Minster Dara Calleary Visits Walton Institute

We were delighted to welcome Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment Dara Calleary, TD, to Walton Institute, South East Technological University (SETU) on 14th July, as part of a tour of the Arclabs Research and Innovation Centre. Minister Calleary and colleagues were in the region attending the Building Better Business in the South East conference taking place in the SETU Arena, in SETU West Campus. It was a great opportunity to introduce Walton Institute to the Minister and his team, outline what we do and bring him on a tour of our facilities. 

The tour started in our 3D Digital Photogrammetry Lab to view our full body 3D scanner which captures 3D data of a person or object in a fraction of a second and creates a digital twin with a measurement accuracy of up to 1mm. The scanner, which is unique to Ireland, is funded by the Enterprise Ireland Capital Call and is part of the wider Mixed Reality lab located on site. 

Next stop was our eTextiles and Smart Materials Living Lab, also funded by Enterprise Ireland Capital Call. The eTextiles Lab opens new opportunities in Ireland towards an emerging generation of inbuilt fabric intelligence and wearable IoT applications across varying sectors, including advanced wearable healthcare monitoring, innovative fashion, entertainment, wellbeing, and interior design. 

Minister Calleary also visited Walton Institute’s high-density water-cooled research data centre, which is used to host its research project compute, data, and network resources as well as to be researched on. 

During his tour, Minister Calleary met with Kevin Doolin, Executive Director of Walton Institute; Dr Deirdre Kilbane, Director of Research at Walton Institute; Liam Fitzgerald, ICS Technology Gateway at Walton Institute; Tom Hennessy, Arclabs Centre Manager; Gemma Purcell Enterprise Development Manager, South East Technological University; and companies Kargo, Klearcom and Cameramatics who are located in Arclabs, who chatted to Minister Calleary about their journeys to success and the supports available to companies in the South East.