2008 Press Releases
16.04.2008
Mr Micheál Martin, TD, Minister for Enterprise Trade and Employment announced on Tuesday, April 15th 2008 the establishment of CLARITY a new Science Foundation Ireland Centre for Science, Engineering and Technology (CSET).
This ground-breaking Research Centre will focus on the so-called Sensor Web, which captures the intersection between two important research areas Adaptive Sensing and Information Discovery.
The new cutting-edge CLARITY CSET is a partnership between University College Dublin and Dublin City University, supported by research at the Tyndall National Institute (TNI) Cork. The CLARITY CSET Director is Professor Barry Smyth University College Dublin) and the Deputy Director is DCU's Professor Alan Smeaton. In total, over 90 highly skilled personnel will be working to deliver the CLARITY research programme. In addition, CLARITY will collaborate with leading multinationals and SMEs including: IBM, Vodafone, Ericsson, Foster-Miller, ChangingWorlds, Fidelity Investments and Critical Path, as well as national agencies, such as the Environmental Protection Agency, the Marine Institute and the National Museum of Ireland.
Over the next five years, total investment in CLARITY will amount to €16.4 million, of which Science Foundation Ireland through the CSET programme will contribute €11.8 million. CLARITY's primary industry partners will make a significant contribution collectively of over €4.6 million by contributing personnel, funding, equipment, infrastructure and services. The core aim of this innovative research centre is bringing information to life. The research will investigate the integration of sensor data from the physical world with sophisticated information processing and artificial intelligence techniques from computer science. CLARITY aims to develop systems that can sense, process and analyse what is happening in the real world and respond in an appropriate manner.
This investment will establish CLARITY as a truly unique world-class multidisciplinary research centre, said Minister Martin announcing the funding. By linking academic researchers with industry partners in Ireland, SFI CSETs such as CLARITY will play a significant role in building Ireland's new knowledge-driven economy.
Visit http://www.sfi.ie/content/content.asp?section_id=226&language_id=1&publication_id=1655 for full text.
About Tyndall's contribution
Tyndall's contribution to CLARITY, through Associate Principal Investigator, Dr Cian O Mathúna, Acting Head of Tyndall's Microsystems Centre, is focussed on research into miniaturised wireless sensor modules which can be deployed in remote environmental monitoring of water and air quality and in wearable electronics to monitor motion for sports and fitness, for stroke rehabilitation and for use in the monitoring of the safety and well-being of elderly people in the home and those suffering from Alzheimers.
Tyndall researchers have delivered a 25mm cubed, wireless sensor module that offers a unique level of modularity, design flexibility and robustness for applications development and future scalability studies in the emerging area of wireless sensor networks. The Tyndall mote is a development platform built-up, in a lego-like fashion, with different building blocks consisting of separate layers for sensors, signal processing, wireless communications and power. With a large selection of available layers, application-specific modules can be provided for deployment in a range of applications including remote environmental monitoring, building energy management, asset tracking and wearable health monitoring. Quick prototyping is essential in the research environment where ideas and concepts need to be investigated quickly. CLARITY brings together a multi-disciplinary team from chemistry, physics, signalling processing, computer science, physiotherapy to sports and fitness; the Tyndall Mote is a customizable platform that enables each PI to progress in their specific discipline.
Tyndall's technology roadmap is targeting the miniaturisation of the Tyndall Mote, through the application of advanced silicon integration technologies, which has recently delivered a 1cm cube or sugar cube. The ultimate goal is the development of the intelligent seed, a 1mm cube entity. "It is true to say that the SFI National Access Programme had a significant leverage effect in delivering the Tyndall hardware wireless sensor platform which will now form the basis of Tyndall's participation in the CLARITY CSET", said Dr Cian O Mathúna.
Picture: L-R Professor Dermot Diamond, DCU; Dr Noel O'Connor, DCU; Professor Alan Smeaton, DCU, CLARITY CSET Deputy Director; Minister Micheál Martin, TD; Barry Smyth, UCD, CLARITY CSET Director; Dr Cian O Mathúna, Tyndall National Institute (TNI) Cork; Frank Gannon, Director General, SFI and Gregory O'Hare, UCD.
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