A member of the Smart Nano NI Consortium supporting the development of detailed project plans for submission to the next phase of the UK Research and Innovation's Strength in Places Fund.

Dr Fergal Tuffy is Technology Innovation Manager at the NWRC and manages the NWRC’s Business Support Centre. Fergal leads the NWRC’s policies, programmes and projects to ensure delivery of the College’s priorities for economic development, industry engagement, business skills and innovation.Fergal spearheads a team of technical consultants in industry focussed projects and manages the engagement with business, locally, regionally and internationally. This includes leading externally funded projects which contribute to the income generation / targets for the College, this involves the College’s delivery of Technology Transfer Programmes such as Innovate UK Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP), InterTrade Ireland Innovation Boost and Business Explorer, Invest NI and Enterprise Ireland Innovation Vouchers, and the Department for the Economy’s (DfE) InnovateUs Programme as well as industry Skills programmes such as the DfE Skills Focus, Skill Up and Assured Skills.Fergal also oversees the NWRC’s Innovation and Skills Centres;• Foodovation (Innovation in Food and Drink) • Product Design Centre (PDC)• XR (Augmented and Virtual Reality) • And Industry 4.0NWRC-Innovation-and-Skills-Brochure-1.pdfUnder Fergal's leadership the NWRC BSC has grown to more than 25 staff, with an annual budget of over £2 million and won the UK-wide Times Educational Supplement (TES) 2020 award for employer engagement in recognition for supporting 1,300 companies in the past 4 years with bespoke innovation, upskilling and training.

Technical Services Co-ordinator within the School of Computing & Intelligent Systems where the main duties involve....- To supervise, plan and co-ordinate the activities of a technical support team, helping to ensure that appropriate resources are available as necessary.- Provide technical advice, guidance and instruction to staff and students in the use of specialist equipment and systems.- To contribute to the monitoring of student performance and providing feedback as appropriate.- Provide detailed information, training, guidance and supervision to staff and students in laboratory/workshop procedures, research experiments as appropriate drawing upon knowledge, skills, experience and expertise.- Contribute to the analysis, design, development, construction and modification of complex and sophisticated components/systems using a full range of techniques for teaching/research/project work purposes.- Set up specialised equipment and systems for use by staff and students in teaching, research and other activities.- Prepare and carry out procedures for tests/experiments and record, collate, and contribute to the interpretation of the data.- Maintain, test, diagnose and repair equipment/systems to ensure they are fit for purpose, and keeping appropriate records.

The WiSAR Lab is an Enterprise Ireland funded Technology Gateway located in Letterkenny Institute of Technology, Letterkenny, Co Donegal. WiSAR’s aim is to become a hub of technology solutions for companies in the NW and in Ireland, utilising its platform of wireless sensor technologies to a variety of targeted sectors from systems for Health Monitoring, RF Design and Testing to applications of Wireless Sensor Networks for the optimisation of industrial processes. A key strength of WiSAR is its capacity to work with companies to apply wireless and embedded systems from electrical, power and RF design through to working prototype development.As WiSAR Gateway Manager responsibilities include the day-to-day management of staff, projects and business development of the research and development centre. A key aspect of the role involves the identification and scoping of industry R&D projects including assisting with funding proposals and development of and technical proposals to meet client requirements.

I worked in the SWC InnoTech Centre managing research and development and technology transfer between the College and SMEs. This involved the delivery of over 150 R&D projects annually across various funding sources such as Department for Employment and Learning (DEL) Employer Support Programme, Invest NI & Enterprise Ireland innovation vouchers, KTP, InterTrade Ireland Fusion, local council funded programmes and European funding.In this role I was responsible for the day-to-day management and running of the innovation centre, holding regular project management meetings with research and development staff to monitor project progress.I was involved in identifying new project opportunities, networking with various organisations and meeting clients to discuss potential opportunities and develop R&D projects and then oversee the projects through to completion.

I managed an EU project between the SWC and IT Sligo, working on media production, GIS services, and rapid prototyping & reverse engineering.I was actively involved in the product design and development of 3D prototype models and also 3D reverse engineering.

I was involved in the design and development of novel wireless sensors and non-contact wireless sensors for measuring temperature, heartbeat and respiration.While also in Intel I submitted a patent application which has since been approved (US8229057) for an 'apparatus and method for non-contact sensing using temporal measures.'

I was a process engineer in the power area. My main roles involved programming a distributive control system (DCS) and process control.