IEEE 5th World Forum on Internet of Things
15-18 April 2019 – Limerick, Ireland

Young Professionals Program

Date: Tuesday, 16 April 2019
Time: 14:00-18:30
Room: CSG-01

The Young Professionals Program at IEEE WF-IoT 2019 is aimed at postgraduate students, early career researchers and those who have graduated from their first professional degree within the past 15 years. Young Professionals have a significant role to play in the area of IoT, and to facilitate this, a number of activities are planned for during the conference. They are aimed at allowing Young Professionals to expand their global network, connect with peers, and at further developing their skillsets.

The IEEE WF-IoT 2019 Young Professionals Program will include:

  • Keynote Speaker: Helena Deane
  • Grant Proposal Writing: Dr. Martina Prendergast, University of Limerick
    In this practical half-day workshop, participants will first learn some background on the different types of grants, navigating the call documentation, on forming your research idea, the funding landscape, and on choosing the appropriate funding instrument. Guidance on the different stages of proposal writing, practical tips and do’s and don’ts, pitfalls, time management and proposal evaluation will be given and participants will get to review examples of good and bad writing. Participants will work in groups of three/four and write an abstract for a proposal for a fictitious funding agency.
  • Young Professionals BBQ
    A unique opportunity to connect with your peers and build a global network in an informal and fun environment.

Who Can Participate?

Postgraduate students, early career researchers and those who have graduated from their first professional degree within the past 15 years, looking to expand their network and develop new skills.

Contact

Sinead O’Keeffe, University of Limerick


Helena Deane

Helena DeaneHelena Deane is an experienced Project Executive with over 20 years of international experience in a range of industries, currently focused on project management activities involving complex programming and activities coordination of trans-national and cross-border projects. Her educational background is in European Business and Strategic Management, having graduated in this filed from Universities in Cambridge and Berlin. For the past 9 years, Helena has been working with start-ups, scale-ups and SMEs in the area of business strategy, scaling, access to finance, internationalisation and technology transfer. Furthermore, Helena has been involved in design and implementation of several enterprise support programmes and actions in collaboration with a range of enterprise support agencies. She is also very active and engaged in the promotion and development of regional innovation eco-systems and furthering cross-sectoral collaboration, as well as knowledge and best practice replication. She is currently leading a number of European projects, co-funded by Horizon 2020, COSME and Interreg Europe on behalf of WestBIC (www.westbic.ie).

Dr. Martina Prendergast, Research Officer, University of Limerick

Martina PrendergastDr. Martina Prendergast works in the Research Support Services division of Research Office in the University of Limerick (UL). The office provides assistance and intelligence to researchers on a range of funded research programmes supported by national and international agencies. Her role involves the provision of support to researchers, primarily in the development of research funding proposals, and the development and implementation of strategic initiatives to advance UL’s research capability. She provides career development training to researchers by providing courses on grant proposal writing. Prior to this role (from 2010 – 2016) she was the Strategic Development Manager of the Ryan Institute for Environment, Marine and Energy research at National University of Ireland (NUI), Galway with responsibilities for the academic and technical development of the Institute. Her duties involved strategic planning and policy, securing research funding, research management, input to teaching and learning programmes, and outreach and communication.  From 2002 – 2010 she held the position of Development Manager of the Environmental Change Institute at NUI Galway. Before that, she worked as a Health Research Board Postdoctoral Fellow and as a lecturer in the Department of Microbiology, NUI Galway. During her research career her research interests included the spread of infectious disease in contaminated food and water and vaccine development. She has authored over 20 international peer-reviewed articles, several book chapters, hundreds of academic reports, and contributed to Irish government-commissioned reports on the development of Environment-related policy. She obtained her PhD in Clinical Microbiology in 1999 from NUI Galway.