Why Trinity is a world class centre for research. Interview with Kevin Ennis

By @SimonCocking

Great interview with Kevin Ennis who explains his role communicating Trinity’s research achievements.

What’s your background?

I got into Marketing about 10 years ago following a brief career in Architecture! My undergrad degree was in Architecture but once I realised it wasn’t the one for me I had to think about a career that would satisfy my creativity. I was passionate about great design and advertising and I decided to pursue a Masters’ in Marketing. I went to work for Hibernian Life & Pensions and experienced a turbulent time in Financial marketing, followed by two high-profile rebrands that resulted in Aviva becoming a household name and the sponsor of the National stadium. This led me to my next role as an Account Manager with Titan Marketing, a sports sponsorship and marketing agency in Dublin. There I had the opportunity to really test myself in the creative and digital aspects of marketing on behalf of multinational clients. For the past 18 months or so I have been kept busy as the Industry Marketing Officer at Trinity. I’m currently also project managing the implementation of Trinity’s new identity initiative.

What does an industry marketing officer do?

My role is quite unique within Trinity, in that it is not particularly student-focused. People are aware of Trinity’s identity as ‘Ireland’s leading University’, but people may not know that we work with over 400 industry partners to develop and commercialise research. My role is to wave the flag for Trinity as a centre for world-class research. This means I’m responsible for managing all aspects of industry-related marketing, from traditional to digital and social as well as events.

What’s a typical day like?

One of the most exciting aspects of my role is the variety, but I try to put some structure around this. I’ll start the day by monitoring any press coverage relating to research and innovation at Trinity and will schedule social activity around that. As CRM manager I’ll follow up on any leads and monitor our analytics to keep on top of digital activity and our website. At any one time we tend to have an event in the pipeline and we’re always looking to promote and market our available technologies. Along with a meeting or two this would be a fairly standard day for me.

What’s the brief for you?

To put it simply, we want to make sure our research is put to use. This might mean that the intellectual property is licensed out to a third party, or that a campus company develops from a research group. It could mean that we work with an industry partner from the start to solve a specific problem in their field. Whatever route it takes, the idea is that the high-quality research does not end here but that it’s put to use to benefit society and to create jobs.

What sort of things are you researching and innovating?

There’s no short answer to this, simply because the variety in research is so widespread. From aviation research to brain health and dementia, graphics and robotics to genetics to nanotechnology, it would be difficult to pick one example that tells even a fraction of the story.

What have been some successes?

2015 was a really exciting year for us. Last summer Google acquired a Virtual Reality technology called Thrive, developed by a team of engineers here at Trinity. It was an excellent example of what we do here because it showed how fundamental research could be developed into a commercial product. We assigned 3 separate patents to Google as part of the deal, and they also hired the team involved in the project. When I talk about putting our research to use, the transfer of IP and talent to a company like Google, in a rapidly developing field such as VR, really nails the brief!
Another huge success in 2015 saw the donation of €138 million to Trinity and UCSF to establish a Global Brain Health Institute. This was the largest philanthropic donation in Irish history and it recognises the outstanding research being conducted here at Trinity by Prof. Ian Robertson and Prof. Brian Lawlor, who will lead the Trinity team in the new Institute.

Have there been any interesting failures / pivots / unexpected outcomes?

One of the most exciting developments in recent years has been the move towards a more entrepreneurial experience for our students and the success of our student business accelerator, LaunchBox. When you talk about failures, pivots and unexpected outcomes, the LaunchBox programme provides a microcosm of the start-up ecosystem where you can see all of this happening. There’s probably no better environment in Trinity to learn the lesson that goes with the failure of a fledgling business: Fail, accept, go again. In terms of successes, I think the unexpected part is how quickly the programme started to churn out success stories. The first year of the programme alone saw the early stage development of companies like FoodCloud, Artomatix and Writing for Tiny, all of which are making waves now in their own ways. A lot of the success of the programme was down to the ambition and intuition of Dr John Whelan who drove the programme.

How does a large organisation like TCD manage to successfully innovate and enable / encourage it to take place?

It really comes down to the culture and ambition of the organisation. When you look at Trinity it’s easy to see the tradition and history, but along with the cobblestones and 400 year history there is a tradition of innovation, and this continues to develop all the time. The talent and world-class innovation is nothing new, but the recent trend towards a more entrepreneurial experience for our students possibly indicates a cultural shift. Entrepreneurship is a real and valid career path for our graduates and we encourage them to explore this possibility. For those who choose to go into post-graduate research, its important that we are able to demonstrate the societal and economic benefits of commercialising research, and to provide the the options for our researchers to pursue this if it is the path they choose.

What future trends are you excited about?

Personally I’m excited to see where we go with Virtual Reality over the next year. As a marketer I think that VR opens up a whole new world of creative marketing. This could be good and bad. Product placement suddenly moves from your tv into your virtual environment. And the use of subliminal marketing becomes really interesting when you are immersed in a VR environment. To quote the Matrix: “Were you listening to me Neo, or were you looking at the woman in the red dress?”. But aside from the marketing side of VR, I’m looking forward to seeing how it fits in with our day-to-day lives. The NBA recently broadcast a live game in VR, which I think is a fantastic use of the technology. Once you factor in the audio experience that a technology like Thrive provides, I really think that the experience becomes truly immersive and game-changing. The development of the Internet of Things is another area I’m excited about. I’m not sure it will take off as much as VR in 2016, but the possibilities that are being explored are really interesting.

Do any of these relate to projects you guys are supporting?

The Thrive example is the obvious recent example in the Virtual space, but Trinity’s expertise in graphics has been well documented going back to the 1998 spin-out of Havok by Dr Steve Collins, whose technologies have been used across the movie and gaming industries for a number of years now, two of the industries which will benefit most from advances in VR technology. In the IoT space, the CONNECT Centre at Trinity is taking some really exciting steps towards innovation in that whole area, and promoting Dublin’s potential to be a world-leading IoT startup hub.

What tech would make your life easier?

I think the whole field of IoT is going to make all of our lives slightly easier. The day that my fridge realises I am out of milk and orders a new delivery via drone doesn’t seem too far away!

Anything else you’d like to add / we should have asked you?

Just to say that Trinity Research & Innovation is active on social @TrinityResearch and Facebook.com/TrinityResearchInnovation. And you can find me @ourkev

If you would like to have your company featured in the Irish Tech News Business Showcase, get in contact with us at Simon@IrishTechNews.net or on Twitter: @SimonCocking