Close collaboration between GMIT Letterfrack and the furniture industry over many years led to the establishment of the Irish Wood and Furniture Manufacturing Network (IWFMN). The IWFMN has grown from strength to strength, organising national conferences and facilitating a range of training and peer-to-peer learning experiences for network members. Since the onset of Covid-19, the IWFMN has been actively supporting its members online.
Most recently, GMIT has collaborated with the Western Regional Skills Forum on a training needs analysis for the sector. “Understanding and meeting the work-based learning needs of the sector and meeting those needs in a flexible delivery mode is now more crucial than ever,” says Paul Leamy, head of department for GMIT Letterfrack. In this regard, GMIT Letterfrack have initiated a project called Education and Work Integrated Learning (eWIL) which is focused on transitioning undergraduate programmes to become work-based as they move towards year-long work placements. The eWIL project will also explore online life-long learning opportunities for those in full-time employment.”
Engineering centre
The Engineering Centre of Research and Enterprise (engCORE), the research division of the Faculty of Engineering at Institute of Technology Carlow, is working with local agricultural machinery producer Tanco to push the boundaries of precision agricultural machinery innovation through research funded by the Irish Research Council’s Employment Based Scholarship Programme.
The scholarship programme co-funds the transfer of a Tanco design engineer onto a full time state-of-the-art collaborative research project that will not only inform the future direction of the precision agri-machinery sector but will help the company secure greater market share both domestically and internationally. The research engineer will liaise closely with experts from engCORE’s artificial intelligence group to understand and quantify data intensive processes in agricultural operational environments that will in turn inform the future of interconnected farm systems.
Another IT Carlow project saw innovative Irish company Inferneco/Pureneck collaborate with the Design+ Technology Gateway on a project to sterilise the necks of beverage bottles immediately prior to consumption. Around 30 per cent of beverages are consumed from the neck of glass bottles and while the bottles are usually visually clean, they are not sanitised. For the complete sanitisation of the bottleneck, the cap needs to be fully removed. Inferneco identified a potential solution to this problem using UV light.
Design+ worked with Inferneco to design and develop prototype sanitisers which were all 3D printed inhouse using IT Carlow’s class-leading 3D printers. This allowed them to iterate quickly and produce high-quality models that were able to withstand the testing phase which was performed in the environment of a busy nightclub. The unit’s electronics were also designed and built by the Technology Gateway team within the Institute.
Overall, the project was a success with the prototype demonstrating an ability to sanitise a bottle within two seconds and featuring a safe sealing system so as not allow the user to be exposed to any UV light. The company now has eight prototypes that they are using to approach international breweries so that it can get funding to bring the product’s development to the next stage. Collaboration with other Enterprise Ireland funded Technology Gateways, including the TSSG Gateway in WIT and CAPPA Gateway in CIT, was key to this achievement.
A collaboration between Shannon Applied Biotechnology Centre in IT Tralee and the University of Oulu in Finland which is funded by the North, East and West Kerry Development (NEWKD) LEADER Rural Development Program, NACO is an initiative to help support rurally based cosmetics companies.
The NACO project offers rurally based cosmetics companies the opportunity to take part in specially tailored training programs and networking events centred around innovation, formulation, regulation and commercialisation. These events focus on key deliverables such as research and development, access to R&D funding, formula trials, product testing and more.
Food traceability
Also from IT Tralee, is a Bord Iascaigh Mhara sponsored project which sees a team from the IMaR research centre working on the development of a computerised tracking system capable of accurately identifying individual oyster bags on the oyster farm and logging all stages of their growth and processing. This will create a much more efficient oyster farm and provide greater food traceability for customers. In addition, the system will be capable of environmental monitoring through a series of water quality sensors and data feeds from national and international monitoring systems and portals.
The ACORN Research Centre at the Limerick Institute of Technology (LIT) is supporting the technology development company, Drew Labs, in Co Clare, to develop an adaptable and affordable robot aimed at repetitive tasks in small craft bakeries.
The “rounding” of dough is a core step in preparing bread for baking and is performed by hand in many traditional bakeries. This project combines state-of-the-art Artificial Intelligence, collaborative robotic arms and recent innovations in soft grippers to duplicate the hand rounding process accurately.
The technology will address a skills shortage in the bakery sector. Many traditional bakeries are in a situation where they are not able to expand or even to replace staff that retire, and the only option for them in the future is to look to automation to assist the bakers they have to work more efficiently.