mCommunity Launch

Representatives from Welsh small business were present to support the launch of the mCommunity smart phone application at Liberty Stadium in December. A cross-border partnership between Pembrokeshire College, Gower College Swansea in Wales and TSSG, part of the Waterford Institute of Technology in Ireland, the mCommunity project focuses on using mobile technology to positively engage two target groups, learners and businesses. The project is part funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Ireland Wales Programme.

The project aims to work with small businesses to pilot how technology can improve their business effectiveness. mCommunity has also engaged adults not in employment, education or training by using mobile technology to help establish positive social networks. The project will pilot the delivery of learning, skills and qualifications to improve employment and educational opportunities through mobile technology.

Small businesses are benefitting from the development of the mCommunity app, which is has been developed by the Telecommunications Software and Systems Group (TSSG) at Waterford Institute of Technology. It is currently loaded on to Samsung, Google and Motorola android devices.

The event was an opportunity for all project partners, beneficiaries and contributors to discuss developments and share their experiences and ideas for future developments

MCommunities Launch from TSSG on YouTube.

For more information:

Twitter: @mCommunityPro
Facebook: mCommunity
Web: www.mcommunity.org.uk/
Email: info@mcommunity.org.uk

Maximise Clean Energy Usage for Data Centres

Pictured Left, L to R: Dr.Raymond Carroll, Dr. Sasitharan Balasubramaniam.

Researchers within the Telecommunications Software & Systems Group (TSSG) recently published a paper titled ‘Application of Genetic Algorithm to Maximise Clean Energy Usage for Data Centres’. The paper was co-authored by researchers within the Bio-Inspired Networking Research Unit.

The focus of the paper is the investigation of the heavy energy usage within the ICT industry, with estimates that the industry now contributes 2% of the worlds CO2 emissions, which is equivalent to the worldwide aviation industry. The need for smart energy systems is driven by climate change and limited fossil fuel resources.

A significant part of this heavy ICT energy consumption can be attributed to data-centres, which house a large number of energy-intensive servers that host a variety of internet services. Much of this energy consumption is driven by the increasing popularity of the Internet, which continues to attract growing numbers of users annually. The internet has moved from being at the periphery to a central part of our daily lives. As a result of this increased energy usage, the research community has become focused on finding innovative solutions to improve the energy efficiency and sustainability of data centres.

Dr.Raymond Carroll, Dr. Sasitharan Balasubramaniam, Dr. William Donnelly and Dr. Dmitri Botvich respectively, presented their solution for delivering energy efficient green data centres. The proposed green data centre solution uses a Genetic Algorithm to place services in Data-Centres by targeting those in countries with the highest production of renewable energy and the best conditions for cooling. To validate this proposed solution some demonstrative simulations were carried out by gathering data regarding the renewable energy production and temperature profiles of each country, and implementing a genetic algorithm that aims to maximise the quantity of renewable energy consumed and minimise cooling energy expended. From these simulations they were able to demonstrate that by employing this technique, it is feasible to make significant improvements in the proportion of renewable energy utilised in data centre operation, thus reducing the quantity of fossil fuels burned and ultimately carbon emissions. It was also demonstrated that cooling energy could be reduced in circumstances where there is significant variance in the country’s temperature profiles. At the same time, the research carried out showed that this improved renewable energy utilisation did not come at an increased monetary cost for the operator.

Dr. Sasitharan Balasubramaniam, Research Unit manager for Bio-Inspired Networking was very optimistic about the work they had carried out “We hope that this research will create a new approach towards developing green ICT systems in the future, where systems can be aware of the source energy (renewable or fossil fuel based) and adapt its usage in order to minimize long term carbon emissions” he said.

The research carried out is sure to have an impact on the way we build and maintain data centres.

To view the full methodology and outcomes of the paper please click here

Additional Information

For more information on Bio-Inspired Networking Research Unit: click here

For more information about TSSG Active projects: click here

Research & Innovation at WIT

Want to know more about the depth of knowledge, research and Innovation offered at the Waterford Institute of Technology? then look no further. Below is a 6 minute video montage that highlights the areas of research expertise offered by WIT.

Research & Development at the Waterford Institute of Technology from TSSG on Vimeo.

MSc by Research and PhD Studentships

MSc by Research and PhD students will work in a research team currently comprising 10 post-doctoral researchers and 20 full-time students. They will investigate topics within the broad areas of network and service management, information security, bio-inspired networking and nano-scale networking. TSSG emphasizes team supervision of research students, which provides students with easily accessible advice on all aspects of their work. There is a strong emphasis on publishing in leading international conferences and journals, with students typically presenting their work at international conferences at least once a year.

TSSG research students will receive a tax-free grant of 16,000 euro per annum and be part of the Telecommunications Graduate Initiative (http://www.tgi.ie), an all-Ireland graduate school focussing on Telecommunications, that will provide specialist postgraduate modules delivered by leading international researchers. Additionally students will be able to access the wide ranging generic skills programme offered by WIT. Students will also be afforded the opportunity to work in collaboration with TSSG’s industrial partners, in particular with the Irish laboratories of leading companies such as IBM, Cisco, Alcatel Lucent and Intel.

Requirements:

Candidates should be passionate about pursuing a programme of research that can have a significant scientific impact. They should hold a good (first-class honours preferred) primary degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Mathematics or a cognate discipline. They should have strong engineering skills including experience of test-bed deployment/experimentation and programming. Strong inter-personal and communications skills are also required.

For further information, please contact Dr. Brendan Jennings, Head of Postgraduate Studies, TSSG; Tel: +353 51 302917 Email: bjennings@tssg.org

To apply for a studentship, please e-mail jobs@tssg.org

Graduate Software Developers

The graduate will participate in the MSc in Computing on a part-time basis with an opportunity to pursue a PhD if desired (see description: http://www.tssg.org/research/students/msc-in-computing/).

This role allows the graduate to engage in cutting edge research for commercial partners of TSSG sponsored by Enterprise Ireland and the European Commission.
The role provides the opportunity to work on dynamic, state of the art research projects involving international consortia.

This brings the benefit of:

Engaging with leading edge commercial groups developing the next generation of ICT systems and products.

Engaging with key industrial and research organisations throughout Europe.

Travelling to partner locations for technical meetings, engaging directly with Enterprise Ireland, the European Commission and other supporting agencies to define future research direction.

Work in these projects can be closely aligned to coursework allocated in the taught masters, and indeed in PhD programmes.

Duties would include:

Working on a diverse range of collaborative research projects, contributing to state of the art analysis, system architecture specification, software development and concept/prototype development, both internally within the TSSG and as part of distributed research team
Detailing technical, business, and conceptual requirements and system specifications for next generation communication systems – covering all aspects of TSSG research including Data Mining, Social Computing/networking, pervasive communications, security – privacy/trust/identity management, cloud services, app development, context/location aware services, … see tssg.org for a complete range of communications technologies.
Initiation and maintenance of strategic relationships with other external research groups & relevant industrial parties
Analysis, design and development of software components
Timely delivery of project outputs in terms of documents, papers, whitepapers, software, prototypes, reports
Ensuring the adherence of outputs to quality standards
Co-ordinating with external parties on delivery of project outputs
Bringing your ideas to fruition by engaging in funding proposal creation and development
Initiation of and participation in the production of quality academic publications

Minimum Qualification: A degree in computing, maths, engineering or equivalent (e.g. BSc/BEng).

Salary: 23k

To apply for this position, please e-mail jobs@tssg.org