School News

June 2013: Engineering and Computing features prominently in the Fujitsu Innovation Awards

There was a strong representation from the Faculty of Engineering and Computing at the recent Fujitsu awards. The awards are to recognise and encourage innovative achievements by DCU students, researchers and staff. The criteria for these awards not only look at the key benefits of the idea, but more so, the greater benefit to society.

In the Student category Kaylee Cherry, a final year Digital Media Engineering student won the award for her barcode-scanning android app ‘Scandroid’ designed to assist the visually-impaired and blind shoppers. Kaylee worked with the National Council for the Blind of Ireland on this idea to address the issue of visually-impaired people relying on touch or assistance to identify products in a retail setting. ‘Scandroid’ extracts the barcode number from the product, finds the matching product online and the information is read out to the shopper using text-to-speech technology.

Engineering also focused strongly in the Administration & Support Staff Category. David Molloy, Analyst programmer in the School of Electronic Engineering, was shortlisted for his fantastic work on ‘GURU’. This is a user friendly information system that assists academic management of student, module and programme performance. The criteria for this award was based on a significantly enhanced, process or method which was conceived and adopted internally at DCU and which led to a tangible and demonstrable benefit to DCU.

Paul Young, The School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering was shortlisted in the ‘Academic and Research Staff Category’ for his ‘Ecovolve’ project. This is a zero emission electric vehicle for use on construction sites. The criteria for this award was for a) a product or process based substantially on research carried out at DCU with significant utility. B) clinical, economic, social or industrial) and which ideally has been endorsed externally as representing a valuable contribution to the field. Or the implementation of a new teaching and learning method (conceived and developed substantially at DCU) which enhances the student learning experience supporting evidence required.

From the School of Computing the final shortlisted nomination was Prof. Alan Smeaton, INSIGHT was also nominated for ‘REMPAD’, a web based system to offer reminiscence therapy for people with dementia. It was a wonderful achievement for all concerned and Fujitsu CEO Regina Moran, complimented the work and input from every individual who was nominated.

March 2013: Launch of Re-Play Project

A major European motion capture technology project to preserve, promote and develop culturally important sports has been developed in Ireland through a unique collaboration between scientists, sporting bodies, cultural organisations and athletes.

Launched by Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton TD at Croke Park, Dublin, Re-Play is a €2million research project funded by EU Framework Programme 7 (FP7) and involves top-class scientists from Ireland, Spain, UK, Switzerland and Greece. Their collaborative work will capture the styles of play and skills unique to Gaelic and Basque Games and develop 3D interactive software that will be used to educate future generations about these culturally significant sports.

• More information: Clarity Home
• RTE News Coverage

November 2012: Dr. Stephen Daniels wins Entrepreneurship Award

At The Big Ideas Showcase held this week by Enterprise Ireland Dr Stephen Daniels was honoured with a Commercialisation Award in recognition of his outstanding entrepreneurial spirit and commitment to commercialising research. In addition to his work leading a multidisciplinary research team in plasma technology and energy systems Stephen also holds a post as senior Lecturer in the School of Electronics at Dublin City University. Stephen has also been instrumental in the formation of several technology businesses including Arann Healthcare Ltd, Qualflow Systems Ltd, Lexas Research and Sonex Metrology.  Within DCU Stephen is regarded as a real champion of innovation through his research work, his engagement with industry and his encouragement of entrepreneurship amongst students. He plays an integral part in furthering DCU’s vision to be internationally recognised as a research intensive, globally –engaged University of Enterprise.

November 2012: Irish Film on K2 Disaster set for Sundance

An Irish documentary about a mountain-climbing disaster has been selected for Robert Redford's Sundance Film Festival. Produced and directed by Nick Ryan, 'The Summit' tells of how on August 1, 2008, 24 climbers from several international expeditions converged on High Camp of K2, the last stop before the summit of the most dangerous mountain on earth. At the heart of the film is the story of Limerick climber and DCU Electronic Engineering graduate, Ger McDonnell – the first Irishman to reach the summit of K2, but who encountered a disastrous scene on his descent: three climbers tangled up in ropes. Ger lost his life with the three Korean climbers he was attempting to save. "The Summit" is also nominated for a prestigious Grierson Award for Best Documentary at this year's London Film Festival. (more)

June 2012: Dr Derek Molly on YouTube

The YouTube Channel 'Digital Electronic Systems', created by Dr. Derek Molloy has continued to grow in popularity and has now had over 300,000 views across each of the 46 user-created videos.  For more information visit the channel at: http://www.youtube.com/user/derekmolloydcu?feature=results_main

May 2012:President's Awards for Excellence in Teaching

Dr. Derek Molloy, from the School of Electronic Engineering, has been presented with the Overall Excellence in Teaching and Learning Award 2012.  The 2012 President's Awards for Excellence in Teaching have been presented at a special ceremony during the annual Teaching and Learning day in The Helix. Presented on the basis of student and peer nominations, the President's Awards recognise outstanding contributions to DCU's teaching and learning activities. Speaking at the Awards ceremony, Professor Brian MacCraith said, "The President's Awards for Excellence in Teaching are an important acknowledgement of the innovative ways in which DCU staff strives to improve the learning experience of their students. Through the words of commendation we have heard from DCU students today, we have good reason to feel confident about the future of DCU's tradition of best practice in teaching."

March 2012:DCU in the Art World

For the last 12 months, researchers in CLARITY: Centre for Sensor Web Technologies (www.clarity-centre.org) have been working with Irish artists Connolly-Cleary, the only two living Irish artists to have had an exhibition in the Pompidou Centre (http://www.connolly-cleary.com). DCU's contribution has been to act as scientific advisors and to provide technology to help facilitate the artists' investigations into human perception. Our joint piece in Dublin Contemporary 2011 was cited as the  "Stand Out Exhibit" according to one reviewer (Guide2Dublin).



This year, as part of the Dublin City of Science initiative, we are running a public exhibition in Farmleigh House, from 15 March - 22 July. The exhibition, entitled  Hall of Mirrors, addresses different aspects of how we perceive ourselves and the world around us, and is designed to be interactive, hands on and fun! Since it's opening the exhibition has attracted over 10,000 visitors. The exhibition is part of the the Dublin City of Science Public Engagement Programme and features a strong educational outreach component. After Farmleigh, the exhibition will tour to the  Limerick Gallery of Art, Solstice Art Centre in Navan and Ballina. The exhibition was recently reviewed in the Sunday Times piece "Time to make an exhibition of yourself" where it was referred to as "beautiful, intelligent and fun". 

Oct 2011: Integrated Circuit Festival

Over 40 students and local faculty participated in the Integrated Circuit Festival sponsored by the Microelectronics Industry Design Association (MIDAS) of Ireland, where SSCS AdCom member Jake Baker presented a short course on designing CMOS analog integrated circuits for fabrication through the MOSIS program (www.mosis.com).  Coordinated by Dr. Donnacha Lowney of the AMS Group at Xilinx, Ireland, and held on the campus of Dublin City University on 24-27 October 2011, the four-day event aimed at encouraging engineering students to pursue IC-related careers by instructing them on the design and fabrication of analog integrated circuits and outlining the support structures necessary for such instruction in the participant's home institutions.   

June 2011: DCU Students Honoured by Enterprise Ireland

A team of students from Dublin City University (DCU) has today (Friday, 17 June 2011) been named ‘College Entrepreneur of the year 2011’ and won the prestigious top prize of €10,000 at this year’s Enterprise Ireland Think Outside the Box Awards, with their project Team Prometheus.  The team represented by Oisin O Doinn and Eoin Markey (Digital Media Engineering) invented a system that can pinpoint the exact location of fire fighting crew in action, non-intrusively and in real-time. In case a fire fighter becomes incapacitated in the line of duty the new system allows them to be located and recovered as quickly as possible. The device also detects the coordination of the crew members and can help manage them more effectively in those emergency situations.

April 2009 - DME student has commercial success with IPHONE and IPOD applications

Steven Troughton-Smith, a first-year student of Digital Media Engineering, has been declared Ireland’s most successful software developer for Apple’s iPhone. Steven has created numerous software games and programmes for Apple’s App Store, an area where iTunes offers free and paid-for downloadable applications for iPhones and iPod Touch multimedia players. Stephen's first major success came with Speed, an application which uses the GPS technology in an iPhone to tell you what speed you are traveling at. It was downloaded 36,000 times in the first six days it was available.  While Speed "took an hour to figure out", Stephen’s next project ‘Lights Off’ took 175 days to work out. Just five days after its launch on the Apps Store last month, he sold almost 700 copies in a single day. It generated profits of $2,200 in the first five days of its release. 

April 2008: Remote Control Car Fabrication

First year engineering 'Remote Control Car Fabrication' module came to a close in ‘The Venue’ where 23 teams competed against each other for the coveted first place position. The event highlighted the unique designs and teamwork involved by all students over the past year, an entertaining afternoon for all who attended as the cars battled it out on the pitch. Many congratulations to all students involved and also to the winning team with their successful design 'HEX:HK', no doubt a career in Formula 1 racing looks very likely.

March 2008 - Mobile Robotics

Congratulations to the winning team in the School of Electronic Engineering 3rd year 'Mobile Robotics Competition'.  This 3rd year Mobile Robotics module involved students working in teams to design and constructed a microprocessor based mobile robot.  Shown are the winning team members,  Dian Zhang, Xiang Ye, and Keyang Dai receiving their prize from sponsor Mr. Pat Devlin, of Farnell Ireland.