29 September 2008
TSSG Future Internet Event: Dublin Digital Hub Wed 29th Oct 2008
The TSSG will host The Irish Future Internet Forum in the Dublin Digital Exchange (part of the Digital Hub) on Wednesday 29th Oct 2008 at 13:30-19:00.
7 May 2008
TSSG spin-out Zolk C wins prestigious museums award
In London on Wednesday 7th May 2008 the National Trust for Scotland was presented with an a Museums & Heritage Award (full list of awards) for "Use of Technology" in its Culloden site. This recognised the innovative use of technology, a GPS PDA system that delivers an integrated multimedia audio, video and text guide to visitors to the Culloden Battlefield site near Inverness in Scotland. This solution was developed by the TSSG spin-out joint venture company Zolk C together with content management experts.
Edited Wikipedia entry on Battle of Culloden
The Battle of Culloden (Scotts Gaelic: Blàr Chùil Lodair--most of the Highlanders would have spoken Scotts Gaelic), 16 April 1746, was the final clash between the Jacobites and the British Government in the 1745 Jacobite Rising. Culloden brought the Jacobite cause--to restore the House of Stuart to the throne of the Kingdom of Great Britain--to a decisive defeat.
The Jacobites--the majority of them Highland Scots, although containing significant numbers of Lowland forces--supported the claim of James Francis Edward Stuart (aka "The Old Pretender") to the throne; the government army, under the Duke of Cumberland, younger son of the Hanoverian sovereign, King George II, supported his father's cause. It too included significant numbers of Highland Scots, as well as Scottish Lowlanders and some English troops.
The aftermath of the battle was brutal and earned the victorious general the name "Butcher" Cumberland. Charles Edward Stuart eventually left Britain and went to Rome, never to attempt to take the throne again. Civil penalties were also severe. New laws attacked the Highlanders' clan system, and Highland dress was outlawed.
The picture shows myself, Paul Savage and Eamonn de Leastar, the TSSG members who were present at the award ceremony. No blood was spilled, though kilts were in evidence. A big thank you to the full team who made the award possible, including all those in the TSSG who helped.
- Zolk C (at present home page has pictures of the full Zolk C team, including myself)
- TSSG
- Culloden Battlefield
- Museums & Heritage Show
2 May 2008
FeedHenry partner with Oracle
SiliconRepublic.com: Irish firm at spearhead of Oracle’s Web 2.0 plans
The TSSG spin-out company FeedHenry has partnered with Oracle. They're starting to gain some traction in the market, and we see a bright future for the dynamic mix of service development platform with legacy interfaces and lightweight widget-based scripting allowing easy creation of Web 2.0 mash-ups. This is particularly attractive to telecommunications operators who are tying to keep up with developments in communications services creation environments.
16 April 2008
TSSG spin-out creates location-aware interactive battlefield guide: Culloden Battlefield (Scotland)
The latest spin-out from the TSSG is called Zolk C Ltd., which recently launched an innovative new wireless tourism service for the Culloden Battlefield in Scotland (see quote below from the Sunday Telegraph, 24th February 2008).
It was all a long time ago, but the voices and images conjured by the new time machine at Culloden linger hauntingly in the memory.
On April 16th 2008, the National Trust for Scotland has organised the Grand Opening of the new Culloden Battlefield centre and exhibition. This will also include the new Zolk C service 'The Culloden Battlefield Guide'. Led by Paul Savage, a number of TSSG staff are attending this event.
The Culloden Battlefield Guide.
The innovative Battlefield Guide developed by Zolk C Ltd is the world's first GPS triggered electronic guide in use in tourism and heritage sites. With specially created audio, video and supporting illustrations (including key content from the BBC), the multimedia content is triggered automatically as visitors explore Culloden Moor, at their own pace, allowing them to understand and appreciate better what actually happened on 16th April, 1746.
Visitors to the exhibition at the new STG 9million Culloden centre can enhance their experience by walking the Moor with the Battlefield Guide. They will receive unobtrusive, location specific multimedia content while they soak up the atmosphere of the battle in situ. Initially in English and Gaelic the guide in time will be available in a range of languages from Spanish to Japanese and will be offered to all those visiting the moor.
Why use satellite technology? A key objective of the Culloden project was that the battlefield site should be restored, as close as possible, to that seen by the forces on that fateful day in April 1746. More traditional techniques such as interpretative panels or markers were not felt to be in keeping with the sanctity of the Moor as a war grave. As well as the multimedia content that is automatically triggered, addition information is available on a menu that changes depending on the visitor's position on the battlefield, allowing them to gain a more complete understanding of the events of 16 April, 1746.
Who is Zolk C?
Zolk C is a new venture based in Waterford, Ireland and Inverness, Scotland. Its remit is to create and operate technology solutions that enable interpreters to deliver a better, more effective user experience at tourism and heritage centres internationally. Zolk C provides full project lifecycle including design, development and management of interpretive solutions. The company is a joint venture between the Telecommunications Software and Systems Group (TSSG) of the Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT), who specialise in the research and design of pervasive, mobile technologies and of Zolk Ltd, an Inverness based company specialising in the design, deployment and management of on-line services. The Zolk portfolio includes Learning Works, Careers Scotland and UHI Millennium Institute. Zolk C has used their combined expertise to design, develop, deploy and manage the Battlefield Guide for the National Trust of Scotland (NTS).
For further information contact: Paul Savage, Zolk C Ltd. on +353 51 302923
For more information on the Culloden Battlefield project click here.
8 October 2007
Enterprise Ireland Informatics Showcase
The Telecommunications Software & Systems Group (TSSG) at Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) won the Enterprise Ireland (EI) Informatics Commercialisation Award 2007.
The award was presented by Micheal Ahern T.D, Minister for Innovation Policy to Barry Downes, Commercial Director of the TSSG, at the Enterprise Ireland Technology Showcase which took place today (3rd October) in the Radisson Royal SAS Hotel in Dublin's city centre. "The TSSG has been pursuing a range of spin-in opportunities, where we attract companies to locate in Waterford to collaborate with us, and spin-out opportunities where we establish a new companies to commercialise our success. This award recognises our achievements to date in acting as a catalyst of ICT innovation in the south east of Ireland," said Barry Downes upon receipt of the award.
The showcase event focused on eight technology products and services that have been developed by academic researchers which are ready to be snapped up by investors in the advanced technology industry.
In addition to these pitches, a targeted attendance of investors, entrepreneurs and technology trend-watchers also met with senior researchers from nine third level institutes who between them demonstrated a further thirty technologies with commercial potential at the showcase.
Presenting the award, Minister Ahern said "the TSSG are to be congratulated on this success, not just in winning the Commercialisation Award, but for bringing the fruits of their research to the marketplace. The TSSG at Waterford IT have demonstrated real innovation in the commercialisation space through their formation of a true joint venture with an entrepreneur to create the new company Hash 6 which is now contributing to the local economy of Waterford. This innovative spirit is one of the core pillars of the Governments Strategy for Science Technology and Innovation."
The TSSG prides itself on the dynamic linkages it maintains between research and commercialisation, across the research and innovation spectrum. "The TSSG is unique in Ireland in placing equal value on commercialisation, applied research and basic research," said Mícheál Ó Foghlú, Research Director of the TSSG, "This award demonstrates that we have already begun to make an impact with our commercialisation strategy. Our recent success in the European Seventh Framework, with 6 new funded projects, the biggest success in Ireland, demonstrates that our applied research strategy is winning; our recent success in the HEA PRTLI Cycle 4 announced by the Minister of Education Mary Hanafin in August, demonstrates that our basic research strategy is winning."
Two TSSG companies presented at the EI Informatics Showcase:
See also Enterprise Ireland Press Release and EI Informatics Showcase (Event Details).
28 August 2007
TSSG Companies
I am often asked about TSSG spin-out companies (companies we have formed to help commercialise some of our research outputs) and spin-in companies (companies who have either re-located to the WIT or have formed here attracted by the link to the TSSG). I have recently added a section to the TSSG website to list these, and give an indication of the new ones in the pipeline. It's just a simple list for now but we'll expand it with further detail, and its liable to be quite dynamic so watch this space!
September is a new year for academics, and making more effort to publicse our research, including the related commercial activity, is top of my list of priorities for the new term. So it's like a new year's resolution.
26 January 2007
BarCamp SouthEast
View from Southeast Barcamp on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Well I am really sorry that I missed an event hosting in my own building BarCamp SouthEast!!!! That's the breaks when schedules don't work out. I was triple booked last Saturday, and with a one year old daughter, family comes first at the weekends.
So sorry to all the cool presenters who came to the TSSG building (or to use the new name the ArcLabs Research & Innovation Centre, that is a abstract concept encompassing the TSSG research guys, and related innovation activities in WIT including the Centre for Entrepreneurship).
I was glad to see that the event had a good web/RSS/Atom presence, and I saw loads of photos of places I recognise, including this one from Bernie Goldbach, here's a list of Photos on Flickr tagged with BarCamp and SouthEast.
16 October 2006
ArcLab Research & Innovation Centre Opens
The Taoiseach of Ireland (or prime minister), Bertie Ahern, came to our building in Waterford Institute of Technology's (WIT) new West Campus in Carriganore on Monday 16th Oct to officially open it. The building houses two sets of complimentary activity: (i) the TSSG (Telecommunications Software & Systems Group): a research centre comprising basic research (10 faculty and postdocs, 15 students), applied research (30 researchers) and pre-rpduct development (50 researchers and developers) looking to explore the synergies between these approaches; (ii) the WIT Innovation Centre comprising entrepeneurship programmes such as the SEEPP and managing incubatiuon space in the building for spin-out and spin-in companies.
See Full TSSG Press Release for further details....
7 September 2006
Zinadoo Launch Photo
Here's a snap Paul Watson took as the Zinadoo launch party was starting. I'm there in bottom left as you look with M揵che疝 ﾓ hﾉigeartaigh (Head of Department, Computing, Mathematics and Physics, WIT) and Paul Barry (Head of School of Science, WIT). This is the atrium area of the IT Building in Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT).
30 October 2005
WIT Research & Innovation Building
The TSSG have moved into our new building in Carriganore. A fellow work colleague took this photo and posted it on Flickr so I can cross post easily on my blog.
Perhaps the best thing about the building is the site, the views of the River Suir are stunning. I'll post some photos of my own when I get the chance.
28 January 2005
Minister Opens WIT Information Technology Building
On Friday 28th January 2005 Minister for Education Mary Hannifan opened WIT's new Information Technology building. This shot captures the Minister cutting a ribbon to symbolically open the building.
20 January 2005
TSSG's Research Building Progress
The TSSG won funding from Ireland's Higher Education Authority HEA PRTLI for a research programme called M-Zones (in partnershop with TCD and CIT) and part of this was to fund a research building in WIT. This funding has been combined with Enterprise Ireland funding for an incubation centre for new business to create WIT's Research and Innovation Building. The building is due to open in September 2005, and is progressing well as the photo demonstrates. The building is located in WIT's new Carraiganore site, on the banks of the river Suir.
28 May 2004
TSSG O2 Home of the Future
The TSSG recently demonstrated at eWeek 2004 in Dublin. This demonstration was based on the concept of a Home of the Future. The idea was to build a demonstration from off-the-shelf components available today on the marketplace, and sow how the use of software protocols and middleware can integrate these into a seemless whole. Thus the whole house that was built (made up a kitchen, sitting room, and a dining room and networked devoces in these areas: X10 for lights, and so on coupled with some Inetrnet enabled devices) could be controlled either from local devices (using WiFi) or via mobile phones (potentially anywhere in the world using GPRS). Full details of this demonstration are available at the TSSG O2 Home of the Future website.
This whole concept is merely the front end of the focus of the TSSG research which is on the converged network software that enables these types of services and manages the network. Here a key theme is the development of models of the lower layers so that higher layer functionality can be independent of the actual physical network used to deliver the services, as far as possible. A key requirement is to enable self-managed self-configuring devices and networks, and the current buzz word for this is the "autonomic network".
17 December 2003
20 January 2003
Posting
The recent Netcraft Web Server Survey (Jan 2003) listed a Windows 2000 server as one of the machines (it knew about) on the Internet with the top 50 longest uptimes (the machine was running without a reboot since November 2000).