Trinity PhD student in European final for innovation award

A PhD student at Trinity College Dublin is today (Wednesday May 20th) competing with counterparts in major European universities in the final of an innovation competition run by electronics company Qualcomm.

Daniel Joseph (DJ) Ringis works in the area of AI for video streaming with the Sigmedia Group in Trinity’s Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. From Trinidad, he is in his third year and is supervised by Professor Anil Kokaram and Dr Francois Pitie.

The Sigmedia group has a long history of work in video and audio signal processing. Its technology was twice acquired by Google and is now used in YouTube. 

DJ has been working on optimising the compression engine for video. He has demonstrated significant gains using Machine Learning ideas to automatically control a video engineering appliance called a “transcoder”. 

The Qualcomm Innovation Fellowship (https://www.qualcomm.com/invention/research/university-relations/innovation-fellowship) each year selects top tier universities to compete for an award of $40,000 toward a PhD student’s education. 

Winning students earn a one-year fellowship and are mentored by Qualcomm engineers to facilitate the success of the proposed research.

The European competition also features representatives from University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, EPFL, ETH, University of Amsterdam, Oxford University and the Max Planck Institute.

 Prof Anil Kokaram, Chair of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, said: 

 “We are all delighted to see DJ making an impact on the international stage. This is a super opportunity for him and a great recognition for our work here in Electronic Engineering and the Engineering School at Trinity College.”