NOMAD Consortium

Formed in 2001 the consortium combines research groupings from three Institutes of Technology into a virtual centre which has significant advantages over a singular approach.  The partners are

The Centre for Creative Technologies and Applications (CCTA) – Dun Laoghaire IADT-DL, Ireland

The Centre for Creative Technologies and Applications (CCTA) aims to help improve the design of new technologies so that they meet real human needs. The Centre brings together expertise in Psychology, Behavioural Statistics, HCI, Software Engineering, Multimedia and Mobile Systems. The centre aims to address this goal through carrying out empirical research with both users and developers and development of methodologies for designing mobile applications. Recent work has focused on developing an understanding of the mobile user using statistically-based modelling techniques and has been published in the proceedings of Mobile HCI 2003: Greaney, J. and Riordan The Use of Statistically Derived Personas in Modelling Mobile User Populations. (2003). In Human Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services. Publisher: Springer.

The Telecommunications, Systems and Signals Group (TSSG) – Waterford IT, Ireland

The Software Technology Research Centre (SToRC) – Dundalk IT, Ireland

The rationale behind the consortium is to address new application areas where there is a strong emphasis on supporting creative activities at a time and place of the user’s choosing.  In doing so the consortium recognises the need for, not only the technology underpinnings for such applications, but also the human-centred development approaches required to address these issues in a real sense. 

While all projects vary, the NOMAD consortium typically engage in activities such as detailed user studies to ascertain the real user needs underpinning an application; determining the impact of mobility and environmental factors on the design; development of a process to underpin the delivery of the application in question taking into account the various activities required on such projects; application of appropriate communication platforms to underpin the delivery of the solution to users who are mobile during their work-time. 

Currently, the NOMAD consortium is funded to the extent of €350, 000 approx.

The Centre for Creative Technologies and Applications (CCTA) – Dun Laoghaire IADT-DL

The Telecommunications, Systems and Software Group (TSSG) – Waterford IT

The Telecommunications Software & Systems Group at Waterford Institute of Technology is one of leading research groups in Ireland.  It has grown over the past 6 years to be 50 in size (15 of these being research students, the rest being principle investigators, developers and researchers, and support staff) establishing a strong reputation both nationally and internationally in its chosen arena – Telecommunications Management and Distributed Software Systems.

The work of the TSSG is now focused on a profound shift-taking place in the ICT industry: the convergence of four technological streams (traditional distributed computing, telecommunications services software, hardware and network platforms, and the disruptive Internet technologies) is the driving force behind the TSSG’s research strategy.  The group’s key research themes, and the how these themes map to telecommunications and computing are outlined below.

The TSSG sees a role both in Applied Research (which is closely coupled with industrial needs and in projects which have a commercial potential in the mid-term i.e. 3-5 years) and in Basic Research (with less obvious commercial potential, and a more fundamental focus on principles).  Pursuing this dual focus, the TSSG organises itself around three core academic thematic strands, each built on the expertise of one of the core team (Dr Willie Donnelly, Eamonn de Leastar, and Mícheál Ó Foghlú):

Telecommunications Management: This theme includes the development of software to manage complex service provision on traditional POTS (normal fixed-line telephones), 2G (current GSM mobile phones), 2.5G (new GRPS data on the GSM mobile phone network) and 3G (the next wave of mobile telephones based on UMTS standards). 

Software Services and Distributed Systems: This theme deals with the software development technologies for developing component-based software services for deployment in existing and emerging technology platforms.  It encompasses work on middleware & component standards, the move to service based architectures, and the development and deployment of access gateways for fixed and mobile carrier networks (OSA/Parlay gateways).

Internet Technologies and the Mobile Internet: This theme focuses on the computing network standards such as IP (currently IPv4 predominates, but IPv6 will gradually replace this especially in the mobile environment where new addresses are required). Of particular interest are Quality of Service issues, attempts to resolve them in current infrastructure, and the adoption of these mechanisms within the 3G mobile domain via the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP).

The TSSG has established itself as a centre of excellence in Europe for research into the development and management of software services on emerging technology platforms.  The national and international links that have been established now provide a key technology resource for WIT and for the South East region of Ireland; and indeed for Ireland.  The technological national and regional catalyst role of the TSSG has been recognised by the SFI, the IDA and by Enterprise Ireland.  The key focus for the group in the next 5 years will be continued managed growth and consolidation around the core academic and technological themes discussed above, and the establishment of a National Telecommunications Services Research Centre (NTSRC) for which it has recently received a setup grant from the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI).

Software Technology Research Centre (SToRC) – Dundalk IT

Established for almost 2 years this Centre is focussing on Research in the ICT area with a particular emphasis on the development of user-driven processes and tools.  Strong collaborative linkages have been established in a number of project areas with Researchers and Research groups in Waterford Institute of Technology, Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology, University of Limerick,  Dublin City University, and Queen’s University Belfast and the University of Ulster.  The Research Group at DKIT consists of 6 academic staff and 3 postgraduate researchers.

SToRC has expertise in management, software process, software metrics, software reliability, statistics and areas of usability and software development.

SToRC’s role within NOMAD will include

• Managing the project.
• Researching distributed agile development processes.
• Researching resource and quality prediction for agile processes.
• Investigating user-focused approaches to software testing and software reliability evaluation methods.
• Developing, with support of TSSG, aspects of the software system.