In this special live-recorded episode of The Machine , Rob O’Connor hosts a panel discussion following a viewing of the CodeGirl documentary at SETU Waterford. The event brought together a group of secondary school students to explore pathways into computing and to hear real-life stories from women working and studying in the field. Rob is joined by Dr Indrakshi Dey (Walton Institute), Ava Neary (Applied Computing student and cybersecurity intern), and Amanda Freeman-Gater (Assistant Head of the...
Jun 20, 2025•39 min•Season 7Ep. 3
Are you interested in studying computing but feel a bit daunted by entering a field that can seem overwhelming? As professional computer science educators, we are often asked questions by prospective students about what’s actually involved in studying computing, the types of roles one can expect after graduating, the skills a student needs, and more. For this episode, we tried to distil some of those common questions into a podcast. If you’re someone who thinks computing is only for math wizards...
Jan 17, 2025•42 min•Season 7Ep. 2
Coming out of our latest Computing Week on campus in SETU, Rob spoke with two members of the Garda National Cyber Crime Bureau – Detective Sergeant Eoin O’Connell and Detective Noel O’Gorman. They spoke about the work of the Bureau, how cybercrime threats have evolved over the past few years and what individual and organisations can do to help protect themselves. TRIGGER WARNING: the podcast includes discussion of offences around online sexual abuse and child pornography. The conversation is not...
Nov 04, 2024•39 min•Season 7Ep. 1
Autonomous Systems are the jumping off point for this podcast episode with Indrakshi Dey of the Walton Institute at SETU. We talk about how computer science research is progressing in this area, encompassing the world of AI and forming links with partners across all disciplines. This leads on to a chat about how we (humans) tend to anthropomorphise Artificial Intelligence systems. We also discuss Indrakshi’s career to date and how being a woman of colour has given her unique insight across the s...
Mar 14, 2024•47 min•Season 6Ep. 5
To help celebrate International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month, Rob spoke with Spanish computer scientist Nuria Oliver about her work to date, such as using big data systems to help unbanked people access credit in developing nations or combating bias in AI systems. Nuria recounted how she first became interested in computing and turned that interest into a career. They also discussed the gender imbalance in computing today and Nuria offered some thought-provoking suggestions as to how th...
Mar 07, 2024•56 min•Season 6Ep. 4
Here's a live panel discussion we recently hosted at SETU, in which a bunch of computing professionals talked about what it's like to work in the tech sector in Ireland. This took place in front of approx. 200 Leaving Cert students, tied in with Computing Week at SETU. If you're a student or someone who's interested in starting a career in IT, this discussion might be very useful. The panel is comprised of: Padraig O’Neill – UNUM Sinead Queally – VoxGig Mick O’Brien – Kargo Donna Tilson – Sun Li...
Feb 20, 2024•35 min•Season 6Ep. 3
Another #ComputingWeek talk turned into a podcast! Two Red Hat software engineers, both recent graduates of SETU, returned to discuss the issues surrounding running your own LLM on a local machine, how models and datasets are built and reduced (quantised) so as to run on a laptop rather than an array of servers. Mark Campbell and Dimitri Saradkis provided excellent insight on the technical issues surround this topic, before getting into some of the ethical and moral issues with host Rob O'Connor...
Feb 08, 2024•52 min•Season 6Ep. 2
On the back of a packed #ComputingWeek talk at SETU, Rob nabbed two speakers from UNUM Ireland – Gary Kenneally and Shourjya Sanyal – and recorded a conversation about the pace of change in the ICT industry, how AI tools can be integrated into a workflow and why new developers should even care about AI. The lads discuss why the think AI won’t be replacing anyone anytime soon – but it may help us work smarter. To keep up to date with The Machine, you can find the podcast on X/Twitter @machine_pod...
Feb 07, 2024•47 min•Season 6Ep. 1
Don't know your q-bits from your bytes? This is the podcast for you! Quantum Computing is one of the next-gen technologies that can truly usher in a new era in computing. Quantum Communications has the potential to provide a truly secure infrastructure for communications across small or vast distances. Deirdre Kilbane (Director of Research at the Walton Institute) joined Rob O'Connor in the studio to talk about all of this and the recent announcement of a large research investment in Ireland QCI...
May 05, 2023•37 min•Season 5Ep. 3
Hazel Farrell and Pete Windle are academics at SETU who have been playing with ChatGPT (and other AI tools) to see how they can be used in the classroom to assist teaching and learning. They both take an open approach towards the technologies, rather than shutting down conversation. They sat down with Rob O'Connor to talk about the potential of these technologies to be a useful tool in education. Pete is a lecturer in Computing, whereas Hazel is a lecturer in Music - so there is a cross-discipli...
Mar 27, 2023•49 min•Season 5Ep. 2
Red Hat are the world's largest open source software company. Senior Engineers at Red Hat - Brendan O'Farrell and Leigh Griffin - joined SETU lecturers Rob O'Connor and Amanda Freeman-Gater to chat about Red Hat Academy, an online portal that provides free resources for students of computer science. They discussed the kind of material you can find there and why students might be interested in this. There's a lot of conversation about Linux in here, but it's not confined to CentOS or Red Hat Ente...
Nov 28, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Season 5Ep. 1
Two colleagues at SETU from the School of Engineering, David Alarco and Natalie Romanyatova, joined Rob in the podcast studio to discuss additive manufacturing (3D printing), how it dovetails with computing and how it's changing the way "stuff" is made. They have a new course starting bout it too. More information about Additive Manufacturing Advancing the South East (AMASE) can be found at amase.ie This is the last episode of The Machine for the season. We'll be back in the new academic year wi...
Jun 30, 2022•32 min•Season 4Ep. 12
Can we detect an excess of carbon in a field using equipment that already in place? Rob spoke with SETU academic Bernard Butler and his graduate student Thakshilla Wedage about their work in VistaMilk and using the physical properties of wireless signals to predict atmospheric conditions in a farming context. The speed of the terahertz signals they use are hampered by our wet, dense atmosphere - but they may allow wireless communications 100-times faster than current speeds on a dry environment,...
Jun 23, 2022•35 min•Season 4Ep. 11
What place does religion have in video games? Why should developers be concerned with religion, theology or morality when creating games? Frank Bosman is a Dutch academic with Tilberg University who spoke with Rob about some of the larger ideas contained in video games and how they add depth to the gaming experience. Frank's book "Gaming and the Divine: A New Systematic Theology of Video Games" is published by Routledge Press. He can found on Twitter @frankgbosman . Stay up to date with the late...
Jun 16, 2022•43 min•Season 4Ep. 10
A rerun of an episode we published a few years back - Rob sat down with some final year students who'd just completed their undergraduate degree. He asked them to reflect on their time studying in Waterford, highlight the areas of computing they liked most/least and also offer advice to their 1st year-selves. The students in the room were Ciaran Malone (Games Development), Dimitri Saradakis (Applied Computing) and Erinn Whitty (Internet of Things).
Jun 09, 2022•47 min•Season 4Ep. 9
StudyAtHome is a collection of eLearning courses approved by Universities across Europe where students can pick up extra credits in a variety of specialist computing courses, such as Data Ethics and Open Data, The Connected Car and Assistive Technologies Basics. Rob discussed the initiative with two of the computing academics involved: Brendan Jackman from SETU Waterford and Martin Deihnhofer from FH Technikum Wien (Vienna). Details on StudyAtHome can be found at https://hub.studyathome.techniku...
Jun 02, 2022•33 min•Season 4Ep. 8
To kick off a short season at the end of the academic year, Eamonn Deleastar and Siobhan Drohan joined Rob O'Connor in the studio to discuss issues around learning your second (or third!) programming language. They touched on the the programming language family tree, how tools and tech have changed over the years and identified some programming trends to watch out for in the coming few years.
May 26, 2022•32 min•Season 4Ep. 7
A documentary tracing the 50+ years history of Waterford Institute of Technology, from its initial creation as Waterford Regional technical College in 1970, through to its re-designation as the South East Technological University in 2022. The documentary features a number of voices including: Caroline Corcoran; Willie Donnelly; Ray Griffin Sr & Ray Griffin Jr; Mary Lacey; Venie Martin; Denis Moran; Marie Morrissey (RIP); Anne Phelan; Jim Phelan; Tony Whelan; Liz White. It also contains some ...
May 03, 2022•1 hr 14 min•Season 4Ep. 6
It's not a new episode, but Rob gives an update as to where The Machine podcast current stands (HINT - will be back soon!) and also reposts an episode of their new podcast 9plus which was recorded for International Womens Day 2022. If you like what you hear, you can find 9plus wherever you normally get your podcasts www.podfollow.com/9plus
Mar 08, 2022•41 min•Season 4Ep. 5
Continuing our series looking at sub-disciplines of computer science, in this episode we're discussing Automotive Computing (yes, the computers that run cars!) On the panel are Brendan Jackman, head of the Automotive Control Group research unit at Waterford Institute of Technology. Also on the panel is Applied Computing graduate David Evans, now working as a Connected Vehicle R&D Engineer with AppPlus IDIADA in Cambridge, UK. David would have taken the Automotive & Automation stream opti...
Nov 26, 2021•46 min•Season 4Ep. 4
Mícheál Ó'Foghlú is a former computing faculty member at WIT, one of the founders of the TSSG research group (now Walton) and instrumental in the spin-out of FeedHenry and its evolution into Red Hat. Mícheál's current role is that of Engineering Director at Google Core Developer unit based in Munich, Germany. He spoke with Rob about his career to date, musing on technology and how it can be a force for good in the world. They also chatted about Mícheál's advice for newcomers to the industry (and...
Nov 03, 2021•1 hr•Season 4Ep. 3
Continuing our explorations of sub-topics of Computer Science, WIT lecturer Frank Walsh and student Dominik Wawak joined Rob O'Connor in the studio to discuss the Internet of Things. The discussed some samples projects, the technologies involved, how it all fits together and where it might be going. There is also a conversation about beer - as Frank used a homemade IoT setup to help him brew his own!
Oct 19, 2021•49 min•Season 4Ep. 2
In the first episode of the new season of the podcast, the panel have a chat about cloud computing, what's involved, some of the big techs to watch out for and what you might need to know if this is an area you'd like to specialise in. They also theorise as to the causes of the major fault on Facebook's services which resulted in Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Oculus Rift being unavailable for a significant period the previous week. The panel is made up of WIT computing lecturers Richard Fris...
Oct 11, 2021•45 min•Season 4Ep. 1
An unexpected episode for the academic year 2020/21. What does 3rd Level need to know about Leaving Cert Computer Science? This podcast is an edited live recording from the ACM SIGCSE Eire’s annual meeting (held on Zoom). The panel is comprised of Keith Quille (TU Dublin), Brett Becker (UCD), Siobhan Drohan (WIT) and is chaired by Machine host Rob O’Connor. Towards the end of the panel chat, there’s contributions from audience members. Thanks for listening this year and we’ll be back in Septembe...
Jun 23, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Season 3Ep. 14
Rob chats with Brett Becker, one of the co-authors of the Computer Science for Leaving Cert book. They talk about computing as a 2nd level school subject, why certain topics were emphasised and technologies chosen, as well as potential impacts for 3rd level and beyond. They also speak about the Irish branch of the ACM’s Computer Science Education special interest group and finally, engage in a brief rant about computer programming error messages. Brett is an Assistant Professor in Computer Scien...
Apr 22, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Season 3Ep. 13
A different episode to our normal programming. 'Gianluca Wants a Record Player' is a documentary that follows an Applied Computing student's quest to get into vinyl music. What is so appealing about vinyl? Who’s listening to the format? Does it really sound better than music streaming services like Spotify? What gear should Gianluca buy? Should he even make a purchase at all? This piece was originally broadcast on Beat 102-103 on 4th April 2021 (Easter Sunday)
Apr 05, 2021•55 min•Season 3Ep. 12
Final Year Projects are one of the most exciting (and daunting!) parts of an undergraduate degree. WIT have a close relationship with Sun Life, a multinational company with a strong presence in Waterford and who also sponsor a number of awards for final year computing students. To talk about all of this on the podcast, we had Lucy White computing lecturer at WIT, Shane Corbett of Sun Life and Jonathan Gillespie, a recent graduate from WIT and winner of a Sun Life Award.
Mar 26, 2021•43 min•Season 3Ep. 11
VR/AR and MR are acronyms that are becoming increasingly prevalent in the tech world. We delved into what that means from a tech and business perspective in this episode, with contributions from three individuals working in TSSG/Walton: Carol Faughnan, Ryan McCloskey and Anujah Pathak. If you're looking for a starting point in the world of Mixed Reality, this is it. Show Notes: - What is Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality https://tssg.org/2020/10/20/what-is-augmented-reality-and-virtual-reali...
Mar 19, 2021•51 min•Season 3Ep. 10
In March of 2021, the TSSG ( tssg.org ) will rebrand as The Walton Institute. Rob spoke with co-directors Sasi Balasubramaniam and Kevin Doolin about the change is taking place, the shift in focus of ICT (Information & Communication Technology) research over the past 20 years and what this means for the South East region as a whole. The conversation touches on cross discipline research subjects such as agri-tech, neurological modelling and artificial intelligence, we well as working with SME...
Mar 05, 2021•48 min•Season 3Ep. 9
Despite the ongoing COVID situation, work placements and internships are still going ahead in the tech industry. Rob spoke with three stakeholders to get different perspectives on how things have been proceeding. James Richardson is a final year computing student at WIT who completed his placement with Red Hat ( https://www.redhat.com )last year, during the first phases of the pandemic. David Ryan of TSSG ( http://www.tssg.org ) gave the employer’s perspective on interns are managed and mentored...
Feb 19, 2021•56 min•Season 3Ep. 8
