 |
 |
Software is becoming pervasive and critical in all aspects of organisations and society worldwide. Ireland, in particular, has established a global reputation for its software industry. It comprises some 1,000 companies employing over 30,000 people, most of them graduates. It is growing at roughly 15 percent every two years and is an export-oriented industry with 90 percent of domestic production sold abroad.
Of all the sectors comprising ICT, software is one in which there has been continued success in attracting multinational investment as well as strong growth of its indigenous sector over the last decade. Thus, the software sector is of considerable critical strategic importance for Ireland. While the phrase 'moving up the value chain' has become something of a cliché, it is certainly the case that the Irish software industry is already high on the value chain - product design & marketing are accomplished very professionally, the industry is export-oriented, is very successful in that respect, and enjoys an excellent reputation internationally. It is not as vulnerable as other sectors in terms of relocation to low-cost locations.
An important boost to the software industry came in the establishment of Lero - the Irish Software Engineering Research Centre (www.lero.ie) - in November 2005, funded by Science Foundation Ireland with total grants of almost €20 million. The establishment of Lero further strengthened the profile of software research in Ireland, which already had a very good reputation, evidenced by the number of leading international conferences that have been attracted to Ireland in recent times, including ICSE (2000), ECIS (1997), IFIP 8.2 (2006), IFIP 8.6 (2004 and 2006), ALOIS 2005, Pervasive 2006, ECSCW 207, IFIP 2.13 (OSS2007), XP2008, SPLC 2008, EuroSPLC 2008, ECIS (2008).
Given the success of the Irish software industry and the strong research foundation provided by Lero, the final component in this strategic triple helix is that of graduate education, as acknowledged by the National Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation, 2006-2013 report. Irish software companies have expressed an interest in advanced degrees in the software engineering area. Proof of concept in the viability of the model is already evident in the significant number of industry-based graduate students that have been enrolled, and indeed graduated by Lero researchers.
The Lero Graduate School in Software Engineering (LGSSE) will draw on the existing expertise of the four Lero partner Universities - Dublin City University (DCU), Trinity College Dublin (TCD), University College Dublin (UCD) and University of Limerick (UL). The LGSSE programme is based on best practice internationally, but tailored to suit the unique specifics of the Irish software landscape. In summary it will:
- encompass the general Software Engineering field in its research agenda,
- provide efficient progression from Masters to PhD when appropriate,
- leverage Lero research collaborations to bring the best international experts to contribute to the program,
- ensure a substantially increased, sustainable and predictable flow of graduates,
- balance the programme to include key modules in cognate areas such as management, economics and psychology,
- be compliant with Bologna recommendations seeking full European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) accreditation for courses,
- leverage fully technology advances (video-conferencing, pod casting) to allow remote participation in online courses,
- allow industry candidates to use their own work situation as a potential research topic in an action research approach,
- provide an industry internship option,
- offer internship options in other leading software research centres internationally,
- allow flexibility of thesis formats - monograph or 'PhD by publication' style,
- establish supervisory committees drawn across national institutions with international advisors where relevant
Aims and Objectives of the programme:
- Complement and extend the traditional PhD model by institutionalising the best of international practice in software engineering graduate education
- Connect software engineering graduate education to proven industry and research strengths in Ireland and abroad
- Create an industry-friendly graduate program which will leverage technology advances to cater for remote and part-time attendance, joint supervision, registration at local universities etc
- Establish Ireland's reputation as one of the key locations worldwide to pursue software engineering graduate education.
The educational principles of this programme may be divided into three interdependent categories: (1) knowledge, (2) skills, and (3) attitudes and values. The knowledge that students will gain will form the basis for acquiring further knowledge during their careers. The skills will allow them to apply this knowledge effectively in the workplace. The professional values and attitudes imparted will allow students to reflect on the nature of those skills, to whom they would be attractive, and how to apply their skills for the benefit of their clients and society at large. This course will draw mainly on the current taught modules provided by the Universities. Students will be assigned to a Doctoral Studies Panel - comprising supervisor and advisers - who will assist the student in the selection of elective modules. If the chosen electives are provided by a partner university, it is proposed that those lectures will be recorded and made available on-line, together with other lecture material.
In terms of inter-university participation, the programme will leverage the collaboration already underway in four Universities (DCU, TCD, UCD and UL) through Lero. The programme will also be open to collaboration with other Universities and Institutes of Technology, in Ireland initially, with international involvement possible in the future.
Top
