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DCU students contribute to IBM ISC award

Dr Regina Connolly, Senior Lecturer in Management Information Systems at DCU Business School, (centre) pictured here with students who developed the award winning concept, Eugene Duffy, DanDan Wang, Maria Teresa McAdonnell and Nassir Hussein.

As part of the MECB programme students are required to undertake a group practicum where they develop an eCommerce prototype to the point of commercialisation. This year, a group of 4 students mentored by IBM worked on concept development of an integrated 'Care-to-Drive' system for the Irish Cancer Society. The purpose of the system is to provide cancer patients with free transportation to and from their cancer treatment appointments. It will control driver scheduling, route planning and mapping, volunteer reimbursement, contact recommendation and data organisation of same for the Irish Cancer Society.

Based on the concept development work which the students have done to date, the IBM mentor applied (on behalf of the students) - and has just been awarded - a major award of 75,000 dollars from IBM in the US to fully develop the system for the benefit of the Irish cancer society. The money will go directly to the Irish Cancer Society and will fund the actual development effort and training materials required to convert the practicum concept into a working software service which can be used  by the ICS head office and on their driver smartphones.

The ICS are understandably delighted about the award. Although students on the MECB programme have won a number of different awards over the past few years, this one is particularly important as this system will have an enormously positive impact on the lives of cancer sufferers in Ireland, not to mention the effectiveness of the Irish Cancer Society.