The Digital Hub welcomes Technologist-in-Residence to Dublin 8 campus
The Digital Hub, Ireland’s largest cluster of digital media, technology and internet businesses, has today announced the appointment of its first Technologist-in-Residence at its Dublin 8 campus. Experienced technologist Rodhán Hickey, a former CTO of workforce management software firm, Bizimply and a respected digital innovator, has now taken up residency in the enterprise cluster for a nine-month period as part of a pilot initiative that The Digital Hub is undertaking. Rodhán is being provided with desk space in The Digital Hub for the duration of his residency.
Speaking about the new Technologist-in-Residence initiative, Fiach Mac Conghail, Chief Executive Officer of The Digital Hub said:
“We are delighted to welcome Rodhán to The Digital Hub as our first ever Technologist-in-Residence. Rodhán brings with him over 20 years experience in the technology industry, solving technical problems and helping companies, teams and individuals to reach their potential. A key part of Rodhán’s remit at The Digital Hub will be to inspire greater connectivity and collaboration amongst our enterprise companies, to identify and support the growth of specific industry sub-clusters and to share his passion for the introduction of new and emerging technologies, such as augmented reality and 3D printing, with both our companies and the local residents of Dublin 8 through our community learning programmes.”
Commenting on his appointment, Rodhán Hickey said:
“I’m excited about the role because it gives me the time and space to experiment and develop some ideas that I have been toying with for a while. I have several ideas for initiatives that I would like to introduce to The Digital Hub during my residency, including the idea of running technology showcase weeks. Larger companies have innovation labs where their employees can go to experience new technology and work through ideas that they might have. I’d like to bring the idea of an innovation lab to The Digital Hub, not only for the benefit of the client companies, but also for the wider community of the Liberties by inviting schools and community groups to themed technology showcases where they can experience things like Virtual Reality and 3D Printing for themselves.”
Rodhán also hopes to foster collaboration amongst the client companies at The Digital Hub, saying:
“The main thing I hope to achieve during the residency is to increase the ties between the tech teams of The Digital Hub’s client companies. I am going to establish some “birds of a feather” groups to allow companies who, from the outside, may not appear to be similar, but when you look at the day to day work of their developers and the problems that they are facing, they have a lot of similarities and could really benefit from knowing each other and hopefully going on to solve some of their challenges collaboratively.”
The Technologist-in-Residence appointment follows the successful introduction last year of The Digital Hub’s Artist-in-Residence Programme, comprising a residency for both a filmmaker and a photographer, who brought their unique perspectives to life and contributed to The Digital Hub’s learning and community initiatives, as well as the artistic and cultural life of the Dublin 8 area. The Digital Hub believes the new Technologist-in-Residence initiative will add significant value to its offering and contribute positively to government strategies covering community digital initiatives and the National Digital Strategy.
ENDS
For further information, please contact Wilson Hartnell:
Frans Van Cauwelaert: frans.vancauwelaert@ogilvy.com /087 9476743
Mary Hartnett: mary.hartnett@ogilvy.com /083 3470732
Notes to Editors
About Rodhán Hickey
Rodhán Hickey is an experienced computer programmer and team leader with a 20-year track record of solving technical problems and helping companies, teams and individuals to reach their potential. Rodhán received a B. Sc. in Computer Applications from Dublin City University in 2000 and since then has worked on product development and innovation teams at multinationals and start-ups and as a freelance mobile developer and independent consultant. Rodhán is a former CTO of Bizimply and is a respected mobile innovator with a specific interest in Augmented Reality and Education Technology.
Rodhán regularly mentors and teaches programming and tech skills to teenagers in a voluntary capacity. After a childhood spent taking things apart, and having had his first paid programming job at the age of 11, he is a strong believer in the power of technology to enable people to reach their full potential and make the world a better place. Rodhán was a founding member of the Digital Hub Toastmasters club and started the Digital Hub Developer Lunch and Learn meet up and The Digital Hub CTO circle and loves bringing people together to share problems and work together.
About The Digital Hub
Based in the historic Liberties area of Dublin city centre, The Digital Hub is an enterprise cluster for growing technology companies. Almost seventy-five established businesses operate in The Digital Hub. Together these businesses employ just over 700 people. The Digital Hub is the largest cluster of digital media, technology and internet businesses in Ireland, providing a space for indigenous enterprises such as Bizimply, Good Travel Software, Silicon Republic, Sonru and Square1 to scale and grow. Major global companies like Black Shamrock, Eventbrite and Lonely Planet are also based in The Digital Hub along with industry organisations such as NDRC, Tyndall National Institute and the Virgin Media Dublin International Film Festival.
Since the project’s inception, over 200 companies have progressed through the enterprise cluster at The Digital Hub, generating thousands of skilled jobs. Some well-established alumni include Amazon, Athena Media, Boomerang Pharmaceutical Communications, Distilled Media Group (Daft.ie), eMaint, Etsy, Havok, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (Riverdeep), Kavaleer, Lincor, MTT, Slack, Software AG, Stripe, TIBCO and VSware.
The Digital Hub is a supportive partner of the local community, by running several learning initiatives for people of all ages. Community learning programmes are run with local partners. For example, the Future Creators programme and the Future Creators Cadets programme are run with the National College of Art and Design and H2 Learning, to give children and young people the 21st Century Digital Skills that are so necessary in today’s world. The Liber8 Music Project is run with BIMM Institute Dublin to give young people who may have limited exposure to music and digital media, an opportunity to immerse themselves in a creative programme, whilst also developing skills to support their future careers.
The Digital Hub Development Agency is the Irish state agency that manages The Digital Hub. The Agency was established by the Irish Government under the Department of Communications, Climate Change and Environment and plays a key part in supporting the implementation of the National Digital Strategy.
Further information is available at: www.thedigitalhub.com or on Twitter: @TheDigitalHub.