Teknovis

Mike Scott, Head of School of Computing in DCU, has spoken out on the falling standard of students, and the perceived difficulty of certain subjects such as maths, in The Tech-Sounding Math-Free Degree!.

I completely agree with all of the opinions expressed, although I would question the following:

Meanwhile in DCU we will continue to insist that graduates emerging from our computing degree courses will have strong technical skills. This is why employers consistently indicate a preference for our graduates.

From the employer’s side of the table, I would definitely question the calibre of some of the recent graduates. Indeed, this is not a problem that is constrained to DCU, but it is equally applicable to all of the Irish universities.

Tags: DCU

Science Foundation Ireland has announced its latest round of funding, in which 15 million Euro will be distributed to fund 79 different university projects. All of the usual universities are in there. See Robust and competitive research will drive Ireland’s economic development – Sherlock for the details.

To be honest, I find it a bit depressing to see some of the names I first came across over 10 years ago in that list, and these people are still doing basically the same projects. It makes me feel that the world moves on, but academics never change :|

Tags: DCU, DIT, NUIM, Science Foundation Ireland, TCD, UCC, UCD, UCG, UL

The first of the two final state maths exams that students do at the end of their second level schooling is in progress right now. Apparently, there are fewer students doing the highest level of maths than ever before: Leaving Cert honours maths uptake hits record low – report.

Welcome to the knowledge economy Irish style – a place where maths is not important!

Tags: Ireland

I heard a review of the papers on the radio this morning that referenced this article: ‘Cloud’ postgrad course a world first. In summary, CIT is to run some third and fourth level taught courses focusing specifically on Cloud Computing. For more details see Cloud Computing @ Cork Institute of Technology.

I think this is a really great idea for two reasons:

• They are great courses from a publicity point-of-view! This should help to attract good calibre students and partners.
• The subjects look very relevant (although the critical aspect is the execution). I think that these subjects could be offered as part of many different courses, but the common branding of the course title certainly helps!

I bet the other institutions are regretting that they did not think of this first! To me, the key issue should be that all courses are sufficiently fresh and up-to-date to allow successful students to go into any area that is currently in demand!

The unfortunate thing for CIT was that the homepage of its website contained no mention of these courses at the time :| It does now – see CIT partners with EMC to deliver world’s first degree in Cloud Computing :o

Tags: CIT

I just read that Marketo is to setup in Dublin, and in the process create 125 new jobs. See Silicon Valley cloud player Marketo creates 125 jobs in Dublin. It is great news, although from what I have read I do not think that it is really a true cloud computing player.

The other thing that concerned me was the following motivation in coming to Dublin:

Phil Fernandez, president and CEO of Marketo, explained the company selected Ireland because it needed a European hub with a large talent pool of skilled people.

I really hope that Marketo does not experience the same problems as many other companies here are experiencing (for example, see Demonware boss warns of skills gap in Irish computer science courses in the media this morning).

Tags: Ireland, Marketo

I read a very interesting article about technology vacancies in Ireland. See While chips down in many sectors, IT struggles to fill jobs.

The technology industry has, according to some of its leading figures and industry groups, several thousand of jobs lying open. The sector has also created about 1,250 jobs since the start of the year, according to IDA Ireland. These are “smart economy” jobs, available from the big multinationals, established indigenous technology companies and hot new tech start-ups.

…

For some reason, this serious issue is ignored – I suspect because the public has wanted to hear about new job creation schemes from a new Government, new initiatives and new vision. But to my mind, new vision means looking at the underlying reasons why jobs are not being taken up by the existing population, many of them graduates obviously qualified to do so, and why companies also cannot easily get the employees they need from outside.

…

However, it also indicates the education system may not be producing graduates of the calibre or skillsets that companies here need. Google, for one, has said so. This is a serious education issue requiring deep examination.

My experiences fully support the arguments made here! Indeed, unless something is done to change things I think Ireland will not have any hope of being a knowledge economy!

Tags: Ireland

Congratulations to CTVR for securing 24€ million!

For more information see Minister Sherlock announces €24million boost for telecommunications research centre.

Tags: CTVR

There is another interesting insight into how the taxpayers’ money is spent by third level institutions. (I previously wrote about this in How DERI Spends the Taxpayers’ Money.) This time it involves WIT (home of TSSG), and you can read about it in College president defends €100,000 spent on taxis.

In fairness, it probably sounds worse than it actually is! I recall meeting five UL academics at an event in Dublin. They travelled between Limerick and Dublin by limousine, because it was cheaper than buying five return train tickets!

Tags: TSSG, WIT

IRCSET recently announced the results of the 2011 Postdoctoral Scheme (see IRCSET Postdoctoral Fellowship Schemes 2010/2011). The value of each fellowship is roughly 80,000€ over two years (see Empower).

According to my count there were 37 fellowships awarded this year. These can be broken down by institution as follows:

• 4 DCU
• 1 DIAS (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies – I know very little about this institution!)
• 1 DIT
• 6 UCG
• 10 TCD
• 1 UL
• 3 UCC
• 11 UCD

Clearly TCD and UCD are doing something right because they account for more than half of the successful applicants!

The fellowships can also be broken down by category, although these results are more evenly distributed:

• 4 Biological Sciences A
• 6 Biological Sciences B
• 7 Chemistry
• 2 Computer Science
• 4 Earth and Environmental Science
• 6 Engineering
• 2 Mathematics
• 6 Physics

It is also interesting to note how many of the names do not sound Irish!

Overall, I do not think that these fellowships represent good value for the tax payer! I say this, because I know some of the people who have successfully applied for this fellowship. In all cases, it is seen as a way to continue a career as an academic. Furthermore, the people I have known had or have no intention of remaining in Ireland or working in industry. In other words, these people want to become academics for the sake of becoming academics, and their contribution to the country will be minimal.

If it were up to me, I would fund more PhD students who then go on to work in industry!

Tags: DCU, DIAS, DIT, IRCSET, TCD, UCC, UCD, UCG, UL

DCU has launched a programme allowing students to try a university style degree over a two week period during the summer holidays. For more details see ‘Dragon’ kicks off DCU’s Summer Scholars Programme.

I think that this is an absolutely brilliant idea, especially if it helps to reduce the number of first year drop-outs!

Tags: DCU