The Insight Showcase, Data Driven Inclusion and Resiliency took place on the 3rd of November in Insight at the University of Galway.
Site Director Professor Ed Curry, kicked off the event with a brief address that addressed the value of Big Data, Insight’s role in international leadership and collaboration as well as the ways in which industry can partner with Insight.

Next up was Professor Jim Livesey, Vice President for Research and Innovation at the University of Galway. He spoke of Insight as being a real collaborative effort on a national, European and global scale, and the challenges and opportunities.

Lorna Martyn, Regional Chair and SVP, Technology, Fidelity Investments Ireland, delivered the keynote address. She spoke about the attrition rate of women from education and the workforce. She asked why organisations should design for inclusion and laid out the case for doing so. It’s better for the companies, and in the future, they may not have a choice. Designing for inclusion she said, means embedding the values of equity, diversity and inclusion into processes, layering it into organisations, not just placing it on top of things.

Next were a series of short presentations. Dr Ihsan Ullah presented about bias in #AI and the importance of explainable AI in combatting that. Dr Bharathi Raja Chakravarthi then spoke about his research on Language Technology for equality, diversity and inclusion. He looked at detecting and amplifying hope speech and inclusive language on social media platforms across different languages.
Finally, Cécile Robin gave a presentation about what Insight can learn about gender diversity within its own organisation by examining its own data.

Then a panel discussion about bias, diversity and inclusion in industry and academia was steered by Insight Business Development Manager Pat Dempsey, with panelists Prof Walter Gear, Executive Dean of the College of Science and Engineering at the University of Galway, Tríona MacGiollaRí, Director of Aró Digital Strategy and the keynote speaker Lorna Martyn of Fidelity.

The second part of the day was all about Resiliency in a Post-Pandemic World. Professor Máire Connolly, Prof of Global Health at the University of Galway, leader in the VENPREP and PANDEM-2 projects, Vice Dean of Engagement and Internationalisation and Insight FI, delivered a keynote address about Covid-19, the VenPrep project which looks at the supply chain for ventillators and lessons we have learned from the pandemic.

After that a series of short presentations was led out by Professor Jim Duggan who delivered a talk about Scenario Modelling to Support Decision Making. He spoke about how this supported decisions around public health during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Dr Andrew Simpkin was next up and he spoke about Sensor Data Analytics and how that can deliver new health insights, improve patient care and offer decision support services to patients.
Mental health is increasingly being recognised as a priority for wellbeing in the modern workplace. Dr Mihael Arcan gave a presentation about Passive Prediction, Proactive Workplace Wellbeing.

After that, came a leadership panel discussion on influencing factors towards creating a resilient business economy and society. Business Development Manager Carmel McGroarty-Mitchell moderated panelists Tom Tuohy R&D Sustaining Manager at Medtronic, Prof Jim Duggan and Prof Máire Connolly.

Insight EPE Manager Brendan Smith then gave a brief overview of the Computing and Communications Museum of Ireland and invited attendees along to have a tour.

Professor Ed Curry then closed proceedings with thanks and acknowledgements for an excellent, informative event.