• Clodagh Gleeson
• Jim Normille
• Michael Peter Kennedy

• Frank Boehme
• Ian Pitt

I have been appointed as College Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science. I am from Dresden, East Germany. This is not my first stay in Ireland. Shortly after the fall of the wall, I became a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Electrical Engineering at UCD under the Human Capital Mobility programme funded by the EU

However, this is my first professional appointment in Computer Science. Before I went to Dublin, I had studied Electronics at Dresden University of Technology and after my stay in Dublin I went to UC Berkeley as a Visiting Research Engineer. Until this time I was working in the field of Electronics.

The first real computer I ever had access to was an Atari 520ST which was illegally bootlegged through the iron curtain by my father when he returned from a conference trip to West Germany years before the collapse of the East German government. Both the East and West German governments outlawed this kind of in-the-suitcase-technology-transfer during those days; one was afraid of communications technology which was beyond what they could understand (and intercept) and the other was apparently concerned about economic competition or national security. At Dresden University, there were computers too, but they were kept behind locked steel doors to which only a select circle had access.

My experience in electronics is valuable for my current work in the Computer Science Department. I believe that both fields will gradually merge in the future.

I live in Cork City and I love the good vibes of the town. I enjoy paragliding and dancing.

Dr Ian Pitt was born and brought up in Weston-Super-Mare, near Bristol and studied Music and Drama at an arts college in Devon, gaining a BA from Exeter University. After graduating he spent three years training and working as a sound-engineer in the theatre followed by five years working as a journalist in London, writing mainly for music, audio and hi-fi magazines.

Ian moved to York to take a MSc in Music Technology at York University and followed this up with a PhD in Computer Science, investigating the use of synthetic sound and speech to make computers more accessible to the blind.

Ian then spent a year in Magdeburg, Germany, on a post-doctoral fellowship, working with Professor Thomas Strothotte on the translation of images into speech and sound. He moved to UCC in October 1997 to take up a post as temporary college lecturer in Computer Science. This was made permanent in October 1999 and since then he has been involved in setting-up a MSc course in Multimedia at UCC and now teaches mainly on that course.

Hobbies and pastimes include music: Ian has played in various folk/blues groups in England and now occasionally plays fiddle and mandolin at local sessions. He has also accompanied singer Ann O'Brien, Executive Assistant in the Computer Science Department, at several weddings in and around Cork.

When the opportunity arises he rides and takes part in carriage driving. For nine years he was a volunteer with the Riding for the Disabled Association in England and, with two friends, set-up a carriage driving group for disabled people in York.

Other pastimes include cycling and walking.