Thurles Information

A team of students from the University of Limerick have emerged victorious at this year’s National Robocode Competition which was held as part of the 2024 Games Fleadh at the Technological University of the Shannon (TUS), in Thurles County Tipperary.

The triumphant ‘UL_SeeSaw’ team, comprised of three Computer Science students from the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems (CSIS), namely Mr Nathan Ndlovu, Mr Lewis Ubebe and Mr Maksims Gerkis.

The team faced tough competition from other rival teams representing three higher education institutions in the region, TUS Thurles (Tipperary), TUS Moylish (Limerick) and the South East Technological University (SETU), (Carlow).

Robocode is an annual programming contest open to first year full-time undergraduate students. It provides a platform for participants to showcase their programming prowess and enhance their skills in graphical user interface (GUI) programming, application programming interface (API) usage, and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Using Java programming language, each team develops strategies for their tanks, which must autonomously navigate the battlefield, dodging enemy fire while seeking out and eliminating opponents without manual intervention.

Mr Clem O’Donnell, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Learning Centre Director at UL, reflected on the victory, which he said highlights the University’s commitment to fostering students’ ICT skills and promoting active learning. He stated, “Since 2010, UL ICT students’ participation in this competition and other similar annual competitions has been organised and managed by the ICT Learning Centre as part of our aim to enhance and broaden the students’ ICT skill-sets, promote active and student-centred learning, and to promote ICT as a career path. We are very proud of our students’ achievement, given that UL’s last victory in this competition dates back to 2016.”

Speaking on behalf of the winning team Mr Nathan Ndlovu said: “I think Robocode is an amazing competition as it allows you to demonstrate your skills using API, and also gives you experience of using Java for other purposes – we are delighted with the win!”

This year’s competition featured one team from each of the four represented institutions, engaging in intense battles throughout the morning. UL_SeeSaw’s robotic tank navigated through individual skirmishes to reach the semi-finals, where they faced off against TUS (Moylish), prevailing in a nail-biting match with a score of 7-5. This victory propelled them into the final showdown against TUS (Thurles), where UL emerged victorious with a final score of 9-6.

Residents of Thurles will be aware that over the past few months it became necessary for the ESB to interrupt the electricity supply in most areas of the town.
The reason for these electricity interruptions was Siro, the Irish fibre broadband network operator, which is expanding its network to Thurles, Nenagh and Tipperary Town in Co. Tipperary.

SIRO is a 100% ‘fibre-to-the-building’ network, built on ESB infrastructure. With no copper connection at any point along the network, thus making it faster and more reliable.

SIRO was launched in 2015 as a joint venture between the ESB and Vodafone, with the aim of delivering the first 100% fibre-to-the-building broadband across regional Ireland thus revolutionising the broadband market in Ireland.

Fibre to the Home (FTTH) is an access network method that delivers the highest possible speed of Internet connection by using optical fibre that runs directly into the home, building or office. FTTH is unique, because it removes all the bottlenecks that slow the performance of other types of network. The SIRO Network is built using the ESB’s overhead and underground infrastructure, ensuring a fast, reliable and sustainable network.

SIRO claim that there is up to 60% lower energy usage and 80% lower maintenance required for fibre-to-the-building, versus copper networks.

The Co. Tipperary roll-out will bring fibre broadband to more than 7,000 premises in Thurles and Nenagh. The roll-out in Thurles will be completed in the last quarter of 2023, while the work in Nenagh will be completed soon afterwards.

The roll-out to 2,250 premises in Tipperary town will be completed early-2024.
Once these additional towns are connected, Siro’s full-fibre broadband network will be available to more than 50,000 premises across County Tipperary.

The network operator has invested more than EUR 20 million to roll out its fibre network across the county to date.