Posted: 25 May 2006
UCD Professor of Computer Science shortlisted for Ernst & Young 2006 Entrepreneur of the Year®
Professor Barry Smyth, Head of UCD School of Computer Science and Informatics, has been shortlisted for the Ernst & Young 2006 Entrepreneur of the Year®. The shortlist of 24 finalists was decided from a competitive pool of over 150 businesses and individual entries across Ireland. The finalists represent companies in manufacturing, food, property & construction, technology, mature tree production, recruitment and training and sports retail.
Professor Barry Smyth, Head of UCD School of
Computer Science and Informatics
Announcing the shortlist, Enda Kelly, Ernst & Young Partner-in-Charge of the Programme said that the enterprise culture in Ireland remains strong and that there is a positive predisposition towards entrepreneurship. ‘About a quarter of a million adults here are actively engaged in enterprise’ he said.
At the announcement of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the year Shortlist were, from left: Enda Kelly, Partner, Ernst & Young, Robert Gallagher, Chief Executive, corporate markets, Ulster Bank; Denis O'Brien, chairman of Judging Panel; Maeve Donovan, Managing Director, The Irish Times; and Kevin Dawson, commissioning editor, factual programmes, RTE
Professor Smyth co-founded ChangingWorlds with Mr Paul Cotter in 1999 to commercialise their research into personalization and artificial intelligence technologies at UCD’s Smart Media Institute. Today, ChangingWorlds is the leading global provider of personalization and mobile portal solutions and has rolled out its flagship ClixSmart™ Intelligent Mobile Portal platform to over 30 mobile network operators worldwide, including Vodafone, O2, TeliaSonera, Mobilkom and Wataniya Telecom groups. The company recently won the DHL Exporter of the Year 2005 Award.
The company is headquartered in Leopardstown, Dublin and employs over seventy highly qualified staff engaged in developing and delivering its leading edge products. It has recently opened new offices in San Francisco, USA and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
ChangingWorlds opened its Advanced Research Centre in NovaUCD in August 2005 with 10 research staff. The company has now expanded its team to a total of 17 highly-qualified software engineers, who are working together with researchers at the UCD School of Computer Science and Informatics on developing advanced personalization technologies for the mobile telecommunications industry.
Led by Chairman Denis O’Brien, the judges for the Ernst & Young 2006 Entrepreneur of the Year® Programme will use all of their expertise and personal experience as they get to know and assess the 24 finalists.
Each of the finalists will be profiled in the Irish Times over the next three weeks. They will also be interviewed as part of a three-part series to appear on RTE. The winner will be announced at a televised Awards Ceremony in September.