Public Lecture: IT & Motorsport @ NUI Galway - (Thurs) 3 Feb 05

Posted: April 3, 2005 9:40 PM

Rough timeline:

time speaker subject
0 Eugene Jordan motorsport tech
1hr Robbie Ward focus wrc presentation
1hr 23min Plum Tyndall a lifetime in motorsport
2hr 3min Eugene Donnelly video
2hr 6min Eugene Donnelly in converation with Plum
2hr 8min John Folan in conversation with Plum
2hr 10min Kevin Keane in conversation with Plum
Ross Forde
2hr 12min panel questions
2hr 45min Fionnuala Gibney closing remarks

Full Details

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26/01/05

• Top TV Commentator to give Public Lecture at NUI, Galway.
• Lecture will be streamed live on the Internet.

The Computer Society of the National University Galway announces its second annual evening of Information Technology and Motorsport. This years event has the potential to be very remarkable evening, as some of the biggest names in Irish Motorsport are scheduled to appear.

Many aspects of the worlds highest technology sport will be explored and explained in an entertaining and non technical manner. This year we are very pleased to announce that TV commentator Alan (Plum) Tyndall will be one of many guest speakers. Robbie Ward and Eugene Jordan appear again this year and there will be a number of surprise guests, including some of Irelands top rally competitors. The event will take place on Thursday 3rd February just prior to the start of the First Choice Flooring, Galway International Rally, and it promises to be the premier supplementary Motorsport event of the year.

Alan Tyndall Irelands legendary Motorsport commentator and the man behind the RPM TV programme will talk about his lifetime of experience in the sport. Alans career in broadcasting started with RTE in 1981 as a Formula 1 commentator. He paired up with broadcaster Michael OCarroll; together they produced some of the most exciting sporting commentaries in Irish TV history. Since then he has gone on to commentate on scores of Motorsport events with the BBC, UTV, Sky and Eurosport. Alans career also included a stint as a racing driver and he won the Irish Saloon car championship in 1976. Currently Alan runs his own PR Company as well as producing Motorsport programmes. Indeed following his appearance at NUI, Alan will be filming the Galway International Rally.

Robbie Ward who co-drives a Ford Focus World Rally Championship (WRC) car with driver John Joe Fleming will talk about the technology in rallying. Did you know that the service crew can warn the driver of a potential hazard by sending the car a text message, which it then displays on the drivers speedometer? Did you that the engineers back at the factory, sometimes on the far side of the globe can view telemetry data directly from the car? They can also tell to within a few metres where exactly on the planet their car actually is! Very handy if your navigator is lost! Robbie will reveal more about the secret life of a WRC car.

Eugene Jordan a former Clerk of the Course of the Galway International Rally will delve into the world of Formula 1, for a look at the technology that underlies the sport. He will also seek to discover how road car safety and efficiency has benefited from Formula 1 technology. In other words he will look at progress through technology or as it is said in German; vorsprung durch technik.

A number of Irelands top rally competitors have been invited to take part in a forum where they will talk about their Motorsport career and plans for the Galway Rally, they will take questions from the floor. So if you ever wanted to know how to read pace-notes or find out first hand what it is like to ride an earth bound rocket, then this is your opportunity.

Contemporary state of the art Motorsport machinery will also be on display on the university campus from 11.00am. The display will include the latest specification Ford Focus WRC, complete with its vast array of computers. In addition Galway driver, John Folan has agreed to display his recently acquired Group A Subaru Impreza together with fellow Galweigian Mike Birds Mitsubishi EVO 8 and Mike Melia represents the Race/Hillclimb fraternity with his Formula Opel car.

The event will be streamed live in high resolution video on the internet and therefore will be available to broadband users. In addition it is planned to have a live video conference link to a major Motorsport team. Full details will be published next week.

The evening starts at 7pm and venue is the OFlaherty Theatre on the main concourse of NUI, Galway on Thursday 3rd of February. The event is open to the public and all are welcome to attend.

Directions:
The main entrance to the concourse is neighbouring the James Hardiman Library. Enter one of the main doors and turn left. The OFlaherty lecture theatre is approx 50m down the corridor on your right hand side. Follow the signs. The nearest car parks can be accessed from the Distillery Road entrance. (Turn at the AIB bank on Newcastle Road.) If you approaching from the east side of the city follow the signs for Spiddal or Clifden. Turn left after Quincentineal Bridge (at the traffic lights) and take the next left. You are now on campus and car parks are located on either side of the road. (The car parks after the first and second turn right are the closest to the lecture hall.)

Lecture will be streamed live on the Internet from: www.compsoc.nuigalway.ie