Global Software Engineering Research in a Small Country

Speaker:        Professor Kevin Ryan
                University of Limerick
                Ireland

Title:          "Global Software Engineering Research in a Small Country"

Date:           Friday, 30 May 2014

Time:           3:00pm - 4:00pm

Venue:          Room 3501 (via lifts 25/26), HKUST

Abstract:

The Republic of Ireland has been a surprising success story in the global
software market for reasons which are neither agreed nor obvious. However
outsourcing towards lower cost countries is a threat to this success. One
potential counter move is to invest heavily in software engineering
research so as to stay ahead of the curve. To meet the national strategic
need this research needs to be internationally credible but locally
applicable. Experience to date has shown that this can be done, but only
if the research resources are carefully organised and directed. The
lessons learned could be applicable to other small and medium sized
countries. In this talk Dr. Ryan will present the success story of
Ireland's software industry, which represents 10% of its GDP, employs
24.000 people and generates annual revenues for 16.9 billion euros. He
will also discuss the challenges they are facing and the strategies to
overcome them.


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Biography:

Professor Kevin Ryan is an Emeritus Professor of Information Technology at
the University of Limerick and founding Director of Lero - the Irish
Software Engineering Research Centre (www.lero.ie). Lero is a partnership
of academic and industrial organisations who aim to advance the quality
and quantity of software engineering research being conducted in Ireland.

>From 1999 to 2004 Kevin Ryan was Vice President Academic and Registrar at
the University of Limerick. During this period he played a major role in
expanding UL's academic portfolio to include Architecture, Health Sciences
and Medicine. Kevin Ryan holds degrees of BA (Maths & Economics), BAI
(Engineering) and PhD (Computer Science) from Trinity College Dublin and
is a fellow of both the Irish Computer Society and the Institute of
Engineers of Ireland. Over the past 35 years he has lectured and
researched on software topics in universities and industry in Ireland, the
UK, the USA, Africa and Sweden. He has been an adviser to the Irish
government on the development of the Irish software industry and has acted
as consultant to industry and to international funding bodies. He has
published papers on software engineering methods and tools, software
requirements engineering and on the role of technology in development. He
served on the editorial board of 3 journals. He has been a director of a
number of start-up software companies.