# John Breslin (@johnbreslin.eurosky.social)

Profile: https://sifa.id/p/johnbreslin.eurosky.social
Headline: 🇮🇪 🇪🇺 👨‍🏫 Prof in EE at University of Galway 👨‍🔬 PI at Insight 🚀 Co-Founder of PorterShed, boards.ie, adverts.ie 📚 Co-Author of #1 Bestseller Old Ireland in Colour 🪑 Cathaoirleach Gaillimh le Gaeilge 💭 My own

## About

Award-Winning and Highly Cited Established Professor of Electronic Engineering at the University of Galway; Programme Director of TechInnovate and AgInnovate; PI on SustAIn, ADT4Blue, ENEPORTS; Serial Entrepreneur, Startup Co-Founder and Board Member; Bestselling Co-Author of the "Old Ireland in Colour" Book Series 

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Full CV here: https://bresl.in/cv

Website here: http://johnbreslin.com

Publications here: http://johnbreslin.com/publications.php

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John Breslin is an Established Professor of Electronic Engineering in the School of Engineering at the University of Galway, where he is Director of the TechInnovate and AgInnovate (Springboard+) programmes. John has taught electronic engineering, computer science, innovation and entrepreneurship topics over the past 25 years. He is a PI on the SustAIn Research Ireland Frontiers for the Future Programme. With a h-index of 60, over 15,000 citations, and various best paper awards, he has jointly written about 375 peer-reviewed academic publications, including books on The Social Semantic Web and Social Semantic Web Mining. He co-created the SIOC framework, implemented in hundreds of applications (by Yahoo, Boeing, Vodafone, etc.) on at least 65,000 websites with 35 million data instances. He has featured in 275 mainstream media items including articles from CNN, Forbes, New Scientist, Washington Post, and France 24, and has been on 35 panels and given over 80 talks at venues including Stanford, Tsinghua University, and the Library of Congress.

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John co-authored the Irish bestsellers Old Ireland in Colour (Nielsen BookScan Christmas #1 in Ireland 2020, Best Irish-Published Book Award 2020), Old Ireland in Colour 2 (#1 in Ireland, end of November 2021) and Old Ireland in Colour 3. John is Co-Founder of boards.ie (Ireland's largest discussion forum website), adverts.ie (classified ads website), and StreamGlider (real-time streaming newsreader app). He has won two IIA Net Visionary Awards, an ITAG Outstanding Contribution to the ICT Sector Award, and a Galway Chamber President's Award (Business Person of the Year). He is Co-Founder of the PorterShed (Galway City Innovation District), and serves on the Advisory Council of Scale Ireland. John is Cathaoirleach (Chair) of Gaillimh le Gaeilge, a Former Director and Past Chair of WestBIC, and a Director Emeritus of the American Council of Exercise. He undertook the Entrepreneurship Development Program with Bill Aulet at MIT in 2017. From Fanore in the Burren, he lives in Connemara, and holidays in Carcassonne.

## Experience

- **Advisor at AYLIEN** (2014 – 2023)
  AYLIEN provided a text analytics framework powered by semantic technologies, and was initially funded by SOS Ventures (Sean O'Sullivan, Bill Liao). It was acquired by Quantexa in 2023.
- **Director at WestBIC** (2014 – 2022)
  WestBIC (Western Business and Innovation Centre) helps entrepreneurs in the West of Ireland to get investor ready.
- **Senior Lecturer at University of Galway** (2014 – 2019)
  I was promoted to Senior Lecturer in Electronic Engineering in the College of Engineering and Informatics at the National University of Ireland Galway. I am course director of the MSc in TechInnovation and the MSc in AgInnovation.
- **Funded Investigator at Confirm Smart Manufacturing** (2017 – 2019)
  Confirm is the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Smart Manufacturing. Confirm benefits from expertise across eight core research performing organisations in Ireland and 16 international collaborations. Confirm has 42 industry partners across the MNC and SME sectors including: Johnson & Johnson, Analog Devices, Action Point, Modular Automation, SL Controls, United Technologies Research Centre Ireland, KUKA, Medtronic, and many others.
- **Co-Founder at boards.ie Ltd.** (2000 – 2018)
  I co-founded and was a director of boards.ie Ltd., Ireland's largest community forum site, which was incorporated as a company in 2000. The site began life as a computer gaming forum I set up in 1998.
- **Chairman, Co-Founder at Startup Galway** (2013 – 2016)
  I am Co-Founder and Chairman of the Startup Galway initiative, which aims to build an entrepreneurial ecosystem in Galway. We organise a monthly tech meetup where attendees can hear from the experiences of a successful tech founder. Also behind the initiative are John Brosnan (NetFort), Mic FitzGerald (OnePageCRM) and Barry O'Sullivan (Altocloud, Dragon's Den). I was also Co-Organiser of the first successful Galway Startup Weekend in November 2014.
- **Advisor at AISLER** (2014 – 2016)
  AISLER manufactures powerful (electronic) prototypes for customers in over 100 countries worldwide everyday.
- **Advisor at Birdleaf** (2013 – 2016)
  BirdLeaf provided aggregate demographic analyses of customer prospects simply based on a list of email addresses. As CloudDock, the company was a graduate of the NDRC LaunchPad Accelerator, winner of the SCCUL Enterprise ICT Award for 2013, winner of Ireland's Best Young Entrepreneur Galway Award in 2014, and a participant in the Wayra Ireland Accelerator (a Telefonica initiative). The founders are both graduates of NUI Galway.
- **Funded Investigator at Insight Centre for Data Analytics** (2013 – 2015)
  I am also Leader of the Unit for Social Software at the Insight Centre for Data Analytics, NUI Galway (formerly DERI).
- **Galway City Coordinator at Startup Gathering** (2015 – 2015)
  The Startup Gathering is a public/private partnership intended to advance the goal of Ireland becoming a startup hub by 2020. I was invited by Ged Nash TD, Minister for Business and Employment, to participate on the Steering Group for the Startup Gathering as the City Coordinator for Galway.
- **Electric Car Ambassador at ESB** (2014 – 2015)
  I was one of 30 ambassadors selected from 20,000+ applicants to take part in the ESB's Great Electric Drive 2014/2015, and I drove the BMW i3 electric car for the duration of my ambassador role.
- **Advisor at Dot-Irish** (2012 – 2014)
  Dot-Irish is a new top-level domain (.irish) for everything Ireland-related.
- **Co-Founder at Adverts.ie** (2006 – 2012)
  Along with my co-founders at boards.ie, I set up a separate classified adverts site called adverts.ie based on the success of the For Sale forum area on boards.ie. This was later incorporated as a separate company in partnership with Daft Media Ltd. Adverts Marketplace Ltd. was acquired in a joint venture by Distilled Media Group and Schibsted Media Group in 2015.
- **Postdoctoral Researcher, Adjunct Lecturer at University of Galway** (2004 – 2008)
  I worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI) at the National University of Ireland Galway.
  
  My research interests include the Semantic Web and social software, and I am co-creator of the Semantically-Interlinked Online Communities (SIOC) project at http://sioc-project.org. During my work at DERI, I was also an adjunct lecturer at the University, doing some teaching and student supervision.
- **Lecturer (Fixed Term) at University of Galway** (2000 – 2004)
  I lectured full time at NUI Galway from 2000 to 2004.
- **Research Officer at University of Galway** (1998 – 1999)
  I worked for a year as a research officer funded by PEI Technologies (Power Electronics Ireland), where I coded high frequency optimisation and transformer design algorithms, and developed a compact GUI in Visual Basic to display large amounts of data, while interfacing the software with core and winding database files.
- **Visiting Scholar at Virginia Tech** (1996 – 1996)
  During the summer of 1996, I was paid by Virginia Tech to work as a visiting scholar in the Virginia Power Electronics Center (VPEC).
  
  I also held a green card during this time.
- **Advisor at Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture** (2014 – 2016)
  I joined the Galway 2020 Advisory Panel in June 2014, advising on Galway's bid for European Capital of Culture (ECoC), as well as participating in the judging panel visit in July 2016. The purpose of this panel was to provide a high-level cultural overview of the ECoC programme, to advise on how to proceed with the ECoC bid process, to assist in the development of the bid, to ensure that the principles and aims of the ECoC programme were met through the bid process, to ensure that the bid and the programme submitted met the high artistic and cultural quality requirements, to ensure that the bid met the criteria laid down by the European Commission, to ensure best practice models were followed, and to receive reports on the progress of the bid and provide feedback. Galway was awarded European Capital of Culture 2020 in July 2016.
- **Co-Founder at StreamGlider Inc.** (2011 – 2014)
  StreamGlider is a next-generation mobile content delivery platform. As a real-time multimedia newsreader, it competes with applications such as Flipboard, Pulse and Flud. StreamGlider is available primarily as a standalone app on the iPad, but is also deployable for private labelling. As such, we aim to give control and branding back to publishers. Co-founders are Nova Spivack and the late Bill McDaniel.
  
  (I became Acting CEO before StreamGlider's dissolution in November 2014, and was previously VP of Products and Marketing.)
- **Advisor at Trugence** (2012 – 2014)
  Trugence is a converged media and ecommerce framework.
- **Lecturer (Above the Bar) at University of Galway** (2008 – 2014)
  I was appointed as a Lecturer (Above the Bar) in Electronic Engineering in the College of Engineering and Informatics at the National University of Ireland Galway.
- **Advisor at CrowdGather** (2011 – 2014)
  CrowdGather is a discussion forum network based in Los Angeles.
- **Associate Researcher at DERI** (2008 – 2013)
  Founder and leader of the Unit for Social Software (USS).
- **Founder at New Tech Post** (2010 – 2012)
  I was founder and director of Social Media Ltd., trading as New Tech Post.
- **Co-Principal Investigator at Insight Centre for Data Analytics** (2015 – present)
  I was appointed as a Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI) at the Insight Centre for Data Analytics, Ireland's largest ICT research centre, funded by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI). Co-PI indicates an independent researcher who co-holds an award from SFI, in this case under the Research Centres programme. I am Leader of the Unit for Social Semantics (USS) at Insight.
- **Director at PorterShed** (2015 – present)
  Our vision is for a downtown Innovation District in Galway City, attracting creators, innovators and entrepreneurs who wish to work in close proximity to others in a supportive and connected environment, as well as young technology companies with strong growth potential, and eventually larger companies and multinationals. We started with one innovation hub, the PorterShed, with plans for other complementary hubs as part of a fully-fledged Galway City Innovation District.
  
  The PorterShed has become Galway's downtown entrepreneurship hub in the two years since it opened in May 2016, with 100 people/30 companies based in the space, 400 events held there, and 8,000 visitors. With my fellow volunteer board members at the not-for-profit Galway City Innovation District, I led the proposal writing for the Enterprise Ireland co-funded "NDRC at PorterShed" accelerator in Galway, which was Ireland's first regional accelerator.
- **Colouriser at Old Ireland in Colour** (2019 – present)
  I have worked as a colouriser on the Old Ireland in Colour book trilogy and series of associated Old Ireland in Colour exhibitions, in a Partnership / Firm with Dr Sarah-Anne Buckley.
  
  As a Sole Trader, I have also colourised a variety of old Irish photographs for book covers, TV programmes (RTÉ, TG4), records (Claddagh Records), magazines, exhibitions, interiors, promotions (Druid Theatre), and more.
- **Academic Council (Steering Group) Member at Scale Ireland** (2019 – present)
  Scale Ireland raises the profile of Ireland's tech startup and scaleup companies, while also showcasing the positive impact of Irish entrepreneurs on the wider economy in relation to employment, exports and innovation. Scale Ireland also draws attention in the media to key sectoral issues.
- **Programme Director at TechInnovate** (2016 – present)
  TechInnovate is an entrepreneurship development programme where interdisciplinary teams from engineering, business and design backgrounds align unmet domain needs with a market opportunity through a technology innovation. AgInnovate was also recently established as a sister programme to TechInnovate.
- **Funded Investigator at VistaMilk SFI Research Centre** (2018 – 2025)
  The VistaMilk SFI Research Centre represents a unique collaboration between agrifood and ICT research institutes and leading Irish/multinational agrifood and ICT companies. Funded by Science Foundation Ireland and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, VistaMilk's aim is to be a world-leading SFI Research Centre for precision pasture-based dairying.
- **Personal Professor at University of Galway** (2019 – 2025)
  I was promoted to Personal Professor in Electronic Engineering in the College of Engineering and Informatics at the National University of Ireland Galway. A Personal Professorship, similar to a Personal Chair, is awarded in recognition of high levels of achievement.
  
  I have written a blog post about the promotion process for the benefit of others, see below.
- **Co-Principal Investigator at Confirm Smart Manufacturing** (2019 – 2023)
  I was appointed as a Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI) at the Confirm SFI Research Centre for Smart Manufacturing, funded by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI). Co-PI indicates an independent researcher who co-holds an award from SFI, in this case under the Research Centres programme.
- **Chair / Vice-Chair at WestBIC** (2019 – 2022)
  I was elected as Vice-Chair of WestBIC in February 2019. I was later elected as Chair of WestBIC in December 2019. I reverted to Vice-Chair in April 2021. I was again elected as Chair in December 2021, serving until June 2022.
- **Advisor at Pocket Anatomy** (2014 – 2019)
  Pocket Anatomy is a 3D human body educational tool for the iPad. It was winner of The Next Web Best Tech Startup Award in 2014 and is a member of the StartUp Health Academy. Fellow advisors include Paul Gilson (Novate), Paul Kenny (Cobone) and Liang Hoe (ex-Apple).
- **Advisor at BuilderEngine** (2013 – 2019)
  BuilderEngine is a next-generation HTML5 web builder and CMS.
- **Established Professor at University of Galway** (2025 – present)
  I was promoted to Established Professor of Electronic Engineering (Research/Scholarship Track) in the School of Engineering at the University of Galway. An Established Professorship, similar to an Established Chair, is awarded in recognition of exceptional and sustained achievements.
- **Cathaoirleach at Gaillimh le Gaeilge** (2023 – present)
  Ghlac mé ról an Chathaoirligh i Nollaig 2023.
- **Stiúrthóir at Gaillimh le Gaeilge** (2022 – present)
  Thosaigh mé mar Comhalta den Bhord Stiúrthóirí le Gaillimh le Gaeilge i Meán Fómhair 2022. Oibríonn Gaillimh le Gaeilge chun cur le hinfheictheacht agus le hinchloisteacht na Gaeilge i nGaillimh.
- **Blogger at Technology Voice** (2012 – present)
  Technology Voice is an online publisher of long-form articles on emerging technologies.
- **Director at American Council on Exercise** (2013 – 2019)
  I was appointed to the Board of Directors for the American Council on Exercise (ACE) in 2013. ACE is the largest non-profit fitness certification, education and training organisation in the world. I served as Secretary (officer of the corporation), Member of the Executive Committee, Member of the Compensation Committee, and Chair of the Bylaws & Governance Committee.

## Education

- **University of Galway** — Diploma in Arts (2020 – 2021)
- **Massachusetts Institute of Technology** — Entrepreneurship Development Program (2017 – 2017)
- **University of Galway** — Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching & Learning in Higher Education (2012 – 2013)
- **University of Galway** — PhD (1994 – 2002)
- **University of Galway** — Bachelor of Engineering - BE (1990 – 1994)
- **Mary Immaculate Secondary School, Lisdoonvarna** — Leaving Certificate (1985 – 1990)

## Skills

- Colourisation
- Semantic Web
- PHP
- Lecturing
- Social Networking
- Social Media
- Web Design
- Community Building
- Electronic Engineering
- Web Development
- Programming
- Start-ups
- Entrepreneurship
- Computer Science
- Software Development
- Software Engineering
- Research
- Algorithms
- Blogging
- MySQL
- Mobile Applications
- Leadership
- Databases
- XML
- Semantic Technologies
- Visual Basic
- Linux
- Digital Media
- Web 2.0
- Software Design
- Human Computer Interaction
- Training
- User Experience
- CSS
- RDF
- Distributed Systems
- Web Applications
- Publishing
- Project Management
- Big Data
- Cloud Computing
- Drupal
- Multimedia
- JavaScript
- Mobile Devices
- Open Source
- Enterprise Software
- Complex Project Management

## Projects

- **Eurapp**
  Eurapp was a study of the EU app economy, led by NUI Galway and Gigaom, and funded as part of the Startup Europe initiative from the European Commission.

You can download our final report "Sizing the EU App Economy" from the EU Bookshop: http://bookshop.europa.eu/en/sizing-the-eu-app-economy-pbKK0114242/
- **SIOC** — http://sioc-project.org
  The SIOC initiative (Semantically Interlinked Online Communities) aims to enable the integration of online community information. SIOC provides a Semantic Web ontology for representing rich data from the Social Web in RDF. It has achieved significant adoption through its usage in a variety of commercial and open-source software applications, and is commonly used in conjunction with the FOAF vocabulary for expressing personal profile and social networking information. By becoming a standard way for expressing user-generated content from such sites, SIOC enables new kinds of usage scenarios for online community site data, and allows innovative semantic applications to be built on top of the existing Social Web. The SIOC ontology was previously published as a W3C Member Submission, which was submitted by 16 organisations. The initiative was supported by Science Foundation Ireland under grant numbers SFI/02/CE1/I131 (Líon), SFI/08/CE/I1380 (Líon 2) and SFI/12/RC/2289 (Insight).
- **STARTED**
  Research innovations often remain locked within research organisations (HEIs/research institutes and research-active businesses), never making their way into commercial startups or new business units. Leveraging these innovations should be a priority for such institutions. However, due to a dearth of entrepreneurial skillsets, researchers have little understanding about: (1) how to bring these innovations to market; (2) how to generate revenue; or (3) how to create important new areas for sustainable employment. STARTED (STArtup skills for Researchers and innovaTors in Entrepreneurship Development) will put in place a project-based learning approach for developing entrepreneurial skills (and spirit) in researchers, to foster interactions between stakeholders in R&D innovation, and to guide the transfer of innovative research projects through to becoming robust startup opportunities. This project was funded by the EACEA Erasmus+ Programme Knowledge Alliances.

## Publications

- Google Scholar Citations (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=D8lvl64AAAAJ&hl=en)
- Open Access Publications (http://www.johnbreslin.com/publications.php)

## Honors and awards

- Outstanding Contribution to the ICT Sector
- Finalist, Research2Business Award
- 50 Incredible People Who Are Shaping Modern Ireland
- President's Award (Business Person of The Year)
- Best Irish-Published Book of the Year Award

## Languages

- English (native)
- Irish (limited_working)
- French (limited_working)

## Other profiles

- website: http://johnbreslin.com