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

Posted on: 26 September 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 Dublin on 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.

The Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute (TBSI) will also be opening its doors for a behind the scenes look at the cutting edge research taking place there with six talks from leading researchers Professor Luke O’Neill, Academic Director of TBSI, Professor Kingston Mills (Immunology), Dr. Eoin Scanlan (Chemistry), Dr. Bruce Murphy (Bioengineering), Dr. Kieran Meade (Teagasc), Dr. Peter Bede (Medicine) and Professor Padraic Fallon (Medicine).
Speaking about the rich variety of events on offer, Dr Jennifer Edmond, Discover Research Coordinator and Director of Strategic Projects, Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Trinity College Dublin said, “Discover Research Dublin aims to bring the public directly into the world of research, an area that is sometimes seen as the preserve of labs, libraries or dusty University basements. We hope the amazing activities on offer will help people really get a sense of what research is all about and how many areas of life, culture, history, art and science it encompasses. There are also lots of opportunities on the night for people to genuinely contribute to exciting current research projects.”
Dr Natalie Harrower of the Digital Repository of Ireland at the Royal Irish Academy said, “ Discover Research Dublin opens a window onto research activities that happen on a daily basis, but that one may rarely encounter. The night provides a sneak preview of what it is like to pursue a career in research with most activities structured around directly involving participants in research activities. The collection of activities reveals how intriguing and diverse the world of research really is, because it encompasses so many different areas of interest. It’s going to be a great night.”
The events, all of which are open to the public, will take place between 4pm and 11pm, Friday 27th September. Note that events have different start and end times. A full programme of events can be found on www.discoverresearchdublin.com Discover Research Dublin has received funding from the European Union’s 7th Framework Programme for Research under the Marie Curie People Programme and from Science Foundation Ireland.