Issue Twelve summer 2013

Where research & InnovatIon Meets enterprIse

the linkRegional Development CentRe & ReseaRCh offiCe

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The publication of the socio economic impact study on DkIT carried out by Biggar economics highlighted the positive impact DkIT and the rDC are having on the region (see page 3 for full report). The head line that for every €1 invested in the Institute €7.54 is returned is in itself a very impressive figure. Drilling down, even more positive impacts are uncovered, highlighting the important contribution the activities of the Institute makes through its research, Innovation and enterprise initiatives and programmes.

For this edition of the link it is therefore appropriate to highlight some of the activities that have supported these social and economic impacts. we feature the Institute’s research career development programme and meet some of the researchers currently supported and learn of their areas of research interest.

we meet some of the clients of the incubation centre and gain an understanding of their business sector. we also provide an update on the Innovation for Competitive enterprises (ICe) programme and also the New Frontiers Programme which has just been extended for a further three years (2013 – 2015).

with a number of exciting new initiatives coming on stream we look forward to an equally rewarding latter half of the year to come.

we hope you enjoy this edition of The link. If you have any comment or suggestions regarding content, or would like to be included on the mailing list, please e-mail anne.tinnelly@dkit.ie

Irene mcCausland, external service manager, rDCDr Tim mcCormac, Head of research, DkIT

Chuir foilsiú an staidéir ar thionchar socheacnamaíoch DkIT, déanta ag Biggar economics, béim ar thionchar dearfach DkIT agus rDC ar an réigiún (féach leathanach 3 i gcomhair an tuarascáil iomlán). Is figiúir an-shuntasach ann féin é go mbíonn toradh €7.54 ar gach €1 infheistithe san Institiúid. Ag iniúchadh níos géire, feictear mórán tionchair dearfa eile, a léiríonn tábhacht gníomhaíochtaí na hInstitiúide trína tionscnaimh agus cláir Taighde, Nuálaíochta agus Fiontraíochta.

I gcomhair eagrán seo link, is cuí mar sin béim a chur ar roinnt de na gníomhaíochtaí a thacaíonn le na tionchair sóisialta agus eacnamaíochta seo. léirimid clár forbairt gairme na hInstitiúide agus cuirimid aithne ar roinnt taighdeoirí atá á dtacú faoi láthair agus ar réimsí a gcuid spéise taighde.

Buailimid freisin le roinnt de chliaint na gorlainne agus cuirimid tuiscint ar a n-earnáil gnó. Tugaimid uasdátú freisin ar chlár Nuálaíocht do Fhiontair Iomaíocha (ICe) agus freisin ar an gClár Teorainneacha Nua a síneadh le déanaí i gcomhair trí bhliain eile (2013 – 2105).

le tionscnaimh nua spreagúla eile ag teacht chun cinn, táimid ag tnúth le dara leath na bliana a bheith chomh rathúil céanna.

Tá súil againn go mbainfidh tú taitneamh as eagrán seo The link. má tá tuairimí nó moltaí agat maidir le hábhar, nó más mian leat bheith ar an liosta póstála, cuir rphost led thoil chuig anne.tinnelly@dkit.ie

Irene mcCausland, Bainisteoir seirbhísí seachtracha,IFrDr Tim mcCormac, Ceannasaí Taighde, ITDD

réamhrá / Foreword

Front Photo: Client Company evB sports launches at the rDC.

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.

regional Development Centre Dublin road Dundalk Co louthT +353 42 9370400 F +353 42 9370499W www.rdc.ie E info@rdc.ie

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.

edited by Garrett Duffy

e garrett.duffy@dkit.ie

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Unveiling DkIt’s Multiplier effectThe results of a socio-economic impact study of Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT) undertaken by BiGGAr economics reveals an economic return of €7.54 for every €1 received in state funding

The study was commissioned by DkIT to provide a better understanding of theInstitute’s economic and social contributions and impact to the region.

It set out to • measure the economic impact of DkIT;• quantify, as much as can be

practicable, the social impact of DkIT;• provide a report that will give verifiable

evidence of the impact of DkIT in the development of its region; and

• consider the economic and social impact of the regional Development Centre.

Based on figures for 2011/12 period the authors of the report found that DkIT received €37.3 million in state funding and generated €281.5 million in Gross

value Added (GvA) for the national economy. This represents a return of over €7.54 for every euro invested.

DkIT also supports 2,110 jobs of which 1,290 were in louth with the remainder spread across the north east and border regions. The scale of this impact is comparable to organisations such as Bus eireann, employing 2,600, or Fyffes who employ 1,890.

The 4,734 students enrolled during 2011/12 included approx. 500 international students, and they spent a total of €24.1 million during the year.

The impacts generated by the activities of the regional Development Centre (rDC) accounted for €37.9 million GvA per annum supporting 616 jobs. since it was founded the rDC has supported more than 800 entrepreneurs, incubated 87 knowledge based start-up enterprises and conducted 169 applied research projects for industry.

Overall research activities at DkIT has increased significantly since 2001 with research income topping €6.6 million in 2012 and citations increasing 30 fold since its 2001 level.

while the numbers are certainly impressive they tell only one side of the story. The wider benefits generated include: • improving competitiveness of the

regional economy by providing relevant skills to local industry,

• improving the image and reputation of the area

• promoting the development of the Dublin Belfast Corridor

• increasing entrepreneurialism by promoting entrepreneurial attitudes amongst students and staff and

• enhancing social inclusion in the local area by raising awareness of career and education options amongst local young people and enabling people from communities with traditionally low participation in higher education to gain third level qualifications.

President of Dundalk Institute of Technology, Denis Cummins noted “the North east is a prime location for enterprise and the findings in the report illustrates that there is a direct link between the significant presence of Dundalk Institute of Technology and the increase of major industry employers in the region.”

L-r paul short, Castlecool, andrew Griffith, Chairman DkIT Governing Body, Dr edel healy, DkIT, Minister Fergus o’Dowd tD, Mr Denis cummins, President DkIT and Mr Graeme Blackett, BiGGar economics

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news from the Frontier as easy as evB

When new Frontiers participant Yvonne Brady applied for the new Frontiers programme in February 2012 she had the nucleus of an idea for a new product to provide targeted support for women’s pelvic floor muscles. During an intensive first phase of the programme, Yvonne’s research confirmed that 1 in 3 women suffer from weak pelvic floor muscles especially following child birth. almost 1 female in 4 gives up sport due to this problem.

over the last 12 months Yvonne developed and tested multiple prototypes for a sports short that would provide support in the right areas during sport. the 6 months phase 2 programme helped her develop an investor ready business plan which culminated in her appearance on the Late Late show with other high potential start-ups on January 4th this year. Later in January evB sport was successful in securing competitive start funding from enterprise Ireland in return for an equity stake in the business.

With the foundations well and truly laid, evB sport has now gone into production of their first product, completed company and product branding, secured their Ip, launched their website and have secured their first sales, including sales from abroad.

www.evbsportsshorts.com

participants on the 2012 new Frontiers programme receive their certificates at the end of programme event in March 2013.

new Frontier’s programme collaborators DkIt (through the regional Development centre) and DcU (through Invent DcU) got confirmation earlier this year from enterprise Ireland that their proposal to deliver the new Frontiers programme for a further three years (2013 – 2015) was successful. the application was built on results from the 2012 programme which saw 12 promoters advance the start-up and growth of their businesses with support and guidance through the programme.

new Frontiers entrepreneur Development programme is a national programme funded by enterprise Ireland that provides a suite of supports for start-up and early stage businesses and aims to equip them with the skills necessary to start and grow a technology business.

Delivered over 12 months in three separate phases the programme aims to:• Determine the business case for

the new venture (Phase 1)• Develop a comprehensive suite

of plans to start and grow the business and become investor ready (Phase 2)

• execute on these plans by securing first customers, investment or enter international markets (Phase 3)

even though the 2012 programme was only completed recently we are pleased to announce that 10 of the 12 participants have finished product development, 9 have entered the marketplace (2 internationally) and 4 have received significant investment.

to build on these early results a further 30 participants were recruited and selected for two phase 1 programmes which were delivered over 6 weeks each in March – april (rDc) and april – May (Invent, DcU). participants then apply for phase two of the programme which will start at the beginning of July with a minimum of 12 promoters.

Further phase 1 programmes will run in september 2013 and again in February/March 2014.

For further details or for Phase 1 applications please contact e garrett.duffy@dkit.ie t 042 9370400

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time for technology transferThe first 6 months of 2013 has been a very active time on the Technology Transfer front. The role of Technology Transfer is in essence to match industry with academia. This works both ways – industry can have a problem that needs research or the college has research that can be of benefit to industry. The focus for the first half of 2013 has been matching industry needs to academia and this has been mainly in the form of supporting enterprise Ireland Innovation vouchers and InterTrade Ireland Fusion projects.

since the beginning of the year 7 innovation vouchers have been successfully completed, 4 are in progress and a further 7 are at the application stage. regarding Fusion Projects, 8 are in progress, 2 received final approval and 5 are currently in the approval phase. Innovation vouchers are open to all companies in the republic and Fusion projects (with DkIT) are open to all companies in N. Ireland. In addition to these activities we have also been working with DkIT’s research Centres to identify opportunities for commercialisation, reviewing collaboration contracts and pursuing Innovation Partnership programmes. looking to the latter half of 2013 the focus will be on exploring possible licensing opportunities of the college’s research and forging deeper links with industry. we will also host an information seminar on Industry / Academic collaboration programmes and another on research Commercialisation.

The technology transfer office welcomes any and all interaction with industry. we strive to offer to industry the opportunity to utilise the college competencies to enhance, or to kick-start, their research or product development activities. Collaboration with the Institute can help reduce the technical risk of developing a new product and, subject to suitable funding, help to reduce the financial risk. In the current economic climate Product/services development is critical to the future of businesses and collaboration with DkIT can greatly enhance the development activity and potentially reduce the inherent risk.

For further support please contact, Neil McLoughlin, Technology Transfer Manager, at neil.mcloughlin@dkit.ie or 087 2481011

students turn advice into actionThe student enterprise programme at Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT) has expanded significantly since its establishment in 2007 and there are now five student enterprise interns, two cross campus and one each in the schools of engineering, Health and science and Informatics and Creative Arts.

The interns are tasked with building a culture of entrepreneurship amongst the student population by encouraging them to be entrepreneurial, to explore self-employment options and by providing access to business development resources and networks. student enterprise interns engage undergraduates in a range of activities that includes lecture shouts, competitions, guest speaker events and idea generation workshops.

since the start of the year a number of high profile entrepreneurs visited DkIT to share their entrepreneurial journeys and offer advice to the student population. many of these guest speaking events took place during enterprise week and included Feargal Quinn, the former owner of superquinn, who provided a highly motivational and enjoyable talk to a packed audience, Paul mcCoy of Castleross Nursing

Home, Carrickmacross and J.J. Fay of Bluebird Care, a leading provider of home care in Ireland who addressed students in the school of Health and science. enterprise weeks final speaker was Dr John Teeling a world leading entrepreneur and former owner of Cooley Distillery.

while each of these speakers comes from different backgrounds and operate in different fields a common theme emerged from their talks – that of taking action. To be bold and take that first step. Advice that was taken up by many students in the Institute during the annual rookie competition where teams of students complete a number of business orientated tasks over a few days. This year’s winners were team ‘Axiom’, Jessica moneley, James Gogarty and Kimberley King, who produced a sherbet ‘shot’ to take first prize. Another competition that saw students take action was the inaugural ‘Project Providence’ social enterprise competition which aimed to help the pupils of Providence school in shillong, north-east India which include some of the most underprivileged children in India. The winner was Cathal Byrne with his innovative idea to get celebrity endorsement for the school in the form of

vicky ratnani, an Indian celebrity chef. The final competition of the semester was the enterprise Ireland sponsored ‘Think Outside the Box’ Awards. It was won by Nuala markey with her Pit master invention which is a covering system for silage pits that won her a cash prize of €500. Nuala has secured support for the idea from her local county enterprise board and aims to commercialise the device in the near future.

The students were also treated to a talk by recent DkIT graduate, Niall mcentegart an employee of Facebook, who spoke about his experiences of working with the social media giant to the students of the school of Informatics and Creative Arts.

As the academic year approaches its end student enterprise @ DkIT are looking forward to next year when they will continue to encourage students to take action and find their enterprising talents, with the continued support of local businesses, entrepreneurs and lecturers.

niall Mccabe, student Intern with ’think outside the Box’ Winner nuala Markey

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Did you know that the recovery rate for stolen cars is 66% yet for stolen plant & equipment is as low as 5%? or that plant and equipment theft is conservatively estimated to be £1 million/week in the UK? Factor in all the indirect costs associated: downtime, delay claims and replacement hire costs and the total cost spirals upwards to a staggering £800m to £1 Billion to the UK economy. this is a problem that eamonn Brennan, ceo of rDc based the plantfiles, aims to solve.

on the face of it the solution is simple enough. 60% of all plant and equipment reported to the police in UK and logged onto the police national computer (pnc), have been described as ‘poor’, ‘Misleading’, ‘Inaccurate’ and ‘Useless’. so improve the information available to police and the recovery rates will increase. as Brennan puts it “insurers don’t know what equipment they are insuring because they do not ask the client for detailed equipment schedules. there is an underlying

the plant Filesproton Labs recently joined the growing list of incubates in the rDc. the company offer software prototyping as a service creating professional prototypes for their clients for use in demonstrations, feature analysis, investor pitches or to secure business partners.

prototyping as a service fast-tracks business requirements through iterative design and agile technology development thus reducing start-up costs for entrepreneurs, commercial feasibility costs for r&D organisations and trial costs for Multinationals.prototype as a service reflects the quick validation approach taken directly from the concepts of Lean startup ® and customer Development. the model embraces the idea of Minimum viable product (Mvp), rapid prototyping, a/B testing, and usability testing — closely integrating business, design and technology into one multi-faceted process.

prototyping as a service brings ideas to

market in a phased and continuous approach thus controlling risks and costs for clients

whilst maximizing value propositions

proton Labs primary target market is sMes that need to fast-track their technology developments and academic labs in need of converting applied r&D outputs into market demonstrators. Demand for their services has grown rapidly since the company was founded twelve months ago and they’ve recently hired their 4th full time employee. www.proton.ie

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proton Labs L-r cezary otowski, Bartek czerwinski and Frédéric herrera

eamonn Brennan ceo the plant Files

Winning Formula rubs offhanley energy have been clients of Millmount Development centre since the foundation of the company three years ago. During those short but exciting years hanley energy has grown their customer base and employee headcount. hanley provides energy management solutions for their clients, specifically in the areas of critical power supply and energy optimisation.

each client has specific requirements, so hanley energy designs and supplies a customised end-to-end solution that integrates technology and energy management expertise to provide bespoke uninterruptible electrical power supply (Ups) solutions for businesses as diverse as data centres and pharmaceutical plants. While their energy management solutions reduce their client’s overall energy demand by up to 20%, while facilitating compliance with a structured energy management system such as Iso 50001:2011.

having won a number of awards themselves, such as the rotary Business excellence award, hanley energy shared their winning formula when they sponsored DkIt student sarah Mccrave. sarah went on to win the Louth rose of tralee competition recently.

Drogheda’s shining LightLightbox Lab, based in Millmount, Drogheda celebrated its first year in existence recently. the makerspace club joins a growing community of Irish and international maker and hackerspaces created to support the combined interests of electronics and Ict at a local level. the club was formed early in 2012 and membership consists of students, It and electronics professionals and people who have a passion for exploring creative uses of technology.Interest and membership in the club has grown with the on-going support of the rDc and Millmount Development centre, which provide a workspace for regular meetups, workshops and tutorials. the club engages with local industry by providing technology enthusiasts with support and advice and links up with the rDc to help members monetize their own ideas.

2013 has already been an exciting year for Lightbox Lab. recently the group has worked on the development of a 3D printer and represented Irish hackerspace at the global coder Dojo conference which was held in slane castle displaying a number of interactive projects developed by the group. the group holds monthly workshops covering a wide range of subjects including programming tutorials, network security, game and web development as well as various electronics and open source hardware based tutorials. Workshops are free for members and are open to non-members for a small fee.

Lightbox Labs hold weekly group nights (tuesday 7:15pm to 9:30pm) for members and guests with interests in any area of technology, who want to know more or would like to discuss and implement their own project ideas.

For further info contact: info@lightboxlab.ie

fear that by asking too many important questions, the insurer risks losing the business to a competitor who doesn’t demand such detail”.

the plantfiles tackles this fundamental problem by engaging with plant owners on behalf of their insurance company clients once a policy is in place. “We audit the files and engage with the client on the insurance company’s behalf. our unique system helps plant owners to create and maintain forensic data files which may include elevation photos, serial numbers, unique markings, video records, ownership history, safety checks, insurance & finance details”.

the forensic file is then ‘star rated’, and the greater the number of stars achieved the greater will be the discount in premium and excess charges providing an incentive to the plant owner. of course the real value accrues in the event of a theft as the forensic file is made available to police investigators.

the plantfiles system is currently being used by a number of insurance companies in Ireland, and so far the feedback has been very favourable indeed. rolling the platform out across Ireland and the UK and the company suggests that the recovery rate for stolen plant could be taken from a feeble 5%, to 50% and more within a 3 year period, saving millions for the Insurance industry and reducing premiums for the plant owners.

For further info visit www.plantfiles.com

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ICe is on course to increase its participant company turnover by over €56 million, generate 300 new jobs and take nearly 40 companies into new export sales when it is completed.

This evidence has emerged from an independent evaluation of the unique ‘learning by doing’ ICe Programme model of how to build innovation capability and capacity in small to medium sized businesses in this region.

The Innovation for Competitive enterprises (ICe) Programme was developed and is being led by Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT) in partnership with the university of ulster, the university of Glasgow and Glasgow Caledonian university. The Programme is funded by the eu Interreg IvA Programme for Ireland, Northern Ireland and western scotland, which is administered by the special eu Programmes Body (seuPB). Team BDs, a company who specialise in providing strategic Innovation support to companies in Ireland and the uK were chosen as the delivery partner.

ICe Programme manager Kieran Fegan commented ‘ICe has easily beaten the targets set for it by the funder seuPB. For example, the targets for the number of

new products and processes introduced, the number of companies increasing turnover and the number increasing export sales have all been exceeded by a factor of 4 or more already prior to programme completion’

Kieran continues ‘ICe has been good value for money too with a direct cost per job created or safeguarded of just €4500. If the reduction in state benefits arising from the increase in employment from the Programme was taken into account, the net cost to the state would be negative’. Kieran was also keen to acknowledge the support of the regional development agencies such as enterprise Ireland, IntertradeIreland and Invest Northern Ireland.

Ardee based company Pro stainless Designs participated on the ICe Programme. The company identified that it needed to reduce its dependency on the construction sector and achieve strategic growth through the identification and development of new product ranges targeting higher margin sectors.

Through ICe, following an initial brain-storming session and ideas assessment session the company developed a new range of clean room products for the Pharmaceutical and medical Devices

sectors. The company achieved €0.5m sales in this new “specials” sector in the latter half of 2012. Pro stainless sales & marketing Director David monaghan stated ‘we applied for ICe at a time when the economic downturn was having a significant impact on our business. we needed new ideas and help with how to assess which idea should be developed. ICe gave us the white space we needed and helped shaped the journey which has now hopefully given us a platform to grow.’

DKIT estimates - based on the company’s own views but adjusted for the growth which would have been likely to happen in any case, and for company optimism - that the increase in turnover attributable to the Programme is likely to be in excess of €56 million. For the average company this is an increase in turnover of €625,000 due to their participation in the ICe Programme. If these estimates are realised in full when the Programme is completed, the three participating regions will have gained over €56 million additional economic activity for an investment by the eu and by the state of just €2.5 million.

máire Geoghegan-Quinn, eu Commissioner for research, Innovation and science has had an opportunity to review some of the outputs from the ICe programme. Following the completion of the independent evaluation, she commented “smes in many member states are severely hit by the crisis. Creating new smes or helping them to grow has become ever more important because we need thriving and innovative enterprises to get the european economy back on track, to provide growth and jobs”

However, the current ICe Programme comes to an end later this year. This raises the question as to how the lessons of the Programme can be incorporated into support for smes to ensure that the economic benefits continue to be realised. One option, under consideration by DKIT, is to seek to run the Programme again in the new 2014 – 2020 Interreg Programme. Other possibilities are to widen the number of regions participating in the Programme, perhaps to the eu-designated Atlantic Arc regions or the wider North west europe region, both of which include Ireland and Northern Ireland or to build the ICe approach into the mainstream activities of development agencies such as enterprise Ireland, InvestNI and scottish enterprise.

Irene mcCausland, external services manager in the regional Development Centre at DkIT highlighted that “this programme is demonstrating an exemplar model for economically generating and protecting jobs and increasing export sales through innovation and genuine partnership. The challenge now is how we ensure that the benefits of the ICe model continue to be realised by smes and by the wider economy”

ICe Breaking New Innovation Ground for louth Company

Pro stainless Designs

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research is a core high value activity across the Institute and is central to the three pillars on which the Institute’s strategic plan is based, namely, knowledge asset, community development and organisation. the Institute is committed to realising its potential in terms of the stated goals within the strategic plan and research strategy, in that, emerging academic researchers will be encouraged and supported in further developing their research careers. the strength of the Institute’s research and innovation, in conjunction with its research informed teaching and learning agenda, will play a key role in the future direction of the Institute. supporting the Institute’s staff who wish to support the research and innovation agenda is vital and the recent implementation of the “research career Development programme” represents a significant step in this direction. this scheme is targeted at “early stage” academic researchers within the four academic schools.

This is defined as follows• staff whom have not secured

substantial external research funding

• staff whom exhibit an evidence based interest in research

• staff whom have not supervised more than one level 9 or 10 research student to completion

Key features of the programme include:• two year programme • three hours weekly undergraduate

teaching remission to concentrate on fourth level

Dr Niamh Dreeling has lectured in the Department of Applied sciences in DkIT for 14 years and recently has had the opportunity to refocus her research activities in the area of food science. Dreeling graduated with a Bsc (Hons) in Food science and Food Technology from DIT, Kevin st (awarded by Trinity College Dublin) and later completed her PhD in Agriculture (awarded by uCD). research has always been a major component of Dreeling’s career and she was involved in a number of projects in the Netherlands and Belgium including researching cheese flavours in KIHO college in Ghent.

Having completed her degree, Dreeling opted to pursue a PhD at Teagasc Ashtown Food research Centre, in Castleknock. This involved process optimisation of low-fat beef burgers with particular emphasis on sensory and instrumental texture assessment. she also worked as a research Officer at Ashtown Food research Centre, following her PhD, on two projects. The first project involved feeding systems and processing components of beef and the second project was on novel extruded beef products. she has also supervised numerous final year research projects in food product development with particular emphasis on added-value foods.

Her current area of research is in the area of pulsed electric field processing, an innovative technology, and the use of natural antimicrobials in meat products which she hopes to extend to other innovative technologies and other food products in the future.

Dr niamh DreelingDepartment of Applied Sciences

Launch of researcher career Development programme

• Guidance and advice on research career development

• Financial support from research office for research dissemination

• attendance at internal research career training events

• Generation of annual research outputs

• Biannual progress reports from applicant

It is expected that each candidate would deliver on a selection of the following research outputs on an annual basis.

• research training workshop attendance

• research proposal submission to external funding body

• summer undergraduate research project supervision

• research orientated undergraduate projects

• contract research and consultancy

• Internal research presentations• International and national

conference presentations (oral and poster)

• peer reviewed publications• non peer reviewed publications• Media & publicity • research administration• Discipline specific related

outputs• postgraduate research

supervision

the first programme commenced in september 2012 with 5 successful candidates from across four three academic schools.

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JJ Quinlan is a lecturer and researcher in Creative media in DkIT’s school of Informatics. Before joining DkIT, JJ worked as a Creative director in ‘bespoke training software’ aimed at sales staff of multinational pharmaceutical companies. His role was in the development of high end animation, interactive exercises, video simulations and 3d environment products. He was also a senior multimedia designer for many successful e-learning projects for large multinational ‘blue chip’ companies. since joining DkIT JJ has focused on investigating the issues involved in design aesthetics for the elderly, specifically those issues affecting game developers. Key to this is a detailed investigation into the need for games for the elderly for Quinlan believes that this is an underdeveloped market. research will focus on understanding and evaluating this target market. similar markets and brands will be investigated to find common themes or insight. using this information, various design aesthetics will be investigated.

This investigation will then be used as a foundation for future research regarding game design for the elderly.

JJ QuinlanSchool of Informatics

Hilary mullaney, originally from Kiltimagh, Co. mayo, is a composer whose work has been performed and published worldwide, highlights including New music Festival Cal state Fullerton, Peninsula Arts Contemporary music Festival, liverpool Biennial, Quebec Biennial and Futuresonic uK.

Nearing completion of her PhD under the supervision of Dr. John matthias (Prs Foundation New music Award winner, Fragmented Orchestra) at Plymouth university titled ‘The Composer Isn’t There: a personal exploration of place in fixed media composition’, she has been working on this while also lecturing full-time in music at Dundalk IT. Her research explores her practice as a composer of fixed media, electronic music. recent practice and writing have examined how place is experienced from a psychogeographical perspective, exploring how place evolves in its own way for each person and how recollected memory impacts on the compositional process. she sees her work as a representation of the creator’s personal experience; a series of art works that represent a particular time or place.

This research interest stemmed from various experiences, but two highlights in her career have contributed significantly. Firstly, attending a residency at the Centre for the Composition of music Iannis Xenakis (CCmIX) in Paris in 2005; an opportunity to immerse herself in composition and also in the music of Iannis Xenakis. Through guidance from Xenakis’ peers and people who were close to him such as musicologist sharon Kanach and composer Gerard Pape, this was a life changing experience which germinated this idea of ‘place’ due to her sensing of Xenakis’ presence at the CCmIX and the legacy he left behind after his death a number of years earlier in 2001. This experience also resulted in shaking off the restraints of her academic, classical music training; CCmIX was the first place she felt comfortable ‘breaking the rules’ which caused a significant change in her compositional style. The second highlight was visiting the mamori lake in the Amazon rainforest, Brazil in 2008 to participate in a field recording residency with renowned experimental music composer Francisco lópez. It was here that she deepened her interest in field recording and place, writing Dawn which captured not only a physical place, but also a personal one.

Her most recent composition Áitleku is an 8 channel work using field recordings captured from 2010-2012 from her home life, which in the last number of years has been divided between Ireland and the Basque Country ‘euskadi’, northern spain. The work tells stories of places and people. An extensive amount of materials were recorded during this time to create a work which is a very personal exploration of place. ‘my places in this work are my dreams, people close to me, sounds I long for, memories of the past … exploring where I am in relation to where I have come from; a journey which helped me to discover what is at the core of my practice’. This work consists of three sections; a personal narration recorded on waking after a vivid dream, the local soundmarks on a busy street in Amorebieta, euskadi and stories from the past recounted by her father accompanied by the awakening of the countryside at dawn in the village of Pollronahan in mayo, exploring the traces of this place and the people who lived there.

Future plans include participating in the Fourth International symposium on music and sonic Art: Practices and Theories in Karlsruhe, Germany at the end of may 2013 and attending a field recording workshop with musician and sound recordist Chris watson later this year.

hillary MullaneySchool of Informatics

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raurí mcCool graduated in 2003 with a degree in mechanical engineering from Queen’s university Belfast (QuB) which was followed up with a masters in Polymer engineering in 2004. raurí then completed a PhD in the department of mechanical engineering at QuB focusing on the development of computer based simulations of the thermoforming process used to manufacture food packaging applications. since 2009 raurí has held the position of lecturer in Queen’s university Belfast, Cork Institute of Technology and Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT), during which time, he has continued to develop a strong research profile in polymer processing technologies with collaborating industrial partners.

The current research focus of raurí, involves a collaborative approach between the school of engineering at DkIT and the Department of mechanical engineering at QuB. The aim is to develop a technical knowledge base in addition to experimental testing capability to further improve the operational efficiency of the manufacturing sector and improve the environmental credentials of the packaging industry.

Through detailed experimental analysis of the thermoforming process, the aim is to assess the energy footprint of material and manufacturing choices early within a product design and development process. The core research focus is shifting from conventional commodity thermoplastic applications such as food containers towards high value medical and pharmaceutical packaging applications. Current developments in laboratory equipment capabilities are being carried out at DkIT and will focus on the instrumentation of thermoforming equipment to facilitate the generation of realistic process data that can be fed to computer based simulations.

Dr. sinéad loughran was a postdoctoral researcher and part-time lecturer at DCu before coming to DkIT in 2012 on a full-time basis. while there she worked extensively on several viruses including cancer-causing viruses, the whooping cough virus and the flu virus. Her research interest is primarily in the area of viral oncology which is the study of cancers caused by viruses. she has built on this research here at DkIT having recently directed three undergraduate research projects on the Bsc (hons) in Biopharmaceutical science in the area of viral oncology.

“Kate lynch and miki sweeney were the first scientists in Ireland to examine the prevalence of a novel polyomavirus linked to merkel Cell Carcinoma, an aggressive form of skin cancer while sadia Akande was involved in cloning a viral protein from the Human Papillomavirus in order to address an emerging hypothesis that this virus has a role in lung cancer” she explains.

These research projects were DCu collaborative projects and brought Dr. loughran back to her alma mater where she has recently worked closely with colleagues in the viral Immunology group, headed up by Dr. Patricia Johnson, to finalise a study which has unravelled the immune basis for why pneumonia often supersedes flu infection.

“most people have heard of the spanish Flu pandemic which is thought to have claimed of up to 50 million lives in 1918/1919 but what most people don’t know is that most of the deaths associated with flu were caused by a superinfection with bacteria, usually pneumonia and not the influenza virus, which alone is rarely fatal. In the viral Immunology lab at DCu, we discovered how the flu virus prevents the immune system from recognising and fighting the pneumonia bacteria in the normal way”, she admits. Dr. loughran was strongly involved in postgraduate education at DCu and hopes to become a postgraduate supervisor here at DkIT having now completed the DkIT structured supervisor Training programme which has covered all aspects of research student management during the postgraduate supervision lifecycle.

In November last, Dr. loughran was part of a contingent of researchers from the 14 Irish Institutes of Technology to visit Brussels to learn more about eu funding possibilities for Irish researchers. During the visit, the group met with the european Commissioner for research, Innovation and science - máire Geoghegan-Quinn and were briefed on the various funding mechanisms available to researchers including those under the future Horizon 2020 – the eu Framework Programme for research and Innovation which will run from 2014 to 2020. “It is clear that much of the research funding from europe in the future will involve smes and see researchers participate with smes in collaborative r&D or innovation projects, to develop high potential innovations and bring them closer to market” she explains.

Dr. loughran stresses that an important aspect of her research is in enterprise engagement, she is keen to interact with industry and transfer knowledge. To this end she has secured funding under the summer undergraduate research programme to study the effect of novel drug formulations on colorectal cancer cells in collaboration with the Irish-owned pharmaceutical company, sigmoid Pharma, winner of the overall ‘Innovation of the Year’ award at the inaugural Irish Times All-Island Innovation Awards, in association with InterTradeIreland.

Dr sinéad LoughranSchool of Science

raurí MccoolSchool of Engineering

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LINK Issue 12

recently the research Office launched this year’s summer undergraduate research Programme (surP) through which 30 of the Institute’s 3rd and 4th year undergraduate students are being supported. The primary aim of this scheme is to embed a research culture within the Institute’s undergraduate population. For the first time since the scheme was launched back in 2009, some students will now have the opportunity to be placed directly in a company setting during their 6 week project as the research Office is supporting 8 projects aligned with external industrial partners and the Institute’s incubated companies within

the regional Development Centre. The remaining 22 projects are based within the Institutes research centres or groups who carry out translational research across the ICT, Health, Ageing, environmental, engineering, Food, Creative Arts, enterprise and Innovation research domains. each student is directly supervised by a team of experienced researchers and during their 6 week projects each student is offered both discipline and generic skills training in such areas as Intellectual Property, undertaking a PhD and research ethics. This year’s scheme brings to over 85 the number of undergraduate students who have been supported through this programme since

summer 2009. The full list of academic projects for 2013 are detailed below.

Ict, health and ageing1 New Technologies and their

relationship with the elderly.2 seed iPad Application

Development. 3 seed Android Application

Development.4 Intergenerational iPad application.5 Great Northern Haven – 3 years on.6 wirelessly mapping Great Northern

Haven – Apt 1.7 The effect of addition of rosemary

on microbiological, proximate and sensory assessment of beef burgers

8 The effect of addition of Nisin on microbiological, proximate and sensory assessment of beef burgers

9 effect of novel Celecoxib formulations on cell proliferation, membrane fluidity and metastatic potential of colorectal cancer cells

creative arts1 Gender and the Creative Industries

night-time economy2 ‘Fine Gall go hinse Gall’ music in

Fingal.3 music editions Project:

Contemporary Music Centre4 music editions Project: Farrell5 music editions Project: Fleischmann6 Irish Traditional music Digitisation

Project7 Have technological advancements

dramatized the traditional narrative of football broadcasting in relation to highlights and live match-day programs.

8 New Technologies and their relationship with the elderly.

enterprise and Innovation1 To analyse the success of the

Development Centre’s enterprise and Innovation Programmes.

2 To support the research to be undertaken in the eu INTerreG IvA funded Creative. Futures Project.

engineering1 Design & development of manual

pressing device for morning replacement rubber hand pump seals from discarded rubber for the developing world.

2 Design & development of an Instrumented Tool for use on a single shot experiment Thermoforming machine.

2013 summer Undergraduate research programme Launched