US firm to donate software tools to College

A TOP American technology firm will donate $750,000 (€625,120) worth of software licenses every year to the National University of Ireland, Maynooth to assist in teaching and academic research.

The software will be donated by Agilent Technologies, a global measurement company and will enable the automatic design of powerful electronic systems at the University, which has over 6,000 registered students.

Managing Director of Agilent Technologies Ireland, Kevin Sweeney said: “Supporting scientific education is at the core of Agilent’s business as an innovation company.

“By offering our support to the National University of Ireland, Maynooth in the form of these software licenses, we are giving opportunities to the next generation of scientific researchers in Ireland to create new applications that will boost Ireland’s reputation for research and development on the international stage,” he added.

Dr Ronan Farrell of the National University of Ireland Maynooth said: “This generous donation of Agilent’s ADS software tools will enable the researchers at NUI Maynooth to undertake world-class research in the area of the next generation of mobile communications.

“The specific capabilities of ADS in the areas of electromagnetic modelling and radio frequency system engineering are unparalleled and great enablers of research in our field. This donation will also facilitate the teaching of these advanced subjects in the undergraduate electronic engineering programmes at NUI Maynooth.”

Agilent Technologies is the leading supplier of Electronic Design Automation (EDA) software for high-frequency system, circuit, and modelling applications.

These applications include signal integrity as well as radio frequency and microwave amplifier, mixer and filter design for commercial wireless, aerospace and defence markets.

Agilent Technologies’ 21,000 employees serve customers in over 110 countries. Agilent had net revenue of $5.1 billion in 2005.