Team Ireland depart for the 29th International Olympiad in Informatics

Posted Fri, 28/07/2017 - 12:22 by gconway

AIPO-IOI Team Ireland 2017 DepartingTeam Ireland departed today from Dublin airport to take part in the prestigious 29th International Olympiad in Informatics in Tehran, Iran. The event attracts the best young programmers from around the world to compete in one of the toughest algorithmic programming contests in the world. Over 300 secondary level students from more than 80 countries will descend on the capital of Persia for a week of intense coding challenges and cultural experiences.

The Irish team was selected after multiple rounds of the national Olympiad, the All-Ireland Programming Olympiad (AIPO). The team comprises of four young men from around the country:

  • John Ryan (18yr - St. Joseph’s College, Borrisoleigh, Thurles, Tipperary)
  • Kieran Horgan (17yr - Davis College, Mallow, Co. Cork)
  • Aidan Molloy (17yr - Bruce College, Montenotte, Cork)
  • Oisin O’Duibhir (17yr - Scoil Mhuire Agus Íde, Newcastle West, Limerick)

These young men have been honing their programmatic skills since qualifying for the Irish Team at Easter and are ready to take on the IOI challenge. The IOI contest will be held over two days, Sunday 30th July and Tuesday 1st August, when they will have to solve three algorithmic problems over five hours with points awarded for how quickly their coded solution runs against large data inputs. Gold, Silver and Bronze medals are only give out to the top students.

School of Computing Building renamed to the McNulty Building

Posted Thu, 27/07/2017 - 17:06 by gconway
project5050

The School of Computing building has been formally renamed to the McNulty building in honour Kathleen (Kay) McNulty (1921-2006).  The Donegal-born computer programmer was one of the six original programmers of the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer), the first general-purpose, electronic, digital computer developed in the US in 1946.

A total of six building in DCU were renamed as part of the DCU Women in Leadership initiative, Project 50:50 representing a commitment by DCU to name 50% of its major buildings after inspiring female figures.

Kathleen McNulty emigrated to the US with her family when she was just three years old to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She graduated with a degree in mathematics from Chestnut Hill College for Women in June 1942, one of only a few mathematics majors out of a class of 92 women. During World War II, she was hired by the US Army to calculate bullet and missile trajectories at Ballistic Research Laboratory in Aberdeen, Maryland using mechanical desk calculators. The ENIAC was developed for the purpose of performing these same ballistics calculations between 1943–1946. In June 1945, Kay was selected to be one of its first programmers, along with several other women from the computer corps department.

Computing's Andy Way & Markus Helfert Honoured by Enterprise Ireland

Posted Tue, 25/07/2017 - 15:46 by gconway
EUChamps

School of Computing's and ADAPT Centre researchers, Prof. Andy Way and Dr. Markus Helfert, were honoured at an Enterprise Ireland event at the end of June. They were amoung the researchers named by Enterprise Ireland as Ireland's champions of EU Research for their projects which exhibited outstanding leadership in their respective programme areas under Horizon 2020. H2020 is the EU Framework Programme for research and innovation.  It runs over the period 2014-2020 and has a total budget of €75 billion.

John Halligan TD, Minister of State for Training, Skills, Innovation, Research and Development with Julie Sinnamon, CEO of Enterprise Ireland recognised six ADAPT researchers who have reached the pinnacle of European research at ‘Ireland’s Champions of EU Research’ event taking place in the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Dublin on the 28th of June.

Insight's David Azcona awarded prestigious Fulbright Scholarship

Posted Fri, 23/06/2017 - 12:32 by gconway
David Azcona Fulbright

Insight PhD candidate David Azcona (pictured centre with fellow awardee David Collings and DCU President Brian MacCraith) has been named by Minister Charlie Flanagan of the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Mr Reece Smyth, Chargé d’affaires of the US Embassy in Ireland, among this year’s Fulbright Irish awardees.

Azcona is a PhD candidate in Insight@DCU. As a Fulbright Student Awardee to Arizona State University, he will research the differences in learner behaviour in Computer Science between Ireland and the U.S., and how student collaboration with a university comprising such a large student body can be enabled.

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