NUI Galway charity Voluntary Services Abroad (VSA) have embarked on a final "bed push" from University College Hospital in Galway to Limerick city. A team of twenty NUI Galway medical students took to the streets of Galway, Ennis and Limerick, at the weekend pushing a hospital bed, with the aim of raising funds for the charity. Volunteers have fundraised over €70,000 in the past eight months by tirelessly holding events throughout the west. It is hoped that this final marathon event brings them closure to reaching their target of €100,000 before volunteers leave in June. "Where possible we spend money locally, in order to reduce transport costs and maximise the benefit the local economy" said auditor of VSA, Tadhg Sullivan. This summer, 37 medical student volunteers will travel to eight partner hospitals in Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya and Senegal, providing financial and practical support in an increasingly difficult financial environment within the African healthcare system. VSA was founded in 1977 by Galway doctor, Dom Colbert, and is run by fourth year medical students, it raises funds for health care facilities in developing countries. Volunteers travel to hospitals and clinics abroad, personally funding their own travel and accommodation expenses, so that all funds raised can go towards the purchase of medical supplies and equipment. ENDS

NUI Galway is looking for new companies to join its successful Business Innovation Centre on campus. The centre offers office and research facilities and is ideally suited for start-up and early stage technology and creative businesses. Also on offer is access to creative facilities, equipment and know-how across the University, with additional support available from NUI Galway's Ignite Technology Transfer Office. NUI Galway consistently performs strongly when it comes to technology transfer activities, having formed seven spin-out companies in 2009, signing 17 license agreements and filing 48 patent applications. This commercialisation expertise is brought by the Ignite Technology Transfer Office team to the companies based in the Business Innovation Centre. Dr Neil Ferguson from NUI Galway's Technology Transfer Office, says: "The aim of the incubation centre is to create an environment, which promotes entrepreneurship and new business growth. It also offers suitable incubation space and support services for new knowledge intensive companies in sectors such as biotechnology, biomedical, ICT and Engineering. Companies currently based at NUI Galway have gone from strength to strength, despite the difficult economic climate". Some of the companies currently based at NUI Galway include network monitoring solutions company Netfort Technologies, Medical Device company Zuresa, learning solutions company Learn Skills, 3D content company RealSim, online accounting solutions provider SwiftAccounts.ie, and software company DSX Ltd. It is the energy, drive and commitment shown by these companies which will drive Ireland's Smart Economy forward with successes such as; Netfort Technologies increased profitability in 2009, Learn Skills launching SEEK Academy, RealSim awarded High Potential Start Up status by Enterprise Ireland, Zerusa recently received both the CE mark and FDA clearance for its innovative Next Generation Guardian II Hemostasis Valve and SwiftAccounts.ie on target to go live this summer Shane Hayes from DSX Ltd, which has been based at the University since its inception in 2006: "NUI Galway Business Innovation Centre is a great place to do business, because of the workspace suitability for start-ups, the technical infrastructure, the atmosphere of innovation and co-operation as well as having research and industry located together". With the potential to house 24 companies, as well as hot-desking and a bio lab facility, the Business Innovation Centre has many advantages for start-up companies such as: competitive rates for fully fitted space; access to expertise and specialists in the all sectors, state-of-the-art facilities and equipment; and strong support structures for new business development. For more information on how to get started in NUI Galway Business Innovations Centre please contact technologytransfer@nuigalway.ie or 091-492147. ENDS

Dr Edward Curry, an eBusiness Researcher at the Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI), NUI Galway will join senior executives from around the world as a featured panellist at the 2010 MIT Sloan CIO Symposium, the premier international event for Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and senior IT executives to become better business leaders. Dr Curry will be speaking about Enterprise 3.0 and is one of more than 50 presenters from a wide range of industries, as well as leading academics from the MIT Sloan School of Management. As a technology driven event the Symposium informs technology vision and discussion on better ways to advance technology leadership and enhance business performance for enterprises. As the volumes of data generated by the enterprise increases, so too must the organization s ability to link, acquire and decipher all the information to optimize performance. For many CIOs, Enterprise 3.0, a system of effective knowledge management, provides new services through more effective data integration. However, it also presents new challenges, particularly in the areas of solution's technology adoption and its integration into existing business units. According to Dr Curry, "Enterprise 3.0 is about breaking down barriers that stop or slow information flows within or between companies. Linked data technology, a cornerstone of Enterprise 3.0, is having a significant impact by simplifying the way businesses share and reuse their data assets". In the Enterprise 3.0 panel, experts on the Web of Data and Linked Data will discuss emerging approaches to Enterprise 3.0. The discussion will provide CIOs with more insights into upcoming approaches surrounding the global IT market and how these concepts can better serve a company. Edward Curry investigates the impact and adoption trends of emerging technologies within industry. His specific focus for the last number of years has been how linked data technology and the web of data are changing the way business work and interact with information. Dr Curry added: "The fundamental concept of linked data is that data is created with the mindset that it will be shared and reused by others. Linked data can empower employees to be creative and innovative when working with data, to combine, manipulate and analyse it to find unexpected reuses beyond its original intended purpose." "Our attendance remains high because we attract key academic contributors such as Dr Edward Curry," said Graham G. Rong, the 2010 CIO Symposium Chair. "By bringing together innovative leaders, we foster an environment where attendees gain great insight about how to drive growth and be successful in these challenging times." Sean O'Riain, eBusiness Unit at DERI comments that "DERI s core research theme is Enabling a Network of Knowledge and we are now experiencing significant uptake of technologies such as linked data a major step in the realisation of this goal". The MIT Sloan CIO Symposium is the premier global event for CIOs and senior IT executives to improve business leadership. In one day, CIOs and senior IT executives receive actionable information that enables them to meet the challenges of today s changing global economy. The annual event offers a day of interactive learning and thought-provoking discourse on the future of technology, best practices, and business that is not available anywhere else. The event attracts CIOs, senior business executives, senior IT decision makers and thought leaders from academia. Ends

NUI Galway Student Psychological Research Yields Interesting Findings New research suggests that reminding young male drivers of their own mortality through 'fear appeals', such as those used in many road safety campaigns, may actually increase their intentions to take driving risks. The research was carried out by Psychology student Ms Rachel Carey and Dr Kiran Sarma at the School of Psychology, NUI Galway. The study investigated how awareness of death among young male drivers, together with personality factors, can influence intentions to take driving risks. Findings suggest that many young males perceive 'fast driving' as central to who they are and when told that they should not drive fast because of the carnage that can ensue, they rebel against the message with intent to take more driving risks. The research also showed that high impulsivity was linked to risky driving. The research has implications for road safety campaigns that target young males through messages that portray the consequences of fast or dangerous driving. The NUI Galway study suggests that young drivers exposed to dangerous driving facts report a greater intention to drive fast after exposure than had they been presented with neutral facts. 80 male university students (aged between 17 and 24, all of whom were in possession of a full driver's license) were recruited on the campus at NUI Galway and asked to complete a questionnaire. This questionnaire first assessed the relevance of driving for participants' self-esteem. Half of the participants were then exposed to images of car crashes and facts about the potential death-related consequences of driving, such as "17 to 24 year old males account for over 1 in 5 driver deaths". The other half of the participants were presented with neutral driving facts. Participants then completed a personality inventory which measured impulsivity. Finally, they reported their intentions to take driving risks in real-life scenarios. "It would appear that young Irish males can view fast driving as part of their personal identity – who they are", says Rachel Carey who is currently completing her final year of a BA in Psychology at NUI Galway. "Driving is tied up in their self-concept and telling them not to drive fast because they might die, or they may kill others, is perceived as being an assault on their self-esteem. They react defensively by reporting a more marked intention to drive fast because, for many, doing so bolsters their self-esteem", she says. Rachel, from Headford, Co. Galway, recently received the highest undergraduate award for research at the annual Congress of Psychology Students of Ireland. The congress is supported by the Psychological Society of Ireland and the Northern Irish branch of the British Psychological Society. Ms Carey will now present her research to both professional bodies. Dr Kiran Sarma of the School of Psychology at NUI Galway who supervised the research said: "The research was designed in consultation with international experts and supports findings reported aboard. While conducted within the limitations of undergraduate research of this nature, its unique value is that it looks beyond the concept of self-esteem to personality factors and suggests that impulsivity may interact with self-esteem in predicting greater intention to take driving risks. Further research can explore these relationships with greater specificity and inform the design and content of deterrence information campaigns". The BA in Psychology at NUI Galway is a three or four-year accredited undergraduate degree that provides graduate basis for registration as a psychologist. The School of Psychology educates more than 1000 students in both undergraduate courses and post-graduate professional training in clinical psychology, health psychology and applied behaviour analysis. More information on the School can be accessed at www.nuigalway.ie/psychology. -Ends-

NUI Galway researchers have developed Ireland's own capability of Icelandic plume dispersion forecasting and assessment. In a first for Ireland, and one of only a few in Europe, the forecasting system is expected to be one of the most sophisticated in Europe after further refinement over the coming weeks. The four-day forecasts of plume density and dispersion are produced at least twice a day currently and over the next week will increase to six-day forecasts four-times daily (www.macehead.org). Professor Colin O'Dowd, Director of the Centre for Climate & Air Pollution Studies at NUI Galway, which is behind this major development, stated: "The rapid development of the volcanic plume forecasting model to provide Ireland's own capability of assessment and prediction is an not only an excellent example of national collaboration and solidarity amongst key scientific partners in times of national need but also of innovation and a capacity for rapid response in a crisis. The combined skill of NUI Galway in atmospheric physics and air pollution research, Met Éireann in weather and climate research, and the Irish Centre for High End Computing (ICHEC) in computational science, was the perfect recipe for the rapid success". Professor O'Dowd added: "The ICHEC supercomputers have been critical to accommodating the daily influx of terabytes of model initialisation data and the number crunching of these data in highly complex regional climate and weather forecasting models used in the prediction facility. Essential to the success was the ability of ICHEC to contribute computational research scientists to the demanding challenge of optimising computer code for parallel supercomputing, involving 2,500 parallel processors, necessary to address complex problems. The underlying research funding that enabled this significant achievement was provided by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Higher Education Authority (HEA) and Science Foundation Ireland (SFI)". While the initial aim is not to replace the official London Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre for aviation decisions, it certainly provides an additional informative tool for potential air travellers and allows them the capability of making more informed travel decisions based on additional information. -Ends-