September 29th 2008

Volume 3, Issue 4

Compiled and Edited by Angela Short

DKIT Students are awarded “Quality Seal” at prestigious European Multimedia Awards.

DkITimes

Five students on the Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Communications in Creative Multimedia have just been awarded a quality seal by the Europrix Multimedia Awards for their project Aftermath08.

This was an outstanding achievement for the students as only fifty projects from the hundreds submitted from twenty-eight competing countries are awarded the Europrix quality seal.

Their work will now be exhibited at the EUROPRIX Multimedia Festival in November in the city of Graz, Austria.

The award winning students pictured

here with tutors Ken Sloane and Fiachra O Cuinneagain.

Aftermath08 is part of a new and emergent multimedia genre known as 'Alternate Reality Gaming'. The game is structured around an interactive narrative that uses multiple media and game elements to engage players, encourage collaboration and tell a story. The game ran over a five week duration from April through May this year attracting players from as far afield as Sweden, Australia, Canada and the United States.

Throughout the duration of the game players were drawn into a story about the mysterious disappearance of various employees of the fictional Dundalk-based company, Identicryption.

Players worked their way through secret websites and coded messages in the search for the truth about the disappearance of the employees. Before long they were unravelling a trail of identity theft, fraud, lies and murder.

This is the second award for this group of students who won a National “Best in Show” Award from The Digital Hub in 2007 for their ordinary degree final project Tactical Control Force.

Congratulations to the students involved Ronan Lynch, Sinead McCarthy, Cormac Meegan, Sinead Rafferty and Irene McGinn and their supervisors Fiachra O’Cuinneagain and Kenneth Sloane.

THINK! As a part of the Students’ Union welfare campaign, the Road Safety Campaign at DkIT was launched. The overall objective of the campaign was to raise awareness around keeping safe on the road and Don’t Drink and Drive. 365 pairs of shoes were placed on the front lawn as a stark reminder of the 365 people who lost their lives on the road last year. DkiT Students’ Union invited the Garda Traffic Corps into the college to deliver presentations to all first year and many second and third year students. Approximately 2,500 students viewed the presentation and this, coupled with the presence of the Dundalk Fire bridge presence on the campus, hopefully helped to raise awareness amongst our student population. Watched by hun-dreds of students the Fire Brigade carried a live exercise using three crashed cars on campus, illustrating exactly what happens in the aftermath of the road accident as they work to save lives.

Michael O’Farrell has been a member of staff since 1983 and will be twenty-five years in the college this September. Michael is a Dun-dalk man through and through, his father came from Tipperary but has Longford connections, the real home of the O’Farrells. While at O’Fiaich College, the first work experience was picked up in Bush Vocational School; Michael went on a day release to assist Pat Shields (RIP), the caretaker in Bush. O’Fiaich was a good school, the teachers were very supportive.

Pictured right: Michael O Farrell, long serving member of the

DkIT Staff.

Mrs Malone was manager in the canteen when Michael arrived, he was canteen assistant, and ‘the staff worked hard but managed to have a laugh now and again!’ Conferring was good fun in the can-teen, sandwiches, buns and cakes were prepared for the graduation day. He also recalls the time when the staff canteen was being built in the early nineties in the month of October, service carried on as normal and recalls the cold weather and whistling winds. It was a nice area when it was finished. Michael also remembers the ‘bomb scare’, everyone else in the building knew except the canteen staff and they wondered why the eerie silence! The VIPs he has met in-clude Dick Spring, Bertie Ahern and Cardinal O’Fiaich. Students were more expressive during rag week in the eighties than they are now; they often showed up with flour and performed various antics! Michael worked under the next three manageresses, Ruth Gunne (RIP), Kate Smyth and for one day under Chris Bellew!

Michael has been married since 1989 and was hoping to work full time in the engineering area and he has been ‘keeping things moving along at a pace’ in engineering since 2000. The areas of responsibility include the garage, the mechanical workshop, the fluids lab, IES (with Kevin Car-roll) and in carpentry. He has seen many people come and go in the twenty-five years, Dr McDonagh, Dr Collins, Frank McArdle, Tom Sharkey, Brendan McCoy and Pat Malone in the ga-rage. He also remembers Gerry Carroll and Denis Cummins as students. Many buildings have ‘gone–up’ during the twenty-five years. On reflection, Michael recalls that people ‘had time to talk’ maybe not so much now? When the college was smaller there used to be an end-of-year get-together. Michael also thinks a sports day would be a good way of allowing staff and students a way of ‘letting off some steam!’ Many thanks to Michael for his recollections. Next week Jim Maguire completes his trilogy!

Early Perspectives – Michael O’Farrell on his Twenty-Five Years

DkIT in the Sunday Times University Guide

From the Sunday Times 28th September 2008:

Sunday Times University Guide table

• Sunday Times ranking 12 (15)

• Research income 9.9m

• Median points for entry 338 (260-375*)

• Unemployment 5.2%

• Firsts and 2:1s 49%

• Student/staff ratio 15.1:1

• Dropout rate 10.7%

• Undergraduates 3,161 (802)

• Postgraduates 54 (0)

• Teaching staff 292

• Nonstandard entry 19.6%

These are exciting times for Dundalk. Its 45-acre campus will see a €22m refurbishment of the school of informatics, music and creative media completed by the end of next year and an indoor sports centre and library extension are planned for 2010. It already has successful sporting clubs, a theatre, gym and a ¤3m outdoor sports centre. The campus is a pioneer in renewable energy and is converting its heating from gas to biomass.

Dundalk’s expanding portfolio of courses also means it is providing industry-focused honours de-gree courses previously only offered in Dublin. This term it started three-year ordinary degrees in Performance Arts and Veterinary Nursing. A four-year honours degree in Humanities, one of the first to be offered at an Institute of Technology, will start next year.

Academic performance improved last year with about 49% of Dundalk graduates getting a first or a 2:1. While this ranks about average in the sector, it is a strong achievement given the broad in-take, with a third of students from the lower social classes. This is three times better than the uni-versities, and the dropout rate is down to less than 11%, on a par with them. The graduate unemployment rate, at 5.2% after six months, is relatively high. However, 71% of undergraduates go straight into employment, one of the highest rates.

Dundalk bucked the trend again among Irish third-level institutions with a phenomenal 62% rise to €9.9m in its competitive research funding. Much of this came from philanthropic donations and cross-border funding. Some 77% of students are from the Louth area or commute from Dublin.

Open day October 16th (evening) and 17th.

Taken from The Sunday Times University Guide 2008.

DkIT in the Sunday Times University Guide

Sunday Times 28th September 2008

Student view: Luke McGahon, Students’ Union President:

• First impressions You can’t help but admire the landscape and architecture.

• Worst feature A €280-a-year fee for parking from this September.

• Facilities: Student services are excellent. We are famous for our nightlife and our legendary balls and have many clubs and societies.

• Sports Facilities: We provide opportunities for students, staff and the wider community to participate in sport and physical activity. The Multi Purpose Centre (MPC) is the venue for a l l activities of a sports nature and is located in the Student Services Centre. There are also Gaelic, Rugby, Soccer and Multi Use Training Grounds, including a Jogging Lane (1.8 miles). We have an Institute Fitness Suite which is a busy, student-focused gym with an array of cardiovascular and resistance training equipment. Qualified gym staff will give sound advice on safe and effective workouts.

• Deal clincher, Great nightlife, campus buzz and a lot of excellent lecturers.

• Private rents 65 to 70 Euros per week.

Students prefer studying to socialising says U.K survey.

From Times Online September 11, 2008, Alexandra Frean, Education Editor

The popular image of university students as beer-drinking, lecture-skipping, socialites is shattered today with

the publication of new research portraying them instead as a serious and ambitious bunch, determined to

boost their job prospects and earnings potential.

It seems that the introduction in 2006 of top-up tuition fees of £3,000 a year has done more in the space of two years

to focus the attention of students on the importance of their studies than any amount of nagging from generations of

parents and lecturers.

The survey of 20000 full time undergraduates found that three quarters view university as a way of improving their ca-

reer potential.

Money is also increasingly important to today’s career-minded students, with 60 per cent saying they are motivated to

study by a desire to achieve higher salaries, compared to just 36 per cent in 2004. Social lives are now firmly on the

back burner, the annual Sodexo University Lifestyle survey suggests, with less than a third of students listing this as a

key reason to go to university.

The number of hours students spend socialising while at university has also dropped dramatically. In 2006, 44 per cent

of undergraduates spent five hours or more of a typical weekday on their social lives. Now, the figure is 14 per cent.

Students are also becoming more sober. The proportion claiming not to drink alcohol at all has risen from 21 to 23 per

cent in the space of two years.

Sally Burrows, associate dean of Bradford University’s School of Management, said: “In the past, socialising was as

much a part of university life as attending lectures, but this research shows that the university experience has now radi-

cally changed.” “Today’s average undergraduate is extremely hardworking - often working part time as well as study-

ing. They socialise less, drink in moderation, rarely skip lectures and worry about getting the results they need to suc-

ceed in the competitive job market.” The survey suggests that student finances are at the core of these changes.

The majority of students (63 per cent) expect to accumulate debts of over £10,000 by the time they leave - a significant

jump from 2006, when the figure was 39 per cent.<QA1> More than a third (37 per cent) expect to leave more than

£17,500 in the red, and nearly one in five (18 per cent) anticipate debts of over £20,000. And more than half receive

money from their parents.

Despite this, the majority of students appear to have a sanguine attitude to debt. Far more (70 per cent ) worry about

achieving the degree classification they want - up from 57 per cent in 2006 - than lose sleep over money (43 per cent).

Almost two-thirds (64 per cent) feel confident that they are making a sensible investment in their future career. This

suggests, however, that the remaining third may be doubting the economic value of their degree.

Charles Towning, 21, who is about to enter his third year at Exeter University, studying Ancient History, spends at least

two hours each day in the library, on top of lectures and seminars. He spends much of his holidays on work experience

placements.

“Usually I will only go out if I don’t have too many lectures the following day and only after I have done plenty of work. I

don’t generally drink much when I go out - probably less than fifteen units a week - as having a hangover makes work

difficult the next day.

“It is tempting to live an indolent life at university, but when it comes to your future, you have to put in some effort,” he

said. Taken from The Sunday Times— Times online

Does this constitute an argument for the reintroduction of Third level fees? Opinions or letters to

editor@dkit.ie

Newstalk 106-108 fm Student Enterprise Competition Launched at Dundalk

Institute of Technology

Dundalk, Thursday 25th September, 2008 - The 2008/2009 Newstalk 106-108 fm Student Enterprise Competition, in association with The Irish Times, was launched last Thursday at Dundalk Institute of Technology.

Now in its third year, the competition is designed to foster a spirit of enterprise among third level students and develop their understanding of business manage-ment, with a view to cultivating early-stage entrepreneurship. Using a case study format, the competition encourages participants to research companies and, as part of a team, devise solutions to ‘real life’ business scenarios. Last year, over 1000 students from 255 teams across 16 colleges entered the competition, which was won by a team from IT Sligo.

Commenting on the launch of the competition, Denis O’Brien, Chairperson of Newstalk 106-108 fm, said “Since 2006 the competition has gone from strength to strength and it has been very encouraging to see the level of entries from business and other faculties increase each year. By giving students the opportu-nity to work together outside their normal college environment, the competition allows participants to put into practice the knowledge they have gained from their studies and also learn valuable skills they can use in their future careers.”

“Now more than ever, it is crucial that the business community across Ireland supports business students and nurtures their talent. As our future graduates, these students will be business leaders that will drive our economy and steer it in the right direction. It is therefore essential that we mentor and support them,” he added.

Speaking at the launch, Dr. Colette Henry of the Centre for Entrepreneurship Research at DkIT en-couraged as many students as possible to take part, stressing that the challenge of a slowing economy provides a perfect environment for entrepreneurship to grow, and this competition provided excellent train-ing for budding entrepreneurs.

The competition is exclusively open to students from 15 Institutes of Technology and the National College of Ireland. Local launches will be held in each of these colleges in the coming weeks.

The overall prize for the winning team and its team coach is a study trip to the Caribbean where they will shadow ‘senior executives’ in the Digicel Group.

Teams must submit written proposals to their local co-ordinator for the first round, which will be judged by their colleges. The top four entries from each college will then be given a second case study on which they present their submission to their local judging committee.

Each of the 16 judging committees will consist of top local business and media representatives as well as a local INTRE (Irish Network of Teachers and

Researchers of Entrepreneurship) representative. The winning team from each of the ITs will receive prize money along with accommodation and hospitality in Sligo for the National semi-finals and final in February, 2009.

The Irish Times is an associate sponsor of the competition for the third year.

The closing date for entries is Wednesday, 15th October 2008 and entry forms must be completed through the competition website www.newstalk.ie/studententerpise. The first case study will be available online from Thursday, 16th October 2008 and proposals must be submitted to the local co-ordinator by Tuesday, 4th November 2008.

Caption Competition. Send your captions to edi-tor@dkit.ie

Above picture taken from the gallery at www.independent.ie

Congrats go to Brian Grainger in the Music

Department.

“ How’s Tommy getting

on with that diet?”