Siliconrepublic.com sits down with Kevin Fitzgibbon, Water Innovation Centre Coordinator at Nimbus, to find out about the challenges Ireland faces with its water management, and how a Cork collaboration is there to help.
“We have lots of water that falls on us, for sure,” said Fitzgibbon, noting a reality of either too much or too little throughout the year, and across the country. “There’s a management challenge that this creates,” he said. “The other challenge is water quality.”
A way to handle these growing issues was the creation of an expert body, and in Cork there sits just that. The Water Systems and Services Innovation Centre (WSSIC) was set up a number of years ago when Cork City Council, Cork County Council and Cork Institute of Technology got their heads together.
Bringing together dozens of researchers, it is open to companies looking to innovate water services or products, offering expertise where needed.
“The main opportunity is to bring water-related ideas to us and see how we can help you,” he said. The researchers are in fields like hardware, software, wireless communications networks, data analytics, app creation and beyond.
“We like to think of ourselves as a centre for the IoT. If companies have ideas in the water sector or any other, we can help them turn those ideas into reality.”
Words by Gordon Hunt
