Ho ho ho! Five of the regular podcast hosts from WIT got together to record a joint episode recommending some books, TV programmes, films, podcasts and tech that you (or a loved one) might enjoy over the Christmas period. Features Jenny O’Connor from The Nerve, Bruce Wardrop from Win Win, Niamh Maguire from Engendering Change, Tom Grinsell from WIT Talks Student Life and Rob O’Connor of The Machine. A very Happy Christmas to all our listeners. Recommendation Notes: Bruce Wardrop (Book) Atomic Ha...
Dec 16, 2020•42 min•Season 3Ep. 7
"LOVE: A Puzzle Box Filled With Stories" is the recent release from Canadian studio RocketShip Park Games. Rob spoke with their chief games designer and programmer Shane McCafferty (originally from Slieverue, Co. Kilkenny) about how he got into games development and the processes that led to LOVE. Shane talks about the emotional motivation behind the game, collaborating with other artists (both visual and musical) as well as detailing one of the tech used in creating the game. The podcast also i...
Dec 04, 2020•44 min•Season 3Ep. 6
Quantum communication! Cybersecurity! Controlling tractors from space! Rob spoke with Mark White (Head of Research WIT) and Niall Smith (Head of Research CIT) about the newly formed SEE (Society, Economy, Environment) Space Network, Ireland's first space region as academics in Cork and Waterford join forces to forge links with the European Space Agency. Can Ireland have a positive impact on space research? These folks certainly think so! For more information visit spacenetwork.ie...
Nov 20, 2020•55 min•Season 3Ep. 5
We have three IT security and forensics experts in the virtual studio for this episode! Rob knows next to nothing about cybersecurity so was able to honestly ask questions like "what is a denial of service attack?' and "how does encryption work?." Thankfully Judy Kelly (Security Architect with Red Hat ), Jimmy McGibney and John Sheppard (both Lecturers from WIT ) were on hand to provide the answers. It also includes some practical hints and tips on how you can best protect your personal data and...
Nov 13, 2020•1 hr 1 min•Season 3Ep. 4
The COVIDTracker app, developed by NearForm in Tramore Co. Waterford has become the basis for exposure notification apps across the globe. In this episode, Rob O'Connor speaks with Conor O'Neill, Chief Product Officer with NearForm about the history of the company, how the HSE first approached NearForm, how the app works and the technologies used to create it as well as addressing some of the criticisms of the app. Conor also explains the philosophy behind Open Source software and how this app e...
Nov 06, 2020•1 hr 24 min•Season 3Ep. 3
A companion piece to our last episode, this time Rob is speaking with two computing students - Sinead O'Neill (2nd year Computer Forensics & Security) and Dimitri Saradakis (3rd Year Applied Computing) - about their views on the online teaching and learning situation we find ourselves in.
Oct 12, 2020•28 min•Season 3Ep. 2
Rob O'Connor discusses the new academic year with Colm Dunphy and Siobhan Drohan and the shift from on-campus to remote teaching and learning. They discuss some things they enjoy and dislike, some tools they find useful and outline other observations and tips.
Oct 09, 2020•46 min•Season 3Ep. 1
Following on from our previous episode, here's a discussion about two more Covid19 projects that are being actively worked on during the lockdown by researchers from TSSG at WIT. Rob chats with Director of Research at TSSG Sasitharan Balasubramaniam along with Dixon Vimalajeewa and Bruna Fonesca to discuss "Treating Lung Tissue Damage due to COVID-19" and "Molecular Communication modelling of COVID-19 in the Respiratory System", projects that are collaborations with the PMBRC research group at W...
May 19, 2020•38 min•Season 2Ep. 10
Applying their expertise in information communications technology (ICT), researchers from TSSG at WIT are working to develop both short as well as long term solutions for COVID-19. Rob O'Connor spoke with Frances Cleary and Stepan Ivanov of TSSG to discuss some of their projects including 1) ensuring social distancing though wearables 2) blockchain based certification of public health policies 3) clinical data as a service software platform and 4) contact quotas to prevent the spread of COVID-19...
May 01, 2020•51 min•Season 2Ep. 9
Mark White (VP for Research & Innovation) and Kathryn Kiely (Industry Services Manager) spoke with Rob about research activities at WIT. What kind of work goes on? How important is it to the Institute? What does it mean for students? What does it mean for SMEs? Recorded remotely during the Covid19 lockdown.
Apr 17, 2020•44 min•Season 2Ep. 8
Rob and podcast regular Colm Dunphy sat down with former student Danny O'Dwyer, now well known across d'internet for the documentaries he's created at NoClip and his work in the world of video games journalism. They discuss Danny's journey from student to web developer to games journalist to media entrepreneur. Danny was in WIT to chat with current students about the game dev industry and then facilitated a seminar for faculty about crafting digital stories. Thanks to the National Forum for the ...
Feb 07, 2020•40 min•Season 2Ep. 7
As a special Christmas treat, we present a radio nativity play which was produced by computing students from WIT back in 2012, made in conjunction with Beat 102-103. It was shortlisted for a number of radio awards at the time and always raises a smile from Rob when he listens. It's a fairly irreverent retelling of the famous story, so if you're easily offended please switch off now. The bulk of the work was carried out by four students (in 2012!) who are now all working away with their own caree...
Dec 23, 2019•25 min•Season 2Ep. 6
WIT has an Open Day coming up for prospective students. We thought it'd be a good to publish a podcast answering some of the frequently asked questions we're regularly asked about computing courses at WIT. We gathered a collection of Course Leaders from various programmes to have a chat with Rob O'Connor: Mary Lyng [BSc Software Systems Development]; Mairead Meagher [BSc (Hons) Applied Computing]; John Sheppard [BSc (Hons) Computer Forensics & Security]; Sinead O'Riordan [BSc Multimedia Appl...
Nov 20, 2019•42 min•Season 2Ep. 5
Two students of the HDip in Computer Science at WIT were drafted in to describe their experiences of being a student on a totally online programme. Sarah Barron and Bernard Thompson were very generous and forthcoming with their answers! Also on hand were lecturing staff Eamonn de Leastar and Colm Dunphy to give the experience from a teaching perspective.
Nov 08, 2019•45 min•Season 2Ep. 4
It's hard to imagine life without the Internet. Podcasts wouldn't exist without the infrastructure provided by a collection of interconnect technologies and networks. But how does it all work? Rob chats with networking lecturers Richard Frisby and Amanda Freeman-Gater to break it all down and explain the relevant protocols and standards that allow all internet services to operate. Follow The Machine @machine_podcast on Twitter or Facebook ....
Oct 11, 2019•34 min•Season 2Ep. 3
As it's #CodeWeek across the EU, we thought we'd record an episode offering advice on starting coding with younger folk (primary and secondary school age children). We spoke about some of our personal experiences working with schools and mentoring with CodeDojo. On the panel were podcast regulars Siobhan Drohan and Brenda Mullally, along with another WIT faculty member Frank Walsh. Our guest was primary school teacher Kate Warren, Deputy Principal of Gaelscoil Port Lairge, who's partnered with S...
Oct 04, 2019•48 min•Season 2Ep. 2
We've all gotten questions like "what laptop should I buy?", "any recommendations for a computer?" or "is this a good deal for a PC?" The short answer to all those questions is "it depends!" Host Rob O'Connor goes through some of the considerations you should make when thinking about buying a new laptop/desktop/computer. The panel go through some of the headline specs of machines and then some other aspects that aren't always apparent to the novice techie.
Sep 13, 2019•49 min•Season 2Ep. 1
In what is likely to be the final episode of The Machine for this season, Rob chatted with some outgoing final year undergraduate computing students about their time at WIT: Dimitra Zucharelli, Ciaran Roche and Emma Ní Bhriain. The offered advice they wished they could have heard as first years and discussed some of the technical skills they learned over their four years. They also reflected on the social and personal growth they experienced as students. Follow The Machine on Twitter @machine_po...
May 17, 2019•32 min•Season 1Ep. 13
Rob is joined by Siobhan Drohan and Brenda Mullally to discuss a few tech news stories making headlines this week. - Canada is becoming a tech hub thanks to President Trump's immigration policies - Myspace loses all user data prior to 2016 - Google announces Stadia, their new cloud gaming platform Follow The Machine on Twitter @machine_podcast or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/machinepodcast...
Mar 22, 2019•44 min•Season 1Ep. 12
Four women chat about how they began their careers in computing & technology. Features Phil Healy (Irish Athlete and postgraduate computing student at WIT), Aisling Furlong (digital media consultant with Glanbia), Mairead Meagher (computing lecturer at WIT) and Judy O'Brien (final year student of Computer Forensics & Security). Hosted by Rob O'Connor.
Mar 07, 2019•50 min•Season 1Ep. 11
Ahead of the AI2 Applied Artificial Intelligence (www.ai2.ie) conference taking place in Kilkenny this week, Rob sat down with Glen Collins (Conference Director) and Susan Gallagher (Engineers Ireland) to chat about some of the main technical issues surrounding AI in 2019. What is Machine Learning? How computationally intensive is it? Will AI take all our jobs? (No!)
Feb 27, 2019•33 min•Season 1Ep. 10
How can technology assist in the learning experience? How have these systems evolved over the years? What kind of access opportunities to education can they provide? A very interesting discussion on this episode of the podcast between Laura Widger and Pete Windle of the Centre for Technology Enhanced Learning (CTEL) at WIT, Emma Fahey a 3rd year computing student and our host, Rob O’Connor.
Feb 15, 2019•51 min•Season 1Ep. 9
How did we get here from there? Rob O'Connor is joined by podcast regulars Siobhan Drohan and Eamonn De Leastar along with Jason Blood and Padraig Howlin of Distilled (DoneDeal, Daft.ie and Adverts.ie) to discuss how developing apps for mobile has changed from the early 2000s up to the present day. WAP and J2ME, evolving to iOS and Android platforms, eventually getting to the newer languages such as Swift and Kotlin and their associated toolsets. The panel also discuss the as-yet-unrealised goal...
Feb 01, 2019•43 min•Season 1Ep. 8
We have a festive themed episode today! Rob is joined by Mairead Meagher, Siobhan Drohan, Brenda Mullally and Colm Dunphy to reminisce about tech gifts from years gone by, make some recommendations for tech gift for this Christmas and even predict some trends for the future. Ho Ho Ho!
Dec 07, 2018•46 min•Season 1Ep. 7
This podcast is all about efficiency! The panel (Mairead Meagher, Siobhan Drohan, Peter Carew and Rob O'Connor) discuss the concept of efficiency, how it relates to computing and writing elegant algorithms. This is also the longest episode of The Machine so far, so they weren't very efficient with their chat in the studio ...
Nov 30, 2018•42 min•Season 1Ep. 6
A special bonus edition of The Machine! Colm Dunphy, Eamonn de Leastar, Joan Mangan and Rob O'Connor discuss the part-time HDip in Computer Science/ICT Skills currently on offer at WIT. This follows on from the previous episode in which the panel discussed how adult learners can approach IT. You can learn more about the HDip on offer at https://www.wit.ie/ictskills
Nov 16, 2018•16 min
Eamonn de Leastar and Colm Dunphy join Rob for this podcast episode in which they discuss how someone might get into ICT from another industry. They discuss what skills an individual could bring from another industry into IT, whether programming is the only game in town (it's not!) and the importance of "soft" skills.
Nov 16, 2018•37 min•Season 1Ep. 5
Eamonn de Leastar and Brenda Mullally join Rob on this episode of the podcast to discuss Web Development. They contrast the difference between the Web and the Internet, then look at static sites built using HTML/CSS before moving onto Content Management Systems. Finally they introduce the world of Scripting (Client Side and Server Side) and discuss Web Apps. They also give advice on how to start dabbling with some web development.
Nov 09, 2018•34 min•Season 1Ep. 4
Everything you wanted to know about Data but were afraid to ask! Rob is joined by Brenda Mullally and Siobhan Drohan for a chat about Data. What is it? How is stored? What's Big Data and what does it mean for you? They also explore some ethical dilemmas. So this episode includes maths, programming, science, ethics and philosophy!
Oct 25, 2018•39 min•Season 1Ep. 3
Following on from the last podcast in which the panel attempted to describe what programming is, this time the same group (Siobhan Drohan, Eamon De Leastar, Mairead Meagher and Rob O’Connor) talk about how a complete beginner can dip their toe in the world of coding. During the discussion, they mention a number of (mostly) free tools that you can find at the links below, presented in the order in which they appear (we think!): Code.org (Hour of Code) - https://studio.code.org/courses Processing ...
Oct 12, 2018•37 min•Season 1Ep. 2
