Tag: #DCU

Tozi marks Anti-Bullying Week with social campaign to support young people online

Tozi, the anti-bullying and cyber-safety app developed by Vodafone Foundation, in collaboration with DCU Anti-Bullying Centre and the ISPCC, is marking Anti-Bullying Week (wc 10 November) with a new social media campaign: Supporting Young People in the Digital World.

The campaign aims to empower young people to recognise, respond to, and rise above bullying and is launched as recent ESRI research shows that 62% of 13-year-olds reported experiencing at least one bullying behaviour in the past three months, while one in ten Tozi users have activated the app’s SOS feature in the last year, connecting them directly to Childline via call or chat —demonstrating the importance of a trusted digital space and the need for quick, seamless access to support 24/7.

At the heart of the campaign is a short video featuring two girls exploring Tozi’s “Beat Bullying” module, sharing their thoughts on the app and how it helps them navigate online challenges with confidence.

Tozi:

In 2022, The Vodafone Ireland Foundation developed and launched Tozi, a free app to combat cyberbullying and promote online safety among children and young people. Since its launch, Tozi has had over 20,000 downloads, and is currently being rolled out across Europe following the Irish success.

It offers a content library with advice on handling online challenges, a private journaling space with a feeling’s tracker, and direct access to Childline through the SOS feature for 24/7 support.

The ESRI research also found that 37% of 13-year-olds faced repeated incidents, with online bullying and name-calling among the most common forms, while children targeted at age nine were more likely to be bullied again at age thirteen, underlining the need for early intervention.

Expert Perspective:
The Irish Girl Guides have been a Vodafone Foundation partner since 2023, working to provide lessons on digital skills to older people through the Hi Digital initiative. The Irish Girl Guides work closely with young people across Ireland and see firsthand the challenges girls face online. Their experience underscores the urgent need for resources like Tozi, which aims to empower and protect young people in the digital world.

Speaking on the growing issue of online bullying, Irish Girl Guides Tir na nÓg Leader and Programme and Training Commissioner, Róisín Mills, said:

“As a Leader with the Irish Girl Guides, I worry about the impact social media is having on the girls in my Unit. I see them becoming more disengaged, and I’ve witnessed the effects of online bullying and the pressure to present a perfect image. That’s why we run activities focused on body image, cyber-security, and smart surfing—giving our members the tools to stay safe and confident online. We’re realistic about phone use and guide the girls to use technology in a positive, informed way. Creating a safe space for these conversations is vital, and I believe it’s making a real difference.”

Tozi doesn’t just teach users what bullying is — it shows them how to stand up, speak out, and support each other in the moments that matter most.

Tozi is available for free download on the App Store and Google Play. Learn more at https://www.to-zi.com/

70 Irish Girl Guides to compete in FIRST LEGO League Challenge Regional at DCU

Excitement is growing as 14 teams from across Ireland get ready to compete in the Irish Girl Guides FIRST LEGO League Challenge Regional, taking place on Saturday 1st March at Dublin City University (DCU). This event is an important step in the season as teams compete for a chance to make it to the Ireland Final in April.

This year, a talented group of girls from 11 Guide and Senior Branch Units will showcase their skills in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), while testing their creativity and teamwork. The competition will include a robot game, a research project, and demonstrations of FIRST® LEGO® League Core Values.

 

The teams competing in the Regional Tournament are:

  • Deep Blue Divas – Mosney Guides (8 team members)
  • Mako Mermaids – Boherbue Guides (7 team members)
  • Merlin Dolphins – St. Nicholas & Merlin Wood Guides (4 team members)
  • The Squashed Squids – Macalla Guides (4 team members)
  • Pretty Pearls – St. Brendan’s Guides (4 team members)
  • The Gills – St. Brendan’s Guides (4 team members)
  • The Guiding I’s – St. Brendan’s Guides (3 team members)
  • The Winnie Fish – St. Brendan’s Guides (4 team members)
  • Awesome Octonauts – Dilse Senior Branch (6 team members)
  • Athlone Senior Branch – (5 team members)
  • The Octonauts – Lucan Guides (4 team members)
  • Coral Creators – North Longford Senior Branch (5 team members)
  • Super SB Sealions – Villierstown Senior Branch (5 team members)
  • Tiddles the Turtle – Lily Guides (7 team members)

 

The FIRST LEGO League Challenge encourages participants to tackle real-world problems through innovation, creativity, and critical thinking. The theme for this year’s SUBMERGED℠ Season is focused on exploring the depths of the ocean and learning how to protect our seas. Teams have been working on building robotic models, coding their designs, and preparing their research projects all about life under the water.

“Through the FIRST LEGO League Challenge, Irish Girl Guides is helping to inspire the next generation of STEM leaders,” said Katie Keogh, Irish Girl Guides LEGO Representative and the Mosney Unit Brownies and Guides Leader, “We are so proud of the hard work, creativity, and dedication these girls have shown. This event is a great chance for them to learn new skills, show off their achievements, and follow their passions in a fun, supportive environment.”

The Regional Tournament is an important part of the journey, as it determines which teams will move on to the Ireland Final. The day will be full of energy, learning, and friendly competition, with parents, Leaders, and volunteers cheering on the teams. The competition will end with a showcase where teams will present their projects and celebrate their hard work.

Supported by the Research Ireland Discover Programme, FIRST® LEGO® League is organised by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) in partnership with Irish delivery partner, CreativeHUT. 

Technology innovator fourTheorem secures exclusive access to ground-breaking disruptive AI software resources

Pioneering software company fourTheorem has secured exclusive access to intellectual property rights – focusing on the application of AI in software architectural transformation – developed by Dublin City University and Lero, the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Software.

The deal enables fourTheorem ​​to commercialise all Future Software Systems Architectures (FSSA) project output.

The programme ‘Fission’ examined the application of AI to software architectural transformation, notably in microservices extraction from monolith-based architectures. The consortium behind the FSSA project, led by fourTheorem and directed by Dr Paul Clarke and the late Professor Rory O’Connor, comprised leading-edge researchers from DCU and Lero. Dr Andrew McCarren from DCU and Insight, the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Data Analytics, was co-Principal Investigator on the research programme.

Established to embrace the disruption of serverless computing, the FSSA project was jointly funded – to a total of €2.1M – by fourTheorem and the Disruptive Technology Innovation Fund (DTIF). DTIF, a €500 million challenge-based fund established to drive collaboration between Ireland’s world-class research base and industry, is managed by the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation and administered by Enterprise Ireland.

The project set out to address a vital issue in the world’s software market: How to reduce the risks and costs associated with migrating existing ICT systems to modern, microservices-based architectures – traditionally a manual, expensive and error-prone process.

Over the past three years, FSSA researchers have built a Machine Learning-based Automatic Architectural System that systematically identifies and extracts services from monolithic architectures. ‘Fission’ significantly cuts the time and risk associated with transforming to a modern cloud architecture.

Speaking on the agreement, fourTheorem CEO Peter Elger said: “As we enter the next wave of cloud-based software, more and more companies wish to migrate from their traditional software architecture to serverless microservices to benefit from reduced costs and increased scalability and agility. However, untangling such monolithic systems can be a complex, time-consuming process that often carries significant associated risks – for most, the biggest fear factor is knowing where to start without risking the entire system grinding to a halt because of unidentified dependencies.

“With Fission, we can rapidly accelerate the uncoupling of structures and dependencies within existing monolithic platforms – saving our clients time, money, and crucially, de-risking those first steps away from the monolith environment into a microservices and serverless future.”

Dr Paul Clarke of Lero at DCU and Director of the FSSA project, added: “Evaluations to date indicate that this technology can radically reduce the time and cost associated with software architectural transformation. Since Fission incorporates so many data capture points, including detailed internal system run time information, the risk of service judgement error is also significantly reduced.

“All that wonderful technology aside, it has simply been a great project to work on, and the fourTheorem team have been beyond excellent as partners, bringing an impressive combination of experience, ingenuity, and productivity to the project.”

Cellnex and Dublin City University (DCU) partner on Ireland’s first 5G enabled ‘Smart Campus

Cellnex Ireland, Ireland’s largest independent telecoms infrastructure provider, has partnered with Dublin City University (DCU) to develop Ireland’s first 5G-enabled smart campus, which will further the objectives of the ‘Smart DCU’ initiative.

Smart DCU is a collaboration between Dublin City Council and partners Enable,  Insight SFI Research Centre for Data Analytics, and DCU Alpha. The goal of Smart DCU is to develop, test and trial cutting-edge technology innovations utilising three campuses with almost 19,000 students from 55 countries worldwide. Smart DCU is an ongoing program to make the DCU campuses a microcosm of a smart city, and thereby offer great insights into how a smart city can better function for the benefit of its citizens and stakeholders.

The partnership, officially launched today, will see Cellnex install a range of telecommunication infrastructure to ensure there is uninterrupted 5G coverage across the main campus, the nearby DCU Alpha Innovation Campus, and the DCU sports campus, and ultimately support smart city, connected vehicle (V2X) and internet of things (IoT) applications across three DCU campuses.

Rolling out 5G coverage of this scale will facilitate Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) capabilities on the campuses. MEC allows for the increased adoption of bandwidth-heavy applications, such as internet of things, virtual and augmented reality, remote medical monitoring and connected and autonomous vehicles. MEC is heavily reliant on 5G, and the partnership with Cellnex will now give DCU students, staff, researchers and partner companies the ability to trial new technologies in a real-world environment.

Cellnex and Smart DCU are now seeking to collaborate with mobile network operators to develop 5G capabilities across the campuses.

The partnership will be particularly advantageous to university start-ups, spin outs and partners, with a testbed becoming available to trial the latest innovations to tackle the problems of tomorrow. This live smart city testbed environment will assist in commercializing collaborative research which takes place across DCU.

It is expected that DCU will utilize the infrastructure in a number of ways, including:

  • Smart building monitoring to encourage sustainable energy use
  • Smart parking to reduce bottlenecks
  • Enhanced robotics and ‘last mile’ delivery capabilities
  • Augmented reality learning experiences
  • Video analytics and IoT for sports teams

Ronan O’Connor, Commercial Director of Cellnex Ireland, said:

“DCU is a vibrant and research-focused university, with an existing innovation pedigree through DCU Alpha. This partnership will allow DCU to take its IoT and smart campus activities to the next level. Continued adoption of 5G and IoT applications is vital in creating a competitive economy, while also solving pressing issues at a societal level which would not have been possible without this groundbreaking technology. This is a partnership which is incredibly exciting for Cellnex, and we look forward to collaborating with the mobile network operators to facilitate what will be truly unique testbed for a third level setting in Ireland.”

Kieran Mahon, Smart DCU Projects Facilitator, said:

“Smart DCU, under the auspices of the Smart Dublin programme, has been established as a microcosm of a smart city, allowing the campus infrastructure to be used as a testbed for new technologies like Mobile Edge Computing, in partnership with world leading innovative companies like Cellnex. DCU is very excited about the innovation and research possibilities that this partnership will help unlock”.

Andrew Fleury, CEO Luna Systems, said:

“The presence of this MEC capability in DCU Alpha, opens up a whole new field of research and commercialisation opportunities for Luna. Our computer vision safety technology for micromobility already operates on the ‘edge’, meaning our technology is computing safety parameters in real-time on the scooter or bike equipped with Luna hardware. The Cellnex infrastructure brings this opportunity to the next level, by allowing us to investigate how 5G and mobile edge computing could ensure fast, reliable communication between road infrastructure, vehicular traffic, micromobility riders and pedestrians to reduce collisions”.

TIER and Luna announce strategic partnership agreement. #micromobility #TIER #Luna

Europe’s leading e-scooter operator TIER and Irish micromobility tech platform Luna have announced a strategic partnership to explore the piloting and deployment of computer vision and smart city technology on shared e-scooter fleets, across Europe and the Middle East. In response to today’s announcement, Luna will also create 15 new full time jobs to assist with the work on these pilot projects. These jobs will cover computer vision/AI, hardware, IoT and project management roles in Ireland.

The announcement comes as part of an Enterprise Ireland trade mission to Germany where Tánaiste, Leo Varadkar T.D. met with representatives from Luna and Tier in Berlin. The meeting was to further understand the nexus between Ireland and Germany within the e-mobility and automotive industry, and the future role of shared e-scooter schemes in Ireland once the required legislation is passed.

The strategic partnership builds on the Dublin pilot which is taking place across DCU’s five campuses, and which also involves the Insight SFI Research Centre for Data Analytics. TIER and Luna are exploring the option of partnering in Paris and examining the possibilities of how vision-enabled e-scooters can assist the Mayor’s Smart City ambitions, using high fidelity and high frequency imagery captured by a portion of TIER’s fleet of 5,000 scooters there.

In addition to Paris, both companies are also exploring partnering in the Middle East with Smart City stakeholders, to examine the potential for bespoke computer vision solutions to tackle local issues around safety, infrastructure optimisation, as well as current and future municipal governance requirements. Additional pilot projects are also being explored in Spain amongst other locations, but details on these locations are yet to be finalised.

Another element of today’s announcement is that there will be a further collaboration with various digital mapping platforms, which will look at how TIER riders and computer vision on scooters can be utilised to capture more accurate and up to date mapping data, that will assist the deployment of micromobility schemes in cities on a global scale. Existing mapping platforms scan cities maybe once or twice a year, whereas scooters can capture and infill additional street level data on a daily basis.

Finally, as part of the strategic partnership, TIER and Luna are also embarking on a technical integration project to examine how the Luna computer vision hardware can be embedded into TIER vehicles at the point of manufacture. This will allow Tier to develop a next generation e-scooter that allows the current Luna standalone computer vision tech to integrate more deeply with the vehicle, similar to how Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) tech has evolved in the automotive industry.

Speaking at the announcement of this strategic partnership, Tánaiste (Irish Deputy Prime Minister) and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Leo Varadkar T.D. said: “I’m really happy to see this strategic partnership between Irish company Luna and Europe’s leading e-scooter operator TIER. Ireland is introducing a new law to allow for the legal usage of scooters on our roads in our towns and cities, as they become an increasingly popular option for commuters. Luna will hire 15 people as a result of the partnership, which will help build on the current pilot project that is taking place in DCU. These kinds of innovative partnerships can provide Ireland with a ‘second mover advantage’, helping us avoid some of the safety and other teething issues of earlier e-scooter schemes elsewhere. With this in mind it’s reassuring to see TIER, not only bringing advanced technology to solve some of the challenges we will no doubt also face in Ireland, but also to see them working with Irish stakeholders such as the NCBI and the Irish Wheelchair Association, through their recently established Safety Board.” 

 

Matthias Laug, CTO and Co-Founder of TIER, said: “We are already working closely with Luna in Dublin, and this broader strategic agreement allows us to expand the scope and ambition of our partnership. We see computer vision as a valuable tool in our mission to change mobility for good and to lead the way towards seamless, sustainable and safe micro-mobility. Alongside our world-leading parking capabilities with Fantasmo, this powerful collaboration with Europe’s leading computer vision and edge AI startup in the scooter space, allows us to explore the full potential of this exciting technology on our fleet. Luna thinks about cities in the same way as we do, and we look forward to jointly developing new solutions that address some of the key smart city challenges our city partners are identifying, from pavement riding to infrastructure monitoring and from litter alerts to road condition reports.” 

Andrew Fleury, Co-Founder & CEO, Luna said: “Luna is thrilled to be partnering so closely with TIER across multiple geographies in the EU and Middle East. Cities and stakeholders everywhere are looking towards smart technology to help find solutions to some of the operational challenges that are holding the shared scooter industry back from fulfilling its potential. TIER is embracing Luna technology, even at this early stage of its evolution, in order to pioneer the future of micromobility, and deliver safe and sustainable services that not only do the basics of looking after rider and pedestrian safety, but also look to the future where scooter fleets act as mobile sensor networks in the smart cities of tomorrow. The rate of industry advancement is astonishing in the shared scooter sector, and TIER is very much to the fore in this regard, having already developed an innovative Energy Network infrastructure for its user swappable batteries, as well as pioneering the deployment of Augmented Reality parking technology. Luna sees TIER as a natural partner in our mission to keep people safe and make cities smarter, and we’re excited to see how the partnership develops over time.

 

We were also excited to announce the expansion of our team with the creation of 15 brand new jobs over the coming months especially in the presence of the Tánaiste, who responded positively to the work we are currently undertaking in the micromobility sector.”

FREE NOW joins forces with TIER in DCU e-scooter trial rollout

Ireland’s leading ride-hailing app now enabling e-scooter bookings as part of country’s first trial run by Europe’s number one micro-mobility operator

Leading ride-hailing app FREE NOW has partnered with leading micro-mobility provider TIER Mobility to support the rollout of Ireland’s first e-scooter trial across five DCU campuses. As part of the trial which is running until early 2022, passengers can now book e-scooters from the TIER fleet based at DCU via the FREE NOW app.

The e-scooter trial began in July with the goal of improving safety for e-scooter users and pedestrians, as well as providing city authorities with valuable data and insights to facilitate safe e-scooter use once government legislation passes in Ireland. FREE NOW’s involvement in the scheme will encourage continued learnings, modal shift and participation among passengers – enabling students and staff to trial the e-scooters over the coming months via FREE NOW’s app integration.

New nationally representative data from FREE NOW highlights the need for more sustainable and multi-modal transport options like e-scooters in Ireland, with 75% of people stating that Ireland lags behind other European countries when it comes to sustainable transport options. Furthermore, 12% of people would actually consider selling their private cars in favour of more sustainable options like e-scooters once legislation on their use comes into full effect.

FREE NOW’s partnership with TIER in the DCU pilot is an extension of its pan-European partnership with the micro-mobility operator which has been rolled out across five countries (Germany, France, UK, Poland & Austria) since March 2021 – making TIER e-scooters widely available to passengers via the FREE NOW app. Recognised for its sector leadership in safety and sustainability, TIER is Europe’s number one e-scooter operator, serving over 130 cities including London, Paris, Berlin and Dubai. This partnership is part of FREE NOW’s commitment to sustainable mobility and its goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2030.

Commenting on the DCU pilot partnership, Niall Carson General Manager of FREE NOW Ireland said: “We are delighted to partner with TIER and support the continued rollout of Ireland’s first e-scooter pilot scheme over the coming months across DCU campuses. This scheme will positively contribute to the safety standards for e-scooter usage in Ireland and we hope it will support the government’s rollout of legislation in the coming months – enabling people across the country to avail of safe, sustainable and convenient micro-mobility rental.”

Fred Jones, Northern Europe General Manager of TIER, added: “Our research trial at DCU brings TIER together with a range of brilliant partners to ensure Ireland’s first e-scooter scheme is not only a success but a valuable learning opportunity for cities exploring the future of micro-mobility. By adding the trusted and popular FREE NOW app to that mix we can take the trial multimodal and generate more compelling insights.”