Leverage increased social media activity for better demand forecasting

Opinion: COVID-19 has transformed customer behaviour from the way people shop to the products and services they buy. These changed shopping patterns are likely to last into the near future. They may even extend into the longer term because, on average, a new behaviour persisting for about two months becomes a habit. Retailers, if they...

Twitter and Facebook posts can predict shoppers’ intentions accurately

Large retailers, family-run enterprises and small craft stores can accurately forecast shoppers’ intentions using a social media analysis framework developed by researchers at Lero, the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Software and Maynooth University. Prof Markus Helfert from Lero who is leading the Digital Retail Research Programme at Maynooth University said: “This information can...

Lero researchers and Motion-S receive Industrial Fellowship Award

Lero researchers Dr Barry Sheehan and Dr Finbarr Murphy of the Emerging Risk Group at University of Limerick, in collaboration with Luxembourg firm Motion-S, have been selected by the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) for funding under the Industrial Fellowships Programme.  The funding will support Leandro Masello, a data scientist with Motion-S, to undertake a PhD project in co-supervision between...

Computer Vision Innovation Award for Lero’s Abeba Birhane

Lero and UCD PhD student Abeba Birhane has won an award in the United States for a research paper which, while still under peer review, has already resulted in the withdrawal of an 80 million image dataset used to train AI.  Abeba, along with Dr Vinay Prabhu, principal machine learning scientist at UnifyID, examined the problematic opacity, data...

Lero to expand with addition of WIT and TSSG researchers

Lero, the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Software, has announced that it is to expand its research capabilities with the addition of Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) as an academic partner.Hosted by University of Limerick (UL) Lero currently brings together expert software teams from universities and institutes of technology across Ireland in a co-ordinated centre...

Lero researcher finds racist and misogynistic terms in image library used to train AI

A study by a researcher from Lero, the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Software and University College Dublin’s Complex Software Lab, has resulted in the withdrawal of an 80-million image library, which has, up to now, been used to train Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) systems. The research by Lero and UCD PhD...

Data Manipulation Series by Lero

This three-part data manipulation series is your introduction to working with data effectively, even if you lack any programming experience. By the end of the series you will learn how to plot professional-looking graphs and handle large data-sets, to perform data analysis and manipulation techniques on your real-world data.

Cork Institute of Technology joins Lero

Lero, the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Software, is to broaden its research resources with the addition of Cork Institute of Technology as an academic partner.Hosted by University of Limerick (UL) Lero currently brings together expert software teams from universities and institutes of technology across Ireland in a co-ordinated centre of research excellence with...

Retail sector faces transformative moment over Covid-19

Opinion: The immediate human and public-health cost of the Covid-19 outbreak will pass but will leave behind a fundamental long-term change in customer behaviour and expectations. First published in The Irish Times, on Friday, 26 June, 2020. Revenues have collapsed for many retailers forced to close temporarily to reduce the spread of the disease. Others...

Tributes paid to Computer Science teachers as first Leaving Cert students set to graduate

The Covid-19 crisis has highlighted the importance of the new Leaving Certificate subject Computer Science, according to researchers at Lero, the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Software and University of Limerick. Computer Science was available to Leaving Certificate students in 40 schools (13 DEIS Schools) selected via open competition. The subject will be rolled...