Biography
Education
Eamonn de Leastar received a BSc (Hons) in Computer Science in 1982, and an MSc in Computer Science in 1994, both from University College Cork.
WIT Career Experience
Since 1992 he has worked at Waterford Institute of Technology as a Lecturer in Computer Science, establishing the TSSG with Dr. William Donnelly in 1997. Prior to the establishment of the group his research interests were dominated by real time process control applications, where he developed and led the implementation of a range of control applications with Honeywell Measurex (calibration and head control systems) and Waterford Crystal (tank furnace monitoring). During this period he completed an MSc by research in process control- developing an innovative approach to controlling PLC devices via C++ application framework technology.
Mr. de Leastar's current duties involve lecturing at all levels of the spectrum: including first year, graduate diploma and MSc level, coupled with a range dissertation and project supervision duties. This combination offers unique opportunities and challenges. Postgraduate teaching requires a level of technical depth and flexible delivery modes not often visible at undergraduate level. Motivating and encouraging students at undergraduate level continues to be a major interest. Additionally, bringing the TSSG’s wide experience and knowledge to bear on the undergraduate and postgraduate curriculum is a particular focus of his work.
As a veteran of WIT, he has had some involvement in almost all of the Computing Department’s courses. Most recently he has been a core member of the curriculum development board of four key programmes at WIT: BSc in Applied Computing, BSc in Physics with Computing (now the BSc in Physic with Modern Technology), MSc in Communications Software and the MSc in Enterprise Software Systems. Currently he is director of the Higher Diploma in Computing programme at WIT, and innovative 18-month graduate programme, whose mission is to convert graduates from a wide range of disciplines to ICT professionals. This programme is directly founded by the HEA in Ireland.
He is also a member of the Center for Technology Enhanced Learning at WIT (elearning.wit.ie), which has been pioneering the use of modern virtual learning environments. This has involved designing and realising a variety of course creation and maintenance tools (eg: github.com/edeleastar/moodle-book), publishing a range of courses and modules, as well as evangelizing elearning platforms and usage patterns at WIT.
He is winner of the WIT annual Teaching Excellence award for 2007. His students have been recipients of Best 4th Year Project Award (2007) and MSc Project with Highest Commercial Potential (2008)
TSSG
Since the establishment of the TSSG, Mr. de Leastar has been a member of the management team, and led a range of research projects including SUSIE, Bandwdth2000, Converge, MDS, RBS, Nomad, Percolate, Logmon and Impruve (details on www.tssg.org/projects). He has co-authored these proposals, as well a selection of other successful project proposals, including HEA M-Zones, and the first successful SFI proposals within TSSG.
Recent Publications:
Griffin, L., Ryan, K., de Leastar, E., Jennings, B. & Botvich, D. (2012). On the Performance of Access Control Policy Evaluation. In Proceedings of the 2012 IEEE International Symposium on Policies for Distributed Systems and Networks, POLICY ’12. Griffin et al. (2012b)
Griffin, L., Ryan, K., de Leastar, E. & Botvich, D. (2012). Scaling Instant Mes- saging Communication Services: A Comparison of Blocking and Non-Blocking Techniques. International Journal of Ambient Computing and Intelligence, 4, 120. Griffin et al. (2012a)
Griffin, L., de Leastar, E. & Botvich, D. (2011). Dynamic Shared Groups Within XMPP: An investigation of the XMPP Group Model. In Proceedings of the 2011 IEEE Symposium on Integrated Network Management, IM ’11. Griffin et al. (2011a)
Griffin, L., Ryan, K., de Leastar, E. & Botvich, D. (2011). Scaling Instant Mes- saging Communication Services: A Comparison of Blocking and Non-Blocking Techniques. In Proceedings of the 2011 IEEE Symposium on Computers and Communications, ISCC ’11. Griffin et al. (2011c)
Foley, C., Power, G., Griffin, L., Chen, C., Donnelly, N. & de Leastar, E. (2010). Service Group Management Facilitated by DSL Driven Policies in Embedded Middleware. In Proceedings of the IEEE Symposium on Computers and Com- munications, ISCC ’10. Foley et al. (2010)
Griffin, L., Elger, P. & de Leastar, E. (2011). Project Zeppelin: A Modern Web Application Development Framework. In Proceedings of the International Symposium on Formal Methods for Components and Objects, FMCO ’11. Griffin et al. (2011b)
Griffin, L. & de Leastar, E. (2009). Social Networking Healthcare. In Proceed- ings of the 6th International Workshop on Wearable Micro and Nanosystems for Personalised Health, pHealth ’09. Griffin & de Leastar (2009)
Griffin, L., Foley, C. and de Leastar, E. (2009). A Hybrid Architectural Style for Complex Healthcare Scenarios. In Proceedings of the Communications Work- shops, IEEE International Conference on Communication, ICC ’09. Griffin et al. (2009)
Griffin, L. & de Leastar, E. (2008). A Model for IM and Media Driven Communication Services, In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Information Technology and Telecommunication, IT&T ’08. Griffin & de Leastar (2008)
After graduation in 1982, he taught computer science at Dundalk Institute of Technology, where he was responsible for a range of new curricula within this sector. He then moved into industry, gaining significant experience in senior programmer, analyst, quality assurance and project leadership roles. This included periods at Wordstar International, developing some of the first word processors on the then newly established PC standard and at Contel Business Systems porting the Unix operating system to a new range of hardware. In the early 90s, while compiler group team leader at Glockenspiel Ltd, he oversaw the implementation of the first commercial C++ compilers on a range of platforms.
A selection of course material delivered in recent years:
Level 9
Level 8
Level 7
Level 6
The above material is hosted publicly on github
It is prepared, managed and published by this python tool developed and mantained my Mr. de Leastar here:
(most recent activity on tutor branch)
A selection of course material delivered in recent years:
Level 9
Level 8
Level 7
Level 6
The above material is hosted publicly on github
It is prepared, managed and published by this python tool developed and mantained my Mr. de Leastar here:
(most recent activity on tutor branch)