NUI Galway has announced details of an upcoming traditional music and dancing conference and festival. Based on the Rambling House, or cuairteoireacht, tradition in which neighbours used to gather at a local house for music, dancing and merriment, the event will take this weekend, 19-21 April. The international conference, entitled Mapping Spectral Traces V, and the festival, Dancing Days, will explore the connections between how we inhabit such everyday spaces and how the traces of the past have shaped and moulded the places in which we live today. Highlights of the weekend will be launched at 7pm Thursday, 19 April at the Black Box Theatre and will be followed by the world premiere of Galway Dancer-in-Residence, Ríonach Ní Néill’s FRAME, produced by Richard Wakely.  Irish and international dancers, visual artists, writers, musicians and academics will gather in Galway throughout the weekend of specially commissioned performances and academic sessions that are free and open to the public. There will also be a pop-up art exhibition in the Black Box Theatre and the launch of a new essay collection, Irish Contemporary Landscapes in Literature and the Arts, in Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop. Traditional artforms will include the Straw Boys, a house céilí and sean-nós dance, who will join traditional with contemporary, site-specific dance works, installations and artworks to create a night in which the audience members are vital players. The audience for the final event will be ferried from Galway city centre to a mystery location in Connemara by bus to experience a cuairteoireacht of the past but that is housed very much in the present moment. This particular event seeks to open up discussions as to how Ireland’s landscape changed from being the ‘céilí at the crossroads’ to the ‘chaos at the crossroads’ in recent years. Dr Nessa Cronin, Lecturer with the Centre for Irish Studies at NUI Galway, said: “This is an exciting line-up of free events and public lectures by Irish and international artists, dancers, musicians, architects and scholars who are all concerned with re-thinking how our lives are shaped by the spaces in which we live today. From an Irish perspective in particular, the construction and de-construction of places has been in the fore with discussions of NAMA and Ghost Estates in recent times, and issues such as these will be discussed over the course of the three days in Galway.” The event is organised by Dr Nessa Cronin and Tim Collins based at NUI Galway’s Centre for Irish Studies, Dr Karen Till of NUI Maynooth, and Galway Dancer-in-Residence, Ríonach Ní Neill. Mapping Spectral Traces V is supported by the IRCHSS, NUI Galway, NUI Maynooth and the Mapping Spectral Traces International Network. Dancing Days is supported by Ealaín na Gaeltachta, the Arts Council, Galway County and City Councils, and the Town Hall Theatre, Galway. Conference events at NUI Galway are free and open to the public, and tickets for Dancing Days are available from the Town Hall Theatre at www.tht.ie  and 091 569 777. For further information contact irishstudies@nuigalway.ie and www.nuigalway.ie/centre_irish_studies.   ENDS

NUI Galway has announced it will host the sixth Irish Human Computer Interaction (iHCI) Conference in June, 2012. The conference theme ‘Poetics of Design, Narratives of Use’will focus on the role that different artefacts, perspectives, methods and tools play in the design of new technologies. 2012 marks the sixth year of the iHCI conference, and the first time it will be hosted in the west of Ireland. The particular emphasis of this year’s conference will be to look at the broad range of methods used to design, implement and evaluate technology, and to share stories of the design, deployment and evaluation of computing in context. Keynote speaker will be Professor Rod Stoneman, Director of the Huston School of Film and Digital Media, NUI Galway. Dr Tony Hall, School of Education and Programme Co-Chair iHCI 2012, said: “The iHCI Conference brings together researchers, technologists, academics, designers, artists and those with an interest in the development of technology for use by people. The conference invites submissions - papers, posters, demos and showcases – on a diverse array of technologies and topics ranging from mobile and smart telephony, and Cloud Computing and social networking, to wearable computers, novel sensors and computer-augmented educational, living and work environments. Dr Hall added: “In 2012, as we mark the sad passing of Steve Jobs, the da Vinci of the Digital Age, and celebrate Alan Turing Year, commemorating one of the pioneers of the modern computer, the conference promises to be an exciting event showcasing the design of personal and social technologies for today’s highly mediated and networked world.” iHCI 2012: ‘Poetics of Design, Narratives of Use’ will take place at NUI Galway on Wednesday, 20 and Thursday, 21 June. For further information please visit http://www.conference.ie/Conferences/index.asp?Conference=180 ENDS

For the third consecutive year the J.E. Cairnes School of Business and Economics at NUI Galway has partnered with local businesses to provide students with the opportunity to learn real-life business through an 'Innovation, Creativity and Enterprise’(ICE) initiative. ICE is a module available to all final year students of Commerce and Business Information Systems programmes.  As part of their final year of studies, over 400 students are given the opportunity to innovate in all aspects of business and community enterprise with the support of 30 mentors from local business and community leaders.  The students engage in group-based projects requiring them to devise a unique enterprising idea.  Each of the mentors are assigned a project group and in turn required to advise the students with the development of each idea. Michael Campion, ICE Module Director at the J.E. Cairnes School of Business and Economics said: "The overall objective of the Innovation, Creativity and Enterprise course is to encourage self-confidence in students of business in their ability to be creative and innovative in whatever future business and/or community settings that they are working in." As a competitive part of the module, groups of students were required to present the innovation projects to mentors through a number of judging stages, resulting in the selection of five finalist groups who competed for a prize fund of €4,000, sponsored by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA). The overall winners were Bruce Brady, Oranmore, Co. Galway; Gerard Harlow, Roscommon; Leszek Majewski, Galway and Kevin Moylan, Galway.  Their project 'On Time System’ – is a new mobile software application that alerts users to impending library fines. Commenting after the final, Norman Black of JFC Manufacturing and one of the final adjudicators, said:  “The calibre of presentations, research, innovation, entrepreneurial ability and presentation of business plans far exceeded my expectations.  Different teams excelled in presentations, market research, product concept and idea generation.  As a result it made the task of judging very difficult as there was so little to separate all of the finalists.” The Innovation, Creativity and Enterprise module is part of a wider initiative within the J.E. Cairnes School of Business and Economics, supported by funding from the NUI Galway Students Projects Fund, to focus on student personal development planning, and employability skill development. ENDS

A new Youth Academy begins at NUI Galway this weekend, giving a taste of university life to high ability primary school children. The aim of the academy is to support the children’s learning and academic development by providing them with new learning opportunities. Some 60 local children will study every Saturday morning until June, with their interest and enthusiasm for learning being fostered through a variety of new subjects. Subject choices include Italian, Philosophy, Psychology, Environmental Studies and Climate Studies. Welcoming the initiative, Lorraine McIlrath, who heads up NUI Galway’s Community Knowledge Initiative, said: “The Youth Academy is an important development which allows us to welcome children and their families into the University and enhances links with local schools.” The Youth Academy aims to inspire entry into third-level by introducing children and their families to University life. The Youth Academy is a collaboration between NUI Galway’s Mary Dempsey, School of Engineering & Informatics, Dr Caroline Heary, School of Psychology, and Lorraine McIlrath, Community Knowledge Initiative, along with Dr Colm O’ Reilly, Centre for Talented Youth Ireland, DCU. The pilot project was successful in receiving funding from the Bright Ideas Initiative and was launched by the Vice-President for Performance and Innovation at NUI Galway, Professor Chris Curtin. -ends-

The Lifecourse Institute at NUI Galway will host a public lecture featuring community living guru Dr Michael Kendrick. Entitled “Living Real Lives in the Community - Innovation in Services for Persons with Disabilities and Lessons for Families and Older Persons”, the lecture will take place on Thursday, 19 April, at 7pm, in room AC201 on the Concourse, NUI Galway. Dr Kendrick has worked with individuals, families and organisations in the fields of disability, mental health and older people across the globe to develop models of leadership, innovation and change.  Professor Gerard Quinn, Director of the Centre for the Centre for Disability Law and Policy at the School of Law, said: “We are very privileged to have Dr Kendrick come and speak at the University. He is globally regarded as a pioneer in the field of community living.” Registration is required for this free public lecture and can be done by contacting Elaine at info.cdlp@nuigalway.ie or 091 494270. The venue is accessible for wheelchair users but please give advance notice of further accessibility requirements. -ENDS-