Are you interested in studying computing but feel a bit daunted by entering a field that can seem overwhelming? As professional computer science educators, we are often asked questions by prospective students about what’s actually involved in studying computing, the types of roles one can expect after graduating, the skills a student needs, and more. For this episode, we tried to distil some of those common questions into a podcast. If you’re someone who thinks computing is only for math wizards and “hardcore” programmers, this is the podcast for you! (Spoiler alert: The answer is NO!)

We discuss tech innovation and how ethical IT professionals can have a positive impact on the world. We also explore the hidden perks of IT careers, beyond the good salaries.

Join Amanda Freeman-Gater, TJ McDonald, and Rob O’Connor - all from the Department of Computing and Mathematics at SETU - for an easy-to-follow conversation on why you should study computing.

Useful Links:

Articles

• Careers Portal – Information Technology https://careersportal.ie/sectors/sectors.php?sector_id=8
• Brightwater Salary Survey 2024 https://online.flippingbook.com/view/692494949/
• Technological university graduates more likely to be employed after leaving college (Irish Times) https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/education/2024/12/19/technological-university-graduates-more-likely-to-be-employed-after-leaving-college/
• The highest paying sectors for new graduates (BusinessPlus) https://businessplus.ie/business-insights/highest-paid-graduates/

Courses

• BSc (Hons) in Computer Science (SE600) https://www.setu.ie/courses/bsc-hons-in-computer-science-common-entry
• BSc (Hons) in Software Systems Development https://www.setu.ie/courses/bsc-hons-in-software-systems-development
• BSc (Hons) in Computer Forensics and Security (SE602) https://www.setu.ie/courses/bsc-hons-in-computer-forensics-and-security
• BSc (Hons) in Creative Computing https://www.setu.ie/courses/bsc-hons-in-creative-computing
• BSc in Information Technology https://www.setu.ie/courses/bsc-in-information-technology
• BSc in Creative Computing https://www.setu.ie/courses/bsc-in-creative-computing
• BSc in Software Systems Development https://www.setu.ie/courses/bsc-in-software-systems-development

Personal profiles

• Amanda Freeman-Gater https://www.setu.ie/staff/amanda-freeman-gater
• TJ McDonald https://www.setu.ie/staff/tj-mcdonald
• Robert O’Connor https://www.setu.ie/staff/robert-oconnor

Coming out of our latest Computing Week on campus in SETU, Rob spoke with two members of the Garda National Cyber Crime Bureau – Detective Sergeant Eoin O’Connell and Detective Noel O’Gorman. They spoke about the work of the Bureau, how cybercrime threats have evolved over the past few years and what individual and organisations can do to help protect themselves. TRIGGER WARNING: the podcast includes discussion of offences around online sexual abuse and child pornography. The conversation is not graphic but listeners may want to exercise discretion.

By an amazing coincidence, in the period from when the interview was recorded and published, SETU has been the victim of a cyberattack. At the time of podcast publication, all systems on the Waterford campus are offline and the site is under active investigation. So the podcast is particularly timely for the SETU community …

For more information on the Garda National Cyber Crime Bureau, please visit https://www.garda.ie/en/about-us/organised-serious-crime/garda-national-cyber-crime-bureau-gnccb-/ To keep up to date with The Machine or for any follow-ups, you can contact Rob via the SETU website https://www.setu.ie/staff/robert-oconnor

Autonomous Systems are the jumping off point for this podcast episode with Indrakshi Dey of the Walton Institute at SETU. We talk about how computer science research is progressing in this area, encompassing the world of AI and forming links with partners across all disciplines. This leads on to a chat about how we (humans) tend to anthropomorphise Artificial Intelligence systems. We also discuss Indrakshi’s career to date and how being a woman of colour has given her unique insight across the sector.

Here are some links if you wish to follow up the podcast:

· Walton Institute Key Research Areas https://waltoninstitute.ie/research/key-research

· CONNECT project https://www.connect-science.net

· Indrakshi Dey’s profile at the Walton Institute https://waltoninstitute.ie/about/staff/dr-indrakshi-dey

· Indrakshi Dey’s profile on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/indrakshi-dey-aa658839/

· Rob O’Connor on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertoconnorirl/

To help celebrate International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month, Rob spoke with Spanish computer scientist Nuria Oliver about her work to date, such as using big data systems to help unbanked people access credit in developing nations or combating bias in AI systems. Nuria recounted how she first became interested in computing and turned that interest into a career. They also discussed the gender imbalance in computing today and Nuria offered some thought-provoking suggestions as to how these issues might be addressed. Nuria is also a fellow with Association of Computing Machinery, so thanks to the ACM for setting up the interview.

Here are links to projects mentioned during the podcast:

• ELLIS – European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems https://ellis.eu
• Data-Pop Alliance https://datapopalliance.org
• Nuria Oliver’s Personal Website https://www.nuriaoliver.com
• Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) https://www.acm.org

To keep up to date with The Machine, you can find the podcast on X/Twitter @machine_podcast or you can connect with Rob O’Connor via LinkedIn

Here's a live panel discussion we recently hosted at SETU, in which a bunch of computing professionals talked about what it's like to work in the tech sector in Ireland. This took place in front of approx. 200 Leaving Cert students, tied in with Computing Week at SETU. If you're a student or someone who's interested in starting a career in IT, this discussion might be very useful. The panel is comprised of:

• Padraig O’Neill – UNUM
• Sinead Queally – VoxGig
• Mick O’Brien – Kargo
• Donna Tilson – Sun Life
• Brendan O’Farrell – Red Hat
• Amanda Freeman-Gater - SETU

Please excuse the poor audio in places. This was held as a live event and not a podcast. However, there were some great nuggets of info in there so we decided it was better to get it out there, warts and all.

Another #ComputingWeek talk turned into a podcast! Two Red Hat software engineers, both recent graduates of SETU, returned to discuss the issues surrounding running your own LLM on a local machine, how models and datasets are built and reduced (quantised) so as to run on a laptop rather than an array of servers. Mark Campbell and Dimitri Saradkis provided excellent insight on the technical issues surround this topic, before getting into some of the ethical and moral issues with host Rob O'Connor at the end.

You can connect with all the people on this podcast on LinkedIn at:

• Mark Campbell https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-campbell-76846b194/
• Dimitri Saradakis https://www.linkedin.com/in/dimitri-saridakis-32a087139/
• Rob O'Connor https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertoconnorirl/

Here are links to some of the tools referenced in the podcast:

• Red Hat OpenShift AI https://www.redhat.com/en/technologies/cloud-computing/openshift/openshift-ai

• LMStudio https://lmstudio.ai/
• Ollama https://ollama.ai/
• HuggingFace https://huggingface.co/

On the back of a packed #ComputingWeek talk at SETU, Rob nabbed two speakers from UNUM Ireland – Gary Kenneally and Shourjya Sanyal – and recorded a conversation about the pace of change in the ICT industry, how AI tools can be integrated into a workflow and why new developers should even care about AI. The lads discuss why the think AI won’t be replacing anyone anytime soon – but it may help us work smarter.

To keep up to date with The Machine, you can find the podcast on X/Twitter @machine_podcast Or you can contact Rob via the SETU website. Thanks for listening

Don't know your q-bits from your bytes? This is the podcast for you! Quantum Computing is one of the next-gen technologies that can truly usher in a new era in computing. Quantum Communications has the potential to provide a truly secure infrastructure for communications across small or vast distances. Deirdre Kilbane (Director of Research at the Walton Institute) joined Rob O'Connor in the studio to talk about all of this and the recent announcement of a large research investment in Ireland QCI (Quantum Communications Infrastructure). Deirdre breaks down some of the theoretical elements in an easy to understand manner and lays out the practical applications for this technology across Europe (and beyond).

For more information on Ireland QCI, check out this web story https://waltoninstitute.ie/projects/ireland-qci For more information on Deirdre Kilbane, check out her profile https://waltoninstitute.ie/about/staff/dr-deirdre-kilbane Stay up to date with The Machine podcast by following us on Twitter @machine_podcast