Outstanding Mayo researcher receives Lero Research award

Mayo man, Professor Kieran Conboy, has been presented with a Lero Research award.

The Aghamore native was one of ten whose research projects will benefit from a €1.3 million investment by Lero, the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Software, based at University of Limerick.

Announcing the research awards, Lero director Professor, Lionel Briand, said the array of research topics selected for support shows how software is integral to every aspect of the world we inhabit.

“Lero is a world leader in software research. The centre fulfils a vital role in sustaining and developing Ireland’s reputation as a global hub of software research excellence and in maintaining Ireland’s position as a home for some of the world’s top technology companies,” he said.

The project, led by Professor Conboy of Information Systems at University of Galway, will ‘critically analyse traditional research and development methods, tools and metrics, and will develop new and adapted ones for the design and evaluation of responsible technology’. 

"From large organisations such as Google, Apple and Microsoft, to national and European policymakers, everyone is trying to address the issue of responsible technology, developing policies, controls and laws for the regulation of technology. These efforts attempt to address everything from technology induced stress, phone addiction, social media bullying, bias, discrimination, and disinformation. To truly consider and cater for the responsible aspects of a technology takes time,” he said.

“Unfortunately, modern software engineering methods such as agile and continuous development (collectively used by more than 92% of developers worldwide) advocate high speed development. Development teams take part in ‘sprints’ and are measured by their ‘velocity’ and ‘time to market’. Developers are under pressure to continuously deliver some form of working software, and are measured and rewarded based on speed of delivery. This emphasis on speed does not match the need for deep, thoughtful, and intricate design required to be responsible," he explained. 

With this help from Lero, the Aghamore man’s project will originate  ‘new practices and methods that developers can use to ensure an adequate balance between the need for speed and the need to be responsible will be examined’.

“Lero is a world leader in software research. The centre fulfils a vital role in sustaining and developing Ireland’s reputation as a global hub of software research excellence, and in maintaining Ireland’s position as a home for some of the world’s top technology companies. As well as attracting additional researchers, the Lero Research Awards incentivise and reward continued impactful and outstanding research among our membership nationwide," said Professor Conboy.

The ten awarded Lero researchers across Ireland will now hire postdoctoral researchers for two years to take on some really important work. 

“These excellent postdoctoral researchers will join the Lero family to develop better and smarter ways of overcoming many of the obstacles we face today to foster job creation, innovation and competitiveness in software engineering and ICT,” concluded Lero director, Professor Lionel Briand.