The Machine: A computer science education podcast

In this special live-recorded episode of The Machine, Rob O’Connor hosts a panel discussion following a viewing of the CodeGirl documentary at SETU Waterford. The event brought together a group of secondary school students to explore pathways into computing and to hear real-life stories from women working and studying in the field.

Rob is joined by Dr Indrakshi Dey (Walton Institute), Ava Neary (Applied Computing student and cybersecurity intern), and Amanda Freeman-Gater (Assistant Head of the Computing & Mathematics Department at SETU). Together they reflect on themes raised in the film — teamwork, creativity, and breaking gender stereotypes — while also sharing their own journeys into technology, including the challenges of maths anxiety, imposter syndrome, and changing career paths.

Whether you’re considering a future in computing or supporting someone who is, this episode offers honest, insightful, and encouraging perspectives on what it means to build a career in tech.

Useful links:

• Computing Courses at SETU: https://www.setu.ie/computing
• Walton Institute: https://www.waltoninstitute.ie
• CodeGirl documentary: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5086438/
• Dr. Indrakshi Dey: https://waltoninstitute.ie/about/staff/dr-indrakshi-dey
• Amanda Freeman-Gater: https://www.setu.ie/staff/amanda-freeman-gater
• Rob O’Connor: https://www.setu.ie/staff/robert-oconnor

Are you interested in studying computing but feel a bit daunted by entering a field that can seem overwhelming? As professional computer science educators, we are often asked questions by prospective students about what’s actually involved in studying computing, the types of roles one can expect after graduating, the skills a student needs, and more. For this episode, we tried to distil some of those common questions into a podcast. If you’re someone who thinks computing is only for math wizards and “hardcore” programmers, this is the podcast for you! (Spoiler alert: The answer is NO!)

We discuss tech innovation and how ethical IT professionals can have a positive impact on the world. We also explore the hidden perks of IT careers, beyond the good salaries.

Join Amanda Freeman-Gater, TJ McDonald, and Rob O’Connor - all from the Department of Computing and Mathematics at SETU - for an easy-to-follow conversation on why you should study computing.

Useful Links:

Articles

Courses

Personal profiles

Coming out of our latest Computing Week on campus in SETU, Rob spoke with two members of the Garda National Cyber Crime Bureau – Detective Sergeant Eoin O’Connell and Detective Noel O’Gorman. They spoke about the work of the Bureau, how cybercrime threats have evolved over the past few years and what individual and organisations can do to help protect themselves. TRIGGER WARNING: the podcast includes discussion of offences around online sexual abuse and child pornography. The conversation is not graphic but listeners may want to exercise discretion.

By an amazing coincidence, in the period from when the interview was recorded and published, SETU has been the victim of a cyberattack. At the time of podcast publication, all systems on the Waterford campus are offline and the site is under active investigation. So the podcast is particularly timely for the SETU community …

For more information on the Garda National Cyber Crime Bureau, please visit https://www.garda.ie/en/about-us/organised-serious-crime/garda-national-cyber-crime-bureau-gnccb-/

Autonomous Systems are the jumping off point for this podcast episode with Indrakshi Dey of the Walton Institute at SETU. We talk about how computer science research is progressing in this area, encompassing the world of AI and forming links with partners across all disciplines. This leads on to a chat about how we (humans) tend to anthropomorphise Artificial Intelligence systems. We also discuss Indrakshi’s career to date and how being a woman of colour has given her unique insight across the sector.

Here are some links if you wish to follow up the podcast:

·       Walton Institute Key Research Areas https://waltoninstitute.ie/research/key-research

·       CONNECT project https://www.connect-science.net

·       Indrakshi Dey’s profile at the Walton Institute https://waltoninstitute.ie/about/staff/dr-indrakshi-dey

·       Indrakshi Dey’s profile on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/indrakshi-dey-aa658839/  

·       Rob O’Connor on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertoconnorirl/

To help celebrate International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month, Rob spoke with Spanish computer scientist Nuria Oliver about her work to date, such as using big data systems to help unbanked people access credit in developing nations or combating bias in AI systems. Nuria recounted how she first became interested in computing and turned that interest into a career. They also discussed the gender imbalance in computing today and Nuria offered some thought-provoking suggestions as to how these issues might be addressed. Nuria is also a fellow with Association of Computing Machinery, so thanks to the ACM for setting up the interview.

Here are links to projects mentioned during the podcast:

To keep up to date with The Machine, you can find the podcast on X/Twitter @machine_podcast or you can connect with Rob O’Connor via LinkedIn

Here's a live panel discussion we recently hosted at SETU, in which a bunch of computing professionals talked about what it's like to work in the tech sector in Ireland. This took place in front of approx. 200 Leaving Cert students, tied in with Computing Week at SETU. If you're a student or someone who's interested in starting a career in IT, this discussion might be very useful. The panel is comprised of:

Please excuse the poor audio in places. This was held as a live event and not a podcast. However, there were some great nuggets of info in there so we decided it was better to get it out there, warts and all.

Another #ComputingWeek talk turned into a podcast! Two Red Hat software engineers, both recent graduates of SETU, returned to discuss the issues surrounding running your own LLM on a local machine, how models and datasets are built and reduced (quantised) so as to run on a laptop rather than an array of servers. Mark Campbell and Dimitri Saradkis provided excellent insight on the technical issues surround this topic, before getting into some of the ethical and moral issues with host Rob O'Connor at the end.

You can connect with all the people on this podcast on LinkedIn at:

Here are links to some of the tools referenced in the podcast:

On the back of a packed #ComputingWeek talk at SETU, Rob nabbed two speakers from UNUM Ireland – Gary Kenneally and Shourjya Sanyal – and recorded a conversation about the pace of change in the ICT industry, how AI tools can be integrated into a workflow and why new developers should even care about AI. The lads discuss why the think AI won’t be replacing anyone anytime soon – but it may help us work smarter.

To keep up to date with The Machine, you can find the podcast on X/Twitter @machine_podcast Or you can contact Rob via the SETU website. Thanks for listening

Don't know your q-bits from your bytes? This is the podcast for you! Quantum Computing is one of the next-gen technologies that can truly usher in a new era in computing. Quantum Communications has the potential to provide a truly secure infrastructure for communications across small or vast distances. Deirdre Kilbane (Director of Research at the Walton Institute) joined Rob O'Connor in the studio to talk about all of this and the recent announcement of a large research investment in Ireland QCI (Quantum Communications Infrastructure). Deirdre breaks down some of the theoretical elements in an easy to understand manner and lays out the practical applications for this technology across Europe (and beyond).

For more information on Ireland QCI, check out this web story https://waltoninstitute.ie/projects/ireland-qci For more information on Deirdre Kilbane, check out her profile https://waltoninstitute.ie/about/staff/dr-deirdre-kilbane Stay up to date with The Machine podcast by following us on Twitter @machine_podcast

Hazel Farrell and Pete Windle are academics at SETU who have been playing with ChatGPT (and other AI tools) to see how they can be used in the classroom to assist teaching and learning. They both take an open approach towards the technologies, rather than shutting down conversation. They sat down with Rob O'Connor to talk about the potential of these technologies to be a useful tool in education. Pete is a lecturer in Computing, whereas Hazel is a lecturer in Music - so there is a cross-disciplinary aspect to the discussion. The podcast doesn't lead to many answers for academics or students who may be struggling with AI, but it does spark some interested questions and dialogues. This is definitely a topic we'll be discussing again.

During the podcast, Hazel recommends following Mushtaq Bilal on Twitter @MushtaqBilalPhD for interesting threads on ChatGPT. Pete recommends the ChatGPT Insights Facebook group.

You can follow Hazel on Twitter @renshigirl. Pete's profile on LinkedIn can be found here. Rob O'Connor is on Twitter @roboconnor_irl or on Mastodon http://mastodon.ie/@roboconnor. Follow the podcast on Twitter at @machine_podcast