ChangingWorlds the UCD spin-out company and the global expert in Mobile Internet personalisation and content discovery technologies, has won the CPD (Continuing Professional Development) Company of the Year Award at the annual Engineers Ireland award ceremony. The awards, now in their fifth year, were created to recognise the particular achievements of the top performers in this crucial area of engineering.

John Power Director-General, Engineers Ireland, John McGuinness TD, Minister for Trade and Commerce with David Moran, CEO of UCD spin-out Changingworlds

Continuing Professional Development is a strategy for success that ChangingWorlds has undertaken to ensure its engineers benefit from the planned acquisition of knowledge, experience and skills and the development of the personal qualities to execute their professional and technical duties throughout their career in ChangingWorlds.

ChangingWorlds used the Engineers Ireland CPD framework to foster creativity amongst its employees in its Advanced Research Centre at NovaUCD. NovaUCD is the Innovation and Technology Transfer Centre at UCD. This allowed the company to tap into the wealth of experience and knowledge embedded in the organisation resulting in the development of the ClixSmart Business Intelligence Manager (BIM) and ClixSmart Ad Personalizer (AP).

The two products which are used by some of the world’s largest mobile phone companies have established the firm as a global market leader in personalized content discovery and intelligent internet portals.

ChangingWorlds was co-founded by Professor Barry Smyth and Paul Cotter in 1999 to commercialise their research into personalisation and artificial intelligence technologies at UCD’s Smart Media Institute in the UCD School of Computer Science and Informatics. The company continues to maintain strong strategic links with the University.

ChangingWorlds has rolled out the ClixSmart™ Intelligent Mobile Portal platform to over 50 mobile network operators worldwide, including Vodafone Global Group, O2 Ireland and Germany, TeliaSonera, Celcom Malaysia, Hong Kong CSL and Sprint, USA.

The company now employs over 160 highly qualified staff including staff based in NovaUCD, The company headquarters in Dublin and offices in Brazil, the Far East and USA.

Earlier this year ChangingWorlds was accredited by Engineers Ireland in recognition of the quality of its Professional Development Programmes for its engineering staff. ChangingWorlds is the only indigenous software company to have undertaken Engineers Ireland CPD Accreditation to ensure the continuous development of its staff.

Commenting on ChangingWorlds’ achievement, John Power, Chartered Engineer and Engineers Ireland Director General said “CPD in the engineering sector is absolutely critical. Proper attention to CPD is not only important from an individual company’s perspective, it is also necessary to advance Ireland’s case as a destination for foreign direct investment. ChangingWorlds was awarded the CPD Company of the Year award from Engineers Ireland to recognise its excellent organisational practice in the area of professional development for engineers and technical staff and in particular to recognize the commercial success ChangingWorlds has enjoyed as a result of its ongoing investment in innovation and CPD. ChangingWorlds is a model case-study highlighting how CPD is a strategy for success in organizations as it mutually benefits both company and participant employees.”

David Moran CEO, ChangingWorlds said ‘We are very honoured to receive the prestigious title of the CPD Company of the Year from Engineers Ireland. Our company has always valued innovation and creativity, from our roots as a UCD campus company to our current position as market leader in our field. The continuously evolving skills and motivation of our team are qualities which play a critical element in our continued success. CPD has played a pivotal role in the tangible business success we are now enjoying.”

While the CPD Company of the Year awards offer proper recognition to those companies which perform best in the pursuit of excellence, they are in themselves the culmination of an overall CPD process, a process which is a simple yet ideal template for companies to follow.  This template ensures that CPD is implemented for the betterment of the company itself.  The CPD process involves training and mentoring driven by better knowledge and higher standards.

Ends

15 October

About Engineers Ireland   

Engineers Ireland is one of the largest and oldest representative bodies on the island of Ireland, with an ever increasing membership of engineers which now totals over 23,000.  The membership incorporates all disciplines of the engineering profession in Ireland across industry, the public service, semi-state organisations and academic institutions.