DkiT imes - Dundalk Institute of Technology

EDITOR: ANGELA SHORT
DkiTimes
Volume 5
Issue 17
ASSISTANT ED:
MARGARET CLARKE
HISTORICAL ED:
SEAMUS BELLEW
Congratulations to Adam Burke, a graduate of Community Sports Leadership
at DKIT, who arrived in Port St Charles, Barbados this morning as part
of a six man crew who have set a new world record for rowing the
Atlantic Ocean.
'Not only have they achieved this goal by taking 10 hours 36 minutes off
the old record set by Team Hallin only yesterday, they have also set a
new world record for rowing more consecutive days over 100+ miles than
any other boat in history. The old record which was set by the 07/08 La
Mondiale crew stood at 9 days, Craughwell and his crew managed a
superhuman effort to extend this out to an incredible 12 days.'
See the press release at
http://www.oceanrowing.com/Oceanrowers/Sara_G_Press_release.htm
for details of this incredible feat of endurance.
Suffice to say we are delighted for him and wish him a safe journey home.
Win a Bicycle worth 150.00
Dundalk IT has recently become one of the
National Transport Authority's Smarter Travel
workplaces, following on from our commitment to
the Go Dundalk initiative.
Being a Smarter Travel Workplace means that
Dundalk IT is committed to helping our staff and
students help the environment, reduce the stress
caused by their daily journeys, save money and
improve the health of our campus users.
While many of us use cars to come to DkIT, our
focus now is on addressing other forms of
transport such as public transport, walking,
cycling and car sharing.
Over the coming months you will see a range of travel options promoted
to staff and students, but first of all, we need to gather information
on your daily travel patterns and your thoughts on those alternative
modes of transport as well as the journey by car.
Please click on the link below to access the survey. It doesn't take
long to complete and all completed surveys will be placed into a prize
draw to win this fantastic prize.
A Bicycle to the value of €150.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/dundalktravelsurvey
The higher the response rate to the survey the
more tailored any new travel measures will be,
so please show your support by completing the
survey by 18th February 2011.
Do you have a flair for
photography?
New initiatives and activities are transforming our campus into a more
sustainable place to study and work. The Sustainable Living Institute is
looking for photographs that best describe our “Green Campus” to use on the
banners of our new website.
Prize- New Apple iPod Nano 8GB
The closing date is February 28th 2011(after green week)
Submit entries to sustainableliving@dkit.ie
Check our website www.dkit.ie/sustainable for more details
Green Week at DkIT
21st to 25th February, 2011.
In the past months Dundalk Institute of Technology has begun to engage
with An Taisce on the Green Campus Programme in order to work towards
the prestigious international ‘Green Flag’ award.
Green Campus aims to make environmental awareness and action an
intrinsic part of the life and ethos of the Institute by endeavouring to extend
learning beyond the lecture theatre and develop responsible attitudes and
commitment on campus, at home and in the wider community.
The Implementation of the Green Campus Programme is based on the
Seven Steps methodology:
1.The Formation of a Green Campus Committee: To include students,
academic staff, administration staff and representatives from estates.
2.Environmental Review: Looking at the environmental impacts of the
campus in order to set targets for action and improvement.
3.Action Plan: Specific and achievable targets are set with proposed
completion dates.
4.Monitoring and Evaluation: Targets are checked, amendments made and
success is celebrated.
5.Curriculum Work: Data generated from the examination of environmental
aspects of the campus should be used in course work where possible.
6.Informing and Involving: Ensuring the campus and wider community are
aware of the work being done and can become involved.
7.Green Charter: A statement and procedures that commit the Campus to
improved environmental performance are drawn up.
The Green Campus programme does not aim to reward specific
environmental improvement projects, what it does require is the successful
implementation of the Seven Steps programme and a demonstration of
commitment to the continuity of the programme on campus. Application
must be submitted yearly for the retention of the Green Flag once it has
been awarded.
One of the criteria is that Dundalk Institute of Technology hold a GREEN
WEEK as part of its ongoing commitment to the Green Campus
Programme.
This is being held from 21st February to 25th February and includes the
following events:
• Green Campus themed Photography Competition
• Bike Workshops and display stands
• Smarter Travel Workplaces stand
• Growers Group planting with REHAB/Simon
• Talk by the Heritage Council “Climate Change and Ireland’s Heritage”
• Car Free Day
• Poetry and Writers Group reading
• Talk by Sinead Pentony TASC, “The Role of the Economy in a Flourishing
Economy”
• Film screening
• Launch of DKIT’s CAR POOLING WEBSITE
For more details please look at www.dkit.ie/sustainable
So if you would like to get involved with the Green Campus Programme
please contact Moireen Taggart at moireen.taggart@dkit.ie or Sonya Rice
at sonya.rice@dkit.ie
THE SCHOOL of INFORMATICS
The official opening of the Carroll’s
Building due to take place on Friday
11th affords us the opportunity to
look back on over forty years work
on the Dublin Road or Hoey’s Lane.
DKIT opened its doors in 1969 to
the first students, then known as
Dundalk Regional Technical College
it was one of the five first opened in
the country. The RTC grew out the
thinking from the Lemass and
Whitaker era. In 2001 the Library
building was officially opened and
named in honour of Ken Whitaker.
Patrick Hillary as Minister for Education oversaw the development of the plans for the
RTC. He was succeeded by Donogh O’Malley who is also renowned for the
introduction of ‘free second level’ education. The next Minister was Louthman, Mr
Padraig Faulkner who officially opened the RTC in 1971 and so has come to pass
forty years of Third Level Education in Dundalk. The departments in the college
emerged in the seventies followed by schools in the early eighties.
The School of Informatics and Creative Arts was founded in September 2004 with
Denis Cummins as Head of School. He later became Director/President of the
College in 2006 and the current Head of School is Dr Bob McKiernan. The arts-based
disciplines of Creative Media and Music were introduced to the Institute in the
Humanities section (later in 2002 becoming a department) in the School of Business
& Humanities - Creative Media in 2000 and Music in 2003. The first programme in
Creative Media, the National Diploma in
Humanities
in
Communications
in
Multimedia, was validated in 2000 and the
first taught Music programme, a 4-year
honours degree in Applied Music, was
validated by HETAC in 2003. A taught
Masters degree in Music Technology was
also validated in 2003.
An add-on
honours degree in Creative Multimedia
was validated in 2004. The two disciplines
came together in the new department of
Music and Creative Media in 2004 and were incorporated within this School upon its
foundation in September 2004. A Masters in Future Communications in Creative
Technology, developed in association with the School
of Art and Design at the University of Ulster and
funded under the Peace 2 Programme, was validated
in 2005 as well as a level 5 Certificate course in
Creative Media in conjunction with O’Fiaich College.
Dr Eibhlis Farrell has been Head of Department since
it was founded and currently Caroline O’Sullivan is
Head of programmes in the Creative Media and Adele
Commins in Music.
The history of computing emerged over a number of years before the formal
establishing of a department specialising in Computing. Mick Rogers (Civil
Engineering) who was in the college from the start now retired from NUIG was
probably the first to use computers for teaching. His students used punch cards that
had to be sent to UCG to be processed, a long way from the on line processing we
have grown to know and love these days! When John Connolly became Head of
School of Engineering in 1974 one of his first major purchases was a Digital
Equipment Corporation Model PDP 8/e Minicomputer. PDP was the acronym for
Programmable Data Processor. This purchase was significant in those days and
would have been equivalent to buying about 20 new Ford Cortina MarkIII ['Coke
Bottle']
cars.
Digital
Equipment
Corporation, Digital for short or more
popularly,
DEC,
had
set
up
a
manufacturing site in Galway sometime
earlier and our machine had been made
there. John and Paul Sliney were the
recognised
experts
on
computer
hardware and high and low level
programming. Soon Jim Maguire was on
board. John Keane led programming
language development in the college and
he taught BASIC in the early courses.
This laid the foundation from which
computing courses in the College developed.
In 1977 the first computing course was started
in the college. A one-year cert was run initially
but soon it got changed into a two year
national Certificate. The PDP-8 machine was
not powerful enough and was now linked in
with the CDPS of the State’s Finance
Department in Kilmainham. The information
would be transferred down the telephone line
at a transfer rate of about 300 Baud or 20
characters per second! The arrival of Kate Ó
Dubhchair followed by that of the late Ann
Commins (R.I.P.) in 1979 saw further
development through their expertise. By
1981/2 the Computing Department was
established and it bought its own PDP-11/34
as part of a national purchase scheme for
the RTCs and NIHE, Limerick. Despite
being considerably advanced compared to
the PDP8 soon the lack of power became
apparent. Next came the CP/M based
system with an early PC type environment.
This system had been assembled in Dublin
and looked rather like a computer in a
dustbin. Columb Collins admits that he was
to be seen working on these with screw
drivers, fixing loose connections and
generally keeping the ‘show’ on the road.
Those early days were full of innovation.
Ann Commins’s expertise straddled the
boundary between systems analysis and COBOL programming and RPG and the
more scientific/mathematical world of BASIC FORTRAN and ALGOL. She also
worked with Seamus Kelly on the first IBM UNIX box (AIX 1) acquired by the college.
The first in-house degree programme in Computing started in 1995.
The mathematics section is also part of this school where the maths people teach
maths throughout the college in the three other schools. The first maths lecturer in
the college was Frank Carney who was definitely there the first day the college
opened in 1969, whether he was the first person in, the jury is out on that one. Frank
played a pivotal role in establishing the college even before the first the first principle
arrived – Dr Sean McDonagh whose key contributions to all sections of the college is
widely acknowledged. It was not long before some more of the mafia arrived from the
west.
Columb Collins became the first head of School of Science that encompassed the
disciplines of Science, Mathematics and Computing. Kate O’ Dooher served as first
Head of Department until 1986 when Columb took over that role until 1991. Those
who have lead the department since then were John Keane, Denis Cummins, Bob
McKiernan, Shane Dowdall and Gerry Gallagher. The current Head of Department is
Prof. Dr. Christian Horn who arrived in November 2007.
CAN ANYONE IDENTIFY THE FORMER STAFF MEMBER IN
THIS CARTOON?
The Peter Rice medal competition took place in DkIT on Wednesday 19 th January. The event
was organised by Sinead Kelly from the School of Engineering and was run in conjunction with
Engineers Ireland North East region. The Peter Rice medal commemorates the local Dundalk
man, who was one of Ireland’s outstanding structural engineers and the award is made annually
to the best presented Level 7 Engineering student project in DkIT.
At this year’s event, four candidates from a range of Engineering disciplines competed for the
award, with a panel of judges from Engineers Ireland selecting the overall winner. The finalists
were Yi Jian Zhang (Monica) from Electrical and Electronic Systems, Kevin Martin from
Construction Technology, Eugene Kelly from Civil Engineering and Eamonn McCluskey from
Building Services Engineering. The judging panel selected Monica as the overall winner for her
project on the “LCD display of a Weight Logging Scale”. Monica is currently continuing her
studies at DkIT and is undertaking a one year add-on Honours Degree in Sustainable Design
Engineering.
Congratulations to Monica and all the finalists who took part in the competition!
Pictured in the photo with Monica:
John Iliff, John Brannigan and John Quinn from Engineers Ireland.
DKiTalk Radio Blog
RAG Week has been announced folks and it’s looking like our best one yet.
This week we gave you a run-down of the schedule and some top tips for
getting the most out of RAG week.
There are some top acts on their way, for the full official release from the
Students Union head over to http://dkitsu.ie/latest-news/500-lineup-for-ragweek-2011.html.
Now RAG week is the highlight of the college calendar. It’s the week that
everyone looks forward to. But we have some top tips to keep you going and
getting the full enjoyment you can from it.
1.Get your tickets early. Events like the Wedding always sell out quick so make
sure you get the tickets you want!
2.Pace yourself. Both financially and physically. It can be easy to get carried
away with all the fun and find yourself burned out or broke.
3.Be respectful. While RAG week is about raising money and having the craic,
please remember that not everyone around you will be participating. So be
mindful of neighbours.
4.Enjoy yourself! While it may sound simple, make sure you go out and enjoy
the experience.
This week’s live music came courtesy of Katie-Anne Bolger who performed two
original tracks which were nothing short of fantastic. If you liked Katie-Anne’s
sound and want to hear more or want to hear it for the first time then head
down to the Spirit Store on the 17th February where you can see her live!
Now we won’t be back for two weeks folks. So enjoy yourselves and stay safe!
DKIT Students Say Have a Heart This Valentines
Day
A group of DKIT students will hold a 70s Love Train Valentines disco
for charity, on the 11th February 2010 in Radius night club at the
Imperial Hotel Dundalk sponsored by The Home Bakery. This event
is in aid of Aine Lawrence McCormac and her charity “I’ve got what?
“, which supports young sufferers of cancer.
The group of students from third year Applied Cultural Studies
decided to give a
hand to this young woman who has been fighting cancer for the past
four years and to raise awareness of her recently established
foundation. Her charity has been steadily gaining support through
various fund raising nights and events over the past number of
months.
Tickets for the event are priced at €10 and are available at the door
on the night, or from Gerard Cotter (0876574137). Attendees are
encouraged to come in fancy dress in line with the seventies theme.
For those romantically minded the night will also include a special
slow set courtesy of DJ Deirdre Keelan.
Dundalk Institute of Technology supports events like this every year
by students of Applied Cultural Studies who undertake a module in
event management as part of their curriculum. Aine herself is a
former student of this course and is well known amongst both faculty
and class mates.
In a hurry?
The Library has installed 2 Express Lane
PCs beside the printers on Floor 1.
These PCs are for short term use only (10
minutes only). If you need to quickly
access your H drive or send a document to
print these PCs are what you need.
Whittaker Theatre
Feb 16th
1pm
€2 admission
Proceeds go to
SOSAD charity
One of the 5 lucky couples
will be Bride and Groom of
R.A.G Week!
DkIT Men’s Basketball
2nd February
2011
Blanchardstown IT 53 - 71 DKIT
The DKIT squad completed a great away win against a good ITB team. DKIT welcomed in Z. Zelnys
for his first start of the year and contributed well in the first quarter with some great drives and assists.
Kev Lacey opened the scoring for DKIT with two free throws, which were a common occurence from
this game for the DCU Saints player. A big three from John Rafferty put six points between the teams
before Blanch IT opened their account. Great rebounding by K Norwak and set up some easy
fastbreak scores for the Ravens which led to a 12 - 6 lead at the end of the first quarter.
The second quarter started again brightly for DKIT with scores coming from Lacey, Rafferty and
Zelnys. Though DKIT were dealt a blow when Ravens guard AJ O'Neil picked up his third foul early in
the second quarter which meant the coach took him out to make sure he was good to play in the
second half. This didn't halt DKIT one bit with strong play coming from E Ryan and C Martin who were
able replacements. At half time the Dundalk lads led 26- 18.
DKIT had alot to do in the third quarter to make sure the win was theirs and they went score for score
with ITB. Kev Lacey carried the bulk of the scoring in this quarter hitting 10 of his 30 points to help put
the DKIT team up 42-34 going into the final quarter.
The final quarter was almost easy for DKIT as they scored 29 points in this quarter alone, helpped
with big threes from E Ryan who hit two and A O'Maolagain. Z Zelnys also contributed with some
great fast break points and was well assisted by AJ O'Neil.
The win sets up a big game away to top of the table Dublin Business School. With a couple of
scholarship players and a well coached team this will prove a great test to see how far the DKIT
basketball team have come this year.
Top Scorers
K Lacey 30
Z Zelnys 11
J Rafferty 8
Letter to the Editor
Dear Sir/Madam
Jason Harris (indo 7th Feb) makes a valid call
for educating the electorate on the nuances of
the vote counting PR system. When one
considers in the last few elections how seats
have been won and lost over a handful of
votes the need to provide accessible answers
to questions such as Mr. Harris raises is a
public service necessity. As part of my work in
creating Reusable learning objects in the
Third level educaiton system I was fortunate,
after the 2007 General Election to record a
four part podcast with an election mechanics
expert which explains the voting and count
system in detail.
This podcast is available at
http://ww2.dkit.ie/about_dkit/podcasts/dkitalk/seamus_bellew_explains_th
e_pr_proportional_representation_system
as an open source public service resource freely available to all.
Sincerely
Liam Ó Gógáin
Retired Lecturer DkIT
1 Muirhevna
Dublin Road
Dundalk
Next week will be the start of Fit 4 Life 2011!
Being S.H.A.G week, the theme is sexual health awareness.
The following events will start on Wednesday the 16th of February. Hope to
see you all there!
Wee for a Wii (Chance to win a Nintendo Wii)
Take me out Wed 16th Whitaker 1pm (Free S.H.A.G packs!)
Boots packs on Thursday
C a p ti o n C o m p e ti ti o n
"Yep guys, I'm definitely high up in the poles for
this election"
Congratulations Michelle Clark CYW
and next weeks...
S e n d y o u r c a p ti o n s to e d i to r @ d k i t. i e