On my way—headed to Dublin Maker via the DLR and London City Airport!

Regarding this year’s DIT/RoboSlam booth at Dublin Maker, which is tomorrow, 21 July, in the beautiful Merion Square.

Our team’s big news is that we have taken over three booth spaces this year to accommodate all the activities we will offer. Into these booths will go Frank Duignan’s amazing music machine, Ted Burke’s latest crazy but brilliant idea, “fractalismus,” courtesy of Ronan, Padraic and Ciaran, and “Scan2 tweet” by Shane Ormond.

Come check out the fun of “paper programming” and meet our RoboSlam crew!

http://www.dublinmaker.ie/

I really love my job and yesterday was an exciting back-to-school kind of day. I crisscrossed the town many times.

My day started with two-hour a Construction IT Alliance (CITA) meeting/mini-conference where we learned about how Ireland’s national power company uses Building Information Modeling (BIM). Several of my colleagues from DIT presented and were involved in organizing the event. It was held in the beautiful National College of Physicians. So even though I missed seeing the beautiful sunrise that Aongus photographed for me yesterday on his way to work (shown below), I still had beautiful sights to see.

And as I raced from the CITA meeting across the city to DIT’s new campus at Grangegorman I saw even more from the top floor of a Dublin Bus. I hadn’t much time to get to the photo shoot for the upcoming issue of ResearchNews, published by DIT. This trip, my second of the day by bus, proved more thrilling than the first, as I had a much better view and more space than at rush hour.

The bus was efficient, and I enjoyed a little walk on our new campus before the shoot. It would have been a 45 minute walk, but the bus ride took just 20 minutes. The campus is lovely. Oddly, the irrigation system was running full-force. I say oddly, because the cloud cover was dense and ominous. I guess we have plenty of water here on our very green but very drizzly island.

The wind took a toll on the outdoor portion of our photo shoot. The windblown look on 15 of DIT’s highly-accomplished female researchers could make for an interesting cover photo.

Fortunately, one of the teachers in the shoot gave me a lift across town to RoboSumo lecture and lab.

This was our first day of RoboSumo this year and I had a ball. In fact, I’m starting to feel more confidence being myself and taking the lead from time to time in this classroom.

It took me a couple years teaching at Hampton University before I acclimatized there as well, and I’ll say that it’s exhilarating when you finally start to hit your stride. This is the start of my second year of full-time teaching here at DIT. Before that, I was in full-time research roles where I occasionally volunteered to teach. I’m loving being back in the classroom! And I feel like I made a positive difference being there yesterday. Like some of the interventions I made will have good effects for team participation. I think much of the effort and advice I put in helped students. I really look forward to RoboSumo this semester, and working with my colleagues (especially Ted and Catherine) and students in a Kevin Street.

After lab, I hoofed it over the Bolton Street to assist Avril with orientation (here it’s called induction) for the class of Postgraduate/Masters students starting our MSc in Applied BIM Technologies. I had a surprisingly good time giving tours to the new students and getting to know them.

Running into my dean, as I was leaving the building at 9 PM with my personal escort and bodyguard (Aongus), was a nice way to cap the day. My dean (Prof. Gerry Farrell) is always interested and supportive, and even he remembered meeting Aongus last spring when we were out with electrical engineering colleagues. Aongus and I were both impressed and touched that he remembered after the whirlwind BBQ day he’d had.

Likewise, I have been touched by the kindness of my line managers over the past few weeks. My family faced some major challenges, because my mom needed emergency surgery when she was touring Ireland. Dr. Avril Behan and Dr. Kevin Kelly couldn’t have been more kind as I helped get my mom through surgery, recovery, and return to the USA.

All in all, I’m thrilled to be starting a new semester here at DIT. Anyone who has moved country or made a major career shift will understand what it’s like to break through and feel like you’ve found your niche and you belong. Yesterday, I wasn’t walking on eggshells. I felt like I was flying with eagles.

Malahide sunrise–good morning photo sent to me by Aongus Coughlan

National College of Physicians on Kildare Street where the CITA meeting was held

Lobby of the National College of Physicians on Kildare Street

The room was filled to the brim with BIM enthusiasts. (It was slightly claustrophobic, actually!)

Introductions

DIT’s Dr. Alan Hore providing overviews

A fabulous list of interesting speakers 

ESB (the national power company) uses BIM frequently.

BIM examples from EBS

ESB uses BIM for planning, and also for communicating

We learned how ESB uses BIM in building and operating windfarms

DIT’s Dr. Barry McAuley presented research findings comparing Ireland’s progress in BIM with other countries 

Dr. McAuley, my colleague at DIT, was speaking on behalf of BICP

While I was waiting for the bus, I found this backdoor to Trinity. There’s always a back-door into a college…..

Thick traffic in Dublin…

…but a great view from the double-decker bus.

The Ha’penny Bridge

The James Joyce Bridge — one of the two bridges in Dublin designed by Calatrava’s office

There’s plenty of land to build on DIT’s new campus at Grangegoreman

The view across Dublin from the top of our new building is even more breathtaking than from here at ground-level

DIT’s research building, the Greenway Hub, is shown here to the left

A DIT Chemistry teacher, Catherine, has joined us in teaching the RoboSumo lab. We are glad to have her on the teaching team!

I had success in getting students working together to help each other learn skills

We also had a good time with icebreakers before forming teams. Icebreaker got the students talking to people they hadn’t yet met. Sometimes my years as a camp counselor come in handy!

When I don’t know the exact answer, I sometimes find a student who has got that particular type of problem sussed out to help!

Here’s Dr. Avril Behan running induction for the Postgraduate programs in BIM. We also lead the new students on tours of Bolton Street and Linen Hall.

Ireland’s a lovely place to visit, and Dublin is chock full of interesting sites to see. My favorites in the city center include: Marsh’s Library, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, one of the brewery or distillery tours (I’ve not yet been to Teelings Distillery, but it’s near Marsh’s and St. Patrick’s), Grafton Street, Trinity College walking tour with the Book of Kells, the Little Museum of Dublin, the Archeology Museum with the bog men, and the theaters (Gaiety, Abbey, Gate, and Olympia). I highly recommend a visit to the Queen of Tarts (on Lord Edward Street or it’s sister site on Cow’s Lane).

A bit out of the city center but still in Dublin are some of my very favorite sites: the Kilmainham Gaol (historic jail) and the Glasnevin Cemetary which has excellent tours plus a genealogy museum—it’s located adjacent to the Botanical Garden and the Gravedigger’s Pub.

The best place for traditional Irish music in Dublin is in north of the River Liffey  (Cobblestone Pub, run by a history buff and frequented by them as well), but O’Donoghue’s is also good for trad music and is in the center of town.

Good day trips from Dublin include Glendalough (monastic town with two scenic lakes) and Newgrange (a megalithic passage tomb, and World Heritage Site). In the same general area as Newgrange, Trim Castle warrants a visit. To the southwest of Dublin, I also enjoy visiting Kilkenny (I still need to visit the Smithwich’s brewery there) and the Rock of Cashel.

Closer in, there are lovely little costal villages around Dublin, including Dún Laoghaire (where you can walk the piers or visit the Sunday market in the People’s Park), Blackrock, and Dalkey. All three of these costal towns are to the south of Dublin and can be reached by train or bus. Howth is another nice costal village; it’s to the north of Dublin, and also accessible by train or bus. If you’re out near Howth with a car, the Casino Marino is fun to visit.

If you’re on a visit to Dublin and have enough time to go farther afield by car,  you should travel out overnight to one of some of the major sites in the west of Ireland, such as the Ring of Kerry, or Dingle, or Claire, or East Cork (with stops in Cork, Kinsale, and/or Cobh).

I really enjoy county Donegal but I’d say that you’d need two nights minimum to make that trip. Next time I go up to Donegal, I’ll visit the spa at Shandon, which looked amazing but was booked solid for the holiday weekend when we visited. The Glenveagh National Park and Castle were quite enjoyable. I’ve included a few pictures of Glenveagh on this blog post–taken late in the day on Halloween.

By the way, most tour guides here in Ireland are required to study and pass rigorous tests, so they really do know their stuff!

These are busy days here at Dublin Institute of Technology, full of new experiences. It’s been a long while since I posted a blog, but I’m happy to report that — coming off a two-year stint as a visiting researcher — I’ve settled into my new permanent job as:

• Prof. Shannon Chance, BArch, MArch, PhD, Registered Architect, NCARB, LEED-AP
• Lecturer, School of Multidisciplinary Technologies
• College of Engineering and Built Environment
• Dublin Institute of Technology, Bolton Street, Dublin 1, Ireland
• Publications on DIT Arrow: http://bit.ly/2coFDrD
• chancereflections.com; roboslam.com; irelandbychance.com

My colleague, Micheál O’Flaherty, brought into class today the little Sterling Engine he has made. This technology is in the early stages of being developed for home heating, to potentially replace the boiler in your home, Micheál says.  You can learn how to make one of your own on YouTube.

It was such good craic! (The Irish sort!)

Because it’s Science Week here in Ireland, I had hurried back from a conference in was attending at the University of Oxford (the UK-Ireland EER Network, for engineering education research). I thoroughly enjoyed the trip (which was my first visit to Cambridge) and reuniting with colleagues similarly dedicated to engineering education research.

The old part of Cambridge–lovely in the autumn!

Nevertheless, it was well worth the scurry home, because I’d been invited to speak at a STEMettes networking event (see their blog). STEMettes events are energizing and invigorating and I always enjoy the chance to share stories and ideas with curiousity-driven people. For me, meeting the STEMettes kicked off a week of special Science Week events. So, while my engineering colleagues were busy assembling robot kits for the upcoming week, I was out meeting girls who share my interest  in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).

Diversely skilled panelists of all ages graced the main stage at STEMettes, providing advice and sharing vivid stories of their paths to fascinating STEM careers. Here, I had the chance to meet and network with well-established experts, talented BoA employees, and up-and-coming young scientists.

STEMettes is a London-based organization encouraging girls to make, code, and create innovative businesses. Many of the dedicated and talented girls I met back in August–at the STEMEttes Outbox Incubator in London–were among the 45 or so assembled at the Bank ofAmerica  Merill Lynch HQ last Saturday, on the outskirts of Dublin. Another similar event was being run simultaneously in London. I met the director of STEMettes at Insiprefest in Dublin this past summer.

In the coming week my friends and I will conduct two RoboSlam workshops in Dun Laougharie and a day-long event at the Cashel Arts Festival. At our recent Tech Week RoboSlam, 15 secondary school students walked away with their own assembled and fully-functioning robots.

I’ve posted photos from Cambridge and the UK-I EER network conference in the gallery below.

The center of the old town

Buildings at the West campus, outside of town

Robin Clarke presiding

Judith Shawcross organized the conference

Judith also facilitated our strategy session

These are the kind of thing we talk about

reseacrh

leaky STEM pipeline

The hall at Trinity College in Cambridge where we gathered before dinner