Research Matters Issue 9 Summer 2008

ISSUE 9Summer ‘08

WIT wins InformaticsCommercialisationAward

Transfer of knowledge from higher education institutes into the market place has been identified as animportant issue in the development of a world class research environment and a key priority in theGovernment’s Strategy for Science Technology & Innovation 2006 – 2013.

In this edition of WIT’s Research Matters we highlight the increase in commercialisation activity at the Institute,growing links with companies in the region and enhancements of WIT’s expertise base to support innovationand technology transfer.

The Telecommunications Software & Systems Group (TSSG) won the coveted Enterprise Ireland InformaticsCommercialisation Award in 2007, demonstrated emerging technologies at international conferences such asthe Mobile World Congress 2008 and was nominated for the ICT Excellence Award. Through a joint venturewith a Scottish based enterprise, the group has also developed technology that is set to change the experienceof tourists who visit local heritage sites.

The media has recently focused on the prevalence of mental health issues in the workplace, and it has alsohighlighted the ongoing challenges posed by adult literacy problems in Ireland. WIT researchers in theDepartment of Nursing here call for a national strategy on workplace mental health, and researchers in theLiteracy Development Centre highlight a more holistic approach to the understanding of literacy, both for adultlearners and educators.

Knowledge management is a burgeoning area of research and in two separate articles it is assessed in relationto its potential for enhancing business performance and its role within the construction industry. In this issuewe also read of WIT’s research in the area of breast cancer, biomass fuels and social justice, work which is vitalin the advancement of medical, ecological and social knowledge.

We are also delighted to congratulate the newest recipients of doctoral awards from the Institute. Six studentsare profiled within, and their research spans a range of disciplines such as science, music, business and healthsciences. As the Institute grows, so does its researchers.

Dr. Willie DonnellyHead of Research & Innovation

W I T R E S E A R C H M A T T E R S - I S S U E 9 - S U M M E R 0 82

Welcome from the Head of Research

Dr. Paula Carroll(School of Health Sciences)

Ms. Philomena Carton(Research Support Unit)

Mr. Fergus Hogan / Dr. Sinead Conneely(School of Humanities)

Dr. Willie Donnelly(Head of Research)

Mr. David Kane(WIT Luke Wadding Library)

Ms. Kathryn Kiely(Industry Services Manager)

Dr. Mohamed Medjaou(School of Engineering)

Ms. Geraldine Mernagh(School of Education)

Dr. Cormac O’Raifeartaigh(School of Science)

Dr. Susan Whelan(School of Business)

Edited by Ms. Jenny O’Connor(School of Humanities)

Editorial BoardTSSG commercial activity goes from strength to strength . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3-4

Investigating cancer-related fatigue and depression in breast cancer patients . . . . . . . . . .4

WIT’s Wood Energy Group at the cutting edge of biomass research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

€300k funding for delivery of health and safety training in the construction industry . . .5

FlexRay system research at the WIT Automotive Control Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

‘Tap and go’ technology now at WIT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Pursuing social justice at WIT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Working for mental health – disability policyin the workplace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

Strategic relationship formed between AOL andWIT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

Building knowledge in the construction industry – WIT and Sisk collaborate . . . . . . . . . .9

WIT PhD Graduates 2007 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10-12

Redressing regional imbalances at the RIKON research group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

Putting theory into practice:the professional development of literacy educators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14-15

WIT secures funding to enhance technology transfer capacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15

“Knowing is not enough: we must apply”(Goethe) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16

Nubiq wins investment driven pitching competition in Silicon Valley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16

WIT research funding awards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

ONE way to enhance business growth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18

WIT at Chinese conferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18

Recent WIT conferences & publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19-23


In October last, WIT’s Telecommunications Software &Systems Group (TSSG) won the Enterprise IrelandInformatics Commercialisation Award 2007, adding anotheraccolade to the string of successes enjoyed by the group inrecent years.

The award was presented by Micheál Ahern T.D, Minister forInnovation Policy, to Barry Downes of the TSSG, at theEnterprise Ireland Technology Showcase inDublin. “The TSSG has been pursuing a rangeof spin-in opportunities, where we attractcompanies to locate in Waterford in order tocollaborate with us, and spin-outopportunities where we establish newcompanies to commercialise our success. Weare delighted to receive this award fromEnterprise Ireland as support for us and forICT innovation in the South East of Ireland,”said Barry Downes.

The showcase event also included demonstrations of the latestTSSG technology innovations developed by academicresearchers, which are now expected to be snapped up byinvestors in the advanced technology industry.

Presenting the award, Minister Ahern said “the TSSG is to becongratulated on this success, not just in winning theCommercialisation Award, but for bringing the fruits of researchto the marketplace. The TSSG at Waterford IT has demonstratedreal innovation in the commercialisation space through theformation of a true joint venture with entrepreneurs to create

new companies, which are now contributing to the localeconomy of Waterford. This innovative spirit is one of the corepillars of the Government’s Strategy for Science, Technology andInnovation.”

More recently, Zolk C, a partnership enterprise betweenInverness-based Zolk, and Aceno, a WIT spinout, secured theprestigious UK Museums & Heritage Awards for Excellence.

During the launch of the new CullodenBattlefield Visitor Centre in Scotland, a worldfirst in technological learning solutions for theinterpretation of tourism and heritage siteswas presented - a personal digital assistant(PDA) device triggered by satellite technology.Via a GPS-triggered electronic guide, visitorsto the Centre will experience the Battle ofCulloden where more than 1300 men werekilled during the conflict between Bonnie

Prince Charles’ Jacobites and the Duke of Cumberland’s forces,outside Inverness in 1746. Some of the features provided willinclude video and audio clips, fact-file data, character accounts,archaeological evidence, and real-life sound effects which willbe triggered automatically as visitors walk across the historicmoor. This will create an interactive experience for the visitor,which will not detract from the authenticity of the site.

To add to these successes, Nubiq Ltd (www.nubiq.com) wasselected as a finalist for the Irish Technology Leadership Group’s(ITLG) Irish Times Innovation Award that was held at StanfordUniversity in March. Based in Palo Alto, California, the ITLG is agroup of Irish and Irish American senior executives who are

TSSG commercial activity goes from strength tostrength

Mr Barry Downes, Executive Director – Innovation, TSSG accepting award fromMr Gearóid Mooney, Commercialisation Director, Informatics, Enterprise Ireland

Breast cancer is the most commoncancer amongst females in Ireland,with the overall incidence predictedto reach 4,700 cases per year by2020. However, earlier diagnosisand improved treatments have ledto a reduction in mortality forwomen diagnosed with breastcancer. As a result, women withbreast cancer now survive longerand have to deal with the long-term consequences of cancer andits treatment. In light of thesechanges, there has been a growinginterest in the quality of life ofbreast cancer survivors.

Symptoms such as fatigue anddepression are now emerging asimportant dimensions of cancerpatient care. The Cancer ResearchGroup at WIT has recentlyundertaken a study which willaddress the issue of cancer-relatedfatigue and depression amongstformer breast cancer patients. Theproject entitled “An analysis of cancerrelated fatigue in breast cancersurvivors” is funded by a Strand 1technological sector grant. Thisongoing quantitative correlationresearch study aims to providesystematic research on the prevalenceand pathogenesis of cancer-relatedfatigue and depression in womenbreast cancer survivors.

Cancer-related fatigue (CRF) is nowreported as one of the most commonsymptoms, affecting approximately70 - 100% of the cancer patientpopulation. CRF can be defined as asubjective state of overwhelmingsustained exhaustion leading to adecreased capacity for work that isnot relieved by rest. CRF differs fromthe type of fatigue that healthyindividuals may experience, as it is

more intense and longer lasting.Irrespective of this impact, fatigue israrely assessed and treated by healthcare professionals as the aetiologyand treatments available remainunclear. This can have a direct impacton the cancer survivor’s quality of life,as effective managementinterventions are restricted.

The preliminary findings of theproject revealed that approximatelyone third of breast cancer survivorsreported more severe fatigue, whichwas associated with higher levels ofdepression than the generalpopulation. Cancer survivors had asignificant decrease in the mean levelof cortisol, a hormone related tostress, compared to the controlpopulation. This indicates thatcortisol plays a role in thepathophysiology of fatigue, resultingin endocrine changes that may causeor contribute to cancer-relatedfatigue. It is envisaged that thisresearch study will contribute tomanagement strategies used inclinical practice, which will inevitablyaid clinicians and patients in theirrecognition and assessment of thesesymptoms. Most importantly, thesefindings will have health, educationand policy implications and maycontribute towards the developmentof more supportive health systems.

The research team is comprised of Dr.Martina Gooney, Dr. Paula Lane, Dr.Orla O’Donovan, Ms. SuzanneDenieffe and Ms. Louise Murphy whoare working in collaboration with Mr.Gordon Watson and Prof. Arnold Hill(WRH and RCSI respectively).


For more information contact:Dr. Martina GooneyE-mail: [email protected]

Investigating cancer-relatedfatigue and depression inbreast cancer patientscommitted to ensuring that Ireland

remains a strategic area of investmentand opportunity for US technologycompanies. The judging panel,consisting of the ITLG Board, EnterpriseIreland, Invest Northern Ireland, IDAIreland and the Irish Times, nominatedNubiq based on its innovation and visionfor overseas growth. In May, Nubiq wasalso shortlisted for the ICT ExcellenceAward. Currently in its eighth year, theICT Excellence Awards is now a firmlyestablished landmark event in theInformation and CommunicationsTechnology calendar and is one ofIreland’s most prestigious and respectedaward competitions in the ICT sector.

The TSSG also played a very active rolethis year in the largest commercialtelecommunications conference andexhibition in the world – the MobileWorld Congress 2008 (formerly called3GSM). The conference was held inBarcelona in February and had over55,000 visitors.

The TSSG had demonstrations at anumber of separate stands at the event,which highlighted their newest andmost exciting innovations:

� At the Ireland stand which washosted by Enterprise Ireland, an IMSARCS internet telephonydemonstration was held. Also at thisstand were displays by theFeedHenry and Nubiq technologies.

� At the Intel stand, an IMS-streamdemonstrated advanced mobile IMSservices.

� FeedHenry presentedgroundbreaking Web 2.0 technologyat the Oracle stand.

� Nubiq presented the latest in Mobile2.0 at their own stand in conjunctionwith Enterprise Ireland.

� Nubiq also presented at the dotMobiMobile Advisory Group(www.advisorygroup.mobi) stand.

For more information contact:Mr. Barry DownesE-mail: [email protected]

Continued from Page 3

In Ireland, the utilisation of biomass asan energy source has undergone littledevelopment until very recently. Only asmall percentage of the total primaryenergy requirements are supplied asrenewable energy sources (2%), ofwhich approximately half is wood. Thismakes wood the most importantrenewable energy source in Ireland interms of its contribution to primaryenergy requirements.For the last two years the Wood EnergyResearch Group at WIT, in collaborationwith the National Council for ForestResearch and Development (Coford), hasbeen working towards developing aquality wood fuel supply chain. Part ofthe research focuses on the harvesting,processing and storage of forest biomassfor energy production in Ireland, andincludes public demonstrations andworkshops. The group was co-foundedby Mr. Tom Kent and Dr. Eleanor Owens,and currently incorporates a total of ninepersonnel from the forestry andanalytical science sections of theDepartment of Chemical and LifeSciences at WIT.This research also investigates a number ofchemical and physical parameters relevantto fuel quality and burner efficiency acrossdifferent wood species and from different

geographical locations: moisture content,bulk density, ash content, energy values,total chlorine levels, major and minorelements. Storage trials (various coveringtreatments) that examine the length oftime required to dry wood to acceptablemoisture content are currently in place atforest sites around Ireland. In onespecialised experiment site, moisture loss isdetermined by using large metal binsplaced on weigh cells and the drying rate isexamined in relation to measuredmeteorological variables at the site. Thiswork will continue throughout 2008.

A set of European standards is currentlybeing developed for the terminology, fuelclassification, sampling, physical testingand chemical analysis of all types of solidbiofuel likely to be used within theEuropean Union. This is a pan European

approach with 5 working groupsdeveloping technical specifications in allareas. Dr. Eleanor Owens of WIT has beenappointed by NSAI (National StandardsAuthority of Ireland) as the Head of theIrish delegation for Committee 335 (SolidBiofuels) and a delegate onWG5(chemical analysis). The group has beensuccessful in securing grants from anumber of sources: Leonardo da Vinci PilotProject; WESST –Wood Energy SupplySystems Training; Council of DirectorsTechnological Sector Research Strand 1 andForest Service (Dept of Agriculture).


For more information contact:Mr. Tom KentE-mail: [email protected]. Eleanor OwensE-mail: [email protected]

WIT’s Wood Energy Group at the cutting edgeof biomass research

WIT is one of seven partners from fivecountries that is currently taking partin an EU funded research projectunder the Socrates Minerva Action.The network of partners (includingUniversities in France, Turkey, andCyprus) secured funding for researchwork valued at over €€300,000. Thisresearch recognises that constructionis the largest industry in the world,with an estimated 111 million peopleemployed worldwide. It is also themost dangerous industry, with higherlevels of mortality and instances of illhealth than any other. As a result, it isimperative to address health andsafety issues in the constructionindustry.

The aim of the research is to look at theapplication of multiple intelligence (MI)profiling within virtual classes thatdeliver health and safety training. Todate, members of the group havepresented papers at conferences inManchester, Belfast, and Nicosia(Cyprus) on this aspect of the research. Itis proposed that two phases of virtual

classes be developed, focusing on the riskof falls from high building structures.

While the delivery of virtual classes is notnecessarily a new application oftechnology as part of learning,attempting to integrate MI into thedelivery of a virtual class is a newapplication of e-learning. The first phaseof development will be tested on a targetaudience from the construction industryand the results and conclusions will feedinto the development of the secondphase. The anticipated outcome of theresearch is the development of aneducational resource using MI profilingthat is directly focused on health andsafety in the construction industry.

A dedicated website,http://www.virtualclassescentre.com,

has been developed as the centralrepository for developed content andvirtual classes. It also facilitatesdissemination of the project outcomes.By applying the multiple intelligencephilosophy to the design of virtualclasses, the foundation will be laid forthe rigorous application of suchstandards. A pilot module will bedeveloped and deployed to measure theeffectiveness of the framework andrefinement will take place based on theevaluation. Key in the pilot module is theuse of a core graphic of a buildingcontaining a number of hazards that theparticipant can use to navigate throughthe module. This new approach is set tochange the way that health and safetyconcerns are dealt with in theconstruction industry.

€€300k funding for delivery of health and safetytraining in the construction industry

For more information contact:Mr. John Wall E-mail: [email protected] or Mr. Mannix Carney E-mail: [email protected]


Automotive electronic control systemshave come a long way since the firstfuse was used and one of the latesttrends is the implementation of x-by-wire applications. These systemsreplace mechanical systems such assteering columns and brakes withelectronic controls. Networks havebeen introduced in cars as the numberof functions controlled by electronicdevices has increased (e.g. electricwindows, traction control, and airconditioning).

If each function was to be physicallyhardwired around the car, having its ownsection of wire, this would rapidlyincrease the weight and build cost of

each vehicle. By using networks, manyfunctions can use the same section ofwire, thereby reducing overall cost andincreasing fuel efficiency. With manydifferent functions sending and receivingdata on the same wire, a softwareprotocol is needed to differentiatebetween the different signals andmessages. Bosch developed the CAN(Controller Area Network) protocolwhich is widely used within theautomotive industry to fulfil this need.With the continued development ofmodern vehicles and increased emphasison safety, it is clear that CAN will not beable to meet all future requirements. Thisis why a new protocol called FlexRay wasdeveloped by the FlexRay consortium

(consisting of car manufacturers such asAudi, BMW and Mercedes) with currentand future needs in mind.

The Automotive Control Group at WIT iscurrently involved in two projects thatexplore the potential of the FlexRaysystem. The first project concerns thedevelopment of a framework designed toconvert a CAN-based system to aFlexRay-based system, highlighting anyfinancial benefits gained from using thenew protocol. This research is beingcarried out by Mr. Richard Murphy inconjunction with Sumitomo ElectricalWiring Systems Europe, a majormanufacturer of wiring harnesses for theautomotive industry. Richard has recentlyreturned to WIT after spending threemonths with Sumitomo in Swansea. Thesecond research project involvessimulating a FlexRay-based system toimprove reliability and performance. Thisresearch is being carried out by Mr.Robert Shaw who has obtained Strand 1funding to complete the project.

FlexRay system research at the WIT AutomotiveControl Group

For more information contact:Mr. Richard Murphy E-mail: [email protected]. Frank Walsh E-mail: [email protected] Mr. Brendan JackmanE-mail: [email protected]

l-r (Mr. Rob Shaw, Mr. Richard Murphy, Mr. Brendan Jackman, Mr. Frank Walsh)of the Automotive Control Group

Research and development conducted atWaterford Institute of Technology’s CTRC(Card Technology Research Centre) has ledto the development of a vending readersystem that can be retrofitted on vendingmachines in two possible formats: ‘valueon card’ and ‘value on server’. This researchproject is now in the trial phase andinvolves two vending machines that arecurrently operational in WIT. Theproduction phase comes next, with aplanned deployment throughout thecampus.

The ‘value on server’ format is moresuitable for campus cards: in this case, thevending machines are networked viaethernet and share the campus network,and the value or user account resides in theserver database. The current deploymentuses this format. The ‘value on card’ format

is usually suitable for standalone vendingmachines, whereby the user account isstored on the card itself. The reader systemdeveloped in the CTRC, which acceptsradio-frequency enabled WIT cards andretrofits easily into most vendingmachines, is based on an embedded ARM9processor running the Linux operatingsystem. It communicates with a userinterface consisting of a card reader and anLCD display. The reader system alsointeracts with the VMC (Vending MachineController) via an MDB/ICP standardprotocol. A TCP/IP stack with SSL (SecureLayer Socket) allows a secure ethernetconnection to the server to retrieveaccount balances. The user interface ishoused inside a front panel and providesmessages to the user such as card balance,item cost/amount debited and newbalance.

Potential markets for this technology aresignificant, particularly in a campusenvironment. The standalone operation(‘value on card’) will also becomeincreasingly relevant as more and moredispensed goods become automated forconsumer convenience.

This research project, developed in theCTRC was funded by OneCard Solutionsand conducted by Project Leader Mr.Mohamed Medjaou (School ofEngineering), and Mr. Pat Cluney (CampusServices).

‘Tap and go’ technology now at WIT

For more information contact: Mr. Mohamed Medjaou E-mail: : [email protected]

The WIT card is shown in closeproximity to the ‘tap and go’

vending reader developed in theCTRC

Payment technology has evolved from cash to cashless payment by first using amagnetic stripe on a card, and then a computer chip embedded in the card.Contactless payment is one of the latest generation of technologies to emerge andcomes in various forms, most notably as a contactless smart card. This “smart” or“proximity” card is essentially a radio-frequency (RFID) enabled card and is soon tobe implemented across the WIT campus. ‘Tap and go’ is a contactless paymenttechnology that allows users to pay for low-value goods by simply touching theircards against an electronic reader. Such transactions have the advantage of beingfaster and more convenient and are credited with reduced maintenance costs.


The first phase of developing amultidisciplinary research team involvedestablishing three key aims: to increasepostgraduate student numbers, todevelop strong research links with keyGovernment Departments throughcommissioned research projects and todevelop international researchcollaborations that would developthematic clusters within the Centre.

Since then the Centre has won nationaland international recognition for itscontribution to social science research.Mr. Jonathan Culleton, co-ordinator ofpostgraduate students at the Centrebelieves that its strength is the way thatcolleagues work together to compete forpostgraduate scholarships and researchcommissions: “During the first four yearsas a research team we won tenpostgraduate research scholarships,mainly through the Strand 1 process.These awards have been very significantin our development. Working on theproposals allows us to share our variousstrengths and helps to strengthen ourresearch capacity. In addition, our successin awards such as these draws highquality students to WIT to study socialscience at postgraduate level.”

Last autumn, three of the Centre'spostgraduate research scholars - Claire

Kealy, Jane McGrath and Claire Nolan -graduated with a Masters of Arts fortheir research on Strand 1-fundedprojects. Claire Kealy's research, Racismin Contemporary Ireland, Jane McGrath'sstudy, Fathering from Prison and ClaireNolan's project, Children’s experiences ofshared parenting arrangements in postnuclear Irish families all investigated socialissues vital to the understanding ofindividual and family experiences in amodern Ireland.

A further development that has emergedthrough this interdisciplinarycollaboration is the housing of fivedistinct research clusters by the Centre.Máire O’Reilly who jointly coordinatesthe Centre with Fergus Hogan, explainshow this development, while seemingly anatural progression, was also strategicallyled: “As the Centre grew and attractedmore staff wanting to develop theirresearch skills and make a contribution tothe research, we have strategicallychannelled our energies and capacity. TheCentre has established five clusters -Men’s Lives and Masculinities; ChildCentred Research; Race, Ethnicity andMigration; Criminal Justice and FamilyLaw, and Theology and Religious Studies.”

Last semester was a particularlyproductive one for the Centre, which

launched two nationally commissionedreports. The first of these, Listening tochildren: Children’s stories of domesticviolence by Máire O’Reilly and FergusHogan, was commissioned by the Officeof the Minister for Children and was thefirst research of its kind in Ireland.Children, some as young as five, wereplaced at the core of the research, andasked about their experiences of livingwith domestic violence and of thesupport services available to them.

Launching the report, Mr. Brendan SmithTD, Minister for Children highlighted theCentre’s ethical methods of interviewingchildren about very difficult aspects oftheir childhoods: “In presenting thechildren’s voices so respectfully, yetclearly in this study, the researchers haveshown us that it is possible to includechildren and their points of view andexperiences in the development of policy.My challenge now is to ensure that thefindings of this research are used toinform future developments in this area.”

The second report - Men, Sex and CrisisPregnancy by Mr. Fergus Hogan and Dr.Harry Ferguson, Professor of Social WorkResearch at the University of West ofEngland, Bristol - was commissioned bythe Crisis Pregnancy Agency and is aqualitative study of men’s experiencesand roles in unplanned and crisispregnancies. This report continues theCentre’s research focus on men’s livesand masculinities, established through its2004 study. This was also written by Mr.Fergus Hogan and Dr. Harry Fergusonand was commissioned by the FamilySupport Agency at the Department ofSocial and Family Affairs.

Pursuing social justice at WIT

Ms. Maire O’Reilly and Mr. Fergus Hogan at the launch of ‘Listening to children: Children’s stories of domestic violence’

The Centre for Social and Family Research was launched in 2003 with aninaugural lecture by Thomas Moore, the world renowned author of Care of theSoul. According to Fergus Hogan, one of the founding members of the Centre,Thomas Moore’s sensitivity to understanding ourselves in the world hasremained a strong influence in the work of the Centre: “The Centre broughttogether the teaching and research strengths of staff members in Social andLegal Studies at the Department of Applied Arts, with a vision and purpose as apractice-minded research group committed to the pursuit of social care andsocial justice.”

For more information contact:Mr. Fergus HoganE-mail:[email protected]


The European Commission recently issued aGreen Paper on Mental Health, indicatingthat people with mental health problemshave the highest rates of unemploymentamongst all people with disabilities andcalling for more research to be carried outin this area. Preliminary findings of thestudy identified depression as the mostcommon mental health problemencountered in workplaces in the SouthEast. The larger companies surveyed weremore likely to employ someone who had amental health problem and were also morelikely to offer support services. Twenty-twopercent of employers reported thatalthough they were aware that some oftheir employees experience mental healthproblems, they were unaware of the typesof problems encountered.

In recent years there have been a number ofdevelopments in Ireland that highlight theimportance of mental health policies. Thesedevelopments include the reform of mental

health legislation with the launch of theMental Health Act in 2001, theestablishment of a Mental HealthCommission in 2002 and the publication ofa new policy document on the future shapeof mental health services – A Vision forChange - in 2006. There is currently apaucity of literature in Ireland onemployment and mental health, particularlyin relation to employers’ views of mentalhealth in their workplaces. The only majorstudy recently conducted in Ireland onmental health and social exclusion looks atthe attitudes of both employers andemployees to mental health issues, and atthe experiences of employers in respondingto the mental health needs of theirworkforce (NESF, 2007). However, there iscurrently no strategic policy plan in place inIreland regarding mental health problems inthe workplace, but only a set ofrecommendations for employers.

The Irish Mental Health Commission, in adiscussion paper entitled “A Vision for aRecovery Model in the Irish Mental HealthServices”, advocated a recovery model inwhich open employment is central to therehabilitation of people with enduringmental health problems. The mental healthpolicy document A Vision for Changeproposes that Irish health services andemployment agencies co-ordinate theirefforts in relation to employing people withmental health problems. The lack of aspecific mental health policy regardingemployment means that there is nocoherent national strategy to supportpeople with mental health problems thatwish to seek or retain work. As such, theemphasis for developing supportiveemployment environments necessarily restson employers. It is anticipated that thisresearch study will contribute to thedevelopment of a policy on employmentand mental health in Ireland.

Working for mental health – disability policyin the workplaceAn ongoing study by the Department of Nursing in Waterford Institute of Technologyaims to investigate employers’ views on disability policy and the employment ofpeople with enduring mental health problems. Over the past ten years there has beenincreased clinical and policy interest in the correlation between employment andmental health, both in terms of the well-being of populations in general and of peoplewith psychological and psychiatric problems in particular. Specific attention has beendrawn to the relationship of unemployment to the social exclusion of people withmental health problems.

For more information contact:Dr. John WellsE-mail:[email protected]

AOL and WIT have recently initiated twonew projects which further solidify theirongoing strategic relationship - a HigherDiploma in Business in Managementand a Scholarship Scheme. AOLWaterford manages the customersupport function for AOL’s UK customerbase of 2.3 million. Established in 1998,AOL Waterford now employs in excessof 700 staff. The Higher Diploma inBusiness in Management is run as anexecutive programme over two years andis designed to enable some of the nextgeneration management team to emergefrom within AOL.

Some of the participants of the diploma,now in their second year, have already beenpromoted within AOL. The programmeaims to develop future managementpotential and is designed to capitalise onthe internal human resource competenciesof the firm. It is run by the Department ofGraduate Business, which runs all of theexecutive programmes and taughtpostgraduate programmes for the School ofBusiness at WIT. The Course Leader is Mr.Ray Ryan, Lecturer in ManagementAccountancy.

The Higher Diploma was developed inresponse to a needs assessment conducted

by the company. It identified what wasneeded from future managers and wherethe skills gaps were. AOL and WIT designedthe management diploma bearing thesecriteria in mind. This ensured that theprogramme would provide postgraduateswith the necessary competencies formanagement in the future. The programmewas developed in a co-partnering way,pooling the resources and knowledge ofboth organisations at all stages inprogramme design and validation,including reflection on how best to assesspractising managers. Many of the studentswill progress from this managementdevelopment programme to one of theSchool’s postgraduate leadershipprogrammes. FÁS has provided substantialfunding towards the fees of eligibleparticipants.

AOL has also announced a scholarshipscheme for first year WIT students inbusiness and computing valued at €20,000per annum. Ten high performing LeavingCertificate students from across the regionwill benefit from this scheme each year.The company is seeking high performingmanagers and computer scientists of thenext generation while supporting itscurrent employees with learning portfoliosthat will enable them to maximise theirpotential.

Strategic relationship formed between AOL and WIT

For more information contact:Dr. Thomas O’TooleE-mail: [email protected]

l-r: Ms. Heather Roche, Director of Performance and Customer Experience, AOLBroadband, Dr. Thomas O'Toole, Head of WIT School of Business,

Prof. Kieran R. Byrne, Director of WIT, Mr. Alain Meric, Executive DirectorMember Services, AOL Broadband, Ms. Linda Ferguson, Director of HR &

Communications, AOL Broadband, Mr. Brian Barry, Director of Finance, AOLBroadband, Mr. Paul Barry, Head of School of Science.


The industry is now facing a number ofchallenges: the introduction of fixed pricegovernment contracts, increasedcompetition from foreign-based firms,over reliance on the housing market anda predicted slowdown in constructionoutput in the coming years. Coupled withthis is an increase in the use of complex,knowledge-intensive procurementroutes, where the experience of acontractor can prove vital in securingcontracts. It is recognised thatconstruction organisations now need amore structured, coherent approach toKnowledge Management (KM).

The government-led Forum for theConstruction Industry view KM asstrategically important for the future ofthe industry, while both EngineersIreland and the Construction InformationTechnology Alliance (CITA) view it ascentral to their activities. Mr. DeclanGahan, an experienced project managerwith Sisk, decided to explore theapplication of KM practices within Siskfor his dissertation for WIT’s part-timeblended-learning MSc in ConstructionProject Management (MScCPM)programme. Mr. Brian Graham and Dr.Ken Thomas in the Department ofConstruction & Civil Engineering at WITare currently exploring the

implementation of KnowledgeManagement practices and technologiesin the leading Irish constructioncompanies. Part of this research involvescollaboration with Ireland’s leadingconstruction company, Sisk, whoseturnover is in excess of €1.2 billion.

In recent years, key growth areas for Siskhave been the biotechnology,pharmaceutical and medical devicessectors, leading to the establishment of adedicated Pharma division. Much of thecompany’s work in this area involves theconstruction of highly complexcleanroom facilities which are generallydelivered through the managementcontracting route. Due to the need tomanage knowledge in a more formalmanner within Sisk’s Pharma division, anaction research approach was chosen.Action research is based on acollaborative, cyclical process betweenresearcher and practitioner, with the aimof solving real problems and generatingnew knowledge.

Forming the basis of Mr. Declan Gahan’sMSc dissertation, the first phase of theresearch has recently been completed.This involved interviewing key staffwithin the Pharma division to identifyrecurring problems in the construction of

cleanroom projects. Subsequently, afocus group was facilitated in WIT,whereby members of the Pharmadivision management team sharedknowledge and experiences gained onvarious cleanroom projects. The focusgroup was captured on video andanalysed to extract the relevantknowledge. Early feedback from theparticipants suggests that such astructured forum would be beneficial tothe work of the division on a biannualbasis, and a number of recommendationshave also been presented to Sisk’s Boardof Directors for the implementation ofKM. Sisk is currently in the process ofimplementing an intranet and it isanticipated that this will act as a focalpoint for sharing knowledge betweenproject teams within the Pharma divisionand the wider organisation. The nextcycle of the research will involve a reviewof a recently completed cleanroomproject and an examination of how bestto document and structure the capturedknowledge.

There is no single KM solution. Rather, itis concerned with the creation andsubsequent management of anenvironment which encouragesknowledge to be created, shared, learned,enhanced, organised and utilised for thebenefit of the organisation and itscustomers. Two of the main disciplines tohave embraced KM are informationsystems and human resourcemanagement, an integration of thesehaving the greatest potential foradvances in the field. Despite significantresearch on KM in construction in recentyears, it is considered to be a recent andevolving practice for constructionorganisations. The project-based,temporal nature of the industry hashindered the development of effectiveKM solutions for large, geographicallydispersed construction organisations.

For more information contact:Mr. Brian Graham Email: [email protected]

Building knowledge in the constructionindustry – WIT and Sisk collaborate

Pictured at the focus group which was recently facilitated by WIT are (from l-r): Mr. Dan Brosnan (Sisk), Mr. Brian Graham (WIT),

Mr. Declan Gahan (Sisk), Mr. Dave Cotter (Sisk), Mr. Joe O’Sullivan (Sisk), Mr. Tom Wall (Sisk) and Mr. Mannix Carney (WIT).

As part of a wider study that aims to develop an integrated model of KnowledgeManagement (KM) for leading Irish construction organisations, an opportunityfor collaboration has emerged between WIT and Sisk. Accounting for almost aquarter of economic activity in 2006, the construction industry has been a keydriver of the phenomenal growth experienced in Ireland over the past decade.During this period many of the leading Irish construction companies haveexperienced rapid expansion and have moved away from being ‘buildingcompanies’ towards employing core professional and management staff to leadteams of outsourced contractors.


WIT PhD Graduates 2007

Vanessa Murphy PhD

Dr. Vanessa Murphy was conferred withher PhD in October 2007, havingcompleted her research under the jointsupervision of Dr. Peter McLoughlinand Dr. Helen Hughes as part of theEstuarine Research Group. Dr. Murphywas awarded a prestigious IRCSET (IrishResearch Council for Science,Engineering and Technology)

scholarship to complete her PhD. Thethesis focused on identifying themechanisms responsible for heavymetal binding to a number of locallyderived seaweeds.

Reduction of heavy metal pollution inthe environment is particularlyimportant because of the threat thatthese materials pose to plant andanimal life. Seaweeds have been shownto be extremely efficient biosorbentsfor the remediation of metalcontaminated waters, and have theability to bind significant quantities ofmetal from both dilute andconcentrated solutions. Metal bindingto the seaweeds was examined byvarious techniques including a novelAtomic Force Microscopy analysisprotocol developed within the scope ofthis work.

Dr. Murphy’s PhD research resulted in anumber of peer-reviewed publicationsin the journals Water Research andChemosphere, as well as various

presentations at national andinternational conferences. Vanessa hasalso received a number of accoladesincluding WIT’s Advanced ScholarAward from the School of Science andthe Merck, Sharp & Dohme award forher final year degree results.

Dr. Murphy is currently undertakingpostdoctoral research in theDepartment of Chemical and LifeSciences in WIT. Her new research areainvolves the extraction andcharacterisation of novel antimicrobialcompounds from seaweeds.

For more information contact:

Dr. Peter McLoughlin E-mail: [email protected]

Dr. Helen HughesE-mail: [email protected]

Patrick J McCormack PhDHaving retired from music teaching,and finding that he had time to devoteto composition, Dr. Patrick JMcCormack was accepted as an MAstudent at Waterford Institute ofTechnology. Under the supervision ofDr. Eric Sweeney, Dr. McCormackdeveloped his interest in styles of musiccomposition from the 1950s.

Although styles and structures ofcomposition in music of this era areheterogeneous and as a result, oftendifficult to identify, there are elementsof a more traditional style to be foundin the eventual submission, such asbinary, ternary, and composed forms.Tempo variation, containing slow andfast exchange between sections, hasalso been explored in this study.

A varied repertoire of compositions wascreated for this PhD, and was overseenby Dr. Sweeney. All works required fullanalysis of structure and style, plusintroductory explanations andindividual summaries. During the

annual New Music Week, some of Dr.McCormack’s compositions wereperformed.

For more information contact:Dr. Eric Sweeney E-mail: [email protected]



Dr. Kieran O’Mahoney received his PhDin October 2007 for researchundertaken within the Optics ResearchGroup under the supervision of the lateMr. Dónal Flavin and latterly of Dr.Claire Keary and Dr. P J Cregg of WIT inconjunction with Prof. Julian Jones ofHeriot-Watt University in Edinburgh.His PhD thesis, “Fourier transformspectroscopic demodulation of fibreBragg grating arrays”, reported the

results of his work in interferometricmeasurements.

Specifically Dr. O’Mahoney employed atechnique for delay calibration andspectroscopic measurement called theHilbert Transform technique, pioneeredby Dónal Flavin, which offered suchexceptional resolution that it wasadopted as a standard by NIST inBoulder, Colorado. Dr. O’Mahoneyextended this technique to fibre Bragggrating arrays. On being fed with abroadband light source, these reflectonly a narrow band of light, thewavelength being dependent on strainand temperature. Using the HilbertTransform technique, Dr. O’Mahoneywas able to make high-resolutionmeasurements of the reflectedwavelength fluctuations, thus enablingtemperature and strain sensing. Thelikely applications of this research aresignificant – it will allow reliable andfast monitoring of the structural healthof aircraft wings, buildings and bridges.

Dr. O’Mahoney’s work was funded byEnterprise Ireland under the Proof ofConcept Commercialisation Fund.Elements of the work were carried outat Aston University in Birmingham andat Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh,and Dr. O’Mahoney’s work has beenpresented at national and internationalconferences.

Dr. O’Mahoney has recently returned tothe Optics Research Group at WIT toundertake post-doctoral research withDr. Sergey Sergeyev on an EnterpriseIreland funded project to develop asmart gain control system for high-concentration erbium doped fibre /waveguide optical amplifiers fortelecom and distributed sensornetworks.

Kieran O’Mahoney PhD

For more information contact:Dr. Claire KearyE-mail: [email protected]

Many people in government, industryand academia share a concern for thecontinued well-being and developmentof multinational subsidiaries in Ireland.Indeed it is widely recognised, not leastby the IDA, that we need to know moreabout how subsidiary general managerscurrently go about the strategic task ofsustaining and growing their localoperations. In addition, Ireland has aninternational reputation for beinghighly skilled at attracting andsustaining MNC subsidiarydevelopment. While the ‘attracting’part of Irish expertise has beencatalogued and replicatedinternationally, the ‘sustaining’ part isstill not well understood.

Under the supervision of Dr. ThomasO’Toole, Head of the WIT School ofBusiness, and assisted by ProfessorJulian Birkinshaw of London BusinessSchool, Dr. Griffin’s doctoral workexamined an important element of that‘sustaining’ agenda- the ability of

subsidiary managers to meaningfullystrategise about their businesses. Titled,“Heterarchy and the subaltern ofsubsidiary strategy: Deconstructingsubsidiary manager’s stories”, Dr.Griffin’s dissertation revisits theaccepted wisdom that subsidiarymanagers operate in a heterarchy asopposed to a hierarchy.

This research interest grew out of Dr.Griffin’s research Masters completed atUCC under James Fairhead andProfessor Sebastian Green. Dr. Griffincurrently lectures in StrategicManagement in the Department ofManagement and Organisation at WIT,having started his research work whilelecturing in International Business atDIT.

Ray Griffin PhD

For more information contact:Dr. Thomas O’TooleE-mail: [email protected]


Dr. Jean Mc Ardle received a jointhonours degree in Sport Science andIrish Studies at St. Mary’s StrawberryHill in London before completing aMaster of Arts in Irish Studies andSport Sociology at Queens University,Belfast. She has now become the firstrecipient of a PhD from the recentlyformed School of Health Sciences atWIT. Dr. McArdle is also a lecturer andassistant course leader on the WITRecreation and Leisure degree.

Dr. McArdle’s thesis is a significant bodyof work that examines in particular therevised curriculum for national schoolsin Ireland. Entitled “All Work and NoPlay: The Revised Primary PhysicalEducation Curriculum: A Socio-historical Analysis”, the thesisdocuments and assesses the policydirectives which led to the formationand implementation of the revisedcurriculum, and examines the existingnational structures that govern teachereducation and continuing professionaldevelopment.

It also strove to provide a closeexamination of existing extra-curricularsporting programmes available withinthe primary sector. The result is a pieceof work that ties together many vitalthreads necessary for the fundamentalexamination of physical education inthe Irish primary school sector.

Dr McArdle’s two external examinerswere Professor Sandra Stroot from Ohio

State University in the United Statesand Dr Deirdre Brennan from theUniversity of Ulster at Coleraine, bothof whom are highly respected andpublished researchers and lecturers inthis field. In her report, Professor Strootcommented, “I thoroughly enjoyedreading this document and onlyimagine the amount of work it hastaken to compile this massive amountof information. Policy is crucial in theworld of education as it is necessary foraccountability. I see this work as astarting point to set the context foropportunity and accountability to occurin primary physical education inIreland”.

Jean Mc Ardle PhD

For more information contact:Dr. Sean Connor E-mail: [email protected]


Dr. Karen Tambling recently obtainedher PhD, having completed her researchunder the supervision of Dr. CatherineO’Reilly of the Department of Chemicaland Life Sciences at WIT with part-funding from Enterprise Ireland.

Dr. Tambling’s research was in the areaof bioremediation and focused on theisolation of novel microorganisms withthe ability to tolerate / degrade a range

of cyano compounds. Although highlytoxic, cyano compounds, both inorganic(cyanides) and organic (nitriles), occurnaturally in the environment withnatural sources including plants,bacteria and fungi. However, asignificant amount of these compoundsare of anthropogenic origin and arecreated by industry through theproduction of chemicals and syntheticfibres and the wastes of coalgasification and coking, steel,electroplating and mining industries.

Previously, research in this area hasfocused on the degradation of cyanideand nitriles using fungal species. Theaims of this study were to isolate anovel bacterium with the ability totolerate / degrade various cyanocompounds including metal cyanidecomplexes which to date had notundergone extensive investigation. Dr.Tambling successfully isolated elevennovel bacterial strains on the basis oftheir growth in the presence of cyanocompounds. These strains were then

identified by employing moleculartechniques and were found to compriseof eight different genera and fivedifferent families of bacteria. Thebacteria were subsequently analysed inrelation to their growth characteristics,the mechanism by which they tolerated/ degraded the cyano compounds, thedetermination of plasmid content andantibiotic and metal resistance.

This research has expanded the list ofmicroorganisms known to be capable ofdegrading cyano compounds andresults indicate that these strains havepotential for use in the bioremediationof cyano compound bearing wastes.

During the course of her PhD studies,Dr. Tambling’s work was presented atconferences both nationally andinternationally and she is currentlyemployed as a Technical Officer in theDepartment of Chemical and LifeSciences at WIT.

Karen Tambling PhD

For more information contact:Dr. Catherine O’Reilly E-mail: [email protected]


The RIKON group has been verysuccessful in its first few months ofoperation – expanding from its threecore members to include sixpostgraduate researchers. Thisexpansion was due to the group’ssuccess in securing research fundingfrom the TSR Strand I programme andFáilte Ireland. RIKON has also attractedover €200,000 in research funding,including WIT Behest Cluster fundingawarded in 2008. The current strategic themes of theRIKON research group are:

Innovation and Business StrategyMs. Alice Denton’s research masterswill make a unique contribution to avery significant gap in innovation andbusiness strategy literature, by creatinga model of strategic innovationpractices that can be used by Irish firmsoperating within the tourism industry.

Building Customer LoyaltyMs. Martina Donnelly’s study examinesthe relationship between customerloyalty, customer satisfaction, value andcustomer experience. Despite theconsiderable amount of research ondeveloping customer loyalty,researchers have had only limitedsuccess in explaining how loyalty can bebuilt from scratch. Literature in the areasuggests that a customer’s experienceof the service has a major impact oncustomer loyalty.

Virtual LearningMs. Josephine Matthews’ researchutilises the Fáilte Ireland TourismLearning Network, created though acollaboration between Fáilte Irelandand the School of Business, in order toevaluate the virtual learningopportunities in the small businesstourism sector. This research is expected

to contribute to knowledge in bothacademic and practical domains as itwill offer particular insight into theindependent business actions andregional support measures that canpromote and foster virtual networkactivity in the rural businessenvironment.

Learning Networks Best PracticeA project that is currently underwayinvolves the assessment of a newlearning vehicle for tourism enterprises,with an overarching objective ofdeveloping a ‘best practice’ model forthe development and sustainability of asuccessful tourism learning network;such a model will provide Fáilte Irelandwith a foundation on which to buildfuture learning initiatives.

Dynamic Management CapabilitiesAddressing a matter of direct andpractical relevance to industrialpractitioners, Ms. Sarah Nolan’sresearch masters explores the linkbetween dynamic managementcapabilities required by SMEs tocompete in a continually changingbusiness environment and theperformance implications of suchmanagement strategies. This is a salientissue, and few research projects haveaddressed it.

Rural EntrepreneurshipMr. David Power’s research examineshow to build successful ruralentrepreneurial communities; inparticular, he is studying the effect ofan entrepreneur’s social embeddednesswithin the local community and howhis/her network both inhibits andenhances the entrepreneurial process.David’s research focus has not beenaddressed empirically until now and so,this project will substantially contributeto knowledge and practice on ruralentrepreneurship.

Redressing regional imbalances at the RIKONresearch group

For more information contact: Dr. Patrick Lynch E-mail: [email protected]

Despite the criticality of rural development, few business researchers havefocused on the actual mechanics of rectifying regional imbalances. Thismotivated three researchers at WIT to form the RIKON (Rural development,Innovation, Knowledge, and Organisational Networks) research group in theSpring of 2007. Their overarching purpose is to address regional imbalancesby developing an integrated model outlining how rural communities candevelop economically and socially, and how they can successfully sustaintheir communities within a ‘knowledge’ economy. Members of the Centre forEntrepreneurship, Dr. Mary T. Holden, Dr. Felicity Kelliher, and Dr. PatrickLynch, who each received their doctoral ‘hats’ in 2006, have identified thatinnovation, entrepreneurship, learning, knowledge transfer, and collaborativenetworks are key enabling factors in a rural community’s economic and socialdevelopment.


The 1997 OECD International AdultLiteracy Survey (IALS) revealed that 1 in4 Irish adults had functional literacydifficulties. This issue had, up until then,been mainly tackled by volunteers andpart-time staff. A major contribution totackling this problem has been the workof the Literacy Development Centre(LDC) in developing and delivering thefirst and only professional qualificationfor adult literacy teachers in Ireland. Thisqualification is recognised by theDepartment of Education and Science.

A second strategic response to the literacyproblem in Ireland is the Centre’s researchremit to evaluate, through an action-research project, how the theory exploredin the BA in Adult Education programme isput into practice by adult literacy teachersin the classroom. Using an ethnographicapproach informed by New LiteracyStudies, two focus groups wereinterviewed. The aim was to investigate theways that practitioners understand therelationship between the theory andpractice of literacy with specific referenceto their work in the adult literacy centresaround the country.

Internationally, literacy practice is only nowemerging as a recognised field of researchwith the potential to contribute to a greaterunderstanding of human development,including the process of learning, bothlifelong and lifewide. The LDC’s research todate has examined leading areas, forexample literacy in the workplace, withinthe family and within higher education,with a view to interrogating mainstreamassumptions about literacy. The researchcontext discussed in this article draws onthe work, for example, of RaPAL (Researchand Practice in Adult Literacy) in the U.K.and RiPAL (Research in Practice in Adult

Literacy) in Canada. This approachestablishes the importance of enablingteachers to draw on their classroom activityto create or consolidate educational theory.

The Relationship between Theory and Practice

The BA degree programme is delivered asan in-service programme, so that all of theparticipants are simultaneously studyingwhile working in the field. Therefore muchof the expertise acquired by theparticipants has been significantly gainedin the workplace by observation, mentoringand networking with other, moreexperienced practitioners, as well asparticipating in training programmes.

The two groups interviewed to date sharedthe perspective that the theoretical coursework had made a substantial difference tohow they felt about themselves aspractitioners. Teachers described how muchof their time is spent working at an intuitivelevel. They know things but are unsure howthey know them. The theory providedthem with a language to describe theirclassroom activities, giving them the abilityto articulate their practice with peers andlocate it in the wider educational context.This significantly enhanced their own senseof professionalism, as well as enablingthem to engage in dialogue with policymakers and providers on a more equalbasis.

Teachers also acknowledged how thecoursework changed the way theyinterpreted their practice. A number ofteachers described trying out new methodsof teaching on a trial and error basis.However, the theoretical insights gained onthe BA degree programme enabled them tounderstand their practice on a moremeaningful level. It gave them greaterownership of the process and allowed themto extend their range of teaching practicesin a more systematic way.

The professional development of thestudents can be described as a movementfrom a trial and error modus operandi to amore reflective approach, as a result ofstudying on the BA in Adult Education.

Holistic approaches

Public policy is underpinned by anunderstanding of literacy as that whichenables people to participate in theworkforce and increases Ireland’s economiccompetitiveness. The LDC takes the broaderview that literacy is more than technicalencoding and decoding skills. Anydefinition of literacy must be informed byissues of social justice, equality anddemocracy in everyday life. It demands aholistic view of literacy which takes intoaccount the social, personal and culturalrealities of the person with literacydifficulties.

The students on these programmes areworking in complex environments, oftenpaid as unqualified teachers and usually onshort-term contracts (with all theuncertainty that this implies). They have tonegotiate between their own deepeningunderstanding of literacy and the demandsof their own workplace, which is often ledby the economic skills model of literacy.For example, interviewees from the focusgroups spoke of the tension between theirown understanding of what constitutesprogress in their adult literacy students andwhat is viewed by management as

Putting theory into practice: the professionaldevelopment of literacy educators

Ms. Geraldine Mernagh and Ms. MargaretO’Brien are lecturers in Literacy Studies inIreland’s only Literacy Development Centre,in Waterford Institute of Technology. TheCentre also houses the WIT/National AdultLiteracy Agency (NALA) AccreditationProject. It is substantially funded by theDepartment of Education and Science andis managed by a partnership between WITand NALA. The Project is unique in that itis the only literacy partnership between athird-level institution, WIT, and a stateagency, NALA, in Ireland.

Ms. Geraldine Mernagh

Ms. Margaret O’Brien


WIT secures funding to enhance technologytransfer capacity

As part of the National DevelopmentPlan (NDP) the Government hascommitted to strengthening thecommercialisation functions within theHigher Education Institutes. Theultimate goal of this investment is toupgrade the country’s performance inthe management and commercialisationof ideas from publicly funded andcollaborative research. To this endEnterprise Ireland has been chargedwith managing a €30m investment overthe period of the NDP to strengthentechnology transfer capacity and helpIrish companies benefit from publiclyfunded research.

Emanating from the increase in researchinvestment and commercialisationactivity at WIT, the Institute was

successful in its bid to Enterprise Irelandand signed a contract in October 2007valued at €670,000. This funding willstrengthen technology transferresources and expertise available to WITresearchers and industry collaborators.Welcoming the investment KathrynKiely, Industry Services Manager said‘this is a very significant enhancementto WIT’s research supportinfrastructure. Management ofintellectual property andcommercialisation of research is acomplex and time consuming process.Access to professional expertise andtraining in addition to enhancedcollaboration with enterprise will makea huge difference in ensuring ourresearch has maximum impact’.

Dr. Michael Whelan has recently takenup a position as Technology TransferManager at WIT. Michael who spentmost of his career so far in the US isoriginally from Co. Wicklow. Hereceived a Bachelor in ElectricalEngineering from Dublin Institute ofTechnology, completed a Masters inComputer Science in Stevens Institute ofTechnology, Hoboken, New Jersey and aPhD is Electrical Engineering in the StateUniversity of New York.

He has extensive experience in the ICTindustry having spent much of hiscareer in R&D organisations such asSiemens and Philips Electronics. He hasalso worked extensively with investorsin identifying and evaluating newbusiness startups as either investmentor acquisition opportunities.Commercialising the results of aresearch programme led to his movingto Philips Media as Vice President andChief Technology Officer. Most recentlyhe has been an independent technologyand management consultant withclients primarily in the Publishing andMedia segment including Hearst, CNBC,and Primedia with a practice scopecovering mergers and acquisitions, duediligence investigations, contractnegotiations and dispute resolution, andlarge scale digital systems design andperformance evaluation.

Philomena Carton also joined the teamas Senior Administrator in theTechnology Transfer Unit. Qualified witha BA in Business Information Systems,she has held a number of positions inthe Institute supporting researchmanagement and administration inaddition to enterprise developmenttraining and support programmes.

For more information contact: Dr. Michael WhelanE-mail: [email protected]. Philomena CartonE-mail: [email protected]

from l-r: Ms. Philomena Carton, Senior Administrator, Dr. Michael Whelan,Technology Transfer Manager, Ms. Kathryn Kiely, Industry Services Manager.

Capturing, protecting and commercialising ideas and knowhow is fundamentalto ensuring Ireland’s competitive position in the global economy. Thechallenge of effectively transferring technologies from the bench to thecorporate boardroom is one which cannot be done in isolation. It requires thecollaboration and investment of many parties including researchers in ouruniversities and institutes of technology, and industry, government and privatefunders.

progress. Progress is usually understood asmoving up a level in FETAC or somethingsimilarly tangible and measurable. Theteachers understand that progress canoften be much more subtle and subjective:perhaps greater confidence and an increasein personal agency which is gained througha broad range of learning programmes.

The insights provided by this research will

be useful in examining other areas ofeducation which encourage reflectivepractitioners. We would like to hear fromany other colleagues who are interested inhow practitioners put their learning intopractice and how it is complicated by thedynamics of economic, political and socialforces in the workplace.

The next phase of this research project will

map methodologies which are particularlysuccessful at tackling adult literacydifficulties.

For more information contact:Ms. Margaret O’Brien E-mail: [email protected] orMs. Geraldine MernaghE-mail: [email protected]

Putting Theory into Practice: The Professional Development ofLiteracy Educators continued


“Knowing is not enough: we must apply”(Goethe)

KM is an emerging discipline that isrelevant in many domains but as yetthere are uncertain links between actualKM activity and business performance.This pervasiveness across domains wasevident at the conference; papersspanned pharmaceutical, automotive,technology, mining, water service,construction and retail industries. Theconference had global relevance -representatives from Brazil, Russia,Australia, Canada, Lebanon, India, US andmany European countries presentedpapers and participants includedacademics, practitioners and policymakers.

Ms. Dooly’s paper argued that theprocess of managing an organisation’s

knowledge resources can be informed byPM research and she presented detailedfindings from a single case studyconducted in a multinational companysubsidiary. The study was exploratory innature and overall the investigationsought to examine the nature of KMwithin the service sector in Ireland byexploring Knowledge ManagementActivities (KMAs). KMAs are grouped intoseven categories: knowledge scanning,identification, organisation,dissemination, transfer, acquisition andcreation. Ms. Dooly proposed that KMAsare all activities that are implemented forthe purpose of managing individual andorganisational knowledge. The paperadvanced the understanding of KM,particularly with respect to external

accreditation as a vehicle for promotingKM. Also highlighted was the corporateimpact and parent-subsidiaryrelationship, and the identification ofdrivers and complexity of KM. Thisresearch could form the basis fordeveloping or testing PM frameworks inother settings.

By adopting an existing performancemanagement (PMS) framework, the linksbetween PM and KM were investigated.Essentially the paper suggested that thereis merit in mapping a KM initiative usinga basic PMS framework. This can help toestablish whether the degree ofintegration shown between the PMSelements appears robust enough tosupport desired KM performanceoutcomes in a specific context. Withoutthe monitoring and measuring of aspectsof knowledge in an organisation,opportunities may be lost, key employeesmay leave the company andcompetitiveness may be eroded.

For more information contact:Ms. Zeta DoolyE-mail: [email protected]

The way that an organisation manages its knowledge may be related to the waythat it manages its performance. In fact, there may be an opportunity to leverageexperience, mechanisms and metrics from the existing performance managementsystem rather than starting from scratch. Knowledge Management (KM) isperceived to be less tangible and to have softer dimensions than performancemanagement, yet its value, from potential to realisation, is ambiguous. Thisambiguity led to the preparation and presentation of a paper by Zeta Dooly andcolleagues from WIT at the European Conference of Knowledge Management(ECKM) in Barcelona on the 6th and 7th of September last. It seeks to bridge thegap between the harder dimensions of performance management (PM) and thesofter dimensions of KM.

Nubiq wins investment driven pitchingcompetition in Silicon Valley

In December 2007 Irish mobile Webservices company, Nubiq Ltd.,received first place in a pitchingcompetition to a panel of five localventure capital firms in Silicon Valley.The event, organised by EnterpriseIreland, put the five participatingWeb2.0 companies through theirpaces and judged their ability toendure a “Dragon’s Den” like test.Nubiq received the award for theirtwo minute business pitch, which wasfollowed by a four minute questionsand answers session.Commenting on the prize, HeleneHaughney, CEO of Nubiq, said, “This is avery encouraging outcome for Nubiq.The mobile web space is really heatingup and investors are looking to capitaliseon what has been dubbed ‘the next bigthing’. It is great to get positive feedbackfrom such reputable venture capitalists.”The innovation driven group wasgreeted by Mr. Michael Collins, IrishAmbassador to the United States, whowelcomed them to California andsupported their endeavours in SiliconValley. Also commenting on the award,

Dr. Maggie Daleo, Senior Vice Presidentof New Media Entertainment andTelecoms at Enterprise Ireland, said,“Nubiq is a prime example of theexciting new mobile technologiescoming out of Ireland. Their dynamictechnology will re-define the mobilecontent discovery industry”.Nubiq Ltd. is a spin-out campuscompany from 3CS, a research andinnovation centre attached to WIT.Nubiq develops software solutions thatenable communities to use mobiletechnology in their business and sociallives. It is also an active member of thedotMobi Advisory Group, an accreditedindependent not-for-profit organisationforum. It has been a busy few monthsfor this up and coming mobile webservices start up company - it recentlyannounced a partnership with O2Ireland and launched a new version oftheir mobile website creation service,Zinadoo.com.

The Nubiq team meets Mr. MichealMartin at recent Mobile World

Congress in BarcelonaFor more information contact: Ms. Hélène HaughneyE-mail: [email protected]: www.nubiq.com

W I T R E S E A R C H M A T T E R S - I S S U E 9 - S U M M E R 0 8 17

WIT research funding awards

For more information contact:The WIT Research Support UnitE-mail: [email protected]

Higher Education Authority (HEA) Programme for Research in Third Level Institutes (PRTLI) – Cycle 4The TSSG was successful in winning HEA PRTLI Cycle 4 funding for a new research programme: “Serving Society:Management of Future Communications Networks and Services”. The programme includes academic partners in theUniversity of Limerick (the Interaction Design Centre) and NUI Maynooth (the Hamilton Institute and the Department ofSociology). It also includes international partners in Fraunhofer FOKUS (Berlin, Germany), and in I2R and NTU (Singapore).The total recurrent funding for WIT is just over €2 Million to support the programme itself, plus an additional €3.2 Millionfor a new building on the Institute’s Carriganore campus.

EU FP7In the first ten months of the EU 7thFramework Programme, approximately €48.7mwas awarded to Irish applicants which includedhigher education, industry, researchorganisations and public bodies. Irish HigherEducation remained the primary beneficiarywith 64.75% being awarded to Irish universitiesand institutes of technology. WIT continues tomaintain its well established position in EUFramework projects and was awarded morethan €2.8m under the first call.

Enterprise Ireland – Applied Research Enhancement ProgrammeThe Pharmaceutical & Molecular Biotechnology Research Centre (PMBRC) at WIT was recently successful in its proposal(valued at €1.24m) which was submitted to Enterprise Ireland under the Applied Research Enhancement Programme. Theprogramme of work which runs over a 4 year period, has the strong support of companies in the South East region such asEirgen Pharma, Merck Sharp Dohme and Genzyme. This builds on the PMBRC’s many other funding successes this year suchas €399,000 secured under the TSR Strand 3 programme and the investment of €300,000 under Enterprise Ireland’sEquipment Grant 2007.

HEA Research Facilities Enhancement Scheme 2008WIT secured €3.235m under the HEA Research Facilities Enhancement Scheme. This investment provides funding torefurbish approximately 1000m2 of accommodation to cater for an expansion of research activities in pharmaceutical and lifesciences, optics and telecommunications. In addition the funds provide for the purchase of strategic items of equipment tosupport research in all of these areas.

Dept of Agriculture & Food – Research Stimulus FundDr. Eddy Fitzgerald in the Department of Chemical & Life Science is collaborating with Teagasc on a study to investigate theproductivity of white clover-based grassland under different management regimes for dairy production and to measure theimpacts of these systems on nitrate losses to groundwater. WIT’s share of the total project which will run for 3.5 years is€85,000.

The Irish Sports CouncilRecognising the growing level of research activity in the area of health and sports science at the Institute, the Irish SportsCouncil has contracted researchers from WIT’s School of Health Sciences to undertake a study evaluating the impact of theWomen’s Mini- Marathon on public health. The contract value of this study is €52,000.

Irish Research Council for Humanities & Social Sciences (IRCHSS)In May 2008 Mr. Patrick Delaney, postgraduate student at WIT’s School of Health Sciences was awarded one of theprestigious postgraduate research scholarships from the IRCHSS to study ICT and social networks, the new leisurephenomenon of the 21st Century.

Technological Research Sector Programme – Strand 1 – Science & Technology Seven postgraduate scholarship awards were secured under this year’s programmetotaling €322,000. The range of disciplines for these scholarships includes biofueltechnology, molecular ecology, vascular health, optics and wireless communications.

Figure 1- Awards to Irish HEIs first ten months EU FP7

The academic year September 2007 to date has proven to be very successful for WIT in terms of research funding awards.In the nine month period September 07 – May 08 the Institute secured more than 58 new research projects. It also signedresearch contracts during this time period valued in excess of €15.4m. Outlined below are brief details on just some ofthese awards.


In such an environment, a means forenabling the negotiation of service supply ina co-operative manner is a vital, bindingelement of the ecosystem. Currentnegotiation platforms, such as Business-to-Business (B2B) electronic marketplaces andInternet trading platforms are centrallymanaged and are too expensive for smallbusinesses to develop and maintain.

The ONE (Open Negotiation Environment)project is funded by the EU under the SixthFramework Programme and intends toprovide organisations in the service industry(especially small to medium sizedenterprises (SMEs)) with user-friendlynegotiation tools that endeavour tooptimise their negotiation processes. Thesystem will allow small organisations tocollaborate in order to dynamically providea package of services to meet customerneeds. This will help SMEs to extend theirportfolio of services, thus increasing theirability to fulfil more complex customerdemands.

ONE supports the DBE vision by providingorganisations with an open, non-centrallycontrolled negotiation environment. Thisenables organisations to dynamically createcontract agreements for the supply of anintegrated selection of services as a co-operation of organisations. Theenvironment supports non-technical userswithin businesses to specify strategies andrules for negotiating terms of servicedelivery. The ONE solution will comprise anopen source downloadable negotiation

modelling tool and a user-friendly webinterface. The modelling tool will allowbusiness users to design their ownnegotiation models including structurednegotiations, (i.e. auctions, tenders), etc., orunstructured negotiations of the user’s owndesign. The user-friendly web interface willenable users to choose from existingnegotiation models to configure the modelto meet their needs and to run and managetheir chosen online negotiation. ONE willalso provide intelligent tools that have theability to learn from previous negotiationstrategies and to advise on currentstrategies. The ONE network of negotiatorsis effectively a peer-to-peer (P2P)environment, i.e. there is no hierarchy andall participants have equal capabilities.

In contrast to most commercial negotiationenvironments where some negotiationfeature is implemented and the network ofintermediaries/ suppliers is static andcentrally regulated, the ONE platform aimsto provide an open negotiation platformintegrating small to medium sizedenterprises into the business ecosystem. Itdistinguishes itself from the traditionalonline negotiation systems, such as e-Bay,by supporting all types of negotiations (e-Bay only supports auctions), allowing usersto define their own negotiation processesand providing a decentralised environmentwhere each user is a peer and does not relyon a centralised negotiation facilitator. Theimpact of such decentralisation is that usersdo not incur the cost of centralisedoperations and management. In addition, it

will be available as an open-source project,thus providing SMEs with a secure, free,technological environment through whichthey can create strategic alliances to pursuebusiness opportunities and growth.

The ONE project has recently completed thefirst year of its 30 month duration. Withinthis short period, the project has establishedthe requirements of a user group of smallbusinesses in Italy and implemented thefirst prototype of a set of design tools whichallow the users to create, advertise and runtheir own negotiations. These first outputswere subject to a highly successful reviewby the European Commission in earlyNovember, 2007. As part of the exploitationplans of the project in the next 18 months,the prototype will be demonstrated to someof the small business communities inIreland, and in Waterford in particular, inorder to gain some valuable feedback onproduct relevance and possible futurerequirements.

ONE way to enhance business growth

For more information:Ms. Claire FahyE-mail: [email protected]: www.one-project.eu

The Business Ecosystem paradigm refers to an economic community of interactingorganisations and individuals i.e. the organisms of the business environment. Thiscommunity cooperates in order to produce goods and services of value to theircustomers. By applying the concept of “ecosystem”, a greater understanding of thefactors that influence the cooperation, competition and evolution of theparticipating organisations can be formed. Consequently, the term Digital BusinessEcosystem (DBE) refers to the technology that can support businesses in the creationof new relationships that enable opportunities and growth.

In September 2007, Mr. Jim Clarke ofTSSG represented WIT as a keynotespeaker and chairperson at two recentconferences in China. The EmbeddedSoftware Quality Assurance Testing(ESQAT-CHINA) Seminar is an EC-funded project focused on capacitybuilding for Chinese small andmedium-sized enterprises (SMEs) thatdevelop embedded software. The overall objective of the ESQAT-CHINAproject is to forge sustainable businessrelationships between European andChinese (SME) Embedded SoftwareDevelopers. It also works to facilitateaccess for European software companiesto Chinese domestic markets and topromote new business in software testingand qualification control. TSSGsuccessfully organised keynote speakers

for the ESQAT-CHINA Beijing seminarevent from high profile organisationssuch as Ericsson, Nokia, Siemens andCollis. Also in September, Jim was invited to

make a keynote address to the EU/ChinaFASSBINDER conference. TheFASSBINDER project is funded by theEuropean Commission with the aim ofdeveloping strategic alliances andpartnerships between European industryand software associations in the Softwareand Services Space in China and India.Jim’s presentation was entitled “The Irishstory: Factors that foster technologicalsuccess - the importance of politicalinfluence and security”. In addition topresenting some of the most importantpolicy decisions that have contributed tokey successes in technology innovation,the keynote also focused on ICT Security.The conference was a great success andreinforced WIT’s continuing links withChinese third-level institutes.

For more information:Mr. Jim ClarkeE-mail: [email protected]

The ONE consortium pictured at aproject meeting in Waterford,

June 2007

Mr. Clarke (WIT) with the Mr. ZhangJianguo, Director of Division of American,Oceanian & European Affairs, China Science& Technology Exchange Centre, Ministry of

Science and Technology.

WIT at Chinese conferences


CRIPREDE conference

Recent WIT conferences & publications

Policy makers, regional and localauthorities, representatives of enterprisesupport agencies and academics fromall over Ireland and the European Unionconverged on Kilkenny on the 11th and12th October to attend the DevelopingCompetitive Knowledge-based RegionalEconomies international conference.

The conference was the closing publicevent of the CRIPREDE (Creating an RTDInvestment Policy for Emerging andDeveloping Economies) project. TheCRIPREDE project, funded under the EUFP6 Regions of Knowledge 2 programme,was managed by the Centre forEntrepreneurship at the WIT School ofBusiness and consisted of six partners fromacross the EU – Saxion Universities, TheNetherlands; University of Siegen,Germany; Cumbria County Council, UnitedKingdom; University of Central Lancashire,United Kingdom; the Baltic InternationalCentre for Economic Policy Studies, Latvia;and the University and Research CentreNovo Mesto, Slovenia.

Over 175 delegates, national, regional andlocal authorities, policy makers, enterprisesupport agencies, academics andpractitioners, representing many statesand regions across the EU, attended theconference. One of the majorachievements of the project was thedevelopment of a practical, usableparadigm for regional growth called theAdaptive Model for Regional Development.This model offers concrete suggestions forfuture progress and for this reason, theconference received major press coverage

both nationally and internationally.

Dr. Bill O’Gorman, the CRIPREDE projectleader, commenced proceedings by callingupon Mr. John McGuinness TD, Ministerfor Trade and Commerce to deliver theopening address. Minister McGuinnessstated that regional development was animportant catalyst in furthering thedevelopment of Ireland’s economy. TheMinister also linked CRIPREDE’s work tothe government’s 2002 Spatial Strategy,which has as its goal the balanceddevelopment of regions throughoutIreland. In this regard he felt that theconference was being held at an importantjuncture in the history of the South Eastregion. The Minister went on to informconference delegates of the necessity andimportance for the South East in pursuingthe development of a knowledge-basedeconomy, especially as much of itstraditional industry base was susceptible tocompetition from lower cost economies.The Minister also stated that he perceivedthis conference to be an extremelyimportant catalyst in developing thegrowth of regional and national economiesacross the EU.

Professor Kieran Byrne, Director of WIT, inhis address to conference delegates,welcomed Professor Dr. Andreas Pinkwart,Deputy Prime Minister of North-RhineWestphalia, and other internationaldignitaries to the conference. ProfessorByrne stated that the development ofregions is essential to the development ofstrong sustainable national economies. Aprerequisite to this development is tounderstand how stakeholders withinregions interact, cooperate and collaboratewith each other. This, Professor Byrne said,is one of the most important outputs fromthe CRIPREDE project. He further statedthat in order for regions to reach theirfullest potential they must become unified

behind a common regional goal, andprovided examples of regions around theworld that have managed to achieve thisgoal. Professor Byrne concluded hisaddress by reiterating the importance ofthe CRIPREDE project and the CRIPREDEAdaptive Model for the development ofregions and in particular, in bringing theregional stakeholders together in theSouth East of Ireland to develop a unifiedvision and a set of objectives for theregion, under the umbrella of the Spirit ofEnterprise Forum.

Dr. Stefan Weiers, Policy Officer, Regionsof Knowledge and Research Potential, andscientific officer for the CRIPREDE projectwithin the Commission, emphasised theimportance of the CRIPREDE AdaptiveModel to the development of RTDinvestment policies and implementationstrategies within regions across the EU.

During his lunchtime address, Mr. MartinCullen TD, Minister for Social & FamilyAffairs, spoke about the importance ofdeveloping regions and sub-regions withinnational economies. He stressed the factthat the success of a national economy isvery much dependent upon the strengthsof its regional economies. At the end of hisaddress, Minister Cullen launched theDeveloping Competitive Knowledge-basedRegional Economies in Europe book. This is apublication from the CRIPREDE projectoutlining the construction and use of theCRIPREDE Adaptive Model. Thispublication also provides snapshots of thesuccesses of each of the regionscomprising the CRIPREDE consortium as aresult of using the Adaptive Model withintheir respective regions.

For more information:Dr. Bill O’Gorman E-mail: [email protected]

Dr. Bill O’Gorman, Head of Research, Centre for Entrepreneurship, School ofBusiness, WIT; Mr. John McGuinness, TD, Minister for Trade and Commerce;Professor Andreas Pinkwart, Minister of Innovation, Science, Research andTechnology; Deputy Prime Minister of the German State of North-Rhine

Westphalia and Professor Kieran R. Byrne, Director, WIT.

Left to right: Mr. Stephen Blair,Director, Southern & EasternRegional Assembly; Dr. TomO’Toole, Head of School of

Business, WIT; Mr. Martin CullenTD, Minister for Social & Family

Affairs; Mr. Kjell-Erik Bugge, SaxionUniversity, The Netherlands and Dr.Bill O’ Gorman, Head of Research,Centre for Entrepreneurship, School

of Business, WIT.


Recent WIT conferences & publicationsInternational Manufacturing Conference

In August 2007, the 24th InternationalManufacturing Conference (IMC 24)was hosted by the Department ofEngineering Technology at WaterfordInstitute of Technology. The theme ofthis year’s conference was“Manufacturing – Focus On TheFuture” and 130 papers werepresented by delegates from 13countries over 3 days.

Originally called The Irish ManufacturingConference, the initiative was started bya group of Irish Universities (North &South) in 1984 to provide a forum fornew postgraduate researchers. Theconference very quickly attractedoverseas delegates and soon became theInternational Manufacturing Conference.The number of participating colleges alsoexpanded to include some of theInstitutes of Technology.

The IMC aims to provide an opportunityfor researchers and practitioners ofmanufacturing to interact via formalpaper presentations and socialgatherings. It especially seeks toencourage young and inexperiencedauthors from around the world topresent their work in an open and

critical, but supportive, environment.

A number of papers at the conferenceenvisaged two possible futures formanufacturing - the continuing shift ofmanufacture from the developed todeveloping economies and a rapidincrease in world demand for products,due to the rise in wealth in thedeveloping economies. In both cases, thefocus on high-value manufacture, basedon research and development, wasconsidered very relevant in relation tothe survival of manufacture in thedeveloped world.

The first keynote speaker Dr. SumanjitSingh, former Head of JoiningTechnology in R&D with Audi Germany,responsible for the first application ofself-piercing rivets in the Audi A8 andnow a freelance consultant, addressedthe international perspective. Dr. Singhraised a number of interestingphilosophical questions relating to theethics of manufacturing, ranging overissues of environment, energy,exploitation of labour and value.

Mr. Christy Hayes, Managing Director ofNN Euroball Ireland Ltd., who has vastexperience as a practitioner in

engineering management in Ireland andespecially in the interface betweenresearch and industry, discussed Irishindustry. Specifically he proposed thatlinks to academia would be vital tofuture prosperity, in Ireland in particular,and cited the link between his companyand Waterford Institute of Technology asa model.

The 130 papers presented covered theexpected range of topics, from processdesign and control, to machining andmaterials, to supply chain managementand environmental topics. There was,however, a significant increase this yearin the number of papers on micro/nanomanufacture, micro fluidics and medicaldevices

Overall the conference was consideredan outstanding success, exceeding theorganisers’ expectations in terms ofdelegate and paper numbers. IMC 23took place at UU Jordanstown and IMC25 will be hosted by DIT.

For more information:Mr. Joe PhelanE-mail: [email protected]

BooksWIT book lauded as ‘essential reading’

Dr. Thomas O’Toole, Head of the WITSchool of Business, published thesecond edition of his book (co-authored with Professor BillDonaldson) in 2007 with John Wiley& Sons, Chicester: England. StrategicMarket Relationships, from strategy toimplementation, addresses howorganisations originate, sustain anddevelop relationships with customers,suppliers, competitors and otherstakeholders from a strategicperspective.

The book maps business relationshipchoices from strategy to implementation.Strategic Market Relationships is writtenfor students studying relationshipstrategy, management or marketing onadvanced undergraduate, MBA and otherpostgraduate courses.

Relationships between businesses havealways been part of our economiclandscape. Strategic alliances, jointventures and research and developmentco-operation are commonplace in

industries as diverse as electroniccommunications and hospitality. Thepower and prevalence of relationshipsmeans that they are at the centre ofdecision making in organisations.Deciding on the extent of cooperation isa major strategic issue. Cooperating tocompete is not only a feature ofdecisions concerning competitor andcustomer interaction but also supplychain, and managed relationships withother stakeholders such as employees,financial markets, government andinterest groups.

Organisations have to manage multipleand overlapping relationships. No onefirm has all the knowledge and resourcesit needs to compete in its own control.Companies that can combine resourcesacross organisations and acceleratelearning across organisationalboundaries are likely to have a winningstrategy for the future. Close strategicmarket relationships require amanagerial approach that seekscollaboration rather than confrontation,

joint involvement rather than unilateralaction and an acknowledgment ofinterdependence rather thanindependence.

For more information:Dr. Thomas O’TooleE-mail: [email protected]



� � � BOOKS � � �

BUGGE, K.E., BLOKLAN, H., LIER, G., PECK, F., MULVEY, G., HILL, I.,WELTER, F., KOLB, S. & O’GORMAN, B (2008) Adaptive Model forCreating an RTD investment policy for regions in emerging and developedeconomies, Oak Tree Press, Cork

FINNEGAN, R.J. (Ed.) (2007) A Tour in Ireland in 1775, by RichardTwiss, University College Dublin Press

O'TOOLE, T. & DONALDSON, B. (2007) Strategic market relationships:from strategy to implementation, 2nd Edition, Wiley, London, ISBN0470028807

RYAN, P. (2007) Paul Valéry et le dessin, Frankfurt am Main, PeterLang (Rostocker Romanistische Arbeiten, no. 11), 352 pp 57 ill

RYAN, P. (2007) ‘Paul Valéry Cahiers 1894 – 1914’, Vol. X, éditionintégrale, établie, présentée et annotée sous la responsabilité de N.Celeyrette-Pietri et R. Pickering, Paris, Gallimard, pp 380

RYAN, P. (2007) ‘Paul Valéry Notebooks’, Volume 3, Translated by PaulRyan, Brian Stimpson, Norma Rinsler, Frankfurt a. M. Lang,Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften, 2007, pp. 621

TYNAN, M., O’GORMAN, B. & FULLER-LOVE, N. (2008) DevelopingEnterprise Training for Women Entrepreneurs, Oak Tree Press, Cork

� � � BOOK CHAPTERS � � �

CLARKE, J. (2007) ‘Security and Dependability in the evolving servicecentric architectures’ in MIT Book At your service: Service Engineeringin the Information Society Technologies Program, chpt 15

DOYLE, L. (2008) ‘Supply Chain Information Systems and DecisionSupport’, in: Adam, F. & Humphreys P. eds. Encyclopaedia of DecisionMaking and Decision Support Technologies, London: IDEA Group

MCEVOY, E., MARSH, A., ALTRIA, K., DONEGAN, S. & POWER, J.(2008) ‘Capillary Electrophoresis for Pharmaceutical Analysis’ inHandbook of Capillary and Microchip Electrophoresis and AssociatedMicrotechniques, Third Edition, J.P. Landers (Ed), Taylor & Francis

O’GORMAN, B. & COONEY, T.M. (2007) ‘An Anthology of EnterprisePolicy in Ireland’ in Irish Journal of Management, Blackhall Publishing,Dublin

� � � JOURNAL PUBLICATIONS � � �

BARRY, P. (2007) ‘On integer sequences associated to cyclic andregular graphs’, Journal of Integer Sequences, 10 Article 07.4.8(Published electronically)

BARRY, P. (2007) ‘Some observations on the Lah and Laguerretransforms of integer sequences’, J. Integer Sequences, 10 Article07.4.6 (Published electronically)

BARRY, P. (2007) ‘On a Family of Generalized Pascal Trianglesdefined by Exponential Riordan Arrays’, J. Integer Sequences, 10(2007), Article 07.3.5 (Published electronically)

BARRY, P. & FITZPATRICK, P. (2007) ‘On a one-parameter family ofRiordan arrays and the weight distribution of MDS codes’, Journal ofInteger Sequences, Article 07.9.8 (Published electronically)

CREGG, P.J. & SVEDLINDH, P. (2007) ‘Comment on ‘Analyticalresults for a Bessel function times Legendre polynomials classintegrals’’ J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 40 14029–14031, Institute ofPhysics (IOP)

FINNEGAN, R.J. (2006) ‘The Library of William Ponsonby, 2nd Earlof Bessborough, 1704-93’, in Hermathena, Winter, pp 149-87

GOULDING D., MELNIK S., CURTIN D., PIWONSKI T., HOULIHAN J.,GLEESON J. P. & HUYET G. (2007) ‘Kramers' law for a bistablesystem with time delayed noise’, Physical Review E., 76 031128

HARRISON, M., MURPHY, R.P., MCCAFFREY, N., O'GORMAN, D.,O'BRIEN, K., O'CONNOR, P.L. & MOYNA, N.M. (2007) ‘Effect ofAcute Exercise on Postprandial Triglycerides and CellularMicroparticles’, Med Sci Sports Exerc, 39(5) S464-S465

HEARNE, L. (2007) ‘Measuring Client Progression in Adult Guidance’,The Adult Learner: The Journal of Adult and Community Education inIreland

HEARNE, L. (2007) ‘Book Review: Kidd, J. (2006) UnderstandingCareer Counselling; Theory, Research and Practice’, NCGE News,Iss.26

KELLIHER, F. (2007) ‘Small firm cooperative constructs: addressingindustry power relationships’, Journal of Small Business & EnterpriseDevelopment, 14(3): pp 501-13

LANIGAN, M. (2005) ‘Why Positive Access Policies in HigherEducation Can Contribute to Active Citizenship’, The Adult Learner –the Journal of Adult and Community Education in Ireland 2005 –Citizenship & Participation, Aontas, Dublin

LANIGAN, M. (2006) ‘Utilising Learning Journals in MathematicsAssessment’, Maths Stats and Operational Relations (MSOR)Connections, Vol 6 No. 4 (Available online fromhttp://mathstore.ac.uk/newsletter/nov2006/pdf/38_learningjournals.pdf)

MCEVOY, E., DONEGAN, S., POWER, J. & ALTRIA, K. (2008) ‘Theapplication of microemulsion liquid chromatography andmicroemulsion electrokinetic chromatography methods for theanalysis of paracetamol and related impurities in suppositories’,Chromatographia, in press, DOI: 10.1365/s10337-008-0642-2

O'DRISCOLL, I., PIWONSKI, T., SCHLEUSSNER, C.F. , HOULIHAN, J.,HUYET, G. & MANNING, R. J. , (2007) ‘Electron and hole dynamics ofInAs/ GaAs quantum dot semiconductor optical amplifiers’ AppliedPhysics Letters, 91, 071111

MORAN, S. (2007) ‘What is science education for?’, School ScienceReview, 89(326) pp.97 102

MURPHY, V., HUGHES, H. & MCLOUGHLIN, P. (2007) ‘Cu(II) bindingby dried biomass of red, green and brown macroalgae’, WaterResearch, Volume 41, Issue 4, February, pp 731-740

MURPHY, V., HUGHES, H. & MCLOUGHLIN, P. (2007) ‘Comparativestudy of chromium biosorption by red, green and brown seaweedbiomass’, Chemosphere, Volume 70, Issue 6, pp 1128-1134

POPOV, S., RICCIARDI, S., FRIBERG, A.T. & SERGEYEV, S. (2007)‘Mode suppression in a microcavity solid-state dye laser’, JEOS -Rapid publications, 2, 07023

RICCIARDI, S., POPOV, S., FRIBERG, A.T. & SERGEYEV, S. (2007)‘Thermally induced wavelength tunability of microcavity solid-statedye lasers’, Optics Express 15, pp 12971

RICCIARDI, S., POPOV, S., FRIBERG, A.T. & SERGEYEV, S. (2007)‘Impact of cavity symmetry on mode suppression and increase offree spectral range in solid-state dye microlaser’, Chinese OpticsLetters, 5, pp 651-653

RYAN, P. (2007) ‘Valéry: poetics and phenomenology’, ModernLanguage Review, Journal for the Modern Humanities ResearchAssociation, King’s College London, July, Vol. 102, No. 3, pp 688-702

SAEED, A., GUERINN, M., KHAN, I., KEANE, P., STACK, J., HAYES, P.,TORMEY, P., MULHERN, M. & BEATTY, S. (2007) ‘Deferral of firstreview after uneventful phacoemulsification cataract surgery until 2weeks: randomized controlled study’, J. Cataract Refract Surg. Sep,33(9) pp 1591-6


Recent WIT conferences & publicationsSERGEYEV, S., POPOV, S. & FRIBERG, A.T. (2007) ‘PolarizationDependent Gain and Gain Fluctuations in a Fiber Raman Amplifier’,J. Opt. A: Pure Appl. Opt. 9, pp 1119-1122

SERGEYEV, S. & POPOV, S. (2007) ‘Statistical model of migration-assisted upconversion in high-concentration EDFA’, JEOS - Rapidpublications, 2, 07027

� � � CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS � � �

DOOLY, Z., BYRNE, S. & MAHER, J. (2007) ‘KM and PM in aSubsidiary of a MNC’, Presented at European Conference of KnowledgeManagement, Barcelona, Spain

DOYLE, L. (2008) ‘Big Links and Small Links in the Supply Chain andtheir Use of Information Technology’, Proceedings of the 9th IBIMAConference on Information Management in the Modern Organisation,Marrakesh, Morocco

FREEMAN, A. & DOYLE, L. (2007) ‘An Investigation into the Role ofInformation Systems Security in SMEs in the Southeast of Ireland’,Proceedings of the IADIS International Conference on Computer Scienceand Information Systems, Lisbon, Portugal

FREEMAN, A., STAPLETON, L. & BYRNE, G. (2007) ‘The InformationSystems Development Process: Through an Anthropological Lens’,Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on InformationSystems Development - Challenges in Practice, Theory and Education,Galway, Ireland

FREEMAN, A. STAPLETON, L. & BYRNE, G. (2008) ‘Systems SecurityProblems and Cultural Meanings in Control and AutomationSystems: Empirical Evidence for Value Conflicts in SystemsEngineering’, Proceedings of the 17th International Federation ofAutomatic Control (IFAC) World Congress, Seoul, Korea

LANIGAN, M., (2007) ‘Where are the examinations? Using LearningJournals In Mathematics Assessment’, Case studies of Good Practices inAssessment of Student Learning in Higher Education, AISHE, Dublin

MCGIBNEY, J., BALASUBRAMANIAM, S. & BOTVICH, D. (2007) ‘Acombined biologically and socially inspired approach to mitigatingad hoc network threats’, 66th IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference,Baltimore, 1-3 October, IEEE, pp 2010-2014

MCGIBNEY, J. & BOTVICH, D. (2007) ‘A service-centric approach toaccess control and monitoring based on distributed trust’, 3rd IBMCAS Software and Systems Engineering Symposium, Dublin, 24 October,CASCON (ACM Digital Library), pp 294-305

MCGIBNEY, J. & BOTVICH, D. (2007) ‘Distributed dynamicprotection of services on ad hoc and p2p networks’, 7th IEEEInternational Workshop on IP Operations and Management, San Jose,31 October – 2 November, Springer Lecture Notes in ComputerScience (LNCS) vol. 4786, pp 95-106

MCGIBNEY, J. & BOTVICH, D. (2007) ‘Establishing trust betweenmail servers to improve spam filtering’, 4th International Conferenceon Autonomic and Trusted Computing, Hong Kong, 11-13 July,Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) vol. 4610, pp146-155

MURPHY, L. (2007) ‘The Relationship between Stress, Fatigue andDepression in Women Cancer Survivors’, in 8th AnnualInterdisciplinary Research Conference, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 7-9th November (Concurrent Paper Presentation)

O’BYRNE, R., SERGEYEV, S., FLAVIN, D. & NIKOGOSYAN, D. (2007)‘Strain characterization of fiber Bragg gratings inscribed by highintensity femtosecond UV pulses’, Paper ID: 01_032, Third EuropeanWorkshop on Optical Fibre Sensors, Napoli, Italy, July 4-7

OSMANI, V., BALASUBRAMANIAM, S. & BOTVICH, D. (2007) ‘ABayesian Network and Rule-base Approach Towards ActivityInference’, In Proc. of IEEE 66th Vehicular Technology Conference(VTC2007-Fall), doi:10.1109/VETECF.2007.67, pp. 254-258,Washington DC, USA

OSMANI, V., BALASUBRAMANIAM, S. & BOTVICH, D. (2007) ‘Self-Organising Object Networks using Context Zones for DistributedActivity Recognition’, In Proc. of Second International Conference onBody Area Networks (BodyNets'07), in cooperation with ACM SIGCHI,ISBN: 978-963-06-2193-9, id. 152, Florence, Italy

OSMANI, V., BALASUBRAMANIAM, S. & BOTVICH, D. (2007)‘Challenges for Human Activity Recognition’, 4th InternationalWorkshop on Managing Ubiquitous Communications and Services partof IM 2007,Multicon Lecture Notes, ISBN: 3-930736-07-01, pp. 201-208, Munich, Germany

POPOV, S., RICCIARDI, S., FRIBERG, A.T. & SERGEYEV, S. (2007)‘Even-mode generation in microcavity dye laser’, InternationalConference on Coherent and Nonlinear Optics (ICONO/LAT’2007),May28 – June 1, Minsk, Belarus) Reference No.: 809

POPOV, S., RICCIARDI, S., FRIBERG, A.T. & SERGEYEV, S. (2007)‘Mode depletion in micro-sized solid-state dye laser’, Proceedings ofThe OSA Topical Conference on Nanophotonics, (NANO), June18-21,Hangzhou, China, pp. 116

POPOV, S., RICCIARDI, S., FRIBERG, A. T. & SERGEYEV, S (2007) ‘Odd-mode depletion in microcavity solid-state dye laser’, InternationalConference on Nanoscience and Technology (ICN+T 2007), July 2 - 6,Stockholm, Sweden, NSP4-112

RICCIARDI, S., POPOV, S., FRIBERG, A.T. & SERGEYEV, S. (2007)‘Tunable microcavity solid-state dye laser for biometricsapplications’, International Conference on Coherent and NonlinearOptics (ICONO/LAT’2007),May 28 - June 1, Minsk, Belarus,Reference No.: 811

RICCIARDI, S., POPOV, S., FRIBERG, A.T. & SERGEYEV, S. (2007)‘Thermo-elastic tunability of microcavity solid-state dye laser’,Proceedings of The OSA Topical Conference on Nanophotonics, (NANO),June18-21, Hangzhou, China, pp 61

RICCIARDI, S., POPOV, S., FRIBERG, A.T. & SERGEYEV, S. (2007)‘Thermoelastic wavelength tunability of microcavity solid-state dyelaser’, International Conference on Nanoscience and Technology (ICN+T2007), July 2 - 6, Stockholm, Sweden

SERGEYEV, S., POPOV, S. & FRIBERG, A.T. (2007) ‘A new PMDmeasurement technique’, International Conference on Coherent andNonlinear Optics (ICONO/LAT’2007), May 28 - June 1, Minsk, Belarus,Reference No.: 211

SERGEYEV, S. (2007) ‘A New Statistical Model of Upconversion inErbium Doped Fibers’, International Conference on Coherent andNonlinear Optics (ICONO/LAT’2007), May 28 - June 1, Minsk, Belarus,Reference No.: 216

WALSH, F., BALASUBRAMANIAM, S., BOTVICH, D., DONNELLY, W. &SERGEYEV, S. (2007) ‘Development of Molecular basedCommunication Protocols for Nanomachines’, Conference Nano-Net2007, Catania, Italy



� � � CONFERENCES & SYMPOSIA � � �

BALASUBRAMANIAM, S., BOTVICH, D., WALSH, F., DONNELLY W. &SERGEYEV S. (2007) ‘Applying Compartmentalization techniques forCommunication Protocol of BioNano/MEM Devices’ , 4thInternational Conference on Broadband Communications, Networks andSystems (Broadnets), Raleigh, North Carolina, USA, September

BIRNEY, R., Ó HÉIGEARTAIGH, M. & BARRY, M. (2007) ‘PrivacyConsiderations in the Selection of Blogging Software’, Brief Paperpresented at EdMedia World Conference on Educational Multimedia,Hypermedia & Telecommunications, Vancouver, Canada

COFFEY A.B., RYAN, D., (2007) “Effect of Gamma Sterilisation on thebulk properties of Medical Grade Polymers”, InternationalManufacturing Conference 24, Waterford Institute of Technology,August

FOLEY, A., FRAMPTON, A., KELLIHER, F., LALLY, A. & WHELAN, S.(2007) ‘Examination of the operationalisation of the small firmlearning network model in the Failte Ireland Mergo CBTLNNetwork’, 3rd Annual Conference on Tourism and Hospitality Researchin Ireland, Dundalk Institute of Technology, June 12-13

GIBBON, C. & KELLIHER, F. (2007) ‘Removing the hero from crisismanagement’, Irish Academy of Management Conference proceedings,Queen’s University, Belfast, Sept 3-5

HANSEN, C. (2007) ‘Experiencing Materiality through Art andExperiment’, The Turn to Aesthetics, Hope University Liverpool (5th-8th June)

HANSEN, C. (2007) ‘Experimental Bronze Casting with Umha Aois’,Metalworking in Ireland, Historical Metallurgy Society Conference,Trinity College Dublin (15th-16th September)

HANSEN, C. (2007) ‘Umha Aois/The Bronze Age 4,000 Years on –Experiment and Experience’, Experimental Archaeology Conference,University of Exeter (17th-18th November)

HANSEN, C. (2007) ‘Phenomenology and Practical Knowledge inContemporary Academic Contexts’, Theoretical Archaeology GroupConference 2007, University of York (14th- 16th December)

HEARNE, L. (2007) ‘Measuring Client Progression in LongitudinalTracking Systems in Adult Guidance’, IAEVG, Sept 4 - 6, Padua, Italy

HEARNE, L. (2007) ‘Career Counselling Across the Lifespan’, IAC, July11-12, UCC

ION, M., TELESCA, L., MCGIBNEY, J. & BOTVICH, D. (2007) ‘Anevolutionary multidimensional trust model for digital ecosystems’,1st International Conference on Open Philosophies for AssociativeAutopoietic Digital Ecosystems, Rome, 26-27 November

KEALY, A. & KELLIHER, F. (2007) ‘An exploratory investigation intoInternet users’ perception regarding the data privacy policies ofvirtual companies operating in Ireland’, Accepted for inclusion in theproceeding of the European Conference on Information Managementand Evaluation,Montpellier, France, Sept 20th-21st

KELLIHER, F., HARRINGTON, D. & GALAVAN, R. (2007) ‘SpreadingLeader Knowledge: A proposal for practitioner-academic partnershipin disseminating leader knowledge’, Irish Academy of ManagementConference proceedings, Queen’s University, Belfast, Sept 3-5 (BestPaper Award)

LANIGAN, M., (2007) ‘Small-scale Educational Action ResearchProject: Assisting Adult Learners Develop Confidence InMathematics - A Contemporary Approach To A Traditional Problem,’ALM-14 (Adults Learning Mathematics), University of Limerick

MCDONALD, D. (2007) ‘The Irish Music Manuscripts of HenryHudson (1798-1889)’, Society for Musicology in Ireland AnnualConference, DIT, Dublin (11-13 May)

MCDONALD, D. (2007) ‘Henry Hudson (1798-1889), his Life, Musicand Manuscripts’, American Conference of Irish Studies, University ofMassachusetts, Boston (10 November)

McDonald, D. (2008) A Comparative and Contextual Study of theIrish Music Manuscripts of Henry Hudson (1798-1889), InternationalCouncil for Traditional Music, DKIT, Dundalk (25 January)

MCGIBNEY, J. & BOTVICH, D. (2007) ‘Collaborative strategies forreducing attacks on ad hoc network nodes’, 18th IEEE InternationalSymposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications(CAMAD workshop), Athens, 7 September, IEEE

MOLONEY, C. (2007) ‘Nature versus Nurture in Musical Creativity’,Human Persons and the God of Nature Conference, Oxford, UK

MULHALL, C. (2007) ‘Semantics and the lemmatisation of idiomaticexpressions: an analysis of bilingual Italian-English Dictionaries’,LangUE 2007, University of Essex, 13 July

MURPHY, A. & GARAVAN, T. (2007) ‘A Conceptual Framework toExplain Adoption and Diffusion of a NHRD Standard: A Case Studyof Ireland’, University Forum Human Resource Development Conference,Oxford Brooks University, 27th-29th June

O’RIORDAN, C. & KELLIHER, F. (2007) ‘A study of the Internationalmanagement practices of an Irish SME: The case of FLIEnvironmental’, Irish Academy of Management Conference proceedings,Queen’s University, Belfast, Sept 3-5

WALSH, F., BALASUBRAMANIAM, S., BOTVICH, D., DONNELLY W. &SERGEYEV S. (2007) ‘Development of Molecular basedCommunication Protocols for Nanomachines’, 2nd InternationalConference on Nano-Networks (Nano-Net), Cantania, Sicily, Italy,September

� � � EXHIBITIONS � � �

BURKE, A., CUSSEN, C., HANSEN, C., et al (2007) ‘Spreagadh – AnExhibition inspired by the Umha Aois project’, Inis Oírr: Aras ÉannaArts Centre

� � � POSTERS � � �

BALASUBRAMANIAM, S., BOTVICH, D., WALSH, F., DONNELLY, W.,SERGEYEV, S. & BUSH, S.F. (2007) ‘Applying Compartmentalizationtechniques for Communication Protocol of BioNano/MEM Devices’,IEEE Broadnets 2007, Releigh, North Caroline, Sept. 10-14, Poster

GOONEY, M.A., MURPHY, L. & LANE, P. (2007) ‘Awakening SalivaryCortisol Response in Women Cancer Survivors’, in 9th World Congressof Psycho-oncology, Integrating the psychosocial to achieve quality cancercare, London 16-20th September, Poster

HEARNE, L. (2007) ‘Measuring Client Progression in LongitudinalTracking Systems: A Current Irish Research Study’, NAEGA, July 4-6,Manchester, Poster

SCHADE, K. & SERGEYEV, S. (2007) ‘Extrinsic Fabry-PerotInterferometer-based Real Time Monitoring of Epoxy Curing’,Photonics Ireland 2007, Galway, Sept. 24-26, Poster

SERGEYEV, S., POPOV, S. & FRIBERG, A.T. (2007) ‘A New PMDmeasurement technique with a fiber Raman amplifier’, ReferenceNo: CI-6-TUE, CLE0 EUROPE, Munich, June 17-22, Poster

YU, G. & BARRY, M. (2007) ‘E-Learning in Special Education:Applying the IMS Learning Design Specification’, Poster at Ed-Media2007 World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia &Telecommunications, Vancouver, CA, June 25-29

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Documents

Research Matters Issue 9 Summer 2008