ChangingWorlds, the UCD computer science spin-out company has won the inaugural Irish Technology Leadership Group (ITLG)/Irish Times Innovation Award. The award was presented last week at gala dinner held in Stanford University, California, which was attended by over 200 executives from some of Silicon Valley’s leading technology companies.

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David Moran, CEO, ChangingWorlds

The ITLG is an independent organisation comprised of a number of high-level technology leaders in Silicon Valley who are Irish or Irish-American and who are committed to helping Ireland address the challenges of embracing new technology opportunities.

The ITLG-Irish Times 2008 Innovation Award was presented to David Moran, CEO, ChangingWorlds, in recognition of the company’s impressive customer successes, product strategy, management team, outstanding intellectual property portfolio and international growth across all of its key territories, Europe, Asia and the US.

ChangingWorlds was among four companies short-listed for the award which was established to recognise an innovative Irish company which it is believed has the most potential to succeed on the international stage. The other three short-listed companies were Altobridge, Digisoft.tv and Nubiq.

ChangingWorlds was founded in 1999 by Professor Barry Smyth and Paul Cotter as a spin-out from UCD’s School of Computer Science and Informatics. The company provides mobile data personalization and mobile Internet products to a customer base that currently includes over 50 mobile operators worldwide. Based on advanced artificial intelligence technology, ChangingWorlds’ ClixSmart™ Intelligent Portal platform offers a personalized content discovery solution that enhances content relevance and optimises the user experience of the mobile Internet.

David Moran, CEO, ChangingWorlds said “This award from the ITLG is a strong endorsement of ChangingWorlds' success in bringing state-of-the-art personalization techniques to the Mobile Internet for mobile operators worldwide and we are honoured to be granted this accolade by the esteemed members of the ITLG.” He added, “Innovation plays a constant role in ChangingWorlds product development and business strategy and we strive for the best in all areas of our business. ChangingWorlds is therefore delighted that our on-going commitment to and delivery of innovative yet effective mobile data personalization solutions are recognized in this way.”

ChangingWorlds continues to maintain a strong strategic link with the University as its ongoing R&D activities are taking place in NovaUCD, the Innovation and Technology Transfer Centre at UCD. The company now employs over 120 highly qualified staff in Dublin, including NovaUCD, Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur) and USA (San Francisco).

ENDS

31 March 2008

For further information contact Micéal Whelan, NovaUCD, e-mail: miceal.whelan@ucd.ie, tel: (01) 716 3712.

Editor's Notes

Established in October 2007, the ITLG is an independent organisation comprised of a number of high-level technology leaders in Silicon Valley who are Irish or Irish-American. The Group includes senior executives from some of the Valley’s leading corporations, each of whom are committed to helping Ireland address the challenges of embracing new technology opportunities. The Irish Technology Leadership Group is based in Palo Alto, California. Members include John Hartnett, Senior Vice-President of Palm, Inc. John Gilmore, COO of Sling Media, Rory McInerney, Vice-President, Intel Corp, Barry O’Sullivan, Senior Vice-President, Cisco, and Conrad Burke, President and CEO, Innovalight, Inc.

NovaUCD is University College Dublin’s €11 million Innovation and Technology Transfer Centre. NovaUCD is responsible for the commercialisation of intellectual property arising from UCD research and for the development of co-operation with industry and business. NovaUCD as a purpose-built centre also nurtures new technology and knowledge-intensive enterprises. NovaUCD has over 40 incubation units, including bio-incubation units, and provides innovators and entrepreneurs with the necessary support and knowledge to take their ideas from proof of principle to commercial success. Twenty-two knowledge-intensive companies, including ChangingWorlds’ Advanced Research Centre are currently located in NovaUCD. NovaUCD has been funded through a unique public-private partnership that includes AIB Bank, Arthur Cox, Deloitte, Enterprise Ireland, Ericsson, Goodbody Stockbrokers, UCD and Xilinx.