Intel Ireland in Leixlip, Co. Kildare hosted over 300 visitors on 8-10^th September as the big issues of global warming, health care, well-being for the aged and innovation were tackled head on at the European Research and Innovation Conference 2009.

Professor John Sweeny and Minister Eamonn Ryan at the opening day of ERIC 09

The conference was opened by Eamonn Ryan, Irish Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources who strongly underlined the serious challenges we are facing globally. Minister Ryan’s reference to ‘Resourcism’ – an era when natural resources become the economic constraint – hit a chord and aligned very strongly with the theme of the conference, Leadership in Europe for Global Challenges and the Delivery of Solutions through Technology for People and Society.

Keynote presentations on Global warming, Global Ageing and the Research and Innovation challenges, presented by Professor John Sweeney, NUI Maynooth Professor Rose Anne Kenny, Trinity College Dublin and the Technology Research for Independent Living(TRIL) Centre and Martin Cronin ex CEO of Forfas followed.

Attendees enjoy the poster sessions at ERIC09

Among Intel Technology Leaders who attended the conference were Intel Fellows Kevin Kahn, Paolo Gargini and Kelin Kuhn. Gargini outlined how Intel technology was providing a platform for societal innovation, while Kevin Kahn focused on advances in smart and mobile computing. Kelin Kuhn in her presentation detailed how Intel was overcoming the nanotechnology challenges in building smaller transistor device sizes.

The European perspective on how Nano electronics was shaping our future was presented by Luc Van den hove, President and CEO of IMEC, while Dirk Beernaert from the European Commission, spoke to European leadership in Nanotechnology and Nanoelectronics. Other presentations on Enabling a Digital Europe and New Frontiers for Health Care in the 21^sh Century were presented by Martin Curley of Intel Labs Europe and Niamh Scannell from Intel’s Digital Health group receptively.

Over 325 participants from 11 countries attended the conference which featured 15 keynote presentations, 42 technical presentations, 4 parallel sessions, panel discussions, workshops and 60 poster presentations. For a full list of presentations and speakers please reference presentations on the website.