A research centre for software should encourage companies to have more research done here, writes Dick Ahlstrom
A new research centre at the University of Limerick (UL) plans to tap into the growing demand for software engineering and the inclusion of software control in everything from car braking systems to the domestic washing machine.
Minister for Enterprise Micheál Martin officially announced the Irish Software Engineering Research Centre (ISERC) last week at Government Buildings. Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) provided €11.7 million for the project but its total value is much higher, according to the centre's director, Prof Kevin Ryan.
"We see it as a €28 million operation," he said last week at the launch.
There are 14 private sector companies partnering the project, which will provide €9 million on top of the SFI support, he says. The centre has already received about €5 million in development grants and another €3.3 million in research support comes with a new member of staff, the centre's scientific director, Prof Klaus Pohl.
The centre will be located primarily at UL and will include about 40 researchers, including the new industrial director, Dr Hans-Jürgen Kugler, explains Prof Pohl. Another 15 to 20 researchers will work from ISERC partner universities Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin and Dublin City University, he adds.
"Software is the ghost in the machine. It is what makes it drive," says Prof Ryan. Yet software engineering is an extremely wide area so the centre's work initially will have a tight focus, working in conjunction with the automotive sector, according to Ryan.
"We will work on specific domains. We have learned you can do more if you are focused," he says.
The automotive sector represents a "high value area" where Europe is already strong both in terms of manufacturing and also in research.
"The car is becoming the software car," with the inclusion of software-driven elements, he says. Software engineering in the automotive sector was worth €25 billion in 2002 but will soar to an estimated €133 billion by 2015, says Prof Ryan.
Most of this remains invisible to the motorist, but the software systems built into modern cars play a crucial role in maintaining safety and fuel economy. Systems controlling fuel consumption continue to push up kilometres per litre. Anti-lock braking systems also depend on software control, says Prof Pohl.
This type of software is becoming ever more sophisticated. For example, the latest brake designs can sense the degree of urgency with which the driver presses down on the pedal and can boost braking power if it detects an unusually rapid response from the driver.
Much of the work done by the ISERC will be close to market, according to Prof Ryan.
"We believe all the research we do should be industrially relevant," he says.
He describes three objectives for work done at the centre: domain focus, industrial relevance and benefit to Ireland.
He wants the discoveries and developments accomplished by ISERC to do some good for the State, either by delivering jobs or creating wealth within Ireland.
Prof Ryan believes that having a research centre such as ISERC will encourage relevant companies to boost the level of research they have done locally. For this reason the second domain to be tackled by the centre once it is up and running is the medical device manufacturing sector. Ireland ranks as one of Europe's largest manufacturers of medical devices, such as heart pacemakers and defibrillators, and many of these complex devices rely on inbuilt software to control them.