The Insight Podcast

Dr John McCrae is head of the Unit for Natural Language Processing in NUI Galway. He tells Louise and Gráinne about the challenges and opportunities when working with data and minority languages. 

Language, art and an eco barge feature in episode four as Louise and Gráinne talk to Dr John McCrae about his work at the helm of the Unit for Natural Language Processing in NUI Galway. They also talk to Dr Hilary Murray about her career at the interface between art and neuroscience. Finally they speak to artist Anne O'Leary about her Eco Showboat undertaking. 

With the increasing focus on renewable energy sources, and the urgency with which we need to move away from fossil fuels, the idea of solar prospecting is perhaps a less familiar concept than other practices in the area of sustainable energy. Louise and Gráinne spoke to Dr Ankit Verma last year about Insight's work in this field. 

Gráinne and Louise spoke to Niall O Brolcháin about his work on EU project Care Peat in a fascinating discussion that explored the value of our peatlands in the climate crisis. 

Professor Barry Smyth realised early on in the pandemic that readily available data could be used to tell us more about what was happening. He told Gráinne and Louise all about it. 

Dr Claudette Pretorius is a psychologist working in Insight@UCD. She talks to Louise and Gráinne about her research into how teens access mental health services online

The best explanation of Covid modelling that you'll ever find. The excellent Professor Andrew Parnell from Insight@Maynooth Uni spoke to Louise and Gráinne last year about his work

It's a jam packed episode this week with Professor Norma Bargary discussing how we make sense of vast quantities of data and the importance of putting people at the centre of research. Diarmuid Kennedy and Dr Cathal Gurrin talk about The Eternal Memory, a short film (watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8FGM4rq6pw) which explores Gurrin's life-logging journey in the most lovely and engaging way. Dr Begüm Genç talks about explanability in AI and constraint programming and discusses her work on the global Women in AI initiative. 
As for the presenters, Louise has a cold, Gráinne's dog snores loudly in the background but the guests knock it out of the park. Enjoy!

We don't normally do themed episodes but this is one exception. If you have ever been curious about the process of the commercialisation of research, this is the episode for you. Two fascinating interviews. One with CEO of Stimul.ai, Naomh McElhatton who is currently working to make technology that came out of research led by Professor Barry O'Sullivan into a global business, and the other with former Insight researcher Dr Martin O'Reilly who is CEO of Output Sports, another potential world leader. The stories are fascinating and they tell us what they wish they knew at the start of it all. 

Gráinne and Louise talk to Dr Ciara Duignan about Flourish, a student wellbeing module running in DCU and UCD. Is integrating wellbeing into higher level education the shape of things to come. Professor Alan Smeaton talks about the challenges of the blended campus, and the advent of the new normal and Dr Mehran Hossein Zadeh Bazargani tells us about his PhD journey.