Lecturer Michael Bradford with Team Ultrasound Ireland, who won 3rd place in this year's ENFUSE competition.
National College of Ireland's School of Computing has had much to be proud of in the last seven days, with more to look forward to next week.
Last Friday, NCI's Dr Arghir Moldovan presented SPuMONI "Smart Pharmaceutical MaNufacturIng" at the 9th Data Science Summit, one of only three industry endeavours shortlisted for an international Artificial Intelligence (AI) Impact Award. Sponsored by the Big Data Value Association, Enterprise Ireland, Huawei and other leading organisations, the Summit included keynote speeches by Yvo Volmann, director of data at the European Commission’s DG CONNECT, and Minister Ossian Smyth TD.
Funded by the European Commission and the Irish Research Council, SPuMoNI has industrial and academic partners in Italy, Spain, and Greece and was highly ranked for its innovative world-class approach to improve data quality in pharma manufacturing. In celebrating the achievements of the winners and finalists, the AI Impact Award committee considered SPuMONI noteworthy for its advanced application of AI and Data Science.
Alongside Dr Moldovan, Dr Horacio González-Vélez, Head of the Cloud Competency Centre at NCI - where the college's contribution to the improving the industrial framework for the production of medicines takes place - and Dr Adriana Chis, are principal investigators on this project (read more about the original funding award here). The team offers its congratulations to Cork-based Altada Technology Solutions, who took home first prize.
This Friday, NCI received more good news, winning third prize in Dublin City Council LEO's ENFUSE competition, which matches Dublin-based SMEs and social enterprises with Masters' students. Speaking at the ENFUSE Finals, Declan Hughes, Assistant Secretary General, Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment said: ‘ENFUSE connects students and enterprises creating collaboration and synergies that benefit all participants. It enables enterprises to benefit from student research and analysis, enables students to apply their learning to real time business challenges and it enhances the enterprise ecosystem through improved networking, collaboration and knowledge exchange’.
An initial field of 46 was whittled down to a shortlist of 11 teams, who pitched to a panel of expert industry judges. MSc Data Analytics students Samarth Dhawan, Rhutujit Paradkar, Souvik Maitra, Akshay Sayar and Rahul Badarinath formed Team Ultrasound Ireland. They developed a hybrid model with a cloud-based solution (Azure, AWS, and GCP), and a YOLOV5 model using machine learning, and deep learning techniques that extract all the data from the referral medical form in OCR format, convert it into text and store it in the database. The solution would save €94,800 / 5400 hours of effort for a large hospital. The students' participation would not be possible without the support of Dr Anu Sahni, Michael Bradford and Musfira Jilani. Congratulations to TUD's Team Rediscovery Centre on taking first place.
And next week sees the launch of Technology Transfer Project Showcase - a unique portal gathers together for review the final year projects of all the graduating students from the School of Computing, including the opportunity for one-to-one conversations between industry experts, graduate recruiters and each student.
Interim Dean of the School of Computing, Dr Paul Stynes said: "It is possible in these couple of weeks to see the consistency as well as the brilliance of the School of Computing, starting with the support and encouragement we provide to our undergraduates, then the opportunity to put theory into practice and directly connect with industry that is provided to our postgraduate students, and onto our doctoral and postdoctoral research and collaboration with our academic peers and industry colleagues internationally. Well done to all involved in the work on the ground, and here's to the continued growth and success of the School."