March 2011 NUI Galway Showcases Web Science from DERI

One of the world's leading international web science research institutes will showcase its research at NUI Galway on 6 April. The Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI), based at the University, is a key player in the Irish government's plan of transforming Ireland into a competitive knowledge economy. Minister for Research & Innovation, Mr Sean Sherlock T.D., will give the keynote address at the event. The day-long event will reflect the work undertaken by DERI's 120 researchers who, with key partners from Multinational companies and Small and Medium Enterprises are shaping the next generation of the web know as the Semantic Web and developing new products and technologies in this area. In the past seven years DERI has developed into an internationally leading research centre, as documented by its large number of high-quality publications in core conferences, outnumbering any other research organisation world-wide in its field of research. The Institute's focus is on education and technology transfer, which directly contributes to the Irish government's plan of transforming Ireland into a competitive knowledge economy. Professor Stefan Decker of DERI: "The discovery, integration, and exploitation of the humongous amount of the web's information have become important challenges. DERI is taking on these challenges by defining and executing a research agenda and outreach activities targeted at enabling and supporting people, organisations, and systems to collaborate and interoperate on a global scale using semantic web technologies." A selection of DERI technologies will be presented through a series of lecture sessions and participants can engage with researchers through demonstration and posters sessions. Industry partners including Cisco, Storm, Alcatel-Lucent, Celtrak and Avaya will also participate on the day. Michael Turley, CEO of DERI added: "By helping to create critical new jobs, products, services and commercial opportunities, our centre is an integral part of the national strategy of transforming Ireland into a competitive knowledge economy. Our event on 6 April gives us a chance to network with existing partners and open up our research to potential new collaborations and influences." DERI is a Centre for Science, Engineering and Technology (CSET) established in 2003 with funding from Science Foundation Ireland. As a CSET, DERI brings together academic and industrial partners to boost innovation in science and technology, with its research focused on the Semantic Web. DERI has leveraged its SFI CSET funding to add significant additional research funding from the European Union, Enterprise Ireland, and industry sources giving it a total funding to date of over €62 million. The DERI Open day takes place from 10:30am to 5.30pm on Wednesday 6 April. For registration and a full programme visit http://www.deri.ie/about/deri-open-day/. -ends-