First time in Sligo for student organised national conference
The Institute will host the AYIA annual conference for the first time ever. The conference is being oraganised by the Institute’s Student Archaeology Society, the appropriately named ‘Stones and Bones’ Society.

Organised by Archaeology students, the event is held at a different campus on the island each year. The conference and associated activities are open to all members of the public and the institute welcomes all who have an interest in archaeology and who would like to attend.

Wide and varied programme incorporates Sligo’s remarkable landscape
The programme for the weekend includes:

Friday 3rd
Opening speaker Robert Hensey will lecture on ‘ Ritual and Belief in the Passage Tomb Tradition of Ireland’.

This will be followed by an evening of food and dancing at Tobergal Lane in the heart of Sligo town. (Find out more)

Saturday 4th
A series of lectures on many aspects of archaeology will be presented, including talks by students from the Institute of Technology Sligo, University Colleges Cork, Dublin and the Queen’s University, Belfast.

Artefacts, replicas and Archaeological Photography exhibition

Sample of Ken Williams photography on display at conference

There will be replica artefacts on display in the main concourse as well as archaeological photography by Ken Williams. (See sample of his work above and at end of piece)

IT, Sligo’s David Mullins will also have a display of 3D Scanning and digitalization.

Sunday 5th
IT, Sligo Lecturer, Sam Moore will lead a field trip to Carrowmore and Knocknarea to explore Sligo’s megalithic archaeology.

Please Note: A bus will leave from the front of the Institute for Carrowmore @ 12.30pm and return at 5pm.

Tranquil shot of Knocknarea by Sean Mullery : for more work by Sean see: seanmullery.com

Important for future professional generation
Dr. Marion Dowd, Lecturer in Prehistoric Archaeology, School of Science reflects on the importance of the conference for the future of the profession:

‘ The presenters are mainly post-grad students and early career archaeologists, so it is an opportunity to tune in to cutting edge research and meet the next generation of archaeologists. It is the first time that this event has been held in Sligo. We wish the “Stones and Bones” – all the best with this event.’

AYIA – creating enthusiasm and interest at ‘young’ level
The AYIA (Association of Young Irish Archaeologists) was founded in Belfast in 1968 to provide a forum where young archaeologists can discuss new ideas and to create enthusiasm and interest in the field of archaeology at a “young” level. It also aids in creating links to further communication and co-operation between the different universities and colleges of Ireland and Northern Ireland where the conference is held each year.

IT, Sligo’s degree in ‘practical aspects of archaeology’
Dr. Dowd went on to remark on the opportunity the conference holds for the Institute’s own archaeology programme: ‘ It is a wonderful opportunity to showcase our department and facilities. Our archaeology degree specialises in the practical aspects of archaeology such as field survey, excavation, human and animal bone analysis, environmental and forensic archaeology, GIS and geophysics. We look forward to welcoming members of the public as well as archaeology students from around the country for what promises to be a very interesting weekend’

The organising committee of this year’s AYIA is headed by Amy Bunce and Liza Kavanagh who are both in their third year of studying archaeology at IT Sligo.

For further information/registration form you can contact either of them at:
Liza Kavanagh: s00065663@itsligo.ie
Amy Bunce: s00071797@itsligo.ie

Or alternatively try or conference address at: ayia.sligo@gmail.com

‘Three of the best’ for the impressed entrepreneur

The star of the RTE 1’s massively sucessful TV series, The Dragon’s Den, Sarah Newman, visited the Institute of Technology, Sligo on Friday last. Ms. Newman was a guest of the Business Innovation Centre housed on the Institute’s campus. The visit enabled her to see at first hand early stage businesses in development and understand in greater detail the role of IT, Sligo in ecouraging and incubating innovatve business ideas in the region.

Three presentations were made by developing businesses from the facility – Good4U, Travel Logic and QA Assistant, after which she commented: “They were three of the best presentations I have ever seen. I was really taken aback. I’d have liked to spend a lot more time with each and to have seen their business plans and finances. I had a million and one questions to ask them. They were exceptionally good”.

Ms Newman swiftly moved across to the main campus to a packed lecture theatre, enthralling an audience of students and lecturers with her memories of setting up her own successful business. Her amusing anecdotes and practical advice for the next generation of entrepreneurs were well received.

Standing L – R: – Conor Daly (Travel Logic), Sarah Fay (ITSBIC), Bernie Butler (Good4U), Laura Butler (Good4U), Joshua Loiselle ( QA Assistant), Janette Gillen (Manager ITSBIC), Niall McEvoy (Technology Transfer Manager, IT, Sligo). Seated L-R: – Prof. Terri Scott, President IT, Sligo and Sarah Newman from RTE’s The Dragon’s Den.

Before leaving Ms Newman added: “The visit here today was very inspiring, incredible students, great lecturers and a great president in Terri Scott, I was truly very inspired”. When asked if she would be returning , she replied, “I would love to return to IT Sligo if so invited”.

In response, Professor Terri Scott, President of IT Sligo said, “We are absolutely indebted to Sarah for her time. She has been a great inspiration to the students and is an exceptional role model. We look forward to her returning.”

IT, Sligo apprentices building on momentum from previous events run by The Institute of Technology, Sligo Charitable Sports Club presented over €10,000 to Cystic Fibrosis Ireland from monies raised through their annual Charitable Soccer League.

The soccer league is run by the apprentices and staff of the Department of Applied Technology in the Institute of Technology Sligo. Accepting the cheque on behalf of Cystic Fibrosis Ireland, National chairperson Sean O’Kennedy thanked the apprentices and staff for their contributions. The apprentices involved in the IT Sligo Charity Soccer league are from all over the country and the monies raised will go to Cystic Fibrosis services across Ireland. http://www.cfireland.ie/

The league has become an important part of the time the apprentices spend at IT, Sligo, providing a social and sporting opportunity when they come to study at the Institute as part of their applied skills training. This was the second fundraiser this academic year.

Funds were raised by running two charity soccer competitions over six weeks involving 120 students playing sixteen matches. Last November, the competition raised over €14,000 for The Bone Marrow for Leukaemia Trust of St James Hospital, Dublin.

A highlight of this year’s league was the “Warm Up” game preceding the final, between IT Sligo staff and IT Sligo apprentices. Along with much needed reinforcements including current Sligo Rovers captain Conor O’ Grady and former Rovers player Johnny Kenny “The Staff” earned an honourable 1-1 draw, in front of a very partisan student crowd of over 100 students.

Speaking after the event, Chairman of IT Sligo Charitable Sports Club, John Joe O’Reilly, thanked the apprentices and staff who played in the matches and the staff who supported the league, saying: ‘This was a record amount for our Club through our competition and brought the total to €24,000 so far this academic year.’

For further information contact:
Institute of Technology Sligo,
Ballinode,
Sligo

John Joe O Reilly
Lecturer
Department of Applied Technology

Address:
Institute of Technology Sligo,
Ballinode Sligo,
Ireland

Phone: + 353 (0)71 91 55392/ 087 2416247
Fax: + 353 (0)71 91 60475
Email: oreilly.johnjoseph@itsligo.ie

IT, Sligo hosts its annual health fair on the main concourse all day today. It is expected that upwards of 20 or more displays and stands covering broad areas of health, health care, fitness and well being will be represented in an event that sees hundreds of staff, students and the general public visit the campus to seek advice and circulate among the posters and projects on view. The event is organised by a in house committee of both Staff and Students and has proven a considerable success in recent years. There is considerable input from our students- especially those involved in courses involving Science, Health and Physiology, Health Promotion and recreation and leisure. The event has been well supported since its inception by all many agencies involved in health care, including the HSE, the Heart Foundation of Ireland and the Irish Cancer Society.

And today the institute encourages healthy eating to coincide with the event…

“Eat Right, Live Right!” Are you ready to cook?

Where students from Public Health and Health Promotion in conjunction with the Student Union will be holding a Healthy Eating Day in the main canteen of the college between 12 and 2pm.

The Healthy Eating Day will also be supported through the healthy menu in the canteen on the day.

The event consists of cooking demonstrations, Information stands, Ready Steady Cook competition and free distribution of some healthy food. We hope the students will participate in the Ready Steady Cook and for it to be an enjoyable event for all. This event is being run alongside the Health Promotion Fair 2009.

A spokesperson on the behalf of the student organisers hopes the day will be a success in: ‘ in raising awareness among students regarding the important issue of healthy eating and may be a turning point to facilitate healthy eating in IT Sligo!” (HP4 Students’ 2009)

For further information contact:
Caroline O Malley | Email: s00055764@itsligo.ie
Celine Harnan | Email: s00060235@itsligo.ie
Rachael Mc Keon | Email: s00051611@itsligo.ie
Michelle Moran | Email: s00051611@itsligo.ie

Institute of Technology Sligo,
Ballinode Sligo,
Ireland

Phone: + 353 (0)71 91 55222
Fax: + 353 (0)71 91 60475
Email: info@itsligo.ie

We are pleased to announce that the Ab Initio Honours degree in Quantity Surveying Level 8 has been granted full recognition by the Society of Chartered Surveyors (SCS). The degree course meets all of the academic requirements of the SCS, and graduates can proceed to full membership after they have gained the required work experience, and taken the Society’s Assessment of Professional Competence. This is a significant achievement for the Institute following many years of development work by the Quantity Surveying team in the School of Engineering.

Pat Carter, Lecturer on the course considers it ‘ A significant development for us after many years of building up expertise and history in quantity surveying. With this award we are now among the small number of recognized colleges with an ab initio honours accredited programme. From the enquiries received about the course at our recent open day, we expect ongoing and healthy interest. This is also a significant educational development for the North West, and indeed will attract students from well beyond the region…’

Support for initiative
This positive result for the Institute is a demonstration of strong team effort within the School of Engineering and management support within the Institute. The Institute also acknowledges the vital contribution and support of The Society of Chartered Surveyors during the development process.

For further information contact:
Pat Carter
Institute of Technology Sligo,
Ballinode Sligo,
Ireland

Phone: + 353 (0)71 91 55223
Fax: + 353 (0)71 91 60475

Email: carter.pat@itsligo.ie

150 first year students from VEC colleges in Ballinode, Easky, Coola and Grange recently visited the Engineering Department at Institute of Technology, Sligo last week as part of ‘ Engineered, A Week of Wonder’

‘The young students had an opportunity to experience all the engineering options on offer at IT Sligo ranging from mechatronics to interior architecture ‘ said Louise O’Gorman, Open Learning Facilitator. ‘Engineering encompasses a wide range of activities and this was reflected in the busy schedule we set up. Students visited the robotics lab where they had hands on experience in automated manufacture. They worked with interior architecture lecturers looking at how to design an inside space. They undertook pneumatics experiments (working with compressed air) and took tours of the civil engineering laboratories getting to see how a water treatment plant works.’

The groups completed an engineering quiz as they worked through the different disciplines and prizes were awarded at the end of the day. Anna-Marie McGloin from Grange Post Primary School won a spot prize entering her into the Engineers Week draw with the opportunity to win a once in a lifetime family trip to the Space Expo, in Nordwijk, The Netherlands.

IT, Sligo lecturer Stephen Reid taking students from Coola through the world of wonder that is mechatronics…

John Power, Director General of Engineers Ireland said “Engineers Ireland encourages including school children, parents and teachers in Sligo to use Engineers Week as an opportunity to find out more about the engineering profession and see the varied work of engineers that they experience every day. Engineers are responsible for creativity, design and innovation and they will be the foundation block for Ireland’s future as we seek to rebuild the economy. Almost everyone knows an engineer and this week gives them an opportunity to find out more about the positive contribution that this family member or friend makes to society.”

For further information contact:
Louise O’Gorman,
Institute of Technology Sligo,
Ballinode Sligo,
Ireland

Phone: + 353 (0)71 91 55222
Fax: + 353 (0)71 91 60475
Email: info@itsligo.ie

European Conference- 180 delegates from 12 countries Feb 4 and 5th saw IT, Sligo’s staff Dr. Michelle Connolly and Dr. John Bartlett attend a major European conference, “Putting the Pieces together: Universities of Applied Sciences as the Linking Pin in the Knowledge Triangle” at the Hague in the Netherlands. The event was organised by the European Network for Universities of Applied Sciences (UASNET).

John, Head of Research and Michelle, Research Alliance Manager, presented a paper – “How do Universities of Applied Sciences (UAS) participate in and build regional networks? How is a sound articulation of questions from the world of work ensured?” .

The conference also offered the opportunity to exchange ideas with 12 European countries on the role and development of applied sciences in Europe and the education of professionals for the knowledge society. The conference was attended by over 180 delegates from European Universities, Government Ministries, Financial Institutions and the Enterprise sector. IT, Sligo leads a sector wide initiative – The Research Alliance, which aims to enhance the rate, scope and depth of the sector’s strategic and professional approach to research and fourth level provision as well as other sectoral activities such as annual conferences and industry meetings.

Michelle outlines the opportunities present by presenting and attending: “The event was an excellent opportunity for the Research Alliance to share best practice in areas such as building and managing cross-sector partnerships, setting up joint activities and development of new initiatives. The conference highlighted that the future development of Innovation and Technology in Europe relies on a three way partnership involving Research-Education-Enterprise in particular with Small to Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs)”.

For further information contact:
Dr. John Bartlett,
Head of Research
Institute of Technology Sligo,
Ballinode Sligo,
Ireland

Phone: + 353 (0)71 91 55314
Fax: + 353 (0)71 91 60475
Email: barttlet.john@itsligo.ie

IT Sligo fine arts graduate, Michael Wann continues to impress with an exhibition entitled ‘Humble Remains’ that opened last week at the prestigious Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin last week

Born in Dublin in 1969, Wann lives and works in Co. Sligo, gaining his BA in Fine Art from Institute of Technology, Sligo Fine Arts Department. He has held solo exhibitions at the Linenhall Arts Centre, Castlebar (2005), and Sligo Art Gallery (1999, 2002, 2005, 2009), where he won an Iontas Drawing Award in 2000. He has been selected for the RHA’s Annual Exhibition since 2004, when in 2006 he was awarded the AXA insurance Drawing Prize. Other group exhibitions include Boyle Arts Festival, Claremorris Open, Wexford Opera Festival and Molesworth Gallery, Dublin.

Wann’s work is specifically drawing-based, and this current exhibition includes large-scale compositions completed while on residency at the Cill Riallaig Project, Co. Kerry and the Ballinglen Arts Foundation, Co. Mayo during the summer of 2008. The drawings are taken from the immediate locale of north Sligo, and juxtapose arbitrary or transient images of cleared landscape with more thought provoking depictions of the dereliction of habitation. They are as much about a process of mark-making as they are about representing a seemingly neglected landscape.

A tonal richness challenges the viewer to look beyond the immediate surface image. Within the chosen media of charcoal, water and pencil there exists a wide and versatile imperfection of process.

In the smudge and drip and simple dirt of the medium there exists both vital and flawed elements of mark-making, where the spontaneous and accidental become of equal importance to that of the rational and intentional. Process here can be interpreted as the search for where these varying marks converge in the making of the landscape.

For more information on images please contact Mark St. John Ellis at 01 6612558 or mark@rhagallery.ie or RHA Marketing at info@rhagallery.ie or telephone (01) 661 2558.

For further information contact:
Institute of Technology Sligo,
Ballinode Sligo,
Ireland

Phone: + 353 (0)71 91 55222
Fax: + 353 (0)71 91 60475
Email: info@itsligo.ie

‘The Greatest Living Film-maker in the World is Spanish and his name is Víctor Erice’ is an ambitious claim made on behalf of the subject of IT, Sligo’s Dr. Tony Partridge’s public talk on the little known, but highly influential Spanish film maker Victor Erice this coming Thursday.

During the past 40 years, Víctor Erice has made three – yes, three – feature films all considered masterpieces: (The Spirit of the Beehive (1973), The South (1982) and The Quince Tree Sun (1992)) along with a number of shorter works (The Challenges (1969), Lifeline (2002), Correspondences (2006) and La Morte Rouge (2006)).

These form a body of work that is vital to our understanding of where we stand at this point in time. Why? Because, as Ángel Fernández Santos says of The Spirit of the Beehive, it “tells us when and where we come from.” This is the magic of Erice’s cinema and this is why his films can be watched again and again.

Erice’s films deal with memory and time, the two most important aspects of cinema. By connecting his own childhood memories with ours, he connects us with our own past, with where we have come from. Erice’s cinema has the wonderful capacity to engage the viewer with memory on a personal, on a social and, indeed, on a universal level.

Tony recalls the moment when he became hooked on Erice’s work: “When I was about 18 years of age, a film called The Spirit of the Beehive (1973) came on RTE2 television. I gave a cursory look at it as I leafed through a newspaper. Then it began grabbing my attention. I was engaged by everything I saw. Then a remarkable thing happened, the film had a twist near the end that simply took my breath away and I felt that the audacity of the filmmaker was breath-taking. How could he dare to take such a risk? How could he dare to do what he did? But yet he had done it. The moment when Victor Erice performed this leap of faith was the moment when I was truly captured by cinema and, from that moment to this, I have always had a deep affection for the work of Victor Erice. To find out what that leap of faith was, I’m afraid you will have to watch the film … which is available – on video – in the IT library.”

This talk will be delivered on behalf of:

Entidades Organizadoras
Sol y Sombra, Sligo Spanish Society

Collaborating Organisation
Instituto Cervantes (Dublín)

For further information contact:
Tony Partridge
Institute of Technology, Sligo.
Direct: +353(0)71 9155356

Fax: + 353 (0)71 91 60475
Email: partridge.tony@itsligo

World’s first portable micro fuel cell developed in conjunction with IT Sligo.

The IT, Sligo’s Department of Mechanical & Electronic Engineering recently completed a two year research project to help develop an automated production line for the world’s first micro fuel cell.

The Xtreme Portable Fuel Cell Charger is the world’s first personal, portable, fuel cell power system designed for smart phones. It delivers worry-free, mobile, instant power in critical and emergency situations.

It is powerful enough to power and charge a variety of electronic devices like smart phones, iPhone, Blackberry, iPod, MP3 players, GPS devices, Bluetooth headsets, PDAs, and more.

Once a Power Pack is activated, the Xtreme can deliver 20 watt-hours of power and can charge a smart phone up to 4 times before the energy is consumed. It’s easy to activate the Power Pack for personal portable power – squeeze it, plug it, power it!

Brian Coll and John Donovan from the school of Engineering, along with two senior researchers John Jennings and Olivia Lannon, worked on this project and provided expertise in the areas of Chemistry and Quality to the client company.

Frank Carter, Head of IT, Sligo’s Mechanical Engineering Department states ‘ IT, Sligo is delighted to be able to utilise the expertise and talents of the Dept of Quality and Automation to assist in the process of developing the fuel cell. This is an excellent example of applied research where the end result will result in excess of one million fuel cell units per month…’

Brian Coll, Lecturer, Institute of Technology, Sligo (left), Olivia Lannon, Senior Quality Researcher , Dr Jimmy Devins TD, Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, John Jennings, Senior Chemical Researcher, Dr John Donovan, Lecturer, IT Sligo, Dr John Bartlett Head of Research, IT Sligo.

For further information contact:
Brian Coll
Institute of Technology, Sligo,
Direct: +353(0)71 9155489

Email: coll.brian@itsligo.ie