Nov
10
2011
Last night, it was my privilege to be a judge for the Thesis in 3 competition, organised by the CLARITY CSET, in conjunction with their colleagues in the other eight CSETs.
The idea of the Thesis in 3 is very simple. It’s a rapid-fire competition, whereby PhD students in our CSETs have an opportunity to present their thesis work to a general audience. They get three minutes, and three slides to do so. Sounds simple, but condensing three or four years to highly technical and involved research into such a short time, and clarifying it to be understandable to the non-expert, is truly a difficult task. All 25 PhD candidates who entered the competition did so admirably.
On the night, we heard presentations on topics as diverse as the nanoscience of graphene, cancer biology, sensor networks, intestinal health, artificial intelligence, interference in wireless telecommunications, software engineering and speech processing. A great cross section of the work currently underway at the CSETs.
Despite the stiff competition, the judging panel of Dr. Keith O’Neill of Enterprise Ireland, Rosemary MacCabe of the Irish Times, Patrick Haughey of TodayFM and myself ultimately selected Eva Szekely of the Centre for Next Generation Localisation (CNGL) in UCD as the winner, for her talk entitled “Voices that Speak to You”. As part of her prize, Eva will get to present her talk at the upcoming SFI Science Summit next week, in front of an audience of the top scientists in the country.
Many congratulations to Eva, our two runners up, Arlene O’Neill of CRANN and Sean Fitzgerald of BDI, as well as all the other participants. A particular congratulations to Bridget Kelly of CLARITY, who is the mastermind behind the whole effort.
Related Posts:
no comments | tags: cset, sfi, thesis in three | posted in Home
Nov
12
2010
A number of SFI-funded CSETs are holding a ‘thesis in three’ competition next Wednesday (November 17) in the Sugar Club, Dublin 2.
From their flyer:
In this competition, PhD students from around Ireland who have been funded under SFI’s CSET Programme will come together to showcase their thesis research using only three slides, and using only one minute per slide.
A judging panel will select an overall winner who will be presented with an award. In this competition PhD students will outline, for a general public audience, a range of science, engineering and technological research which is taking place in research institutions and centres around Ireland.
CLARITY, The Centre for Sensor Web Technologies, a Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Centre for Science, Engineering and Technology (CSET) between University College Dublin (UCD), Dublin City University (DCU) and Tyndall National Institute, Cork is coordinating this Thesis in Three competition.
I’ll be a judge on the night, and to me this looks like it will be an enormously interesting and enjoyable night. As a bonus, it’s free and open to the public. If you’re interested in seeing what Ireland’s best and brightest PhD students are up to, show your support by coming along.
Related Posts:
no comments | tags: cset, sfi, thesis in three | posted in Home
Sep
10
2009
There’s a nice article in today’s Irish Times website on the SFI-funded CLARITY CSET.
Researchers in DCU have developed a robot fish called WANDA – hard to resist a corny movie reference, I guess. WANDA stands for "Wireless Aquatic Navigator for Detection and Analysis".
Check out the article on the IT website.
Related Posts:
no comments | tags: clarity, cset, sfi | posted in Home
Jan
30
2008
There are a couple of interesting events being organised by Lero at the moment. The first is a Lero industry event discussing Global Software Development. This event is a follow-on from the Lero event of last November, and is scheduled to give people a bit more time to get themselves organised. It is to be held on March 10 in Enterprise Ireland’s office in Merrion Hall.
The second is XP2008, which is a really big deal if you’re in the agile/XP software development camp. The conference runs from 10 – 14 June, so book now!
Related Posts:
no comments | tags: cset, lero, sfi | posted in Home
Apr
18
2007
One of my CSETs, Lero was officially opened yesterday by Minister for Enterprise Trade and Employment, Micheál Martin
Related Posts:
2 comments | tags: cset, lero, sfi | posted in Home
