The document summarizes the graduate business seminar programme organized by the Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) Business School. It discusses several presentations and speakers at the seminar, including topics on Ireland's economic recovery, organizational change, careers in finance, and HR. It notes that the seminar programme assists graduates with employment opportunities, with over 86% of postgraduate business students employed. It highlights that graduates are finding relevant employment in the southeast region and with international companies.

1. P
ostgraduate
businessstu-
dents at WIT
gain a signif-
icant level of
learning and
professional
development
through engagement and in-
teraction with companies in
the south-east region.
A customised industry
seminarseriesallowsstudents
tomeetwithchiefexecutives
andindustryrepresentatives,
andoverthepastyear,speak-
ers at those events have been
drawn from companies such
as Barclays Capital (Lon-
don), Accenture (London),
UBS (London), Ulster Bank,
State Street International, JP
Morgan,AlliedIrishBankand
Zurich Insurance Company.
This year’s graduate busi-
ness seminar programme at
the WIT Business School was
launched by Professor John
FitzGerald,whospokeonthe
topic of ‘Ireland’s Recovery
from Economic Crisis’.
Withpositiveeconomicand
budgetary figures emerging,
ProfessorFitzGeraldengaged
theaudiencecomprisingmas-
tersandlevel9studentswith
aholisticoverviewontheles-
sons to be learned from the
recent crisis, and a caution-
ary appraisal of the options
for the country heading into
the future.
The series of presentations
also featured Dr Micheál Ó
Foghlú of Feedhenry, which
was recently acquired by US
concern Red Hat for more
than €60 million. He told of
the dynamism in the sector
and the journey that he and
his colleagues had enjoyed
through the various stages
from start-up to expansion
to acquisition.
The process of organisa-
tionalchangewasamajorel-
ementofWITchiefexecutive
inresidenceDrTomMcCabe’s
session,ashedetailedtheles-
sonslearnedfromalifetimeof
strategisingandimplementing
changeacrossavarietyofsec-
tors and company sizes.
The CEO-in-Residence
Programme was initiated by
WIT Business School to fur-
ther integrate senior leader
perspectivesintothebusiness
schoollearningenvironment
onamoresustainedbasis.This
isachievedthroughmeetings
with staff and students of the
school and engaging with
them in a number of activi-
ties, including business dis-
cussions, lectures, research
and master classes over the
two-year period.
Former appointees to this
role have included Sam Mc-
Cauley, chairman of Sam
McCauley Group; and Pierce
Casey, managing director of
AdelaideCapital.Bothofthese
executivesprovidedtremen-
dous learning, development
andnetworkingopportunities
for WIT students.
Financewasastrongtheme
throughouttheseriesthisyear,
with Tom Early of Enterprise
Ireland analysing the chal-
lenges and opportunities for
companies seeking EI as-
sistance as they move to the
next stage of development.
Joanna Roche of JP Morgan –
andaWITSchoolofBusiness
graduate – spoke of her own
developmentincarvingouta
hugelyimpressivecareerwith
oneofthelargestcorporations
in the world.
Another graduate, Helen
McCarthy a senior consul-
tant with the Mercer Group,
spokeofhercareerasshewas
promoted to positions with
varying challenges in Dubai
and Singapore, to her current
positioninHRtransformation
and workforce planning.
HR is always a strong ele-
ment of the series, and two
speakersthisyear,MaryCul-
len,whorunsherownconsul-
tancy,InsightHRinKilkenny;
andAileenMcHugh,HRman-
ager with the Irish Property
Registration Authority, high-
lightedthecentralityofHRto
an organisation’s wellbeing
and productivity. Both spoke
oftheneedforinnovationand
flexibilityasorganisationsim-
prove productivity and effi-
ciency,whilebeingcognisant
oftheneedforbuildingapos-
itive organisational culture.
The business seminar pro-
gramme organised through
the School of Business assists
graduates with employment
opportunities. Following a
recent review of graduate
employment, over 86 per
centofpostgraduatebusiness
students are in employment.
Encouragingly, graduates
arefindingemploymentinthe
south-east,wheretherehave
beensignificantjoblossesover
the past seven years. For ex-
ample,therehasbeenagrow-
ing demand from a cluster of
financialservicecompaniesin
thesouth-eastforfinanceand
economicsgraduatesandthe
relevance and transferability
of the skills developed on the
MBSprogrammeensuresthat
graduatesareindemandfrom
companiesoutsidetheregion
suchasBarclaysCapital(Lon-
don), Accenture (London),
UBS (London).
For further details, contact Dr
SheilaO’Donohoeatsodonohoe@
wit.ie, or Gerard Arthurs at gar-
thurs@wit.ie
For further details on on post-
graduatebusinessprogrammessee
wit.ie, email graduatebusiness@
wit.ie or call 051-302424
WITstudentslearn
fromtheleaders
Professor John FitzGerald and Dr Sheila O’Donohoe, MBS Programme Director for Economics and Finance WIT, pictured with
postgraduate business students at WIT at the inaugural lecture of the WIT postgraduate seminar programme for 2014/15
A
s an academic
discipline, com-
puter science
has its genesis in
Irelandinwhatis
now the School of Computer
ScienceandStatistics,atTrin-
ity College Dublin.
Computer science has
evolved dramatically since
its pioneering days in the late
1980s when Professor Nev-
illeHarrisreportedlyimported
thefirstnetworkcardstoIre-
landforusebyhisavant-garde
cohort of students.
Among that band of stu-
dents was Stephen Barrett,
today the course director of
theMScinComputerScience
(Networks and Distributed
Systems). He has a unique
perspective, having experi-
encedfirst-handtheextraor-
dinaryleapsmadeinthatac-
ademicdisciplinethroughout
the years.
Perhapsit’sonlyfittingthat
with its rich history the pio-
neering School of Computer
ScienceandStatisticsremains
totheforefrontoftechnology
innovationandisstillthelarg-
est in school Ireland, as well
as internationally, with 60 to
70academicsandasignificant
postgradpopulationnumber-
ing more than 200. “We all
workinaveryvibrant,excit-
ing and constantly changing
environment,” said Barrett.
Research-ledteachinggives
students the opportunity to
learnaboutthemostadvanced
technologies, presented by
those who are breaking new
ground in these fields. When
writingresearchdissertations,
students also benefit from
high-level supervision from
researchers accomplished in
their fields.
Among the full-time, one-
yearpostgraduatecourseson
offer at the School of Com-
puter Science and Statistics
is the award-winning MSc in
ComputerScience(Networks
andDistributedSystems).This
well-establishedprogramme
enjoysgoodlinkswithindus-
try,astronggraduateemploy-
mentrecordandhasgarnered
an all-round excellent repu-
tation.
According to course di-
rector, Stephen Barrett, “the
MSc in Computer Science
(Networks and Distributed
Systems)isfocusedonservice
drivencomputerscienceand
coversstate-of-the-artdesign
andimplementationoflarge-
scale solutions”.
“Distributed applications
can be found in almost ev-
ery business sector, includ-
inghealthcare,educationand
manufacturing. Graduates
from this course are highly
sought-afterbyemployersfor
thespecificskillsetsacquired
during their studies.”
The school has gained an
international reputation as a
centre of excellence in net-
works and distributed sys-
tems,andresearcherscontin-
uetoworkcloselywithmany
major indigenous and inter-
nationalcompanieswhichare
active in the field.
Averypopularprogramme
is the internationally rec-
ognisedMScinComputerSci-
ence (Interactive Entertain-
ment Technology), targeted
at graduates coming from a
strong computer science or
related background. The MSc
IET was listed as one of the
top courses for video game
studies at graduate level by
American publication, The
Princeton Review.
The course is technically
focused and fosters skills for
theinteractiveentertainment
industry,includingcomputer
andvideogamesaswellasthe
animation, visual effects and
digital media industries.
It is designed to equip stu-
dents with the expertise in
the science and technologies
currently driving the enter-
tainment, media and com-
munication industries.
Students engage in re-
al-world challenges, work-
ing individually and within
teams, employing industry
standard design and devel-
opmenttechniques,enabling
them to build their own in-
dependent portfolios while
learningtheskillsrequiredto
become future industry con-
tributors.Theprogrammealso
facilitates potential progres-
sion to a research career by
preparingstudentsforfurther
study at PhD level.
Previous graduates have
achieved great success with-
in the games and software
engineering industry and
also in graduate positions in
academia.
The MSc in Computer Sci-
ence (Mobile and Ubiquitous
Computing) is also an at-
tractive option. Mobile and
ubiquitous computing tech-
nologiesallowinterconnected
devices to be embedded un-
obtrusivelyineverydayappli-
ancesandenvironments,and
to communicate and co-op-
erate to provide information
andservicesonbehalfoftheir
human users.
The development of mo-
bile and ubiquitous comput-
ing applications and systems
has been identified by many
visionaries as a key enabling
prerequisite for the evolution
ofthenextgenerationoftech-
nologies.
Itisamultidisciplinaryfield
thatrequiresexpertiseindis-
tributed computing, artificial
intelligence, computational
linguistics, computer vision,
mobilerobotics,visualisation,
and knowledge engineering,
interaction and product de-
sign, architecture, sociology,
andpsychologyamongothers.
Thisprogrammeisdesignedto
equipitsgraduates,fromallof
thesebackgroundsandmore,
to participate in this rapidly
emerging field.
Inaddition,theschoolruns
afull-timeMScinInteractive
Digital Media that covers a
foundation in the theory and
practice of creating applica-
tions using all digital media
types.Establishedin1996,this
long-running programme,
which is constantly up-dat-
ed, is a highly respected and
intensely multidisciplinary
programme.
Postgraduate programmes
deliveredonapart-timebasis
overtwoyearsfromtheschool
include MSc in Health Infor-
matics (evening/weekends),
MScinManagementofInfor-
mation Systems (evenings),
MScinTechnologyandLearn-
ing(evenings/weekends),the
Postgraduate Certificate in
Statistics (evenings) and the
MPhilinCreativeandCultur-
alEntrepreneurship,whichis
offered full time.
The School of Computer
Science and Statistics has a
very active PhD programme,
with students undertaking
world-class research.
According to Barrett: “The
schoolhasaveryinternational
outlook,withalargenumber
of our students drawn from
overseas. We bring all of our
students together, embed
them into challenging re-
search work, all the while
giving them the experience
ofbeingpartofacommunity,
something that serves them
well and makes the research
more exciting.
“Theygainexposuretoen-
gineeringskillsbyseeinghow
thingsarebuiltandhowthey
work. They also learn how to
action ideas and turn them
into businesses. This gives
them a great sense of what
they can achieve. Students
from all courses showcase
theirworkeveryyear,offering
opportunities for industry to
interactwhileidentifyingpos-
sible future collaborations.”
Movingaheadinleapsandbinarybounds
TheSunday BusinessPost
March15,2015
28Focus On: Postgraduate & 4th Level Education
InternationalfocusisakeythemeinWIT
PostgraduateMBSdegree
The WIT Department of
Graduate Business Masters’
students visited the Euro-
pean Commission Berlay-
mont building on Tuesday
March 03, as part of their
International Study Tour.
Postgraduate students,
from across account-
ing, management, HR,
economics and finance
streams, stayed at the Leu-
ven Institute for Ireland in
Europe for their week-long
fully accredited module.
The group met with the
European Commissioner
for Agriculture and Rural
Development, Phil Ho-
gan, MEPs Deirdre Clune,
Mairead McGuinness, Matt
Carthy and Sean Kelly, and
they heard from senior ac-
ademics from Katholieke
University of Leuven.
The Tour is designed to
enable WIT students to en-
gage with the international
business and political
representatives and is an
integral component across
the masters in business
programmes.
While at the Leuven
Institute, the group of stu-
dents were featured on the
TG4 programme, 7La, and
competed in an innovative
AIB-sponsored compe-
tition in an international
presentational format, the
winners of which will be
announced at a ceremony
on April 16.
The WIT MBS postgrad-
uate course is delivered
in full time and part-time
modes at WIT and incor-
porates lectures, work-
shops by leading business
and financial experts, a
dedicated seminar pro-
gramme on topics relating
to leadership, marketing,
finance and economics as
well as visits to companies
in the region.
For further information on
the postgraduate MBS pro-
gramme at WIT, please con-
tact Dr Sheila O’Donohoe at
sodonohoe@wit.ie or Dr Paul
Morrissey at pmorrissey@
wit.ie
Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin www.tcd.ie
Full-time Postgraduate courses
MSc in Computer Science
• Interactive Entertainment Technology
• Networks and Distributed Systems
• Mobile and Ubiquitous Computing
MSc in Interactive Digital Media
MPhil in Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship*
Part-time Postgraduate courses
MSc in Health Informatics
MSc in Technology and Learning
MSc in Management of Information Systems
Postgraduate Certificate in Statistics
* also offered part-time
Web: www.scss.tcd.ie/postgraduate
Email: postgraduate@scss.tcd.ie
Tel: + 353 1 896 1765
SCHOOL OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AND STATISTICS
New Materials &
Devices
Information,
Communication &
Media Technologies
Environment, Energy &
Health
Society, Culture &
Enterprise
PhD Opportunities in:
www.dit.ie/phd
Graduate Research School
FromimportingIreland’sfirstnetworkcardsinthe1980s,
TCD’sSchoolofComputerScienceandStatisticscontinues
tobeattheforefrontoftechnologicalinnovationinIreland
Professor Peter Hines (centre back) at the 2014 Lean
Management Forum Event at WIT with programme directors
(WIT Lean Enterprise Excellence Group), Darrin Taylor
and Aidan Walsh and other keynote speakers. Prof Hines
has recently joined the WIT Business School as a visiting
professor and will again address the Annual Lean Forum
event on May 14 in WIT Business School
‘The Couch Sessions’ - Professor Stephen Barrett pictured with Evan Greally, making music
with the Sofasesh at the recent Showcase of MSc Dissertations