• October 2015: The COMPASS project was well represented at the Tyndall Technology Days (http://tyndalltechnologydays.com/ ) on the 14th October 2015 with a special session on heterogeneous integration including presentations from Seagate on HAMR, Tyndall on photonics platforms and X-Celeprint on Transfer Print technology.
• October 2015: COMPASS researcher Roisin Kelly has joined the Failure Analysis team at Analog Devices in Limerick. Roisin was on secondment from Tyndall to Seagate since April. We wish Roisin all the best in her new role, which takes advantage of the skills she learned while working at Seagate.
• September 2015: COMPASS Researchers at National Event with over 200,000 attendees: COMPASS coordinator Brian Corbett was in attendance as part of the outreach activities at this years National Ploughing championships in Co. Laois Ireland with over 200,000 members of the public  on site over a 3 day period. The event allowed Scientists to showcase projects such as COMPASS to the general public and to educate on the importance of Photonic and Electronic technologies in modern society. 

 

• September 2015: Nazmul Hossain successfully defended his PhD thesis on “Design, fabrication and characterization of resonant waveguide grating based optical biosensors”. Nazmul recently started employment at Seagate Technologies where he is working on the HAMR development program (see earlier news item).
• May 2015: COMPASS researcher Donagh O’Mahony visits primary schools in Cork county as part of International Year of Light. In conjunction with Tyndall’s outreach activity program, researchers from the Tyndall institute visited a number of primary schools around Cork county to showcase some of the latest photonic technologies being developed in Ireland, including an interesting discussion on the HAMR concept being developed as part of the COMPASS project.
• APRIL 2015: Tyndall researchers seconded to Seagate. This month saw the secondment of two Tyndall researchers to Seagate in Derry for as part of the knowledge transfer activities within the COMPASS project. PhD student Roisín Kelly and Dr Nikolay Petkov of the Electron Microscopy Facility (EMF) at Tyndall are working in Seagate over the coming months on advanced imaging of magnetic materials in conjunction with Seagate’s experienced microscopy engineers.
• March 2015:  COMPASS researcher Brian Corbett presentat talk on photonics at Lifelong Learning Festival event for EarthHour Saturday March 28th 2015 County Hall, Cork
• February 2015: Seagate visit to Tyndall. Seagate Engineer Marcus Mooney visited Tyndall on 6th February as part of the COMPASS project year 3 review meeting. Photo: Marcus Mooney, Brian Corbett and Alin Fericou with the Advanced Micro-Transfer-Printing tool being developed by X-Celeprint at Tyndall’s central fabrication facility.

• January 2015: Tyndall showcases Photonics technologies at BT Young Scientist Exhibition. The BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition took place in the RDS arena, Dublin from January 5th – 9th 2015 .  A five-person team from Tyndall, including COMPASS project researcher Niall Boohan, volunteered at the event, sharing the Intel stand with teams from CRANN and CIT’s Nimbus centre. +45,000 people attended the event in total, with hugely positive feedback from the public regarding the Tyndall stand. 
  
• November 2014: Seagate and Tyndall National Institute feature on the Science Squad TV series as part of COMPASS project collaboration:  http://www.thesciencesquad.ie/videos/tss3-ep-4-data-storage/ 

 

• 2014 (October 23rd): Seagate and Northern Ireland Assembly ministers announce £35m investment and 35 jobs in HAMR technology development program:

Northern Ireland First and deputy First Ministers, Mr Peter Robinson and Mr Martin McGuinness,  pictured with Dave Mosley from Seagate at the announcement of a £35m investment in HAMR technology (Source: www.u.tv).

http://www.u.tv/News/35-new-jobs-in-35m-Seagate-investment/bbd0ac81-5051-4814-8c83-de777c9983b1

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/seagate-to-invest-34-7m-in-new-derry-r-d-project-1.1974248

• COMPASS is currently recruiting an MSc student to carry out research at Seagate and Tyndall. For details of this position and application procedure, please click here: https://www.tyndall.ie/vacancies/meng-sc-reliability-analysis-semiconductor-lasers

 

• 1st July 2014: Tyndall Researcher Donagh O’Mahony joins COMPASS team as project administrator

 

• 30th April 2014: Marie Curie fellow, Alin Fecioru has completed a 24 month secondment at Tyndall and has returned to Seagate.

 

• 14th April 2014: Jacek Gosciniak has joined Tyndall as an expert in plasmonics.

 

• Read an article by Intertrade Ireland: about the benefits of collaboration between the north and south of the island of Ireland here: InterTradeIreland – Collaborate and Innovate (pdf)