The Digital Hub welcomes Technologist-in-Residence to Dublin 8 campus

The Digital Hub, Ireland’s largest cluster of digital media, technology and internet businesses, has announced the appointment of its first Technologist-in-Residence at its Dublin 8 campus. Experienced technologist Rodhán Hickey, a former CTO of workforce management software firm, Bizimply and a respected digital innovator, has now taken up residency in the enterprise cluster for a nine-month period as part of a pilot initiative being run by The Digital Hub.

Rodhán is being provided with desk space in The Digital Hub for the duration of his residency.

Speaking about the new Technologist-in-Residence initiative, Fiach Mac Conghail, Chief Executive Officer of The Digital Hub said: “We are delighted to welcome Rodhán to The Digital Hub as our first ever Technologist-in-Residence. Rodhán brings with him over 20 years experience in the technology industry, solving technical problems and helping companies, teams and individuals to reach their potential.  A key part of Rodhán’s remit at The Digital Hub will be to inspire greater connectivity and collaboration amongst our enterprise companies, to identify and support the growth of specific industry sub-clusters and to share his passion for the introduction of new and emerging technologies, such as augmented reality and 3D printing, with both our companies and the local residents of Dublin 8 through our community learning programmes.”

Commenting on his appointment, Rodhán Hickey said: “I’m excited about the role because it gives me the time and space to experiment and develop some ideas that I have been toying with for a while. I have several ideas for initiatives that I would like to introduce to The Digital Hub during my residency, including the idea of running technology showcase weeks.  Larger companies have innovation labs where their employees can go to experience new technology and work through ideas that they might have. I’d like to bring the idea of an innovation lab to The Digital Hub, not only for the benefit of the client companies, but also for the wider community of the Liberties by inviting schools and community groups to themed technology showcases where they can experience things like Virtual Reality and 3D Printing for themselves.”

Rodhán also hopes to foster collaboration amongst the client companies at The Digital Hub, saying: “The main thing I hope to achieve during the residency is to increase the ties between the tech teams of The Digital Hub’s client companies.  I am going to establish some “birds of a feather” groups to allow companies who, from the outside, may not appear to be similar, but when you look at the day to day work of their developers and the problems that they are facing, they have a lot of similarities and could really benefit from knowing each other and hopefully going on to solve some of their challenges collaboratively.”

The Technologist-in-Residence appointment follows the successful introduction last year of The Digital Hub’s Artist-in-Residence Programme, comprising a residency for both a filmmaker and a photographer, who brought their unique perspectives to life and contributed to The Digital Hub’s learning and community initiatives, as well as the artistic and cultural life of the Dublin 8 area. The Digital Hub believes the new Technologist-in-Residence initiative will add significant value to its offering and contribute positively to government strategies covering community digital initiatives and the National Digital Strategy.