Research Student Graduation

Congratulations to all of the DCU students who graduated on Saturday. There are 8 students graduating from the Faculty of Engineering & Computing with PhDs, while one student will graduate with a Masters by research. Great credit is due to these students for their tireless work over the last number of years.

In total, 2 research students graduated from the School of Computing, with a further 5 graduating from the School of Electronic Engineering, and a further 2 from the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering. You can get more information about the projects of some of these students here.

Microsoft Postgraduate Research Scholarships awarded to DCU students

In 1995, Microsoft Corporation together with a US-based philanthropic trust established an endowment fund to support postgraduate research scholarships within the School of Computing at DCU.

The scholarship provides additional financial support for postgraduate research students carrying out excellent research. The research involved may be, but is not necessarily, in an area aligned with Microsoft Corporation’s business interest.

The School of Computing, on behalf of the endowment, awards the scholarship to suitable students on an annual basis. The recipients of the scholarship are expected to provide a brief report on their research during their year in receipt of the scholarship, and to make a short presentation to the school.

For the academic year 2007—08, the Research Committee of the School of Computing at DCU, together with input from Microsoft Ireland, has awarded four students with a Microsoft Postgraduate Scholarship for 2007/08.

Two full scholarships worth €3221 will be awarded to:

• Aiden Doherty (supervisor: Prof. Alan Smeaton) – automatic structuring and augmentation of a lifeLog of images
• Gavin O’ Gorman (supervisor: Dr. Stephen Blott) – overlay networks for message routing control

In addition, two half scholarships of €1610 will be awarded to:

• John Tinsley (supervisor: Prof. Andy Way) – exploiting parallel tree banks to improve data-driven machine translation
• Bipin Kumar (supervisor: Dr. Martin Crane) – modelling fluid flow and its interaction with coastal structures

Liam Cronin, Academic Engagement Manager in Microsoft Ireland, commented: "Education is one of the most important pillars for Ireland's continued economic development. It's vital that we support the connection between the world of education and the world of business, to ensure we continue to bring new ideas and expertise, that can help drive innovation and entrepreneurship. Our support for Dublin City University and the postgraduate research students in the School of Computing is recognition of the importance of that link."

We wish to thank Microsoft for their continued generous support of the research carried out in the School of Computing.

For further information on these scholarships, please contact the School of Computing Research Convenor, Prof. Andy Way, away@computing.dcu.ie.

In photo, R-L: Liam Cronin, John Tinsley Gavin O'Gorman, Bipin Kumar, Aiden Doherty and Andy Way

DCU Top of the Table for Research in Sunday Times University Guide

DCU has been ranked as the top Irish University for Research in the recent Sunday Times University Guide. The guide, which was published on Sunday September 30th stated "Ireland’s youngest university, DCU, overtook Trinity, the oldest, to head the research category." DCU scored 100 points out of a possible 100 for research. The next highest University for research scored 93 points.

The Sunday Times noted that DCU's "350 academics attracted €91,429 each in research ". DCU's recent success in PRTLI 4, where the University attracted €23m in research funding made a major contribution to this. Under PRTLI 4 DCU were granted support for five specific research projects - three science and engineering projects and two humanities and social science based projects. These projects are carried out as part of national collaborative research programmes involving other third-level institudes.

DCU has consistently been rated highly in the Sunday Times University Guide. It won University of the Year in 2004 and was runner up in 2003 and 2006.

Click here for the Sunday Times University League Table 2007

DCU receives €23m Research Funding under PRTLI 4

The Minister for Education and Science, Mary Hanafin, TD formally announced the outcome of PRTLI Cycle 4 at 11.00 am today. Under this scheme, DCU will receive €23m in research funding. This funding is based on 5 inter-institutional proposals:

- Nanoscience and Nanoscale technologies for Ireland (NANOTEIRE)
- National Biophotonics & Imaging Platform [NBIP]
- National Programme on (Bio)pharmaceutical & Pharmacological Sciences
- Humanities Serving Irish Society (HSIS)
- National Programme of Research on Knowledge, Innovation, Society and Space (KISS)

Significantly, the funding includes projects from across DCU, including science/engineering and humanities/social sciences.

Of particular interest to the Faculty of Engineering and Computing are the Nanoteire and NBIP programmes.

Nanoteire
Nanoteire (Nanoscience and Nano scale technologies for Ireland ) will create a shared national infrastructural capability by significantly upgrading and enhancing the laboratories and capital equipment holdings needed to establish top tier graduate education opportunities in nanoscience and nanoscale technologies for Ireland.

The DCU team, which comprises Professor Liam Barry, Dr. Pascal Landais and Professor Patrick McNally of the Research Institute for Networks and Communications Engineering (RINCE), and members of the National Centre for Plasma Science and Technology (NCPST), will focus on the theme, Ultrafast Photonic Processes and Interactions. To this end DCU will add very significantly to its high speed optical communications laboratories, nanomaterials growth and characterization facilities and high power laser facilities.

NBIP
Professor Paul F. Whelan of the Centre for Image Processing & Analysis (CIPA-RINCE), in conjunction with the Biomedical Diagnostics Institute at DCU has been awarded funding as part of the National Biophotonics & Imaging Platform (NBIP). The mission of the NBIP is to provide an integrated national access and training infrastructure in research, education, technology development and industry collaboration for the State’s investment in Biophotonics and Imaging.

Biomedical Research Hits National Headlines

An international team of DCU researchers have begun work on ways of producing synthetic hard and soft tissue for humans that could revolutionise treatment for people affected by disease and trauma.

The European Commission funded project, costing about €1.2m, is being coordinated by Dr. Lisa Looney, Director of the DCU Materials Processing Research Centre, and a senior lecturer in the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering.

Dr. Looney said: “There are several circumstances under which it is necessary to replace human tissue, either on a permanent or temporary basis. The current ‘gold standard’ in replacing both bone and vascular tissue is to use grafts of bone and soft tissue from other sites in the patient, but this can be problematic.

“Tissue may not be available, and the ‘double’ procedure of two operations, one to harvest the bone or soft tissue, and another to ‘fit’ it in the replacement site, incurs higher risk of infection, pain and prolongs hospital stays.

“Synthetic alternatives do exist, but haven’t found widespread application due to difficulties in producing the optimum material structure and properties, in a repeatable and controllable manner.

“The research at DCU will study a number of innovative manufacturing processes with a view to achieving this control and repeatability, while refining the architecture, strength and texture of the tissue substitutes and measuring living cells response to these new synthetic replacements.”
Obviously the techniques will differ for soft vascular tissue and bone replacements – the group is studying both.

Dr Looney is joined by other senior investigators in this work, Dr Garrett McGuinness, Dr Joseph Stokes and Dr Dermot Brabazon. DCU’s vascular health research centre is collaborating with the project as well as engineers in ITT Dublin.

The research is being funded under the EU’s Marie Curie Early Stage Training (EST) programme, and will be implemented by seven postgraduate level researchers over the next 3 years. These highly qualified young researchers have been recruited from across Europe (Poland, Spain (2), Hungary (2) and further afield (Turkey and China), from a range of disciplines (mechanical, biomedical and industrial engineering, biology and biotechnology)

The synthetic materials being used in the research are, for bone, calcium phosphate bioceramics mixed with various bio polymers and for vascular work, special polymers called hydrogels.

The Original Article is here.

This work has received extensive coverage in the national media:

Interview with Dr Lisa Looney of DCU RTE Radio 1 - Today Show with Pat Kenny 09-MAY-07

"DCU hosts 1.2m euro research into ceramic bone material" by Dick Ahlstrom Irish Times 10-MAY-07