2007 Press Releases
Major Boost for UCC Research
13.11.2007
University College Cork (UCC) and the Tyndall National Institute have received €20 million for cutting edge research in a number of key areas.
13.11.2007
University College Cork (UCC) and the Tyndall National Institute have received €20 million for cutting edge research in a number of key areas.
University College Cork (UCC) and the Tyndall National Institute have received €20 million for cutting edge research in a number of key areas. The award was announced today (November 13th 2007) by the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Micheál Martin and welcomed by the President of UCC, Dr Michael Murphy. The funding was awarded as part of €87 million investment award through Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) across a number of groundbreaking industry-academic projects.
The Tyndall National Institute, was awarded €4.2 million to study two areas of high strategic importance to the ICT industry in Ireland. These are “Evolutionary CMOS” and “Revolutionary CMOS” technologies. CMOS stands for complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor, the name given to current methods used to make silicon chips for devices such as PCs, laptops and mobile phones. Evolutionary CMOS will aim to make such devices even smaller and more efficient. Ultimately, however, the objective will be to make devices smaller than can be achieved using the Evolutionary CMOS approach and this is where Revolutionary CMOS will be deployed. This will involve working at the “nanometre” scale. One nanometre is one billionth of a metre. The team will be led by Professor Martyn Pemble.
The Tyndall National Institute was awarded a further €6 million for research in photonics. Photonics is the science of manipulating information signals in the form of light rather than electronics. It reduces the cost of transmitting and processing information and is regarded as one of the key technologies of the new millennium. The research team will be led by Dr Frank Peters and the project is titled PiFAS – Photonics Integration from Atoms to Systems”.
Dr Liam Marnane of UCC’s Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering will lead a team of researchers from the Universities of Limerick, Galway and Dublin in a €4 million research project aimed at reducing the number of in-patients in acute hospitals. The team will develop low cost sensors and use new developments in wireless technology to allow for more secure home monitoring of patients. At present, limitations on battery life mean that sampled data cannot be simply transmitted to a central processing server. The requirement is for “smart” sensors that will lead to a reduction in transmitted data and long battery life. Developments in this area will enable the introduction of complex biomedical monitoring and control systems well beyond the capabilities of current applications.
A €6.2 million project led by UCC’s Professor Karsten Menzel of the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering will use advanced ICT for sustainable and optimised operations in the agriculture, engineering and construction sectors in Ireland. Professor Menzel’s team will enhance the approach to “smart” buildings and the networks used to manage them.
UCC is also a partner in three other significant research projects in the areas of drug delivery (Professor Caitriona O’Driscoll, School of Pharmacy), drug crystallisation (Drs Humphrey Moynihan, Simon Lawrence, Professor Anita Maguire, School of Pharmacy and Dept. of Chemistry) and nanomaterials (Professor Mike Morris and Dr Justin Holmes, Department of Chemistry).
UCC President, Dr Murphy said the additional resources would further the university’s well won reputation as one of the leading research institutes in the State. He added that UCC’s significantly improved standing in the world rankings for universities was proof that the unremitting quest for excellence in teaching, learning and research was paying dividends not only in UCC’s position as one of Ireland’s premier third level institutions, but now in world rankings as well. It also showed investments in the University sector is being rewarded by increasingly world class performance by Irish Academics. Dr Murphy also welcomed the extensive participation of CIT in a number of these projects.
Pictured at the presentation of the awards were, from L-R: Professor Karsten Menzel, UCC; Professor Martyn Pemble, Tyndall National Institute, UCC; Professor Frank Gannon, Director General SFI; Mr Micheál Martin, TD Minister for Enterprise, Trade & Employment; Dr Frank Peters, Tyndall National Institute, UCC; Dr Liam Murnane, UCC and Professor Pat Fottrell, Chairperson SFI.
562MMcS
The Tyndall National Institute, was awarded €4.2 million to study two areas of high strategic importance to the ICT industry in Ireland. These are “Evolutionary CMOS” and “Revolutionary CMOS” technologies. CMOS stands for complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor, the name given to current methods used to make silicon chips for devices such as PCs, laptops and mobile phones. Evolutionary CMOS will aim to make such devices even smaller and more efficient. Ultimately, however, the objective will be to make devices smaller than can be achieved using the Evolutionary CMOS approach and this is where Revolutionary CMOS will be deployed. This will involve working at the “nanometre” scale. One nanometre is one billionth of a metre. The team will be led by Professor Martyn Pemble.
The Tyndall National Institute was awarded a further €6 million for research in photonics. Photonics is the science of manipulating information signals in the form of light rather than electronics. It reduces the cost of transmitting and processing information and is regarded as one of the key technologies of the new millennium. The research team will be led by Dr Frank Peters and the project is titled PiFAS – Photonics Integration from Atoms to Systems”.
Dr Liam Marnane of UCC’s Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering will lead a team of researchers from the Universities of Limerick, Galway and Dublin in a €4 million research project aimed at reducing the number of in-patients in acute hospitals. The team will develop low cost sensors and use new developments in wireless technology to allow for more secure home monitoring of patients. At present, limitations on battery life mean that sampled data cannot be simply transmitted to a central processing server. The requirement is for “smart” sensors that will lead to a reduction in transmitted data and long battery life. Developments in this area will enable the introduction of complex biomedical monitoring and control systems well beyond the capabilities of current applications.
A €6.2 million project led by UCC’s Professor Karsten Menzel of the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering will use advanced ICT for sustainable and optimised operations in the agriculture, engineering and construction sectors in Ireland. Professor Menzel’s team will enhance the approach to “smart” buildings and the networks used to manage them.
UCC is also a partner in three other significant research projects in the areas of drug delivery (Professor Caitriona O’Driscoll, School of Pharmacy), drug crystallisation (Drs Humphrey Moynihan, Simon Lawrence, Professor Anita Maguire, School of Pharmacy and Dept. of Chemistry) and nanomaterials (Professor Mike Morris and Dr Justin Holmes, Department of Chemistry).
UCC President, Dr Murphy said the additional resources would further the university’s well won reputation as one of the leading research institutes in the State. He added that UCC’s significantly improved standing in the world rankings for universities was proof that the unremitting quest for excellence in teaching, learning and research was paying dividends not only in UCC’s position as one of Ireland’s premier third level institutions, but now in world rankings as well. It also showed investments in the University sector is being rewarded by increasingly world class performance by Irish Academics. Dr Murphy also welcomed the extensive participation of CIT in a number of these projects.
Pictured at the presentation of the awards were, from L-R: Professor Karsten Menzel, UCC; Professor Martyn Pemble, Tyndall National Institute, UCC; Professor Frank Gannon, Director General SFI; Mr Micheál Martin, TD Minister for Enterprise, Trade & Employment; Dr Frank Peters, Tyndall National Institute, UCC; Dr Liam Murnane, UCC and Professor Pat Fottrell, Chairperson SFI.
562MMcS