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research. education. Why Go Into Research ? The funding process & sources of funding. How to apply for funding ? How to manage a funded project ?. Dr. Marek Rebow. skills. enterprise. innovation. Faculty of Engineering. Faculty of Engineering Research in a Nutshell.
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research education Why Go Into Research ? The funding process & sources of funding. How to apply for funding ? How to manage a funded project ? Dr. Marek Rebow skills enterprise innovation
Faculty of Engineering Faculty of Engineering Research in a Nutshell
Faculty of Engineering Research in a Nutshell CONTRACT RESEARCHERS as on 1st NOVEMBER 2008 SFI STOKES Professor: 1 SFI STOKES Lecturer: 2 Research Assistants: 1 Postdoctoral Fellows: 10 Research Associates/Managers: 8 TOTAL: 22
Faculty of Engineering Research in a Nutshell POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH SUPERVISORS as on 1st NOVEMBER 2008 School of Electrical Engineering Systems: 16 School of Electronic and Communications Eng.: 10 School of Manufacturing and Design Eng.: 6 School of Mechanical and Transport Eng.: 4 School of Civil and Building Services Eng.: 9 Internal supervisors from the Faculty & DIT: 7 TOTAL: 52 RESEARCH INCOME: Research income in 2007: €3,500,000 Research income by October 2008: €1,800,000 Value of research proposals under evaluations: €8,083,000 Value of research proposals not approved in 2008: €3,317,000
DIT’s Graduate Research School • The recently established DIT’s Graduate Research School (GRS)is the new 'virtual' entity designed to support and develop graduate research education across the organisation and to define the DIT community of research students and research student supervisors. The GRS enables the provision of generic skills training to all researchers to meet the challenge of interdisciplinary research, in addition to providing transferable skills modules which help PhD students to develop the skills required to effectively manage their PhD research project and improve their future career prospects. • The following R&D training blocks are available: • research environment, • research techniques / methodology, • personal effectiveness, • research management, • specific skills, • communication, • team work, • career management, • induction/personal development plan.
DIT’s Graduate Research School As part of the new research student’s induction programme, students will be asked to complete a Skills Needs Analysis Report. The aim of this report is to assist students in identifying the key skills that they already have and those they will need acquire to effectively manage their research project. The information provided in this skills analysis exercise will be used by the student and supervisor to establish the student’s personal development plan. Under the Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF), Cycle 2 DIT has been awarded significant funding to establish the ‘Dublin Regional Higher Education Alliance (DRHEA)’, including Graduate Education programme training and sharing of modules among IoTs and Universities.
DIT International Collaborative Research • 25 Countries in the EU • China • India • USA • South America
Audio Research Group (Centre of Excellence) Applied Optoelectronics Centre Centre for Elastomeric Research Communications Network Research Institute (CNRI) Antennas & High Frequency Research Group Dublin Energy Lab Electrical Power Research Group Biomedical Engineering, Assistive Technology and Health Informatics National Institute for Transport Logistic Research Groups/Centres/Institutes within the Faculty of Engineering
Biomedical Engineering, Assistive Technology and Health Informatics The Biomedical Engineering, Assistive Technology and Health Informatics research group “TeaPOT”, consolidates its members' ongoing research into technology that interacts with humans and the human body - People Orientated Technology (POT). The group's activities include research and teaching in biomedical signal processing, human-computer interfaces, assistive technology, rehabilitation engineering and health informatics. TeaPOT (http://teapot.dit.ie) is involved in collaborations with Enable Ireland, the National Rehabilitation Hospital (NRH), St. James' Hospital, the Central Remedial Clinic (CRC) and Age Action Ireland. The Group consists of 6 faculty, 1 postdoctoral fellow, 3 PhD researchers and collaborates closely with biomedical engineering group in Bolton St which encompasses 8 faculty and 6 PhD researchers.
Audio Research Group (Centre of Excellence) The Audio Engineering and Speech Processing research group has had a number of significant achievements in sound source separation, time scale modification, and automatic music transcription. They are lead partner to a European Commission FP6 funded project EASAIER and an Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation project IMAAS. Sound source separation, a novel method for extraction of an instrument from a recorded ensemble (ADRess: Azimuth Discrimination and Resynthesis, by Dan Barry) has resulted in a successful patent and subsequent licensing agreement with a leading audio research company (http://www.audioresearchgroup.com/) The Group compromises: 1 PI, 1 senior researcher, 2 faculty, 1 postdoc, 7 PhD/MPhil researchers
Photonics Research Group The Photonics Research Group is within the Applied Optoelectronics Centre. The Group is undertaking research in a number of areas of photonics and optical fiber communications. The Centre was founded in 1996 by Dr. Farrell, who is the Centre Director. The Centre is located in the School of Electronic and Communications Engineering in the Dublin Institute of Technology on the Kevin St. Campus. The group consists of 6 Ph.D. graduate students, 2 post-docs and 2 members of the academic staff, under the leadership of the Principle Investigator, Dr. Gerald Farrell. Inexpensive Disposable Fibre Temperature Sensor Researchers of this group have invented a single-loop, single-mode fibre sensor that is one tenth the cost of a FBG sensor. To analyse the sensor data, a simple Ratiometric Power Measurement (RPM) technique is used which costs significantly less than traditional tunable laser based or interferometric interrogation techniques.
Communications Network Research Institute (CNRI) The CNRI has origins in the School of Electronic and Communications Engineering and is headed-up by Dr. Mark Davis. The research staff complement currently stands at 3 Postdoctoral Fellows, 1 Research Assistant, 3 PhD and 3 MPhil full-time candidates. The CNRI is funded under a SFI Multi-Investigator Award and under an Enterprise Ireland Informatics Initiative project. The CNRI is undertaking research in the area of wireless networks and specifically the IEEE 802.11 family of wireless LAN standards. The main focus of the work is in radio resource management for quality of service (QoS) provisioning. QoS provisioning is a critical element in the delivery of real-time services such as Voice over IP (VoIP) and video streaming over wireless networks
Antennas & High Frequency Research Group Antenna & High Frequency Research Group specialises in the analysis, design and measurement of RF and microwave devices for wireless communications and medical applications. Current research themes include Multiband & Wideband Antennas for Portable Communications, Base-Stations Antennas, Hyperthermia Antennas and Antennas for Sensor Networks. Equipped with a comprehensive range of analysis methods, manufacturing equipment and a measurement laboratory, the team can rapidly expedite ideas to qualified prototypes. This multi-national group of researcher is directed by Dr Max Ammann in the School of Electronic & Communications Engineering and comprises personnel who range from MSc studentships to post-doctoral levels.
Electrical Power Research Group Dublin Energy Lab • The Dublin energy lab (DEL) is a leader in science and engineering energy research in Ireland with an associated staff of 24 academics, 4 full time researchers, 18 full and part time PhD researchers and MPhil researchers. DEL conducts research across a range of disciplines with key efforts organised into themes of • electrical power • energy policy • low carbon buildings • solar energy • sustainable energy technologies
Electrical Power Research Group The Electrical Power Research Group aims to develop a world class energy interface facility to advance leading research in power quality conditioning and in integration of wind and solar energy to the network. The group comprises two principal researchers, four academics and four PhD research students (www.eleceng.dit.ie/eprg/). They collaborate with the Power Quality Laboratory at Texas AM University and have established an international research consortium in fuel cell engineering. The fuel cell team has entered into partnership with colleagues from other centres at DIT and is partner to a Leonardo Da Vinci project in fuel cell engineering (www.fuelcellknowhow.com).
Centre for Elastomeric Research The Centre for Elastomeric Research led by Dr Stephan Jerrams offers FEM modelling and equi-biaxial dynamic testing of hyperelastic and viscoelastic materials (fatigue, swelling, stress softening and relaxation), including magnetorheological elastomers, through their unique DYNAMET system, funded by Enterprise Ireland. This research group comprises principal and advisory researchers, 2 postdoctoral researchers, 3 PhD students and has developed strong collaborations with German Institute of Rubber Technology (DIK), the universities of Dundee, Portsmouth, London, Lyon and Warsaw. (http://www.dit.ie/research/centres/nlmrg/).
National Institute for Transport Logistic National Institute for Transport & Logistics (NITL) has establish its expertise in supply chain management (SCM) and logistics throughout a number of research funded projects and close research links with several leading logistics/SCM research organisations, including Heriot-Watt University, University of Hull, Cranfield University Transport Engineering Research Group, including low noise / low cost solutions for night deliveries, flight related deep venous thrombosis and application of behavioural decision theory to the Irish road freight industry. Members of this group are also involved in a number of EC FP6 projects (BESTUFS, SCILENSE, NICHES, POLIS, Interreg IVB BAPTS) and collaborations with Dublin City Council, SenterNovem Netherlands, Noise Abatement Society UK, Bombardier Aerospace and VENTAC. The project manager, Roisin Byrne and lead researcher, Hugh Finlay, have been recently appointed to the EC experts group on Transport Research (http://www.nitl.ie/)
Research Signature Areas Faculty of Engineering • Biomedical Engineering, Assistive Technologies & Health Informatics • DSP: Audio & Speech Processing, Bio-imaging and Computer Vision Systems, Cryptology and Information Security • Sustainable Energy & Transport Systems • Wireless Communications • Engineering Education • Optical Sensing • Characterization of Elastomers and Smart Materials
Definition of research A standard, textbook definition of scientific research is: Scientific research is the systematic, controlled, empirical and critical investigation of natural phenomena guided by theory and hypotheses about the presumed relations among such phenomena. (Kerlinger 1986, page 10) This definition can be simplified to: Scientific research is asking questions in a systematic way to obtain answers that will be meaningful and can be replicated.
Mathematicalor/ andnumerical modeling Validation Experiments Research is, by its nature, cyclical Research is a cyclicalprocess Paul Leedy, "Practical Research: Planning and Design"
Grand challenge problems Grand challenge problems are areas where the problems are demonstrably hard to solve, suggesting that our capabilities to solve the problem(s) will require improvements of several orders-of-magnitude. Grand challenge problems are of economic and social importance. Most grand challenges are interdisciplinary in that they substantively consider 1) the inherent complexity of nature and society, 2) the consequent desire to explore basic research questions at the interfaces of disciplines, 3) the need to solve societal problems, and 4) the power of new technologies (National Academies, Facilitating Interdisciplinary Research, 2004).
$25 Million ‘Virgin Earth Challenge’ Sir Richard Branson and Al Gore have set up a new global science and technology prize -? The Virgin Earth Challenge - which will award $25 million to the individual or group who are able to demonstrate a commercially viable design which will remove at least 1 billion tons of atmospheric carbon dioxide per year for at least ten years without harmful effects. The removal must have long term effects and contribute materially to the stability of the Earth’s climate. It is the largest science and technology prize ever offered. The Board of Electricity Supply Board (ESB) - €4 Billion Recently, The Board of Electricity Supply Board (ESB) in Ireland approved a Strategic Framework to 2020 that will see major company investment in renewable energy, the halving of its carbon emissions within 12 years, and the achievement of carbon net-zero by 2035. Fifty percent of the overall investment package is geared towards investments in our renewable future. €4bn of this will be directly invested in renewable energy projects and €6.5bn will be spent facilitating renewables including smart metering and smart networks.
Emerging research signature areas ? Disruptive Civil Technologies Six Technologies with Potential Impacts on US Interests out to 2025 • Biogerontechnology • Energy Storage Materials • Biofuels and Bio-Based Chemicals • Clean Coal Technologies • Service Robotics • The Internet of Things
"Since we cannot be universal and know all that is to be known of everything, we ought to know a little about everything. For it is far better to know something about everything than to know all about one thing.“B. Pascal (1623 - 1662) Can we know all about everything ? Interdisciplinary research group
External Research Infrastructure, (Tyndall National Institute, ICHEC) SMEs – outsourcing RSU, OGS&R Filter on the basis of quality (peer review) Critical Mass 7FP COST Workshops/Seminars 5PG 3PD RFP UREKA PI VS Technical/Administ-rartion Staff CommunityEngagement 1T EU Training Courses/ IUTAM Summer Schools International Collaboration/ Sabbaticals • OUTPUTS • Graduates research experience • Research outputs • Innovation outputs • Visible research strengths • Partnerships with extended knowledge actors & stakeholders QUALITY The quality of the outputs in turn impacts on the ability of the Faculty to attract research income Model(s) of research groups/teams ? Information/Support Internal funding:e.g. Abbest, CaBS Priority research area External funding: Funds Interdisciplinary Proposal RESEARCH TEAM
Examples of open problems in computer science • If one-way functions do not exist then public key cryptography is impossible • To what degree can one speed up a computation in various architectures – a single processor, grid, distributed network, etc. ? Amdahl's law ? • What is an optimal unit-execution-time (UET) scheduling algorithm for 3 processors with precedence constraints ? PROBLEMS FOR RESEARCH ARE EVERYWHERE !!! Electrical & Electronic & Software Engineering - exciting research fields. There are many opportunities for innovation, creating new technology, and designing and developing new research prototypes and products, in areas ranging from the most mathematical and theoretical to the most experimental. Researchers are members in a community of scholarsand innovators. The research community contributes much that is important and valuable to society, and a career as a researcher can be enormously and personally satisfying.
You can undertake postgraduate research YES Researcher’s attributes • Are you • curious about the whys and hows of things ? • persistent in your approach ? • an independent thinker and worker ? • creative and innovative ? • disciplined and focused when you need to be ? The value of a research qualification • Can enhance your job prospects • Allows in-depth study of a particular subject of interest • Enables you to develop highly transferable skills, such as: • autonomous learning and project management • in-depth critical appraisal abilities • well honed analytical and research skills • creativity, problem solving and lateral thinking • the capacity to spot patterns and trends • commercial awareness After Dr. Gerald Farrell
Values of the twenty-first century engineer After A. Pais
Values of the twenty-first century engineer Twenty-first century engineers should be well-rounded, well-balanced individuals who are capable of relating to people from a variety of backgrounds. They should not be driven by monetary reward alone but by the pride, satisfaction and enjoymentthat comes from doing things that are particularly useful. Although their day-to-day work might involve solving very specific technical problems, they should be aware that their work is part of a ‘bigger picture’. In philosophy, the concept of holism encompasses the idea that “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”. The modern engineer will be able to see connections between seemingly disparate components and integrate themso that their combined value is greater than the sum of the values of the individual components. This ability will be acquired by an accumulated knowledge and creativity developed over time as a result of an interest in not only engineering but also other fields such as arts, science, humanities and commerce.
Research DIT Targets for Research and Scholarship by 2010 • 60 new research posts, • 30% of academic staff are research active, • 500 peer reviewed papers pa, • 600 research students (400 PhD), • 50 postdoctoral appointments Innovation Education Building the Knowledge-based Economy in Europe European Union Research Policy – Lisbon Strategy ‘Building Ireland’s Knowledge Economy’ (2004) The Report of the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs said that by 2010 we will require an increase in the Irish research population from 10,200 (measured in 2003) to 18,300 (in 2010). The output of PhDs will rise from 450 per annum in 2002/2003 to 900 per annum in 2013. The generation of PhD and research degrees as a key for success in knowledge economy ! • target for R&D: 2.5% GNP by 2010, • ranking in top six countries in scientific publications and citations, • researchers as proportion of total employment doubling, • a doubling of enterprises performing R&D and of sales/exports from products/processes, • university patenting, spin-out and licensing activity comparable to norms of leading US institutions Growth and Jobs The Knowledge-based Economy: • knowledge as a product • knowledge workers
European Labour Market for Researchers A Time of Transition Labour Intensive, low value-added activities Knowledge Intensive, high value-added activities After Martin Cronin, Chief Executive, Forfás
Competing on Knowledge Innovation Knowledge & Technology Converted to Research Converted to Knowledge & Technology Integrated Value Chain Sales & Marketing Innovation/ R&D Production of Goods/Services After Martin Cronin, Chief Executive, Forfás
The chain-link model of innovation (C) a central chain of innovation involving the identification of a potential market followed by design and testing of the idea, leading to market entry. (f) feed-back loops to depict the trial and error nature of the process. (F) the most important source of feed-back is from testing the idea in the market. (K) the existing stock of knowledge (R) research - new knowledge, (1) & (2) the problem might be solved by reference to the existing stock of knowledge (3) research undertaken (4) outcomes of research is uncertain as the problem may be insoluble. Source: Kline and Rosenberg (1986)
The chain-link model of innovation ‘Although the transmission of knowledge is critical to social and economic development, general advancement of knowledge comes through research-based acts of discovery. This is why the research function of the university matters. It is through research that universities add to the shared stock of human knowledge. Research efforts can be problem-directed in their nature, taking as their starting point issues and concerns emerging from everyday life. Research efforts can also be curiosity driven, motivated primarily by the interests of researchers who might gain their inspiration from a variety of questions or puzzles, and who approach their research using concepts and methods, representing the accumulation of knowledge in their given disciplines or fields of inquiry (Strandburg, 2005).’
A general model of the research process Michael Mintrom, Managing the research function of the university: pressures and dilemmas Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management Vol. 30, No. 3, August 2008, p. 231–244
Intellectual Property (IP) Policy The US Constitution is a relatively short document, but protection of discovery and innovation was thought important enough to be included: “Congress shall have power to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries. [Article I, section 8] As Thomas Jefferson, the father of the US patent system put it, “He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine, as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me”. Contact details: Tom Flanagan Head of Commercialisation DIT Hothouse, Aungier St P: +353 (1) 402 7028 E: tom.flanagan@dit.ie
