The 2010 earthquake itself measured 7.2 on the moment magnitude scale and supposedly lasted for about a minute and a half. It started 26 kilometres south of Guadalupe Victoria, Baja, California, in Mexico.

The geologists have used data from the earthquake and their findings have recently been published in Science. The team comprised scientists from the US, Mexico and China, including geophysicist Eric Fielding of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which is based in Pasadena, California.

Michael Oskin, geology professor at the University of California, Davis, was the lead author of the study, which was funded by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Geological Survey, Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (Mexico) and NASA.

Oskin said the researchers were able to make a detailed scan after the earthquake over about 363 sq kilometres in less than three days.

Fault zones and earthquakes

The scientists believe they have reported the most comprehensive before-and-after picture yet of an earthquake zone.

Fielding said the study provides new information on how rocks in and around fault zones are deformed during earthquakes.

"It helps scientists understand past events and assess the likelihood of future earthquakes in other complex systems of faults," he said.

Light detection and ranging

So how did they carry out the 3D mapping? The team of geologists worked with the National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping. They flew over the earthquake area near Mexicali with lidar (light detection and ranging). Such technology works by bouncing laser pulses off the ground and measures their reflection to determine the height of the surface.

NASA said today that new airborne lidar equipment can measure features in the surface height to within a few inches.

It was back in 2006 that the Mexican government mapped the area with lidar. When the earthquake occurred in 2010, Oskin and Ramon Arrowsmith at Arizona State University applied for and received funding from the National Science Foundation to carry out an immediate aerial survey of the previously mapped area.

By comparing pre- and post-earthquake surveys, the team said they could see exactly where the ground moved and by how much.

_{This 1.5 meter-high surface rupture, called a scarp, formed in just seconds along the Borrego fault during the magnitude 7.2 El Mayor Cucapah earthquake in northern Baja, California, on 4 April 2010. NASA says topographic surveys of the surrounding landscape reveal the complexity of earthquake deformation, including how this fault interacted with adjacent faults. Image by Centro de Investigacion Cientifica y de Educacion Superior de Ensenada (CICESE)}

Out of the blue

The 2010, the Mexicali earthquake did not occur on a major fault, like the San Andreas, but ran through a series of smaller faults in the Earth's crust, they said.

"This sort of earthquake happens out of the blue," explained Oskin.

He pointed to how the new lidar survey shows how seven of these small faults came together to cause a major earthquake.

NASA vehicles

NASA's JPL has been flying its airborne uninhabited aerial vehicle synthetic aperture radar (UAVSAR) over the California border region to measure ground deformation in the area since 2009. UAVSAR, which flies on a NASA Gulfstream III aircraft, uses a different technique – interferometric synthetic aperture radar – to measure ground deformation over large areas, according to the space agency.

Apparently, UAVSAR flew repeat GPS-guided passes over the California side of the border region twice in 2009 and six times since the Baja quake, imaging it and its continuing deformation since.

Fielding said NASA recently secured approvals from the Mexican government and began flying UAVSAR south of the California border over the Baja, California, earthquake zone in February 2012.

He said these flights will be conducted every three months to monitor fault movements.

The competition has a strong focus on cross-border links, as teams applying to the competition must include third-level students in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Successful applicants will spend nine weeks at Abertay University in Scotland this summer developing prototype video games and receiving mentoring from industry experts. They will also get a weekly stipend of stg£150 each, free accommodation in the university and a team budget of £200.

“This competition offers students a foot in the door of the gaming industry, which – without doubt – is one of the most exciting and booming industries in Ireland,” said Brennan. 

“Not only is it bucking the trend by creating jobs at a time of national recession, it is also continuously evolving in response to new technological developments. 

“Many of the jobs on offer in gaming today didn’t even exist four or five years ago.  And it’s not just those with technological or mathematical skills who should consider gaming as their choice of career – in addition to coders and programmers, it also presents opportunities for artists, designers, sound engineers, translators, marketers and animators,” he said.

At the end of the competition, the prototypes will be displayed at a talent showcasing event called 'Dare ProtoPlay', letting the general public and industry experts play and vote for their favourite games.

The three highest-scoring teams will receive prizes of stg£2,500 and the chance to attend the BAFTA Video Games Awards to compete for the ‘Ones to Watch’ award.

A stepping stone into the industry

“This is a very real opportunity for students to make a name for themselves within the games industry,” said Brennan.

“At Abertay, participating teams get to meet and work with mentors from some of the biggest names in gaming – companies like Sega, Sony and Rockstar. 

“In terms of career development, participating in this competition is invaluable – not only do students get fantastic networking and mentoring opportunities, but they also get to develop a prototype game, which for many of them goes on to present a viable business opportunity,” he said.

Nevermind Games experienced great benefits from Dare to be Digital, as the start-up games firm was established as a result of the competition.

“Two years ago, myself and four teammates competed in Dare,” said Alan Boyce, chief operating officer at Nevermind Games. 

“When we returned from Scotland, we set up as a games studio, establishing Nevermind Games. We were incorporated as a company last year, and we’re currently working on our first release for iOS, a 2-D puzzle game called TroubleSum." 

Nevermind Games has been accepted onto LIT’s LEAP enterprise acceleration programme and will be looking for investment in the coming months. Boyce said the company will also attend the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco in March to increase its profile with international companies.

“None of this would have happened if we hadn’t participated in Dare. We received excellent mentoring at Abertay, and the encouragement and experience we received were instrumental in us deciding to establish our company,” he said.

Jamie McCormick, marketing manager at free-to-play multiplayer online games publisher Gala Networks Europe believes that, from an employer’s perspective, Dare to be Digital is a huge asset to a CV.

“If somebody approaches us who has participated in the competition, we know they have experience of working in an environment that simulates the real day-to-day working environment of the games industry,” said McCormick.

“Many participants will get jobs straight out of the competition, or go on to publish the prototype games they have developed. In these days of self-publishing, a competition like this allows students to potentially launch a successful game before they have even graduated from college.  Or they can approach a publisher – like Gala – with their prototype game.

“At present, I’m sure it can be a bit depressing for students who are approaching the end of their college years – all they hear about is unemployment, recession and emigration.

“But the gaming industry – right here in Ireland – has hundreds of vacancies. In Gala alone, we have more than trebled in size over the past four years. This is a young, exciting and vibrant industry, and I would strongly encourage students to consider the great career opportunities it presents,” he said.

During the VV01 mission, a large amount of data was collected on Vega's performance, as well as the environment experienced by the payloads.

Its reference mission is 1,500 kg into a 700 km-high circular sun-synchronous orbit. Vega's light launch capacity can accommodate a range of satellites - from 300 kg to 2500 kg - into a variety of orbits, ranging from equatorial to sun-synchronous.

The ESA said this morning that Vega will add to Europe's set of launch services next to the existing Ariane 5 heavy lifter and the Soyuz medium-class launcher.

Operating from French Guiana, the ESA said the three launchers will improve the efficiency of Europe's launch infrastructure, as they can share its operating costs over many launches.  
 
The ESA said the Vega programme will now enter a new phase, called VERTA: the Vega Research, Technology and Accompaniment programme.

The next flight is scheduled for early 2013, when the Vega will carry ESA's Proba-V remote sensing satellite and multiple auxiliary payloads.

Jean-Jacques Dordain, ESA director-general, said this morning that today's launch was a great day for ESA, its member states, and especially for Italy, where Vega was born.

“In a little more than three months, Europe has increased the number of launchers it operates from one to three, widening significantly the range of launch services offered by the European operator Arianespace. There is not anymore one single European satellite which cannot be launched by a European launcher service," said ESA head Dordain this morning.

Antonio Fabrizi, ESA's director of Launchers, spoke about how, in less than a decade, the Vega project became a reality.

He said the ESA had the technical support of the Italian and French space agencies, plus about 40 industrial companies co-ordinated by the prime contractor ELV SpA.

Vega launcher development started in 2003. Seven member states contributed to the programme - Belgium, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

European effort 

“Today is a moment of pride for Europe, as well as those around 1,000 individuals who have been involved in developing the world's most modern and competitive launcher system for small satellites," said Fabrizi.

Arianespace, its commercial operator, has already signed the first commercial contract for Vega. The ESA has confirmed more contracts are being negotiated.

After an open competition, Arianespace was awarded the contract in December to launch the Sentinel-2B and Sentinel-3B satellites on the Vega launcher. This launch will be part of ESA's Global Monitoring for Environment and Security programme.

Once a fortnight during Edible, Science Gallery will have a rotating guest list of designers, chefs and artists who will host dinners for the public. The aim is to explore the relationship between food and geographical location.

But the most striking thing about the exhibit is the huge inflatable stomach resembling a bouncy castle that greets you at the start of the exhibit. Kids are sure to love this particular exhibit as they can take off their shoes and explore how the digestive system functions! Known as the 'Gas Bag' this exhibit was created by Andy Best and Merja Puustinen from Finland. The three-metre high inflatable stomach will actually sonically respond to your movements, as you explore its insides. Once inside the digestive system sculpture, you can throw soft items symbolising pills, bacteria and acid at each other to induce more digestive systems gurgles.

There's also a captivating wall exhibit that explores the world community of eaters. It takes Ireland's 4.5m eaters and looks at how we fit in terms of world consumption of particular foods, in comparison with other countries and continents. The food mural also looks at obesity.

_{Pictured at the launch of Edible at the Science Gallery is Julian Abraham with his exhibit Kapitan Biopunk: Fermentation Madness. Photo by Patrick Bolger Photography}
 
An exhibit that I found enthralling was all about fermentation. The exhibit, Kapitan Biopunk: Fermentation Madness was the genesis of Julian Abraham from Indonesia. Inspired by how Indonesia raise its excise duty in 2010 Abraham set about exploring the rapid increase in people brewing their own alcohol at home.

The sound installation features many larges containers fermenting different coloured liquids, from apple juice to pineapple juice.  The public can actually listen live to the fermentation process, as yeast transforms sugar into ethanol and CO2. Abraham wishes to communicate via the installation the dangers people in Indonesia are sometimes putting themselves under by fermenting their own alcohol. Sometimes the process can go wrong, resulting in methanol being created rather than ethanol. In Indonesia there have been many reported fatalities as a result of home brewing.

Another interesting exhibit was Le Whaf, the brainchild of Franco-American scientist and creator David Edwards and French designer Marc Bretillot. A large see-through cauldron transforms liquids into vapours, creating a different taste sensation when the cloud of flavour wafts into the air and settles in the glass. You can sip the cloud vapour via a type of pipette-like straw. Pioneered at Le laboratoire, a public art and design centre in Paris, the Le Whaf cauldron is due to be commercialised soon.

_{Diners checking out the Supper Club culinary experience at Edible}

There's plenty to whet your senses at Edibles in Science Gallery, which is based on the Trinity College Dublin campus, over the next two months, from the Insects au Gratin, which explores the ingestion of insects, to the Disaster Pharming exhibit, developed by The Center for Genomic Gastronomy. An exhibition definitely worth checking out!

CrisisCommons is a global community of volunteers from academic, technology, crisis response organisations, academics, government agencies and citizens focused on getting the best out of available technology for humanitarian purposes.

CrisisCamp began in March 2009 as an event to connect crisis management and global development practitioners to the technology volunteer community. During the Haiti response, CrisisCamp became a movement and added a response mechanism to the community.

Since 2009, CrisisCommons has co-ordinated crisis event responses such as the Haiti, Chile and Japan earthquakes and the floods in Thailand, Nashville and Pakistan.

More than 3,000 people have participated worldwide in more than 30 cities across 10 countries, including France, the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, Chile and Colombia. Haiti Connect has been running and supporting technology-based aid and rebuilding projects in Haiti since shortly after the earthquake of 2010.

Building awareness

"Through this event, we hope to create awareness amongst Irish crisis response organisations, government agencies and citizens on how open-source software and hardware can be used to build and use technology tools to help respond to disasters and improve resiliency and response before a crisis," Evert Bopp, founder of Haiti Connect, explained.

“Working together with NUI Galway's Discipline of Information Technology was a logical choice when organising this event.

“People in information technology and other disciplines in the College of Engineering and Informatics are already engaged in both research and voluntary work in support of crisis response. Through Crisiscamp, we hope to bring together people who are working on these challenges and inspire others to apply their skills in this area," Bopp said.

The event will take place in the Information Technology Building on the NUI Galway campus from 10am-7 pm. Admission is free but interested parties are encouraged to register via the website.

Now in their second year, the Irish CREST Awards are organised by The Galway Education Centre in association with The British Science Association. Their aim is to reward students who demonstrate creativity and the ability to tackle issues in the STEM subjects. The CREST committee said this year's standard of submissions was so high that independent adjudicators decided to award four gold CREST awards.

Students' projects ranged from water-saving devices and food safety gadgets through to smartphone apps.

Here's a sampling of some of the recipients. Students from Citywise Education in Jobstown, Tallaght, Co Dublin, won a bronze award for their project 'The Dangers of Chicken'. Students from Castletroy College in Co Limerick also won a bronze award for their project, 'The Fridge of the Future'. Students from Coláiste na Coiribe in Galway won a silver award for their project, named 'Legolicious'.

And the gold award-winning projects, all hailing from a single team who study St Gerald's College in Castlebar, Co Mayo, centred on four projects: 'To Design and Build a Water Saving Shower'; 'Weather Dependant Underground Drip-Feed Irrigation System'; 'An Investigation into Smart Drip Irrigation Systems'; and 'iCollapse, a mobile phone application for assisting those liable to collapse'.

The iCollapse project already gleaned awards at the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition in January of this year.



_{Students from Coláiste Croí Mhuire in Spiddal, Co Galway, after winning a silver award for their project entitled 'Investigation of the Food Journey of the Brown Crab'}

Relying on students to invent solutions for societal challenges

Yesterday, Geoghegan-Quinn spoke about how now, more than ever, Europe needs "excellent young scientists" with solid educational backgrounds coupled with the intellectual curiosity to spur them to become "world-class researchers and innovators".

"We will be relying on these young people to discover and invent the solutions to society's enormous challenges that we so urgently need," said Geoghegan-Quinn.

Katherine Mathieson, education officer, The British Science Association, spoke about the "impressive" quality of the entries from
from primary and secondary schools across Ireland.

"These students join the 30,000 UK students who gain a CREST award every year on average, setting them on the road to be the scientists, technologists and engineers of the future," she said.

SESAR was founded by the European Commission and by Eurocontrol. It is aiming to pioneer technological answers to the major challenges of European air traffic growth. Fifteen companies are members of the SJU: AENA, Airbus, Alenia Aeronautica, the DFS, the DSNA, ENAV, Frequentis, Honeywell, Indra, NATMIG, NATS (En Route), NORACON, SEAC, SELEX Sistemi Integrati and Thales.

So what's a 4D flight? It's a four-dimensional trajectory concept, or 4D, meaning a three-dimensional trajectory plus time. SESAR said that during this morning's Airbus A320 flight, the trajectory information containing current and predicted positions were exchanged with the relevant air navigation service providers and airports.

It said after the landing that the test flight has successfully validated the capability of the aircraft system to comply with time constraints that were negotiated with ground ATC system through air ground datalink communication.

"With this first I-4D trial flight under operational conditions, the SESAR members have proven that by working together in the framework of the SESAR programme real changes in the ATM domain are being brought about. Not only the aviation industry will benefit from optimised flights but society as a whole," said Patrick Ky, executive director of the SESAR Joint Undertaking.

Today's 4D flight path over Europe's skies

The flight trajectory started off from Toulouse, with the test aircraft flying through the Eurocontrol Maastricht Upper Area Control Centre (MUAC) airspace where the airborne and ground systems agreed on a first time constraint at a merging point close to Copenhagen Airport.

The flight then continued into Danish airspace to demonstrate an optimised descent to Copenhagen. After reaching the first merging point, the aircraft climbed to a cruise level from which it negotiated a second time constraint at a merging point close to Stockholm Arlanda Airport. The flight then descended into Swedish airspace to the second merging point and landed at Arlanda.

The National Disability Authority's Centre for Excellence in Universal Design, the Commission for Energy Regulation, representative end users and energy suppliers such as Airtricity, Bord Gáis Energy, Electric Ireland, Energia and Flogas, were all involved in devising the standard.

SWIFT 9 itself covers the written, verbal and electronic-based communication, including websites and services to customers. It embraces the use of plain English as the benchmark for communications.

Universal design is the degree to which a product or service is usable by as many people as possible.

"Standards play a vital role in making the world accessible and usable, from technologies that are user friendly for the hearing and visually impaired, to products that can be easily used by older persons or those with disabilities," said Maurice Buckley, CEO, NSAI.

"By putting in place the guidelines set out in SWIFT 9, energy suppliers in Ireland have put the needs of customers with a different range of age, size disabilities and abilities first and foremost when developing their products, services and communications," he said.

Buckley added how industry, policy makers, designers and manufacturers need to be thinking about universal design and access from the onset of a project, product or service.

O'Dowd also spoke yesterday about how SWIFT 9 was the first standard to be developed internationally that embraces good design, guidance and functionality by Ireland's energy suppliers.

He said the universal design focuses on all end users, ensuring access to information and services.

"It recognises the customer's right to be at the centre of services and in time the adoption of universal design will lead to a more inclusive and understanding Irish society," O'Dowd said.

And while Swift 9 is focused towards the energy market, Buckley said it provides guidance to all customer-focused businesses, especially when developing websites and new technologies.

“In seeking to identify how best to bring about greater competitive advantage and a rise in employment, exports and growth, science has increasingly become a focal point. In my role within the EU Commission, I can see the compelling impact that research and its commercialisation can have and is having beyond the parameters of science. Science, therefore, forms and informs our path to economic recovery," she said.

As regards Horizon 2020, the European Commission's proposal for an €80bn EU funding programme to secure Europe's competitiveness through research and innovation for the period 2014 to 2020, Geoghegan-Quinn also spoke about Ireland's scientific research agenda and how it must adapt.

“With Ireland remaining on course to reach its target of over €600m funding from the existing EU 7th Framework Programme, the scientific community here must ensure that it adapts and responds to the evolving research agenda as set out in Horizon 2020."

_{Ireland's Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton, TD, with St Patrick's Festival performers Rachel Lally, Vijaya Bateson and Grace Kelly at the official launch of Dublin City of Science 2012 on 26 January. In 2012, there will be more than 160 science-related events happening all over Ireland throughout the year. The highlight will be ESOF 2012 in July, when the world's scientific community will be descending upon Dublin. In addition, ESOF will host the Europe - US Symposium on the Atlantic Ocean as a shared resource}

Dublin City of Science 2012

As Dublin is European City of Science this year, hosting the Euroscience Open Forum (ESOF2012) in July, Geoghegan-Quinn also pointed to how "science has perhaps never been so prominently placed in this country".

Along with ESOF 2012, Ireland is set to take over the presidency of the European Council in January 2013, so she said this "could not come at a better time, when research and innovation are among the building blocks for economic recovery and growth".

Ireland's scientific research climate

Prof Pat Fottrell, SFI chairperson, also spoke about Horizon 2020 today and the aim to position Ireland as a global influencer in the scientific research arena.

“SFI welcomes the opportunities provided by Horizon 2020 and will be working with Ireland's research community to identify the opportunities to ensure that the available funding will allow for continued research, innovation and economic benefit. SFI-supported researchers have been successful in leveraging further support and investment from Europe," said Fottrell.

Here's a sampling of some innovative SFI-supported researchers who are leading EU research projects. The Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI) at NUI Galway is leading a multimillion European project on improving citizens' access to EU policy. Via the Puzzled by Policy project, the researchers are using new web technologies with the aim of supporting democracy and making governments more cost effective and transparent.

Meanwhile, Prof Dan Bradley from the School of Genetics and Microbiology at Trinity College Dublin also recently received a European Research Council (ERC) advanced grant to enable him to continue his research into ancient DNA of domestic animals from archaeological samples. The 'Codex' project, 'Decoding domesticate DNA in archaeological bone and manuscripts', is using leading-edge genetic tools to build up a 'DNA data matrix' of domestic animals over the past 10,000 years.

Bradley believes the matrix could help identify key genetic changes that accompany domestication and subsequent animal management strategies. He also asserts that the research work should also give insights that could be of benefit to the farming sector, as well as disease control and animal productivity.

In line with the European Commission's plan to create an 'Innovation Union' as part of its Europe 2020 strategy, the proposal to transform the ITs into more regional hotbeds of technological innovation – engaging with industry, spinning out companies based on applied research and sharing knowledge capital – appears to be on the cards.

Hunt report

The high-level strategy group chaired by Dr Colin Hunt brought out the Hunt Report early last year, looking at a national strategy for higher education for Ireland up to 2030. Part of the report evaluated the future evolution of the ITs and the universities.

It looked at the benefits of a regional cluster approach for such institutions. The Hunt Report pointed to how "consolidation should be promoted to create amalgamated institutes of technology" that would participate in "regional clusters with partner universities of a similar scale".

“However, there may be a case for facilitating the evolution of some existing institutes following a process of consolidation, into a form of university that is different in mission from the existing Irish universities," indicated the Hunt report at the time.

Munster and BMW regions - technological university plans

In the past few weeks, ITs in two regions have unleashed their plans to create technological universities. At the end of January, the presidents of the ITs in Limerick, Tralee and Cork announced their plans to create a Munster Technological University (MTU), with the aim of strengthening the region's educational prowess and enhancing links with local industry.

The IT heads said the MTU would have campuses in Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Clare and Tipperary and an initial enrolment of more than 24,000 students.

At the time, Dr Maria Hinfelaar, president, LIT, said that since the Hunt report came out last year, the ITs have been forced to rethink how they would view themselves in the new landscape and to reposition themselves.

For the Munster region, the three presidents sought out international advice before proceeding with their MTU plans.

"Prof Simon Marginson, an Australian expert on higher education, played a major role, while Prof Robin Smyth from the UK also gave advice. He had experience of when the polytechnics in the UK were converted into universities," said Hinfelaar, who is also chair of Institutes of Technology Ireland (IOTI) this year.

"When you think of the 14 institutes of technology in Ireland, including DIT, and the aim to consolidate them down to four, it's about increasing the pathways for students to receive higher education and to manage and use resources better," she said.

In terms of the border, midlands and west (BMW) region, in January the five ITs located there also set out their plans to create a technological university in the region. The ITs involved in the BMW Technological University plan are Athlone Institute of Technology, Dundalk Institute of Technology, Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, Letterkenny Institute of Technology and Institute of Technology, Sligo.

The steering group said in January that such a university would be the largest higher-education institution of its kind in the State, with the capacity to take in up to 27,000 students.

For a long time, Waterford Institute of Technology and Carlow Institute of Technology had been campaigning to pursue a technological university for the southeast.

National College of Ireland are offering two computer courses under this scheme – a Higher Diploma in Computing in Software Development and a Higher Diploma in Web Technologies.

The courses aim to equip students with the latest ICT skills and both programmes also contain a Career Skills module to help them break into the tech industry.

The information evening takes place at the college’s IFSC campus tonight from 4pm to 6pm. National College of Ireland has also provided a brochure with details on the two courses.

Siliconrepublic.com is hosting Skills February, a month dedicated to news, reports, interviews and videos covering a range of topics on the digital skills debate.

Science Hack Day Dublin is being run as part of the Dublin City of Science 2012 programme festival and Engineers Week. It will take place in The Hub at Dublin City University (DCU).

A of volunteers from different creative community groups, such as the Irish Robotics Club, Dublin Hackerspace TOG, Redbrick and The Hub and DCU are collaborating on the event.

The events have been catching on internationally as a way of bridging the gap between the science, technology and design fields.

During the marathon events, a shared physical space will allow scientists to collaborate with programmers, hackers and designers who have the knowledge to find creative solutions - or 'hacks' - to better use scientific data, hardware and research tools.

Science Hack Days also aim help to find more efficient ways of utilising open data produced from scientific research and city councils.

As part of its smarter city drive, Dublin City Council, for instance, has been pivotal in that its has opened up all of the city's data to the public, so groups and researchers can analyse the data.

Lightning talks

So what can people expect at the Science Hack Day in Dublin?

The event will kick off with two rounds of 'lightening talks', where scientists, or those with an interesting idea, can pitch project ideas to teams of programmers, hackers, engineers and designers.

Following that, teams will form to work on the projects over the next 36 hours.

The initiative appears to be very similar to the Startup Weekend movement that aims to create new digital start-ups by bringing groups of individuals together to pool their resources and ideas.

_{Delegates from Mexico, Germany, Brazil, South Africa, Iceland, Canada, United States, Japan, Kenya and Ireland at Science Hack Day in San Francisco. These individuals were able to attend due to a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Photo by Matt Biddulph}

Innovative results

Already, Science Hack Days' collaborative approach to problem solving has produced results in other cities. For instance, the most recent Science Hack Day in San Francisco covered a variety of scientific projects.  

Dublin's Science Hack Day ambassador Dr David McKeown's team won the Best Government Data Award in San Francisco for a smartphone-based, early-warning notification system for earthquakes.

Other projects used open data resources from the Large Hadron Collider, NASA and PLoS (Public Library of Science). Such projects spanned a range of fields, including cognitive science, marine science and underwater exploration, geophysical smartphone apps, DIY biohacking and data visualisation.

'Passionate geeks'

Ariel Waldman, founder of San Francisco Science Hack Day, was in Dublin this week for the launch of Science Hack Day Dublin. She spoke about how Dublin already has a "strong community of passionate geeks" that are bridging gaps between science, technology and art.

"Science Hack Day Dublin is the perfect spark to ignite future collaborations and ideas between these communities and anyone who wants to get excited and make things," she said.

While the Dublin event is free, tickets must be booked in advance.

In future classes, it will cover other languages, such as Python and Java, as well as databases, mobile apps and games.

The event is free and will take place each Saturday from 12-3:30pm with groups in both the DERI building in IDA Business Park and in Lab 102 in the Information Technology Building at NUI Galway. Interested parties should bring lunch, a laptop if they have one and attendees under 12 must bring a parent along.

“We are very excited to have CoderDojo come to Galway,” said Dr Michael Madden, head of Discipline of Information Technology at NUI Galway.

“It is vital for young people to understand how our digital world works, and CoderDojo provides a unique environment to exchange knowledge and learn from each other how to write software, particularly in the absence of a computer science curriculum in secondary schools,” he said.

Next generation of digital creators

NUI Galway’s Community Knowledge Initiative (CKI) is also supporting this CoderDojo and is looking for volunteers, particularly IT students, who will assist and supervise young people during classes. They will be presented with an ALIVE certification as recognition for their work.

“Illiteracy of the 21st century will not be those who cannot just read and write but those who cannot program and code. CoderDojo seeks to address this deficit,” said Adrian Bannon, an organiser of CoderDojo.

Brendan Smith, education officer at the Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI) of NUI Galway believes the high attendance of last weekend’s CoderDojo registration shows an appetite among the public for young students to learn the skills needed to “transform Ireland from a nation of digital users into a nation of digital creators.”

“Thankfully, CoderDojo also proves that there is also an army of volunteer mentors drawn from the third-level education sector, industry and elsewhere who are prepared to give their time free of charge to help educate our children in computer coding,” said Smith.

Interested parties must register before attending by emailing CoderDojo Galway at coderdojogalway@gmail.com or by visiting the CoderDojo website.

Siliconrepublic.com is hosting Skills February, a month dedicated to news, reports, interviews and videos covering a range of topics on the digital skills debate.

Organised by Innovation Wexford and The Fuse Initiative, the conference came about after a group of entrepreneurs in the southeast decided to tackle the region's enterprise drive for themselves. They headed over to Silicon Valley and knocked on doors to forge links with the diaspora in Northern California. Their aim was to network and make connections to help develop growth within the Irish SME sector.

"We saw a unique opportunity to develop growth within the Irish SME sector by forging stronger links with the diaspora in Northern California. We simply got on a plane and flew out to see them and were welcomed with open arms," explained Brendan Ennis, founder of Techovate and group chief executive at Innovation Wexford.

And the result? Senior executives from some IT giants, including Microsoft, Google, IBM, Facebook and LinkedIn, will be at the Techovate conference to share with local entrepreneurs how to innovate and survive in the challenging economic climate.

Speakers will include Carlow-born Lorraine Twohill, Google's vice-president of Global Marketing, Colin Brown, director of business operations for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) with Microsoft; Claire Hayes, managing director, Emerging Company Services, PWC; and Conrad Burke, general manager, Innovalight Dupont.

Notable entrepreneurs to emerge from the southeast include Terry Clune of Taxback.com, David Walsh of Netwatch and Fred Karlsson of DoneDeal. They will also be sharing insights from their own entrepreneurial journeys at Techovate.

Business success

One of the highlights of the conference will be a session focusing on how to execute for business success, including top tips from five of the world's largest companies.

Techovate 2012 will use dialogue, seminars and workshops to show businesspeople how they can use technology to grow their business in a fast-moving global marketplace. The 48-hour event will also feature Techovate Interact, where people can experience the latest Facebook, Google, IBM and Microsoft technologies.

And select Irish companies will also be able to pitch their businesses at the Techovate Showcase.

Ennis said Techovate has had "phenomenal support" from vice-presidents and directors of these global companies. He said they had volunteered their time to address the conference in person or via video link and attend forums and panel discussions. Ennis also cited Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland's support in helping foster relationships between Techovate and the global technology leaders taking part in the conference.

Fred Karlsson, founder of DoneDeal, spoke about how the internet is quickly changing every business. "This creates lots of opportunities for new businesses, but also a lot of challenges for existing businesses," he said. DoneDeal.ie has its office in Wexford Town.

Innovation Wexford itself is a not-for-profit job creation organisation with a community focused approach to enterprise development. Up to now it has helped in the creation of more than 800 jobs and has supported the establishment and development of more than 100 companies. The FUSE Initiative is a group of 250 entrepreneurs and businesspeople aimed at promoting business growth in the southeast.

"This marks an exciting new chapter in the development of GPBuddy.ie as not only an online directory but also as an educational platform for GPs,” said Dr Shane McKeogh, co-founder of GPBuddy.ie and Drimnagh-based GP.

“We launched over a year ago to address a significant gap in the market to provide a comprehensive, free online source of information for GPs. To date, approximately 1,600 GPs, which is over 50pc of the GPs in the country, are using our website regularly as the first port of call when making enquiries, referrals or recommendations on behalf of patients,” he said.

The first tutorial in the series will feature Dr Brendan Doyle, consultant cardiologist from the Mater Private Heart and Vascular Centre. He discusses commons issues in cardiology, such as how often lipids should be checked in a patient on statins for primary or secondary intervention.

"As GPs ourselves we know what GPs need in their day-to-day practice,” said Dr Darach Ó Ciardha, co-founder of GPBuddy.ie.

“We are now adding high quality educational material which will also offer an invaluable link for GPs to some of the best specialists in the country. We have just completed our next video tutorial production on orthopaedics and we are looking forward to making this available to GPs in the coming weeks,” he said.

The glasses come with a small, front-facing camera and all the computing is done wirelessly via the CPU and RAM in your synched smartphone, according to 9to5Google.

It is understood the glasses will use a derivative of Android and one eye on the glasses will provide you with the HUD information, so they won't be entirely transparent.

Scrolling and clicking will be done by tilting your head, as well as voice commands to manage your computing experience.

Howling at the moon?

In a separate development, the official Google blog revealed some of the blue sky concepts being assembled via X Labs' Solve for X gatherings which were hosted by chairman Eric Schmidt.

These gatherings seem to take some of the bizarre ideas straight out of science fiction and investigate how they can be made reality one day.

These ideas - moonshots - apparently live in the grey area between audacious projects and pure science fiction. "They are 10x improvement, not 10pc. That's partly what makes them so exciting," Google explained.

Google has assembled a number of the talks from the Solve for X gatherings, including Adrien Treuille, a professor of computer science and robotics at Carnegie Mellon University discussing EteRNA and Foldit, scientific discovery games where individual gamers are lapping the best computer programmes in DNA folding and RNA nano-fabrication problems.

In another talk, Rob McGinnis, co-founder of Oasys, suggests that fresh water could be produced everywhere in the world at less than one-tenth the energy input or cost to the environment of what's possible today.

Mary Lou Jepsen's Solve for X talk is on how it may literally be possible to take pictures of the mind's eye, which could have a staggering impact on how we communicate, preserve memories and understand ourselves.

Daphne Preuss, a leading geneticist who moved from academia to pursue plant genetics in order to help make the planet healthier and find ways to feed more people, also provides her vision in Google's Solve for X collection of moonshots.

The competition itself was part of a pan-European environmental initiative 'Future of Rural Energy in Europe' that was supported in Ireland by Calor Gas. On the island of Ireland the competition received over 1,000 post-primary entries. Students were encouraged to outline their vision of how to power Ireland's homes, hospitals, factories and schools into the future in a sustainable way. The Tell The Future judging panel comprised Science Foundation Ireland, Foróige and the Northern Ireland-based Rural Development Council.

Juanita O'Kane's entry, which won in the junior category, put forward ideas including the introduction of biomass energy, harnessing power from the sea, and developing new technology in sewage systems.

Jillian Murphy's entry, which won the senior category, focused on a world where resources were completely depleted and existing items could only be repaired. In order to generate electricity, new 'trampoline energy creators' were developed whereby people needed to jump up and down for 20 minutes to generate two hours of electricity. Looking at the positive side to the energy crisis, Jillian also highlighted how obesity was virtually non-existent.

Other Junior Category winners

• Second Place: Rachel O'Grady, Manor House School, Dublin
• Third Place: Callum McQuoid, Ulidia Integrated College, Antrim

Other Senior Category winners

• Second Place - Áine Donnelly, St Catherine's College, Armagh
• Third Place - Sarah Mulligan, St Louis Grammar School, Antrim
  

Check out what Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin has to say about science!

Here's the video featuring Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin, the former Rose of Tralee, who is a science teacher and who has just returned to full-time education to do a PhD in maths education at Trinity College Dublin. Ní Shúilleabháin is one of the ambassadors for Dublin City of Science 2012. And her message for students, with all of the science events happening around the island this year? "Get involved. Just come and have fun!"

Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin on the importance of science education

The facility itself was designed by McCullough Mulvin Architects. In 2010, it won the prize for best educational building at the Irish Architecture Awards.

Speaking this afternoon, Ó Catháin described the 11,000 sq-metre facility as "a landmark on campus". He said it is not just a landmark in terms of its physical presence and the technology it embodies, but pointed to how the engineering centre is sparking new partnerships.

"Significantly, it positions the School of Engineering to the forefront of engineering education in Ireland," said Ó Catháin.

Already, faculty, students and researchers in mechanical, renewable and sustainable engineering electronics and software engineering, polymer engineering, plus civil and construction engineering are using the building.

Engineering education and industry

Ó Catháin also said engineering education has been "written into the DNA" of AIT since its inception. He also spoke today of the importance the institutes of technology (ITs), such as AIT, place on engaging with industry.

"As an academic community, we listen closely to what they are saying about their needs, responding to the requirements for particular skills, such as the need for graduates in cloud computing and network management, for polymer technologists for the medical device industry, for environmental engineering scientists, for green technologists," he said.

More than 1,000 engineering students are currently registered at AIT. Engineering students can also undertake a PhD and post-doctoral work on the AIT campus.

Technological universities and changing face of IT education in Ireland

The ITs have been in the news in recent week as the institutes in the border, midland and west (BMW) region announced their plan to pool their resources to create a technological university in the region, in a move to also ignite greater linkages with local industry. The BMW steering group comprised The steering group comprises presidents and senior staff of Athlone Institute of Technology, Dundalk Institute of Technology, Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, Letterkenny Institute of Technology, and Institute of Technology, Sligo.

Last week the ITs in Munster – Cork Institute of Technology, Institute of Technology Tralee and Limerick Institute of Technology – announced their plan to create a Munster Technological University.

The new 'Upper Class launch' will commence on its London to New York JFK International Airport morning flight before rolling out across all aircraft. It will join Virgin Atlantic's Heathrow fleet over the next three years, confirmed Virgin Atlantic chief executive Steve Ridgway this morning.

The airline is not yet divulging any additional details on what the 'futuristic bar' or 'enhanced seats' will look like or how they will function.

What Virgin did reveal, however, about the stg£100m investment is that it would be used for "a new cutting-edge Upper Class cabin including an enhanced seat, a futuristic bar, and many other cabin updates to give passengers a unique flying experience".

It will also revamp its fine dining in-flight service, with fliers getting new customised menus and new crockery.

The new Airbus A330-300 itself is a twin engined aircraft. As part of Virgin's plans to green its fleet, the new plane will use 15pc less fuel per seat than the airline's A340-300 aircraft.

Market share - business travellers

Ridgway said today that Virgin Atlantic is seeking to increase its share of the business traveller market through a three-year programme of new product and service developments both on the ground and in the air, starting this spring.

Virgin is also getting set to open up a new "new multimillion pound" club house at New York's JFK International Airport, possibly in March. The airliner is also keeping this news slightly under wraps, but its teaser is that the club house will "set new standards for the industry".

Ridgway said Virgin had managed to grow its customer numbers across the Atlantic in the face of "increased capacity and bigger airline alliances".

"We are confident that this new programme of investment will enable us to continue to take market share as the product becomes more widely available across the fleet," he said.

Interestingly, Virgin Atlantic recruited groups of its most frequent fliers to test the new concepts it is rolling out. The airliner even went so far as allowing some people to try out the beds, with some people even engaging in an overnight stay in the airline's test facility!

"Movidius' Myriad 3D solution delivers multimedia features beyond what is offered by any other player in the mobile 3D market," commented Shiro Ando, vice-president, Toshiba Electronics Europe.

The Movidius MA1178 Dual ISP and video processor chip seamlessly integrates into the handset's existing platforms with auto-calibration and configuration functionality to simplify the design process and reduce the cost of manufacture.

The Toshiba 8 Megapixel EDOF cameras and the Movidius MA1178 allow a perfect focus matching of stereoscopic images, which leads to superior 3D picture quality.

"Movidius' leading 3D imaging capabilities complement the high functionality of Toshiba's EDOF cameras, enabling mobile handset makers to meet consumer demand for a superior 3D mobile experience," Ando said.

“Simultaneously, they simplify the manufacturing process by rectifying distortion via software rather than requiring laser trimming during production."

The system solution offers flexibility for customers to implement a symmetric or asymmetric set up of either two 8-megapixel EDOF cameras or a combination of 8 and 3-megapixel EDOF cameras.

"The team at Movidius is very excited to be partnering with Toshiba to develop this leading 3D solution," said Sean Mitchell, CEO of Movidius.

"Customers seeking to differentiate their product in the highly competitive handset market will benefit from Movidius' innovative and best quality 3D imaging solution, as well as Toshiba's worldwide leading position as EDOF camera supplier to the mobile phone market."

Movidius will demonstrate its MA1178 product together with the 3D system solution at the Mobile World Congress 2012 in Barcelona later this month.

Two international runners-up get stg£2,000 each, while national winners get £1,000 each. There are also nine national finalists from each country. 

The awards are open to any university-level student of product design, industrial design or engineering (or graduate within four years of graduation), who is studying, or who has studied, in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Japan, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, UK and the US.

And here's a few words from the man himself, James Dyson, on why the awards seek out fresh talent each year to come up with original ideas, challenging students to "think big".

"Young people have an unsullied view of the world. Budding engineers and designers can use their fresh perspective to develop wonderfully simple solutions to baffling problems. Original ideas and rigorously engineered projects will attract the attention of the judges. I challenge applicants to think big and use the award as a springboard for your idea."

Seeking out the oblique ...

To give you a flavour of the type of inventions that have won in the past, last year's winner was Edward Linacre from Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne. Linacre invented Airdrop, a device that aims to tackle the problem of drought. Airdrop was developed as a low-cost, self-powered solution to the problems of growing crops in arid regions.

At the time, Linacre said he was inspired by Australia's worst drought in a century.

He set about reproducing a desert beetle's technique of capturing moisture from air. Linacre said he based his invention on the principle that even the driest air contains water molecules. Airdrop works by pumping air through a network of underground pipes and cools the air to the point of condensation. Water is then delivered to the roots of plants.

"Winning the award's £10,000 prize has allowed me to develop and test the Airdrop system. It has the potential to help farmers around the world and I'm up for the challenge of rolling it out," said Linacre this week.

Irish inventors - 2011 award winners

_{University of Limerick graduates Chris Murphy and Ronan Leahy. Murphy won Best of Irish in the 2011 James Dyson Award for his 'Open Pool Transfer' invention. Leahy made the top 15 global shortlist in the 2011 James Dyson Award for his invention 'MediMover'}

In terms of Ireland, last year 23-year-old Chris Murphy won Best of Irish in the 2011 James Dyson Award for his 'Open Pool Transfer invention, which aims to help swimmers with limited mobility. Ronan Leahy from Croom in Co Limerick made the top 15 global shortlist in the 2011 James Dyson Award for his invention 'MediMover', a device to aid in the transfer of patients from hospital beds to other beds, trolleys or surgical tables.

Entrants can apply for the 2012 awards by submitting submit footage, images and sketches to Jamesdysonaward.org, along with stories detailing their design process and inspiration.

The entries will be scrutinised by judges around the world and Dyson engineers before James Dyson announces the international winner on 8 November 2012.    

Students across the US will use lunar images from MoonKAM for their studies.

The images were taken as part of a test of Ebb's MoonKAM on 19 January, NASA said in a statement. The GRAIL project plans to test the MoonKAM aboard Flow at a later date.

In the video, the north pole of the moon is visible at the top of the screen as the spacecraft flies toward the lunar south pole. One of the first prominent geological features seen on the lower third of the moon is the Mare Orientale, a 900-kilometre impact basin that straddles both the moon's near and far side.

The clip ends with rugged terrain just short of the lunar south pole. To the left of centre, near the bottom of the screen, is the 149-kilometre Drygalski crater, with a star-shaped formation in the middle. A comet or asteroid impact created the formation billions of years ago, NASA said.

"The quality of the video is excellent and should energise our MoonKAM students as they prepare to explore the moon," said Maria Zuber, GRAIL principal investigator from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.

Launched in September 2011, the twin spacecraft achieved lunar orbit on 31 December 2011 and 1 January 2012.

Watch a video of the images captured by MoonKAM aboard the Ebb spacecraft here:

The Higher Diploma in Science in Cloud Computing and the Higher Diploma in Science in Cloud and Mobile Software Development will provide conversion pathways for graduates from non-computing disciplines to match the needs of the IT industry, wrote Horgan.

Both diplomas have been designed and developed in consultation with a range of employers. The first semester of both programmes builds a framework and grounding in the building blocks of IT knowledge skills and competence.

"In the second semester of the Higher Diploma in Science in Cloud Computing, an emphasis is placed on cloud computing and this focus is supported by the addition of modules in cloud computing architectures, cloud computing with Python, cloud computing infrastructures and electives such as Knowledge Discovery & Data Mining and an industry-focused project," Horgan wrote.

"This combination of modules along with practical and laboratory workshops provides graduates with an ideal education that will enable them to seek entry to a wide variety of roles and levels of responsibility within the workforce.

"In the second semester of the Higher Diploma in Science in Cloud and Mobile Software Development, an emphasis is placed on application development and this is supported by the addition of modules in object-oriented programming, mobile applications development, enterprise and web application development and electives such as Knowledge Discovery & Data Mining and an application software development project," Horgan wrote.

Partners of the diploma programmes may provide internships for all successful graduates.

Siliconrepublic.com is hosting Skills February, a month dedicated to news, reports, interviews and videos covering a range of topics on the digital skills debate.

What makes the years 2011/2012 so remarkable is the fires of opportunity that are being kindled not by politicians, tech CEOs or new gadgets, but by some of the young kids in Ireland who are anxious to code and write their own software. Pay attention, because these kids may plant the seeds of economic growth for decades to come. None of the technological marvels we write about today would be possible without people like Steve Wozniak (Apple), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) or Bill Gates (Microsoft), who from an early age learned how to code.

My favourite stories so far this year involve 13-year-old Harry Moran emerging as the world's youngest Mac app creator, 11-year-old Shane Curran, who did his first Linux install at age six and Leaving Cert students Niall Paterson and Sam Caulfield, whose facial recognition software signals the death of passwords.

This time last year at the Dublin Web Summit I was impressed by then-Leaving Cert student Whelton's sincerity and wisdom beyond his years and I reacted instinctively and impulsively when he arrived at my office months later to tell me about this thing he'd been working on, the CoderDojo movement. This deserved our support, without hesitation.

Since then, hundreds of youngsters and their parents have taken part in a revolution that has spread from Cork, Kerry and Dublin to Árainn Mhór off Ireland's Atlantic coast and to cities like London and San Francisco.

Kids and their parents come along, everyone helps each other and kids construct the poetry of the 21st century. But this isn't just any poetry, this is poetry in motion that could generate jobs and create meaningful careers and opportunities for decade to come. Even ordinary poems come with syntax errors, or a slight slip in cadence or rhythm, but the result is always remarkable.

Harry, for example, learned how to code via CoderDojo in just three months. He developed a game called PizzaBot that shot past Angry Birds and Call of Duty in the Mac App Charts. These kids are creating their own kind of mythology - at a careers night in my old secondary school in Trim, Co Meath, I spoke to kids who wanted to do computer science and they'd all heard about Harry.

Across Ireland, multinationals such as Google and Eli Lilly are offering up space to host these amazing events.

The recent CoderDojo on Árainn Mhór - held in the local school hall - was perhaps the best attended of them all, with more than 100 turning up. Just this week I received an email from 12-year-old Jordan Casey, who is an avid game and website coder who can't wait until CoderDojo comes to Waterford.

How to bring CoderDojo to your community

CoderDojo co-founder Bill Liao told me how CoderDojo has sprung a life of its own and instead of waiting for a CoderDojo to arrive in their town, he urges enthusiasts to instigate their own Dojos. All the rest will follow.

He has a point: the Dojos are spreading, like wildfire, but the original founders can't be everywhere and for the movement to spread those who are passionate about imbuing software and coding ability in our youth can easily start CoderDojos if they follow some basic rules.

The vital ingredient is enthusiasm and, according to the CoderDojo blog, CoderDojos should be free of charge.

Other things that will be needed:

A roof - ideally a local office building with an open space, such as a cafeteria.

A rhythm - the Dojos thrive on being open at least once a week, every week.

A network - you'll need a Wi-Fi network, otherwise, no Dojo!

A talkative nerd - kids who want to code warm to experienced programmers who can inspire them.

A champion - effectively a leader who shows up every week to keep everything running smoothly.

Oh yeah, and there's one rule - 'above all, be cool'.

Siliconrepublic.com is hosting Skills February, a month dedicated to news, reports, interviews and videos covering a range of topics on the digital skills debate.

A record 60 secondary schools across Ireland will host qualifying rounds of the competition this week, with the top 100 performers going on to compete at the national finals at Dublin City University (DCU) in March. The winners there will win the opportunity to represent Ireland at the International Linguistics Olympiad in Slovenia in July 2012.

What is computational linguistics?

Computational linguistics is the science of understanding language using logic and computer algorithms. It is pervasive in our lives - examples include Apple’s Siri voice-recognition system and the Google Translate machine-translation engine. The All Ireland Linguistics Olympiad aims to introduce student to this field – in which Ireland excels – and to encourage them to pursue careers at the intersection of language, linguistics and computing.

“AILO challenges students to engage in ‘code-breaking’ to understand unfamiliar languages such as Faroese or the Sioux language Lakhota,” explains Cara Greene, Education and Outreach manager at CNGL.

“The budding linguists analyse the patterns in a small amount of linguistic data and work out how the underlying system works. No prior knowledge of linguistics or foreign languages is required; instead the students must use logic and reasoning skills to solve the complex puzzles.”

Now in its fourth year, AILO has already attracted more than 650 participants from schools in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. A further 700 students are participating in the 2012 season.

“AILO has really captured the imagination of students and teachers alike,” says Greene. “We are now starting to see past participants go on to pursue studies in computational linguistics at third level, which suggests that the competition is meeting its goal of fostering the next generation of Irish computational linguists.”

AILO is a key element of the Education and Outreach programme of the Centre for Next Generation Localisation, a €40m academia-industry consortium funded by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and 10 industry partners. For competition updates, and to try out the puzzles for yourself, visit the website.

Siliconrepublic.com is hosting Skills February, a month dedicated to news, reports, interviews and videos covering a range of topics on the digital skills debate.

Dr Thomas Cooney, a lecturer in entrepreneurship at DIT, who is also a member of the European Commission FP7 Advisory Group on SMEs, is chairing the Science To Business programme.

He says the aim of the interactive workshops at ESOF will be to help scientists, academics or entrepreneurs who want to make contacts and learn more applied research enage with others in their field and potentially forge new alliances.

Tthe 12 workshops, each lasting 90 minutes, are open to calls for proposals. The 12 areas people can submit proposals for are:

1. How does the economic environment influence opportunities for Science to Business activity?
2. What do we mean by 'Innovative Entrepreneurship' and why should it become an integral part of government policy?
3. What is required to engender greater entrepreneurial activity amongst SET students / graduates?
4. What should universities do to encourage more spin-outs and licensing arrangements?
5. What actions should be taken to reduce the barriers for innovators to start a business?
6. What is the future of Open Innovation?
7. A 90-minute guide on everything you should consider when starting a business.
8. Why are business clusters beneficial to enterprises and regions?
9. What are the challenges involved in building innovative capability?
10. What are the challenges involved in getting Intellectual Property Protection?
11. Multinationals in search of research output and people?
12. What are 'Exit Strategies' and why should I think about them at the start?

Cooney says that the 12 winning submissions must be internationally focused, ie they must incorporate at least three partners from three countries to give the projects a strong geographical spread. He says the proposals will also need to showcase how they will be interactive and imaginative so as to attract attention from delegates visiting ESOF this summer.

For more information see the ESOF 2012 website.

Samsung and other patent holders made a commitment to ensure FRAND (fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory) access to standardised technology, such as 3G and other wireless standards.

Samsung is suing Apple in Europe over 13 standards related to its 3G technology.

“In 2011, Samsung sought injunctive relief in various Member States' courts against competing mobile device makers based on alleged infringements of certain of its patent rights which it has declared essential to implement European mobile telephony standards," the European Commission said in a statement today.

“The commission will investigate, in particular, whether in doing so Samsung has failed to honour its irrevocable commitment given in 1998 to ETSI to license any standard essential patents relating to European mobile telephony standards on FRAND terms."

Termed TIMER or 'Targeting novel mechanisms of resolution in inflammation' the project also includes scientists from Trinity College Dublin (TCD).

As well as TCD, the other entities and institutions involved are:

• Fondazione Humanitas per la Ricerca, Italy
• Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil
• Universidade of São Paulo, Brazil
• Fundacao Oswaldo Cruz, Brazil
• Fondazione per l'Istituto di Ricerca in Biomedicina, Switzerland
• University of Glasgow, UK
• Telormedix SA, Switzerland
• Merck Serono SA, Switzerland
• ALTA Ricerca e Sviluppo in Biotecnologie S.r.l.u., Italy

_{Professor Luke O'Neill}

Luke O'Neill, a professor of biochemistry at TCD's School of Biochemistry and Immunology, said today he will be studying the effects of plant-derived anti-inflammatory agents collected from the Amazon Rainforest on innate immune processes important for such diseases as Type 2 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis.

"This is a very exciting collaborative project between laboratories in Europe and Brazil.  It will involve the testing of compounds derived from Brazilian tropical plants for anti-inflammatory properties.  These plants have been identified by Brazilian scientists with a knowledge of herbal remedies used by native peoples in the Amazon and are showing promise for inflammatory diseases," said O'Neill this afternoon.

He said the research programme will cover aspects from the discovery of novel natural compounds to basic research to clinical trials.

A government commission in Russia has also released its report findings on the failed probe mission to Roscosmos today. It has ruled out any "external or foreign influence" - that's according to a report on RiaNovosti.

The US$170m probe had been launched on 9 November from Baikonur Cosmodrome to explore one of Mars' moons but failed to make it past the Earth's low orbit shortly after its launch. As a result, the probe had been stuck in the Earth's low orbit before it crash landed, burning up over the Pacific Ocean.

The fallout of the Phobos-Grunt had whipped up much controversy, especially as the problem of space debris has come to the fore of late. Phobos-Grunt had been carrying 7.5 tonnes of toxic fuel. At the time, Roscosmos had indicated it expected the fuel would burn on re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere. The Russian space agency also said before the fall-out how it expected up to 30 pieces of the probe, weighing up to 200kg, to survive re-entry.

The failure of the probe to launch into space also ignited controversy, as Popovkin has alluded to the Russian newspaper Izvestia in early January that the probe might have been tampered with, outside of the Russian space agency's control. He appeared to suggest potential hostile interference.

"I do not want to blame anyone, but these days there are very powerful means to influence space vehicles," Popovkin told Izvestia at the time.

However, he did indicate the probe was most likely doomed from the start, due to limited funds and because expiration dates for some parts had been nearing.

Dr Maria Hinfelaar, president, LIT, said that since the report came out last year, the ITs have been forced to rethink how they would view themselves in the new landscape and to reposition themselves.

For the Munster region, she said that along with Dr Brendan Murphy (CIT president) and Dr Oliver Murphy (IT Tralee president) they developed a new model for the creation of the technological university and also consulted international experts with experience in the area.

"Prof Simon Marginson, an Australian expert on higher education, played a major role, while Prof Robin Smyth from the UK also gave advice. He had experience of when the polytechnics in the UK were converted into universities," said Hinfelaar.

She said the three presidents are confident the MTU will meet the criteria for technological university status when the Higher Education Authority (HEA) finalises its recommended criteria for the institutes of technology in Ireland. Once the HEA releases its proposed criteria it will then go to the Education Minister for approval.

Demand for higher education in Ireland

Incidentally, Hinfelaar is also chair of Institutes of Technology Ireland (IOTI) this year. Under this hat, she spoke about how the demand for higher education is going to "soar" in Ireland due to massive increases in the population.

"When you think of the 14 institutes of technology in Ireland, including DIT, and the aim to consolidate them down to four, it's about increasing the pathways for students to receive higher education and to manage and use resources better."

Hinfelaar spoke about how the institutes have evolved over the years, particularly in the areas of applied research, and especially with the incubation centres at the ITS which are spinning out new companies from research and creating jobs.

Taking LIT as a case in point, Hinfelaar spoke about the bioscience project there, which has been a "step change" in that it is part of the FP7 programme with the EU.

Building on current strengths

But back to the plan for the MTU and Hinfelaar said the technological university would build on the strengths of LIT, IT Tralee and CIT.

She also indicated that an integral aim of the university, with its distributed presence across the region, would be to enhance its capacity to work in partnership with local businesses, industry and the professions.