Jul
27
2010
One of the major centres that SFI funds is the Cork Constraint Computation Centre (4C), based in UCC. 4C investigates the area of constraint technology. Constraint technology is a branch of computer science that is interested in looking at problems where you’re trying to find the optimal allocation of scarce resources, where there are certain rules (constraints) governing how those resources can be deployed.
A typical example is that of timetabling. Imagine you have a school with a certain number of teachers, pupils, classrooms and classes to be taught. You have to figure out how to allocate classes to class-rooms and teachers to classes. You will have obvious constraints such as no pupil or teacher can be present in two different classes at the same time, or two classes cannot use the same classroom at the same time. You will have constraints on the courses that the students take, such as all students must take at least three hours of Maths and English per week. You might have a number of additional constraints on the use of rooms such as Science can only be taught in the science lab, Art in the art studio. You get the idea.
Constraint technologies are techniques aimed at figuring out how to model these problems, and then how to arrive at a solution that (i) satisfies all the rules and (ii) optimises some function, such as minimising the number of teacher hours spent.
One of the 4C researchers, Helmut Simonis has recently started a blog describing various industrial applications of constraint technologies that he has developed during his career in the area. The blog provides a fascinating insight into how constraint and scheduling problems in areas such as manufacturing, oil refining, airport stand allocation and poultry transportation planning are tackled and solved.
The descriptions themselves are written very much for the layman, rather than the constraint technology expert, but do include references to the original academic material for those looking for more technical depth.
Highly recommended: http://hsimonis.wordpress.com/.
Related Posts:
no comments | tags: 4c, sfi, simonis | posted in Home
Mar
16
2010
Recently, Enterprise Ireland sponsored a Commercial Development Manager position at a number of the SFI-funded Centres. CLARITY, one of the centres in my portfolio, has just advertised for their CDM.
To quote the job listing:
CLARITY: The CLARITY CSET is a partnership between University College Dublin, Dublin City University and Tyndall National Institute. The centre brings together a range of leading Principle Investigators (PI) across a diverse range of disciplines including, computer science and engineering, materials science, as well as sports and performance science. The centre is focused on creating the technologies and applications that will create the new world of the sensor web. This world will harness the power of abundant, reliable, and cheap sensor networks in order to bridge the physical-digital divide and in so doing will focus on a wide range of applications in areas such as environmental monitoring, personal health, and social media.
The remit of the Commercial Developmental Manager will be to define and market the portfolio of CLARITY, guiding late stage commercial projects to maturity and identify early stage projects that have commercial viability as well developing and building partnerships with industrial partners. The CDM will be expected to spend their time working with researchers across all CLARITY sites and therefore the position will involve travel between the three sites.
CLARITY have a huge range of activity in their centre, from materials science, through micro-electronics and sensor networks onto software and web systems. If that sounds interesting to you, check it out.
Related Posts:
no comments | tags: clarity, sfi | posted in Home
Mar
1
2010
Enterprise Ireland are hosting a webinar tomorrow, March 2, entitled “How to Write a Competitive FP7 proposal”.
The summary:
The first of a series of webinars that the FP7 national support network are planning is a 1 hour Webinar on March 2: 2.15 p.m. – 3.15 p.m. The aim of this one hour webinar is to provide researchers, research managers and administrators with an overview of the key pointers on how to write professional and competitive proposals for Framework Programme 7. The webinar provides guidelines on the evaluation criteria that need to be adhered to in successful proposals and outlines the common problems in proposal writing. The webinar provides tips on useful sources of information, how to select strategic partners and finally a proven approach for proposal writing, using clear concise content. There will be a specific ICT focus to this webinar.
The presenter is Miguel Ponce de Leon, Research Manager at WIT’s Telecommunications Software and Systems Group (TSSG). The TSSG is Ireland’s most successful research group in terms of research income from the Framework Programme.
If you’re in the research space in Ireland and are considering looking for FP7 funding, it should be well worth tuning in to the webinar.
Related Posts:
no comments | tags: enterprise ireland, fp7, sfi | posted in Home
Oct
14
2009
Fergus Burns reports that IBM have announced the final 5 shortlisted companies for the IBM SmartCamp.
Of the five companies listed, one (HeyStacks) is a spin-out from the SFI-funded CSET CLARITY, founded by Prof. Barry Smyth, and another (TreeMetrics) is a Cork-based SME that is working in collaboration with the SFI-funded Cork Constraint Computation Centre (4C) based in UCC.
Good luck to both HeyStacks and TreeMetrics.
Related Posts:
no comments | tags: 4c, clarity, ibm, sfi | 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
Jul
27
2009
DERI, the SFI-funded CSET in semantic web technology, has announced the launch of Sig.ma, which they describe as giving live aggregation of semantic web data. Sig.ma is based on another piece of DERI technology – Sindice, the semantic web search engine.
To quote from their post:
In Sig.ma, elements such as large scale semantic web indexing, logic reasoning, data aggregation heuristics, pragmatic ontology alignments and, last but not least, user interaction and refinement, all play together to provide entity descriptions which become live, embeddable data mash ups.
I haven’t had an opportunity to play around with Sig.ma yet, but it looks interesting, and I plan on doing so.
Related Posts:
no comments | tags: deri, semantic web, sfi, sig.ma, sindice | posted in Home
Jul
17
2009
The report of An Bord Snip Nua was published by Government yesterday. The two volumes can be downloaded from the Department of Finance website.
The following is an extract from Volume I of the report (Section 2.4, pp 22-23) as it pertains to Science, Technology and Innovation (STI). It is provided verbatim, and with no commentary:
2.4 Science, technology & innovation (STI)
The Group observes that over the period 2000 to 2007, there was a threefold increase in ‘Government Budget Outlays & Appropriations for Research and Development’ (GBOARD). Analysis of trends in spending and policy in this area gives rise to a number of specific issues of concern to the Group, as outlined below.
- Real returns on investment
Although spending on STI is promoted as a key element of enterprise and education policy, the scale and nature of any ultimate economic impacts arising cannot be known with confidence at the outset. The Group considers that any further STI investment must yield clear economic returns. The evidence adduced to date for the impact of State STI investment on actual economic activity has not been compelling.
- Output of PhDs
In the absence of a clear business need for the doubling of PhDs currently being funded, the Group is concerned that graduates will be underemployed or forced to emigrate. Indeed some empirical evidence suggests that 20% of new doctorate holders find employment overseas, and of those who remain in Ireland, most find employment in the public rather than the private sector.
- Rationalisation of funding structures
Funding of STI is dispersed through a large proliferation of supports and many target the same or similar activities. The Group considers that there is significant scope for the rationalisation of supports and a reduction in the large administrative overheads in the system.
Regarding the multiplicity of bodies involved in the formulation and implementation of science policy, the Group considers that streamlining the policy framework for STI will improve coordination across research agendas, bring greater efficiency to STI expenditure and maximise the potential for the commercialisation of sectoral research output in particular.
- Reducing dependence on Exchequer funding
Exchequer funding (as distinct from business funding, philanthropy etc.) has grown as a proportion of gross expenditure on R&D in recent years. This suggests some displacement of private funding by public funding and this trend should be halted.
Taken together, these considerations have led the Group to the view that the policy and funding mechanisms for STI should be radically rationalised and streamlined into a single stream of funding, and that the level of Exchequer funding for STI activities can and should be better-focused and made less costly to achieve given goals. The Group proposes an initial reduction of just over €100m, or 15% of the 2009 allocation, in the overall level of spending on STI, and the incidence of these savings across particular spending areas, as set out in the table below, is reflected in each of the Detailed Papers.
Related Posts:
3 comments | tags: Bord Snip, Bord Snip Nua, sfi | posted in Home
Jan
14
2009
My boss, Prof. Fionn Murtagh has just set up his own blog. That’s two of us now, as far as I know, and hopefully more to follow.
Related Posts:
no comments | tags: sfi | posted in Home
Jan
12
2009
This has been a long time coming.
Related Posts:
2 comments | tags: prtli, sfi | posted in Home
Jan
8
2009
Martin Fowler has just posted an excellent article on Academic Rotation, where he sets out the dichotomy that has arisen between how success is measured in academic circles versus commercial circles.
When describing the reaction he received to his advice to a post-doc to spend some time in industry to understand what software development problems require research he says:
His answer to this thought was very troubling. He said he’d be up to do that, but if he spent time in industry that would ruin his chances of getting a job in academia. Competition for academic jobs is high, and what they look it is your publication history. A year or two in industry would create a gap in your publication history that would be lethal to your job prospects.
Clearly,this is a real problem for academia in general, and in particular for a small country like Ireland that is striving to create an innovation culture through scientific and engineering research.
Fowler’s suggestion of rotation is an excellent one, but we probably need more. We need to ensure that industrial experience is seen as at least as a strength, indeed maybe even a pre-requisite, when considering academic appointments.
Related Posts:
2 comments | tags: martin fowler, sfi | posted in Home