ResearchNews | Issue 5 | July 2011
“WHAT I ATTEMPTED TO DO WAS TO REPLICATE AS CLOSELY AS POSSIBLE THE WEAR EFFECT OF SKIN ON COPPER PLATED SURFACES TO ESTABLISH HOW LONG THE COPPER PLATING WOULD STAND UP AND HOW LONG IT WOULD TAKE FOR THE ACTUAL PLATING TO WEAR OFF. ENTERPRISE IRELAND’S VALUES FOR USAGE OR ACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL EQUIPMENT FOR ONE YEAR IS 200,000 CYCLES. SO FOR AN INDUSTRIAL APPLICATION, A DOOR SHOULD BE CAPABLE OF HAVING AN ACTION OF 200,000 CYCLES PER YEAR. THROUGH A SERIES OF TESTS, I ESTABLISHED THE TIME SPAN IN WHICH THE COPPER PLATING WOULD BE WORN OFF OVER A NUMBER OF YEARS AND MEASURES THAT COULD BE TAKEN TO SLOW DOWN THE WEARING AWAY OF THE COPPER PLATING. THIS CYCLE WAS THEN REPEATED 200,000 TIMES” “A number of the people involved in research, mechanical engineering and education of product design are now interested in using this machine for student’s final year projects. This is the first research of its kind and it offers possible scope for further research. It is also a noble pursuit,” says Robert. “IN FUTURE, THE AIM WOULD BE TO EXPLORE THE USE OF COPPER ALLOYS TO REDUCE COSTS. WE COULD MEASURE THE EFFECT ON MICROBIAL PROPERTIES OF ADDING DIFFERENT METALS TO THE COPPER AND TEST THE WEARABILITY OF THE NEW MATERIAL.” For more information email: Robert.morris@dit.ie www.cuprightinternational.com
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COMMERCIALISING APPLIED INTELLIGENCE
DIT’s Applied Intelligence Research Centre (AIRC) is working hard to commercialise its research findings. In particular the partnership between the group and the National Digital Research Centre (NDRC) continues to flourish. Two major research projects are ongoing: Comenius 2.0 and Sentinel. The Comenius 2.0 project has developed an online tool, called Lingle, which helps English—as—a—second—language teachers, source relevant authentic text (such as newspaper or magazine articles) for their classes. This is done using techniques from machine learning and computational linguistics coupled with best practice from computer—aided—language— learning. Brian Mac Namee and John Kelleher (AIRC) together with Noel Fitzpatrick (DIT School of Art, Design and Printing) lead this project. Comenius 2.0 is entering an exciting phase with a beta test version currently online (www.lingleonline.com) and an official full product launch planned in the coming months. Sentinel is a collaboration project between DIT, NDRC and AdaptiveMobile. It is combining industry knowledge with research expertise to provide a more sophisticated approach to detecting SMS spam, which is a major problem throughout Asia in particular. Sarah—Jane Delany, from the Digital Media Centre and Applied Intelligence Research Centre is the DIT lead on this project. For more information: www.comp.dit.ie/aigroup
Close—up of a copper plated surface being used for hygiene products by DIT and Cupright International.