like to invite DKIT Staff to come & visit the Regional Development Centre on Wednesday

10th December anytime between 10a.m & noon .

On that morning , we have asked our Businesses & Research Centres to open their doors & to show Staff

what they do in their respective units.

Free tea , coffee & cakes will be served between 10a.m & noon

In order to cater for the expected numbers ,I would ask those planning on coming over to visit the RDC ,to drop an email in advance to Joanne

Kearns (joanne.kearns@dkit.ie) Hope you can make it !!

Established in 1989 by Dundalk Institute of Technology, the Regional Development Centre is the Institute’s Innovation Support and Technology Transfer organisation. The Centre is the commercially oriented interface between DkIT and the industrial, commercial and business life of the region, and makes available the expertise, facilities and resources of the Institute for the wider benefit of the regional economy.

The Centre achieves this through the following range of programmes and activities:

• Research & Development and Technology Transfer;

• Entrepreneurial Development Programmes;

• Incubation Facilities for Knowledge and Technology-Based Enterprises;

• Applied Research;

• Sectoral & Regional Development Initiatives;

• Spearheading and Supporting EU and Cross-Border Development Initiatives;

RDC Success Stories

Philip McGovern & Jane Kelly, Big Mountain Productions - NEPP Participants Formed in January 2005 and based in both Newry City, Co. Down and Dundalk, Co. Louth, the

aim of the company is to develop and deliver high quality programming to Irish and UK broadcasters.

Credits with RTE include: Nighthawks, Thou Shalt Not Kill, Tuesday File, Wednesday Report, Prime Time, Never the Same Again, IFTA winner (Irish Film & Television Award) as series producer of the Irish Arts strand Cursai

Ealaine. Documentaries include Doohoma, In the line of fire, School for Scandal, Sean Scully, Death in France – the killing of Trevor O’Keeffe and The Secret Baby Trail. And those for BBC include Turf Wars (BBC 2) and Like a Hurricane – the Alex Higgins story (BBC 2) www.bigmountainproductions.com

Peter Smyth, Redmere - NEPP Participant RedMere Technology is a privately-held fabless semiconductor company providing highly innova-

tive communications solutions for mainstream consumer multimedia, PC and storage markets. A participant on the NEPP programme in 2004 Peter says of the programme “My participation on the NEPP Programme was one of the semi-nal events in Redmere’s early development. It provided a structure and invalu-able support network”. Redmere raised over $13.5 million in venture Capital funds in 2007 and have recently left incubation in the RDC’s Millmount Incubation

Centre and are now based in Balbriggan. www.redmere.com

Micheal Armstrong, Armac - NEPP Participant Armac Systems was founded by C.E.O., Micheál Armstrong, an engineering graduate with over

15 years experience in the aerospace maintenance sector. Armac Systems have developed a proprietary analytical process that allows companies to optimise their spares inventory resulting in substantial savings and also to dramatically increase their fill rates.

Armac's share-holders include its launch customer SR Technics and Enterprise Ireland, the development agency of the Irish government. Micheál is also a member of Novation’s Advisory Board.

www.armacsystems.com

Mark Lowth, Danucci Gourmet Chocolate Company

Enterprise Start Participant September 2005

Danucci gourmet chocolate company is run by husband-and-wife team, Mark and Michelle Lowth. Michelle is a chocolatier, trained in the Callebaut Chocolate Academy, while Mark, an accountant, provides the financial and marketing acumen of the business. One thing they have in common is their passion for chocolate, and fine chocolate at that. They have established Danucci on a simple but strong guiding philosophy: to create the finest gourmet chocolates in Ireland and not to compromise – on anything.

Danucci is a fine chocolate-maker, creating artisan, handmade, gourmet chocolates with the finest and freshest ingredients, an instinctive expertise and a passion for real chocolate.

www.danucci.ie

Wigs and Wellies match a major success

On Wednesday last the inaugural Wigs and Wellies match was held between the DKIT Senior hurling team and the DKIT Senior Camogie team. This game was held as a fund raiser for jerseys for both teams and was played out in great spirit on the main GAA pitch in the college. The game was different to the standard game of hurling or camogie as the lads were kitted out in Wigs and Wellies hence the name of the game. This provided for quite a comical sight as the lads made their way on to the pitch to a chorus of whistles and jeers from the bar and other passing students in their Wigs and Wellies. From Blondes to Brunettes, curly Green hair to Ridiculous pink there was a style for all, even Santa Claus made an appearance. The aim of the game was to score goals to win money for the people who spon-sored the game and there was in all 12 goals in the game as a final score of 8-15 to 4-10 gave victory to the Hurlers. The game was played at a very competitive level as both teams were out to try and win the bragging rights over the other team. This competitiveness was increased by Padraig Kelly and Hurling and Camogie Team Manager Shane Darcy lining out for the girls who required both men to wear Skorts (The Skirts The girls wear) for the game. Both unleashing great pairs of legs between them!! The game soon got going and both teams gave their all to entertain the gathering crowd and took advantage of the situation to make it a very valuable team bonding event. The ref for the day was our very own SU vice president Subhash Khanal. The Nepalese referee, whose extensive knowledge of our native games cannot be questioned, seemed to favour the ladies which angered one cork man in the form of corner forward John Lawlor. Subhash soon calmed the man, telling him to keep his hair on. The girls continued to put up a fight and sent a wave of efforts on goal testing Cian Dunne in Goals. Although as the game progressed further the Hurlers were clearly coming out on top even after the heroics of honorary girls for the day Padraig and Shane. There were many shining performances on both teams which resulted in some great score by both teams and entertained the crowd. Not only was the level of hurling great but also the comic levels as the lads struggled to deal with their willies with very little grip and dealing with hair in their eyes which most wouldn’t be used to. All in all it was a fun afternoon as the hurlers managed to keep some level of dignity by winning in the end although the score keeping abilities of the ref are still in question!!! After the game Hurling Captain Michael Walsh was presented with the Inaugural Wexford Creamery Trophy. This was followed by the player of the Game awards which went to Full Forward Rasher of the hurling team and Andrea of the Camogie team. Both Camogie and hurling Team captains then thanked all for their efforts in raising money for new jersey’s and thanked Diarmuid Cahill, Sports and Societies Officer in DkIT for his effort in setting up this game and Hurling and Camogie team manager Shane Darcy for all the effort which he puts in continuously to make sure both teams train and compete on a weekly basis in their respective competitions. Camogie Team: Marie Greenan (Captain), Aisling O’Rourke, Marie Devine, Julie Sherlock, Sylvia Rattigan, Andrea Pearle, Siobhan Healy, Jenny Rispin, Sarah McManus, Niamh Kelly, Carol Mc Gahon, Padraig Kelly, Shane D’Arcy Hurling Team:Gavin Kerrigan, Darren O’Hanrohan, Gerard (Junior) Smith, Derek (Rasher) Muldoon, Vincent Walsh, Cian Dunne, Big John Lawlor, Colm Caffrey, Michael Walsh (Captain) Michael Doherty, Sean Christmas Doherty, Philip McGovern.

After the game Hurling Captain Michael Walsh was presented with the Inaugural Wexford Creamery Trophy. This was followed by the player of the Game awards which went to Full For-ward Rasher of the hurling team and Andrea of the Camogie team. Both Camogie and hurling Team captains then thanked all for their efforts in raising money for new jersey’s and thanked Diarmuid Cahill, Sports and Societies Officer in DkIT for his effort in setting up this game and Hurling and Camogie team manager Shane Darcy for all the effort which he puts in continuously to make sure both teams train and compete on a weekly basis in their respective competitions.

Rathmines College 0 DkIT 4

DkIT men's soccer team travelled to Dublin to play in the National Cup on Wednesday and put on a show of sheer class to progress into the Q-F stage of the competition. Having been so cruelly knocked out of the league earlier in the season DkIT made it clear from the start that they mean business in this competi-tion. Gary McGrane set the tone for the rest to follow in the first minute he beat 3 defenders with ease only to see the home goalkeeper make a lucky save. Gary's lightening start was backed up by his team-mates and in the 5min his cross to the back post was fired home by DkIT captain Alan Doyle, 1-0.

The next goal wasn't long in coming as Rathmines College tried to defend a series of DkIT attacks. Gary McGrane continued to torment the Rathmines defence and he combined well with Sean Hand to set up Desmond Effie and his through ball was hammered home by Gary McGrane, 2-0. The passing and move-ment of the DkIT team was frustrating the Rathmines players and as a result 4 of them received yellow cards for bad tackles. DkIT players to their credit never got involved in any sort of retaliation and finished out the half unlucky not to add to the score line. The second half saw DkIT continued to dominate the game and Robbie Kelly, Joseph Flynn, Karl Johns-ton and Desmond Eiffe all went close to scoring but for some good Goalkeeping and last gasp defending. Gray McGrane was not to be denied and in the 54min after some brilliant play from Sean Hand, he raced in on goal and buried number 3, 3-0. DkIT made a couple of changes and the players coming only added to the brilliance on display. One of these, John Scott, passed the ball out wide to Gary McGrane and he produced a piece football magic that Cristiano Ronaldo would have been proud off. His first touch left his maker for dead and he continued on to beat 2 more defenders before rounding the goalkeeper and rolling the ball into an empty net, 4-0 game over. The next match for the lads is a friendly against ST Patrick's College from Dublin on Wednesday Decem-ber 3 at home, k-o 2.00.

Official launch at DkIT of NEFHEA

Pictured above left to right is Head of the School of Business and Humanities, Cathal Kearney , Martin Lonergan, past student of DkIT and past President of DkIT Students’

Union(1990). Martin is now Principal of Dunboyne College and one of the signatory

partners of the NEFHEA alliance.

Welcome new Student Counsellor

Roisen Keaveney

Roisen Keaveney has recently been appointed as a new counsellor with the Student Counselling service. She will be based at DkIT 3 days per week. Roisen also works at Queen’s University in Belfast two days per week where she has been working for the last three and a half years. She qualified as a counselling psychologist in 1998 after having spent 5 years workings within the mental health field in London.

Post qualifying she specialised in the area of abuse trauma, working for 6 years with adults who had experienced physical, emotional, sexual abuse or neglect in childhood. She spent three years working within the voluntary sector and three years with the National Counselling Service, HSE.

Roisen is delighted to be joining Gertie Raftery in the Student Counselling Service and is looking forward to working with both staff and students in facing the many challenges and rewards that being a student counsellor brings. Roisen can be contacted on 087 4174681.