Prof. Paddy Nixon is an SFI Professor of Distributed Systems and is currently the Vice Principal for Research and Innovation in UCD’s College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences. He leads the Systems research group which has interests in Pervasive and Sensor Computing; Autonomic Computing and Middleware. Pervasive computing research attacks fundamental problems in the design and deployment of massively distributed and complex embedded sensor systems.

Prof. Nixon has extensive industrial experience having been involved in three start-ups and is an IBM faculty fellow; most recently he was the founding CEO of the €25 million start-up the National Digital Research Centre Ltd. Prior to UCD, he led the EU’s flagship investment in pervasive computing initiative – The €22 million Disappearing Computer programme. This programme pioneered the integration of ethnography, interaction design,
technology and user groups in the development of pervasive technologies.

Prof. Nixon gave the prestigious Royal Society “Science and Society” public lecture in 2003 and has given keynotes at many international conferences.  He has acted as an advisor to the Irish, UK, Swiss, and Dutch governments, the European Commission, and co-chaired the EU-NSF Research and Technology roadmap  exercise for pervasive computing. Prof. Nixon has edited 9 books, and published over 150 peer reviewed publications.

Michael McGrath, co-Principal Investigator (Intel), Technology Platform
Intel Digital Health Group

Michael McGrath joined Intel in 1999. He has held positions as an Automation engineer working in Ireland Fab Operations and as a researcher in IT Research and Innovation with a focus on High Volume Manufacturing. He moved to his current position as a technologist in the Health Research and Innovation group in 2006. His areas of interest include sensors, wireless communications, assisted living technologies, intelligent user interfaces, data fusion and data management techniques.

Michael received his B.Sc. in Analytical Science from Dublin City University in 1992, a Ph.D. in sensors and instrumentation from Dublin City University in 1995. Michael completed his post-doctoral research work in the department of process engineering in University College Cork focusing on process control and sensor systems for the food and drinks industry. In 1999 Michael received a graduate diploma in Information Technology from Dublin City University and a Graduate Diploma in Computing from ITB in 2004. Michael is currently completing his Master’s Degree in Computing at ITB. Michael is also a Charted Chemist (CChem) and a Charted Scientist (CSi).