The successful researchers will lead or co-lead projects via Science Foundation Ireland’s Frontiers for the Future programme, which is funded in collaboration with the Sustainability Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI).

The awards – each valued at approximately €1.28 million – were announced by Patrick O’Donovan, Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science.

They are of 4-5 years’ duration and will support postdoctoral positions, PhD students and research assistant and other positions. 

Prof. Sinéad Ryan, Dean of Research at Trinity, said:

“I welcome this news; these awards are an investment in world-class research and in our next generation of researchers – such important resources for Ireland’s future. My thanks to all our colleagues for their work on securing this funding for Trinity’s research.”

 

Prof. Marco Ruffini (School of Computer Science) and Prof. Dan Kilper (School of Engineering, and CONNECT), seek to deliver innovations in today’s optical networks, which lack the flexibility required to support the development of new digital systems such as Smart Cities and Virtual/Augmented Reality. This project will create a digital twin of the optical network as a safe testing environment to 1) help develop and test new solutions, and 2) facilitate fast changes to networks without risking any disruption. 

 

Prof. Daniel Kelly (School of Engineering), working with Prof. Pieter Brama, University College Dublin, aims to use emerging 3D (bio)printing technologies to help recreate the conditions that instruct normal tissue development, enabling the engineering of musculoskeletal tissues. The ability to bio-print such functional tissues could transform orthopaedic medicine, providing grafts to regenerate damaged joints and preventing osteoarthritis, a debilitating disease affecting millions worldwide.

 

Prof. Naomi Harte (School of Engineering), will extend our overly simplistic views of communication and develop a framework to consider all the elements of speech (e.g. changes in intonation, expression etc.) that we can tune in to during a conversation. This framework will teach machines to understand speech too, and ultimately deliver more robust and effective speech technology of the future.

 

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Original Article: Trinity College Dublin, Author: Thomas Deane