An internationally recognised expert in wireless technology is to take up a research professorship which includes five-year funding worth €5 million. He will be based at University College Dublin and is supported with State and private sector funding.
Prof Robert Bogdan Staszewski conducts research relevant to the next big thing in technology: the Internet of Things.
This development will manifest in a myriad of small devices, farm animals with biochips, washing machines that support remote monitoring, human heart implants, cars with built-in sensors and virtually anything that can be connected wirelessly.
Those involved in the sector believe up to 50 billion devices will be connected wirelessly via the internet by 2020 given the growth of smart cities, smart agriculture and connected health.
Prof Staszewski is an engineer researcher who has worked for big US companies and more recently was based at Delft University of Technology, Netherlands. He has decades of experience in digital radio frequency circuits and has had research and commercial success with his discoveries. He holds a European Research Council Consolidator grant, has established companies and holds more than 120 granted patents.
He comes to Ireland via Science Foundation Ireland's Research Professorship Programme. The foundation will co-fund him with support from Analog Devices and from Xilinx. Prof Staszewski will be based at UCD's School of Electrical, Electronic and Communications Engineering.
His decision to come to Ireland was based on the “excellent” research under way at UCD and also because of our good reputation as a place to live and work.
The appointment shows that Ireland is now established as a “serious global player in the technology sector”, said Prof Mark Ferguson, director general of the foundation.
UCD had prioritised research into the Internet of Things, said the university’s president, Prof Andrew Deeks. Prof Staszewski would strengthen UCD’s involvement in this sector, he said.
