Ballybay Community School visit Dundalk Institute ofBallybay Community School visit Dundalk Institute of Technology for Taster DayTechnology for Taster Day

Ballybay Community College visited Dundalk Institute of Technology recently for a Taster Day. Taster Days are designed to provide school level students with a gentle introduction into the wonders of Further Education and College Life. It provides students with background information on courses and subject areas, as well as giving students a change to meet present DkIT Students and have a tour around the College Campus.

However this was a Taster Day with a difference, usually schools would carry out Taster Days with Transition Year or Fifth Year groups but the visiting pupils from Ballybay were all first year students.

In total 36 students attended the day. On arrival at DkIT the Students were greeted by DkIT President Denis Cummins and School Liaison Officer Diarmuid Cahill, they received talks from DkIT Sports and Societies Officer Ciara Patterson and Students Union Vice President David Branagan about Student Activities, before getting an introduction on the various courses on offer in DkIT.

The students were then split into various groups and taken on a tour of the Campus by present DkIT Students, also on hand to give advice and information was Michelle Graham from the Department of Computing and Mathematics. After lunch all students took part in some fun activities which included them all competing in a specially designed assault course. Thanks goes to third year Health and Physical Activity students Daire Lawless and Eoin Fegan for setting up and designing the assault course.

Overall it was a very enjoyable day for all involved and hopefully the day will encourage the students to aim high and to achieve their full potential academically, and hopefully in a few years time they will be students of Dundalk Institute of Technology.

If you're interested in more information on Taster Days please contact Dundalk Institute of Technology School Liaison Officer Diarmuid Cahill (schoolliaison@dkit.ie).

Dr. Constantin Gurdgiev to deliver the Annual Accounting lecture at DkIT this evening, Wednesday April 13th at

7.00 p.m

The School of Business and Humanities is hosting its Annual Accounting Lecture today,

Wednesday, April 13th, 7.00pm-9.00pm in the Whitaker Theatre, DkIT. Tea/Coffee will be

served from 6.30pm. The lecture this year will be delivered by Dr. Constantin Gurdgiev of

TCD and the topic is The Economy of Ireland - Current Difficulties and Future

challenges/Opportunities. All Welcome.

Born in Moscow in 1970, Dr Constantin Gurdgiev is a

leading figure in economics commentary and a past

group editor of Business & Finance magazine, He is is

an adjunct lecturer in Finance with Trinity College

Dublin, chairman of the Ireland-Russia Business

Association, and head of research and strategy with

Heinz Associates.

Russian-born Gurdgiev is an honorary fellow of the

Copenhagen Institute and fellow of the Pharmaceutical

Economics Council. He is a member of the Academy of

Political Science, the American Economic Association,

the American Finance Association and of the editorial boards of seven international

academic journals. He is also a member of the executive panel of the McKinsey & Co.

He holds a PhD in Macroeconomics and Finance from Trinity College Dublin, an MA in

Economics from Johns Hopkins University (USA) and an MA in Pure Mathematics from the

University of California, Los Angeles.

Gurdgiev frequently contributes to economic and social policy debate in Ireland and Europe.

His work on European policies is published by international think-tanks, including the Policy

Institute, the Institute for International Integration Studies, CATO Institute, Centre for New

Europe, Copenhagen Institute, CEPOS, Open Europe and the Stockholm Network.

He is the recipient of the World Medal of Freedom 2006 and Man of the Year 2005 awards

from the American Biographical Institute. In 1998 to 2000, he was awarded a Millennium

Scholarship Award from the University of Chicago. In 2000 to 2004 he was the holder of the

Whatley Award from Trinity College Dublin.

DKIT FM

This Wednesday 13th April sees history written, or should we say broadcast? DKIT FM will launch with an action packed 9 hour broadcast. Yeah, that ain’t no typo, 9 HOURS! DKIT FM is the colleges first ever radio station and is the talent baby of our very own Media Society and the Laptop Music Production Society. That’s right; two of the colleges hottest societies have come together in one glorious act of kindness to bring you a showcase of music, chat and comedy from right within our own departments.

The show will be running from 12-9 and will have everything from acoustic songwriters to huge dubstep tracks! We are too good to you! You know that term “he has a face for radio”? Well at DKIT FM we do have faces for radio, because we are streaming live in both video and audio! That can’t be right, let me check that one more time. Yes we are streaming in video and audio although only you with good speedy internet will be able to avail of our glorious footage, the rest can make do with audio, sorry tis the way of the world! Wait what? You want more? Fine! Jeez, you are a tough crowd. Okay, what if I said that one lucky listener would win a shiny new Nokia X3-02 mobile phone? Yeah I thought that would seal the deal.

If you’re listening to the audio only stream, you can find us at http://tiny.cc/dkitfmAudio

Or if you’ve got a decent broadband connection, you’ll be watching us here at http://tiny.cc/dkitfm

The full line-up is below but we know you won’t read it, you’ll be listening to the whole show!

12-1. Welcome to DkiT FM with Ros Madigan1-2 . The Happy Hour with Iarla2-3. Line-In, Line-Out - DkIT based music show.3-4 Thisisdjkaz – Summer High Life Mix4-5 DJ James Butterly5-6 DJ Pauric Freeman – "Boom"6-7 The Really Sound Show – Comedy7-8 Funk/Electro with YakJaw8-9 Dubstep, Drumstep and Drum N Bass with Decitronic

Jim Connolly lets 6 past the sticks without ID

An epic encounter was on the cards in Oriel Park last Wednesday where the lecturers at Dundalk Institute of Technology took on Erasmus students who are currently studying for a year. This match had all the ingredients to be a David

and Goliath encounter – a hostile crowd, a team consisting of the three European powerhouses (Spain, France and Germany), an ageing AC Milan side resembled the lectures’ team and local Howard Webb “Chad Conroy” as referee.

The match was intense from the very first whistle with tackles coming in thick and fast. Despite the Erasmus dominating possession in the first half, the lecturers held their own. On the 12th minute, Jim Connolly took control of a high ball into the box and set Karl Mernagh on his way to come close to scoring. From the resulting kick out, Barry Carolan took down Richard Bedane on the edge of the box to give the Erasmus a perfect opportunity to score. Pablo de la Cruz stepped up to put the ball past Connolly. The stand erupted into cheers and boos! This was then followed with an excellent shot by French striker Logan Godefroy for his first of his evening. Soon things turned to worse with another great strike from the French target man Godefroy on the bell of halftime. With their backs to the wall, their manager, Mario MacBlain was glad to get the lecturers off for a talk and a few Jaffa Cakes.

With the game looking well beyond a comeback for an aging Lecturers’ team, their talisman, Anton Barrett came off the bench at the start of the second half and bombarded the Erasmus defence. From his first touch, the playmaker crossed the ball into the box and a powering header from Ronan Lynch forced Maxime Meunier to put the ball out for a corner. The crowd looked on in amazement as the Beckham style corner from Ciaran Rosney curled the ball into the top corner of the net. This looked to be the turning point of the game and from this moment on the Erasmus struggled to get out of their own half. Within

minutes a controversial decision by Conroy gave the lecturer team a lifeline as young prospect David Deane appeared to be taken down in the box by Romain Duvel. Deane stepped up to take the penalty, putting it into the top right hand corner with precision. The score was now 3-2 to the Erasmus team but confidence was flowing through the Lecturers. The defensive pair of Kenneth Sloane and Christian Maas kept the European students quiet while the midfield was creating chances for the front men, Karl Mernagh and Colin Cooney.

However, a crunching tackle from German hard man Michael Lidwin on Mernagh seemed to end the player’s day as he was taken stretchered off with a suspected sprained thumb. This seemed to switch the momentum of the match back to the Erasmus students as they stepped it up a gear and soon ran riot with a fantastic bit of individual skill from a Spanish Jose Manuel Diaz, who set up fellow country man, Jose Manuel Ayllon to get the team’s fourth goal. The events of the match seemed to be beginning to take its toll on the lecturers as their legs began to tire and, within minutes, the European outfit had put their 5 th and 6th past Jim Connolly with goals from Arthur Bourdillon and Logan Godefroy respectively. In the last few minutes a hopeful long ball from Paul Brady set up Colin Cooney to get a consolation goal for the team. It was a very enjoyable day out for all, with the Erasmus claiming the Conor O’Callaghan memorial trophy and Godefroy claiming a hat trick.

Special thanks would you like to go to the Students Union at DKIT for the subscription fee for the Erasmus team.

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US Honour for Irish Composer

Dr Eibhlís Farrell, Head of Music and Creative Media, has been awarded the Distinguished Alumna Award 2011 by Rutgers University, New Jersey for Distinguished Accomplishments and Service in the Humanities in Music and Music Education.

She received the Award at a special ceremony in the University from Professor Jerome Kukor, Dean of the Graduate School who cited her outstanding contribution to music both as composer and educator and how in her work as composer she had served to bring the rich traditions of Irish culture into the world of contemporary music. He also remarked with humour that she held the track record in the University for completing her PhD (May 1991) in record time! Eibhlís is currently working on a commission for the Dublin International Piano Competition 2012.

Kickboxing IntervarsityKickboxing Intervarsity

Adrian Paun, Daire Lawless, Catherine Pearson, Aidan Shields

Congratulations to the DkIT Kickboxing team who competed in the first kickboxing intervarsity competition last weekend in the Institute of Technology Blanchardstown (ITB). Special congratulations go to Adrian Paun and Aidan Shields who in their first ever competition won a 1st and 2nd place trophy each. They faced each other in both their finals and over came a high standard to get there.

Catherine Pearson fought two fighters on the day in a round robin competition. Both of her opponants were from Cork and she just missed out on the gold by a couple of points. Daire Lawless, who also fought in the advanced section, managed to achieve first place against a fighter from Wexford.

A big thanks to all who were involved in the setting up and running of the competition.

Student Enterprise Engineer Excellence Student Enterprise Engineer Excellence

Student Enterprise at DkIT hosted their most recent guest speaking event titled 'Celebrating Manufacturing in Ireland' on Thursday 7th of April. The event was organised to illustrate that there are still opportunities for manufacturing in Ireland and also to highlight the relationship both of our guest companies have with DkIT.

Our speakers were Ruth McAdam, Director of Multihog and Martin McVicar CEO, Combilift who each gave a 30-40 minute talk, followed by a demo of their respective machines in the DkIT football pitches.

Ruth Mc Adam gave an inspirational speech to the students outlining the background to the company and the industry and also highlighting that over half of the team at Mulitihog at present are past graduates of DkIT. Multihog base their company around the idea of One Machine – One Driver – Endless Applications. All Multihog products are manufactured in Ireland with emphasis on robust design, product development and innovative customer solutions. Specialist areas include; winter maintenance, ground care and amenities, agricultural ground care, motorway maintenance and forestry applications. Currently they are producing one machine a week in their facility on the Ardee Road.

Combilift are located in Monaghan. Martin McVicar and Robert Moffett formed the company in 1998. With a combined engineering experience of over 40 years, they used their knowledge and practical experience to create the ultimate long-load material handling solution. In just eleven years Combilift has grown to be the global leader in the long-load handling market. Combilift products can be found in over 50 markets worldwide. Martin Mc Vicar provided the students of DkIT with a very comprehensive speech about his products and ensured the students that there are plenty of job opportunities available for students leaving Third Level Education.

The guest speaking event was aimed mainly at students and staff in the School of Engineering although there was a large turnout from other schools also. This was an excellent opportunity for any student especially those within the School of Engineering to look at an alternative perspective on potential career opportunities, entrepreneurial experiences and an insight into New Product Development. Combilift and Multihog have both been past graduate employers.

With an excellent turnout of over 120 students, the Engineering Theatre (C106) was packed to capacity. 'Celebrating Manufacturing in Ireland’ was an excellent event and provided the students of DkIT with some excellent practical examples and real life solutions. If you were unfortunate to miss this event and would like to learn more about Multihog and Combilift, please see the below links;

http://www.combilift.com/En/HOME.aspx

http://www.multihog.co.uk/

Student Enterprise would like to send out a special thank you to Martin Mc Vicar and Ruth Mc Adam for giving their time. Also, to Eugene Roe and the staff of Engineering for promoting the event to all their students and their attendance on the day.

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DEAFHEAR.IE LAUNCHES NEW ISL INTERPRETINGDEAFHEAR.IE LAUNCHES NEW ISL INTERPRETING PROJECT PROJECT

DeafHear.ie is inviting Public Service Providers to a demonstration of their new Irish Sign Language Remote Interpreting Project on Thursday 14th April, 2011 at 2.00pm at DeafHear, 14 Jocelyn Street, Dundalk, Co Louth. Remote interpreting means the delivery of sign language interpreting services without the actual presence of an interpreter. The interpreting is delivered by an interpreter through a technology enabled service. This involves the use of a webcam and video software transmitted over the internet between the interpreter’s location and the location of the service provider.

DeafHear.ie launched the ISL Remote Interpreting Service on 18th January 2011. The main benefit of remote interpreting is that it allows Deaf people immediate access to public services or any service where it is provided. A

Deaf person no longer requires the presence of an interpreter to receive an interpreting service. The interpreter can be ‘virtually’ present at any point of service delivery that has a broadband internet connection. This makes everyday access to public services available to Deaf people for the first time on the same basis as is already available to hearing people.

The aim of this service is to make life easier for Deaf people and all public service providers. This service, which is a partnership between DeafHear.ie, Sign Language Interpreting Service (SLIS) and the Irish Deaf Society (IDS), makes sure that Deaf people have the same access to services as hearing people. Hopefully this new interpreting project will help promote equality in society for all. DeafHear.ie aims to have an impact on the lives of all Deaf and Hard of Hearing people in Ireland through advocacy and campaigning for improved services, and for better access to society for all, so this new interpreting project is a very exciting development.

To attend the ISL Remote Interpreting Demonstration please confirm your attendance with Johanna Lodge before Tuesday 12th April by email: Johanna.lodge@deafhear.ie / Text: 085 8057530 / Tel: 042 9332010 as places are limited. For further information on all services provided by DeafHear please visit www.deafhear.ie

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Last Mondays cake sale in aid of Focus Ireland raised €492.

Well done to Arleen Folan & Odelle McGreal and all involved.

See Change and Dundalk Institute of Technology, See Change and Dundalk Institute of Technology, Psychiatric Nursing Section Psychiatric Nursing Section

team up to tackle mental health stigmateam up to tackle mental health stigma

See Change in association with Dundalk Institute of Technology School of Nursing, Psychiatric Nursing Section yesterday hosted a meeting on mental health stigma which attracted over 110 students and staff members. See Change is a national coalition of organisations working to change minds about mental health problems in Ireland. Speaking at the meeting was Barbara Brennan, Derek Pepper and Kahlil Thompson-Coyle from See Change and Shine, Garreth Phelan from the HSE's National Office for Suicide Prevention, and Seán McKiernan from Mental Health Ireland.

Kahlil Thompson Coyle, See Change campaign manager, said: it was fantastic to see so many young people engaged and learning about mental health problems. Young people aged 18-24 are one of the key target groups for our campaign, and it's absolutely vital that young people feel that they can speak openly and honestly about mental health problems.

Irish and international research consistently reports that the stigma and discrimination associated with mental health problems is often as difficult to manage as the experience of being unwell. Mental health stigma has an enormous social and economic impact, and acts as a barrier to people coming forward to seek help.

"Research from See Change (public attitudes towards mental health problems,2010) found that although one in four of us will experience a mental health problem at some point in our lives, nearly 50 per cent of those surveyed wouldn't want others to know if they experienced a mental health problem. Just as worrying is the statistic that nearly 30 per cent of young men would delay seeking help for fear of someone finding out. See Change is working to get the message out in communities all over Ireland that we need to start changing minds about mental health problems, said Ms. Thompson Coyle.

See Change is encouraging young people to get involved in Make a Ripple, an online campaign to build a community of voices against stigma and discrimination. The idea is simple - we want people to speak out against stigma by leaving a comment on the Make a Ripple site (coming soon), on our

facebook page or through twitter. International evidence says that telling stories and sharing experiences can be one of the most effective ways to change attitudes, tackle stigma and challenge discrimination.

After the launch, we'll be inviting everyone to visit the site and make a ripple. Before that though, we need to gather 100 contributions so that the site has lots of stories and pledges when we open it up to the public.

We're asking for your help by signing up as one of our first 100 ambassadors. We only need 100 words or less, and it can be about your own experience of mental health problems and your journey to recovery, a message about how someone else's experience affected you, or a plea for others to start talking openly and honestly about mental health problems.

We hope to create a ripple effect that will allow us to reach more and more people with the message that we need to be open, honest and accepting about our own and others mental health.

The campaign launches in May 2011. Help us change minds and start conversations about mental health problems in Ireland. If you'd like to become an ambassador, just drop an email at mbyrne@seechange.ie

Visit: www.seechange.ie to see how you can get involved today

SU ELECTION 2011

David Branagan and James Clarke were returned for a second year as Vice-President and President respectively. David has a level seven degree in Event Management and is from Skerries while James has the second year of his BAAF course and is from Dundalk. There was a turnout of 1620 down from last year. It was suggested that some students had started their revision and were not around to vote. This year two polling stations were in operation in Carroll’s and in the MPC.

Henry McLaughlin and the Caretakers were as always extremely helpful. Henry provided sufficient numbers of ballot boxes. Thanks also to Fergal Smyth and the staff that work with him Karen McDowell & Linda Murphy and the staff in Student Services. On the technical front Peter Gosling helped us use a network for the issuing of ballots, I would like thank Peter and also Barry McGuinness for technical support. Several graduates from the 2009 class helped run the election. These were John Scott, Carly Steele, Rachel Kelly, Michael Dalton, Aidan Shields, Shane Brennan, Alan Callaghan and the experienced Tom Brennan.

Jim O'Donohoe chaired the 'hustings' in his usual fair manner in the Whitaker Theatre on the Wednesday and this year it was a full house. Others I would like to thank include: James Clarke, David Branagan, Diarmuid Cahill, Ciara Patterson, Geraldine Byrne, Frank Watters, Stephen McManus, Denis Cummins. Thanks to all the candidates for a very fairly run campaign and for their graciousness in accepting the final democratic result. The detailed results follow and they will also be on the SU website. In this the forty years celebration of the college, there have been 27 Presidents of the SU before James Clarke. The first known President was Fran Van Der Weef in 1975 followed by Breen Jackson in 1976. Paul McGahon of the student body was on the podium with dignitaries when the college was opened in May 1971, he was doing a Diploma in Business Studies and was a student leader at the time.

Results of the election for the position of President of the Students Union, 2011

Total valid poll 1626 Spoilt votes 12 Quota 814

CANDIDATE 1st Count

BEHAN, Tom 385

CLARKE, James 848

O’NEILL, Iarla 393

Non Transferrable ---------

1626

James Clarke was declared Elected on the 1st count.

Seamus Bellew

(Returning Officer), 7th April 2011.

Results of the election for the position of Vice-President of the Students Union, 2011

Total valid poll 1635 Spoilt votes 7 Quota 818

CANDIDATE 1st Count

BRANAGAN, David 994

REID, Niamh 368

SHORTALL, Maurice 273

Non Transferrable ---------

1635

David Branagan was declared Elected on the 1st count.

Seamus Bellew

(Returning Officer), 7th April 2011.

Psychiatric Nursing Students and Business StudiesPsychiatric Nursing Students and Business Studies Students Working TogetherStudents Working Together

On Monday the 4th of April 2011 2nd year psychiatric nursing students and 4th year marketing students worked together to create a podcast for the DKIT website. The nursing students presented on topics such as obesity, suicide and drug abuse. With the recordings we created a podcast that would be a 23-25min long recording. Our overall goal was to create a podcast that can be viewed in the DKIT website so that prospective students interested in nursing can get a better overview of the course content and to provide them with further information on the course.

The presentations were presented in front of a small audience; the people who attended were students of the FAS programme from swords, a local Community Garda, a business studies lecturer, and two of our marketing students who wrote up a small synopsis of each presentation.

Outside the presentation room, we hosted interviews with each student and asked them questions about how they felt the presentation went, if they enjoyed this experience and a brief summary of what they presented on. At the end of presentation we asked we asked the Psychiatric Nursing Lecturer in charge and the guard would they answer some questions.

The recording day was very successful there were no hiccups or mistakes made, all the nursing students presented very well, and the audience seemed to have been very pleased with the overall result.

For more information about this project or for an interview with the students please contact John Sisk John.sisk@dkit.ie or John Mc Donald john.mcdonald@dkit.ie

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STUDENT ENTERPRISE INTERNSHIP STUDENT ENTERPRISE INTERNSHIP

Applications are invited for the position of Student Enterprise Intern at DKIT.

The importance of promoting and developing an Enterprise Culture on Campus is fully recognised by the Executive Management of DKIT. Resulting from this commitment, it has been decided to recruit a Student Enterprise Intern for the Academic year 2011/12.

The role of the Intern will be to actively support, promote & develop a spirit of Enterprise & Self-Employment amongst all of the students attending DKIT. This will entail the implementation of a range of new initiatives & activities which support this goal.

The Internship will commence in September 2011 & will run until June 2012 .The

successful applicant will be required to participate in appropriate training (part-time) in June and October 2011. On-going support & direction will be provided by the Regional Development Centre.

It is envisaged that the Intern will spend 18 hours per week involved in this role. He/She will be expected to combine the role with attendance on a Masters Programme offered in DkIT.

The position is open to DKIT students who will either graduate with an honours Degree in Summer 2011 or who have already obtained an honours primary Degree.

The Deadline for Applications is Friday 29th of April 2011

Application Forms available from: Garrett Duffy, Enterprise Development Manager, Regional Development Centre. Email: garrett.duffy@dkit.ie : Tel: (042) 9370400

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The next lunchtime seminar as part of the Water is Life Seminar series shall take place this Thursday (14th April) in Room N122 at 1pm. The seminar is entitled 'Science and science education for human health and agricultural development in Africa' and shall be given by Dr. Noel Murphy, Combat Poverty Consortium, NUI, Maynooth. All are welcome.

Africa bears the greatest burden of infectious diseases while non-infectious diseases are an increasing problem in the region. In addition, weak agricultural productivity impacts on human nutrition, disease burden and economic development.

The role of science in contributing to the alleviation of these problems has been somewhat controversial. A proportion of the development community regard modern science as a technology fix that is flawed and has little to contribute compared to strengthening current health and agricultural systems. This attitude is a contributing factor to the 90:10 dichotomy where 90% of research funding globally is spent on 10% of disease problems. Attitudes to genetic engineering of food crops and even animals are divisive. This seminar will outline some of these issues and argue that the best science and science education in the region is required to make informed decisions on how to tackle these enormous problems.

DkIT National Spring Clean

"Working Together - For Our Community"

The annual National Spring Clean Campaign is organised by an Taisce and aims to raise awareness and participation in anti litter clean ups. The staff and students of DkIT and the local community will gather on April 13th at 3pm to clean up the Rockfield and College Manor estates. DkIT’s Green campus committee has organised this event as litter is an issue in these estates. All residents are welcome to join our spring clean efforts. Bags and gloves will be provided. For further details on the clean up contact sonya.rice@dkit.ie or call 042-9372901

Caption Competition Time

“It's a CATastrophe”

Congratulations Patrick Mulhall

and this weeks.....

Send your suggestions to editor@dkit.ie