Here Comes the Sun - Discover Research Dublin to Illuminate Fascinating World of Research

Sep 26, 2013

Giant outdoor projection of NASA images of the sun part of packed schedule at Trinity College Dublin and the Royal Irish Academy’s events on European Researchers’ Night 2013

Trinity College Dublin and the Royal Irish Academy will offer the public a unique opportunity to get up close and personal with the world of research for Discover Research Dublinon Friday, September 27th; a night of exciting, interactive events and demonstrations taking place in and around central Dublin.

Discover Research Dublin showcases in a very real and tangible way what researchers really do and why research matters for your daily life. Exploring questions like ‘What does a sun spot look like?’, ‘What is the Higgs Boson and why should we care?’, ‘Could T.Rex have survived on a diet of bones?’, ‘What sources do journalists use and trust?’ Discover Research Dublin will engage the public through a variety of unique digital and traditional formats including interactive 3D installations, apps and social media, debates, digital archives, tours, presentations and photography.

Outstanding events in the programme include ECloud WW1, a dynamic 3D immersive installation in Trinity’s iconic Examination Hall, which allows users to experience a collection of crowd sourced historic and iconic materials of the First World War inside a huge 30ft 3D projection environment. Another highlight is the possibility to be a journalist for a night at the Royal Irish Academy, which will be transformed into a hub for aspiring digital journalists, assigned to conduct background research on a breaking news story using trusted archival sources and cutting edge online curation tools. 

The exciting programme also gives people the opportunity to watch NASA images of the sun projected onto one of Trinity College’s most prestigious buildings and identify sun spots, debate ‘what is power and who are the powerful’ in the style of Plato, or be a part of the first Irish crowd sourced digital humanities project, Letters of 1916, and help create a unique digital collection of letters written around the time of the Easter Rising.