As the Technology Advisor in the IDA Ireland, there are some areas I am really excited to see at SXSW and be involved in. I cannot wait to see the (Virtual and augmented) VR/AR Track and experience, Self-Driving Car, Robots and Artificial Intelligence systems – The Rise of the Robots, wearables and the convergence of industries.
IDA have done a great deal of work over the past year(s) presenting Ireland as a strategic location for companies to establish a presence here whether it is to internationalise, set up and R&D centre or just conquer Europe!!!! We have a strong value proposition with our 4T’s and 4E’s (Tax, Track Record, Talent, Technology, Euro, Europe, English and education), but what really excites me is talking to companies with technology or business challenges and seeing how and if Ireland can help them from an engineering and technology perspective. It’s all about capability and getting the job done.
There are some really cool innovations happening in Ireland and yes, we have loads of sheep, there is gallons and gallons of Guinness, red heads everywhere, but in addition to these there is real amazing technology work happening here. See the ‘Internet of Things’ ecosystem or delve in the ‘Cyber Security’ landscape.
Take for example, Movidius, the leader in low-power machine vision for connected devices. They announced that it is working with Google to accelerate the adoption of deep learning within mobile devices. As part of the agreement, Google will source Movidius processors alongside the entire Movidius software development environment. In turn, Google will contribute to Movidius’ neural network technology roadmap.
Intel Ireland are all over the #IoT global megatrend at the moment with their development of the low powered Quark and Curie chips. The technology, which is small enough to fit into a button, houses the Intel Quark SE system on a chip (SOC) that integrates the power of a full-sized computer into a single chip. The hardware module also includes a Bluetooth low-energy radio, sensors, battery-charging capabilities and pattern-matching capabilities. It runs on an Intel software platform created specifically for Intel Curie.
DAQRI is the leading augmented reality/4D company and have found a home in Ireland for their European base. “Ireland is highly regarded as a country for excellence in innovation and technology making it the perfect location for our first international office, in Dublin,” said Gaia Dempsey, co-founder and managing director, Daqri International. “We are thrilled with the quality of technical expertise we have found here and have been working closely with the academic community, researchers and research centres to define innovative R&D programmes".
Ireland is home to:
- 10 of the top 10 global technology companies
- 9 of the 10 global software companies
- 5 of the 5 top security software companies
- 3 of the top 3 enterprise software companies
- 3 of the top 5 games companies
- 4 of the top 5 IT services companies
- The top 10 'born on the internet' companies
And they are here for multiple reasons but what I’m interested in providing insight into is why they are here from a Technology/Innovation perspective. The talent they are finding in Ireland. The quality of software engineers, methodologies, skillsets in semiconductor design professionals, microelectronic research and development activities, new business models etc etc. Let’s chat!
Ken.Finnegan@Ida.ie @IDAKEN @IDATechnology @IDAemergebiz
