Testbed facilities within Ireland
As part of the TIDA programme, SFI encourages the applicant, where appropriate, to avail of open-access test bed facilities to demonstrate their technology. A list of national testbed facilities can be found below. If you have a facility which you would like to feature on this webpage, please contact tida@sfi.ie
Commission for Communications Regulations (COMREG)
In 2005, the Commission for Communications Regulation in Ireland (ComReg) launched Ireland's Wireless Test & Trial Licensing Programme - Test & Trial Ireland. Test & Trial Ireland allows the test or trial of wireless communications devices in Ireland and has been designed in conjunction with the industry to support the needs of the wireless research and development community in Ireland. For further information, please contact:
Kevin Kennedy
Spectrum Development Manager
Commission for Communications Regulation
Email kevin.kennedy@comreg.ie
Web www.comreg.ie
Web www.testandtrial.ie
Centre for Affective Solutions for Assisted Living Awareness (CASALA)
A living lab is defined as “a user-centred open-innovation ecosystem operating in a territorial context, (e.g., city, agglomeration, region) integrating concurrent research and innovation processes within a public-private-people partnership”. CASALA has established a living lab for companies, NGO's, and government organizations to design, build, and test products and services for improving the lives of older people. The CASALA Living Lab is an array of environments that provide an opportunity, at every stage of the product or service development cycle, to work with older people, carers, engineers, scientists, and service providers in both realistic test environments and directly in the community.
For further information on CASALA, click here or contact:
Andrew Macfarlane
Commercialisation & Centre Manager
Email andrew.macfarlane@casala.ie
Telephone +353 87 051 6705
Web www.casala.ie
Irish Centre for High End Computing (ICHEC)
The Irish Centre for High-End Computing (ICHEC) was established as a national High-Performance Computing (HPC) provider in late 2005 under the aegis of NUI, Galway, and funded since that time jointly by the Higher Education Authority (HEA, with mostly capital funding) and Science Foundation Ireland (SFI, with recurrent and staffing costs).
Its mission is to provide High-Performance Computing (HPC) resources principally for researchers in third-level institutions. A skilled team of system administrators and computational scientists now engage with these researchers to support the development of internationally competitive computational modelling and world-class research across all the main disciplines and institutions. For further information on access to ICHEC, please contact:
Niall Wilson
Infrastructure Manager, ICHEC
E-mail niall.wilson@ichec.ie
Web http://www.ichec.ie/
The Next Generation Networks Test Centre, Waterford Institute of Technology
The NGN Test centre allows technology providers worldwide working on new mobile phone applications to test, trial and validate integrated internet, mobile and television services, along with converged voice and data products, services and functionality on a carrier-grade open access IP test network using industrially accepted and standardised API’s, before bringing them to market! For further information, please contact:
Shane Dempsey
E-mail sdempsey@tssg.org
Web http://www.ngntestcentre.com
Trading Floor for Financial Services, Kemmy Business School (KBS), University of Limerick
The Kemmy Business School (KBS), University of Limerick, has pioneered applied learning techniques in Ireland. Taking this approach to new levels, the KBS has unveiled Europe’s first custom designed campus Trading Floor. For further information on this facility, click here or contact:
Dr. Bernard Murphy
Course Director : MSc in Computational Finance
E-mail bernard.murphy@ul.ie
Web http://www.ul.ie/tradingfloor/
The NIMBUS Centre – Embedded Systems Research, Cork Institute of Technology
The NIMBUS Centre is Ireland’s only research centre devoted to the field of embedded electronic systems. Funded under the Higher Education Authority’s Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions (PRTLI) and co-funded under the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) in 2007. It brings together CIT’s existing Centre for Adaptive Wireless Systems (CAWS), the Smart Systems Integration Group (SSIG) and the Technologies for Embedded Computing (TEC) Centre.
The NIMBUS Centre itself is equipped with state-of-the-art facilities and equipment for embedded systems research, development and demonstration. NIMBUS, and its sixty five researchers and engineers, is managed by CIT staff with extensive international research, teaching and industry collaboration experience. Research focuses on hardware, systems integration and networking in application fields such as energy, security, user interfaces, health, manufacturing and in particular on the technologies that will underpin the emerging Internet of Things. For further information, please contact:
Dr. Dirk Pesch
E-mail dirk.pesch@cit.ie
Web http://nimbus.cit.ie/
The Hydraulics and Maritime Research Centre (HMRC), Wave Tank, UCC
The Hydraulics and Maritime Research Centre (HMRC) at University College Cork was established in 1979. It is a centre of excellence within Ireland for Ocean Renewables and Coastal Engineering providing support to the maritime industry as well as fundamental R&D. The Centre, which is principally a dedicated research facility, also offers a teaching and education function. It houses the only facilities for wave simulation in Ireland with a Wave Flume and an Ocean Wave Basin. For further information on the facility, please contact:
Dr. Raymond Alcorn CEng (UK) MIET
Research Manager
E-mail R.Alcorn@ucc.ie
Web http://hmrc.ucc.ie
Tyndall National Access Programme (NAP)
The Tyndall National Institute was established in 2004 by the Irish Government Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and University College Cork, with the objective of creating a truly National Institute capable of operating at a world-class level. The Institute which initially comprises NMRC along with the Photonics research communities of UCC and CIT aims to be a national focal point for excellence in research in Microelectronics, Photonics and related technologies. Tyndall currently has a substantial research infrastructure, including several fabrication laboratories (e.g. CMOS, Compound Semiconductor & Microsystems) along with an extensive suite of characterisation, analytical and test laboratories. For further information, please contact:
Julie Donnelly
NAP Programme Manager
National Access Programme
Tyndall National Institute, Cork, Ireland
Tel 021-4904168
Fax 021-4270271
Email julie.donnelly@tyndall.ie
Web http://www.tyndall.ie/nap/
WiSAR Lab, Letterkenny Institute of Technology – Testbed in the area of Wireless Sensor Networks
The WiSAR Lab is an Applied Research Enhancement (ARE) Centre, funded by Enterprise Ireland in the Letterkenny Institute of Technology (LYIT). The focus of the WiSAR Lab is on Wireless Sensor Networks, particularly Body Area Networks and the application of Wireless Sensor Networks in buildings with an emphasis on evaluating and minimising the power consumption of the devices used. Our goal is to be a centre of excellence in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) and a hub of research and applied solutions for technology companies locally and nationally. For further information on the WiSAR Lab, please contact:
Nick Timmons
Principal Investigator
WiSAR Lab
Letterkenny Institute of Technology
E-mail Nick.Timmons@lyit.ie
Web www.wisar.org
Or
Jim Morrison
Principal Investigator
WiSAR Lab
E-mail Jim.Morrison@lyit.ie
MMI’s Technology Platform Web Portal
Molecular Medicine Ireland (MMI) have developed a Technology Platform Web-Portal to highlight technology platforms and associated expertise that support clinical and translational research available across their partner institutions and collaborators. To access this technology portal and the list of available infrastructure, please click here (http://www.molecularmedicineireland.ie/tp_web_portal)
The Exemplar Test-bed
The Exemplar Test-bed, the first phase of the Exemplar Smart Communications Network is located in Park West Industrial Estate, Dublin. It uses an Irish developed technology, Optical-burst Packet Switching and Transport (OPST), providing energy-efficient, very high speed data and image transfer using photonics (light). The State-owned Test-bed is an advanced optical communications test infrastructure, and is available for use by multinational and indigenous companies and academic researchers to test and develop a wide range of products and services in areas such as data centre services, cloud computing, virtualisation, smart grids, next generation video, high-speed high-bandwidth on demand services, etc.
For further information on the Exemplar Test-bed go to: http://www.dcenr.gov.ie/Communications/Knowledge+Society/Exemplar+Network or contact Brendan Whelan, Communications Policy Division, Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources.
e-mail: Brendan.whelan@dcenr.ie
Web: http://www.dcenr.gov.ie/Communications/Knowledge+Society/Exemplar+Network
Materials and Surface Science Institute (MSSI)
MSSI was established in 1998 at the University of Limerick and generates fundamental research on topics of industrial significance in the fields of surface science and materials. The Institute houses a multidisciplinary team of scientists (chemistry, materials science, physics and biochemistry) and engineers (mechanical, aeronautical, biomedical, manufacturing and electronic) who undertake research focused on the design of materials for (i) Health, (ii) Transport, (iii) Energy and (iv) Clean Technology.
MSSI's state-of-the-art characterisation and sample preparation facilities are available for use by other institutions and industry. Several of these facilities are unique in Ireland. MSSI employs a team of highly trained research staff to support industry using these facilities who combine research expertise in chemistry, physics, engineering, materials science and nanotechnology with the technical skills required to perform cutting edge analysis and research. Further details are on www.ul.ie/mssi.
