International SmartOcean Graduate Enterprise

Biographies

Fiona Regan studied Environmental Science and Technology and graduated with a B.Sc. in 1991. She obtained her PhD in Analytical chemistry in 1994, at Dublin City University (DCU). She took up a position at Limerick Institute of Technology as lecturer in Environmental and Analytical Science in 1996. In 2002 Fiona returned to the School of Chemical Sciences, DCU, as a lecturer in analytical chemistry, in 2008 she became Senior Lecturer and in 2009 became the Beaufort PI in Marine and Environmental Sensing and Associate Professor in Environmental Sensing. Her research is in the area of sensors and continuous water monitoring, with particular interest in materials for anti-biofouling on aquatic deployed systems. Fiona is currently the Director of the Marine and Environmental Sensing Technology Hub (MESTECH) in the National Centre for Sensor Research, established in March 2010, she coordinates the SmartBay research under PRTLI and the International SmartOcean Graduate Enterprise Initiative.

Tim McCarthy is a University Researcher based at National Centre for Geocomputation, NUI Maynooth. He is a CO-PI on the SFI funded StratAG research cluster coordinating five R&D projects focused on developing new geospatial technologies. He has over twenty-two years research and development experience, gained in both academic and industry environments across Europe as well as shorter postings in North & South America, Africa and the Middle East. His background includes geoinformatics, photogrammetry, remote sensing, mobile mapping systems and spatial analysis. He completed a BSc (Geology & Maths) at UCC, MSc (Remote Sensing (UCL)  & a PhD at University of London (Birkbeck) investigating geospatial multimedia technology  in 1999. Since then, he has designed and developed a number of integrated mobile mapping & monitoring systems that have been deployed in aerial, terrestrial and marine environments.

 
Martin White has been a lecturer within the Earth & Ocean Sciences discipline, School of Natural Sciences at NUI, Galway for the last 10 years, with 10 years at NUIG as a postdoctoral fellow prior to that. Martin gained his PhD in benthic boundary layer dynamics in 1991 from Southampton, UK. Since his arrival in Ireland, he has been involved in numerous EU and National relating to his main areas of expertise: hydrography and physical dynamics at the continental shelf edge, with an emphasis on those pertaining to bio-physical interactions, and marine optics for water quality measurements.  Martin has 45 peer reviewed publications.

Raymond Alcorn is currently the Executive Director at the Hydraulics and Maritime Research Centre, an executive management and business development role. With a 42 strong multi-disciplinary team, He is involved in providing Research and Commercial Services to the Ocean Energy (Wave Tidal & Offshore Wind) and Coastal Engineering Sector. Originally an electrical engineer, Dr. Alcorn has been involved in ocean energy for the past 15 years having first obtained his PhD in the field from Queens University of Belfast and then becoming a Chartered Engineer through his work in Industry.

Stephen Daniels is Director of the Energy and Design Laboratory and the Nanomaterials Processing laboratory in DCU, both multidisciplinary research teams with extensive expertise in plasma technology and energy systems. He is a PI in the SFI-funded 'Precision' Strategic Research Cluster, as well as being an academic member of the BDI and a PI for the MESTECH research initiative. Stephen has founded several successful technology companies and was the recipient of the Mallin Invent Award for Innovation in 2006. Stephen’s primary research objectives are in the areas of plasma physics and engineering, but he also possesses a growing interest in remote sensing and marine-deployed devices. In a project funded by IRCSET and industrial partners, Stephen is looking at the monitoring and control of remote energy installations, including the improvement of energy efficiency for solar and wind systems. In association with MESTECH, work is being carried out on marine-deployed devices, including coatings for antifouling and monitoring in the marine environment.

Daniel Toal is Director of Mobile & Marine Robotics Research centre,University of Limerick (MMRRC)Biography: Daniel was born in Dublin in 1961. He is a chartered engineer qualifiedin both Electrical and Systems Engineering: (Hons Dip Elec Eng, Dublin Institute of Technology; BSc(eng) University of Dublin (TCD) 1984;  MSc - Manufacturing Systems Engineering, Cranfield University, UK, 1986; PhD Marine Robotics, University of Limerick (UL) 2004).  He has worked in the Electrical Power and High Voltage sector with GEC in Britain.  He has worked in Automation Research and Systems Engineering including major systems engineering reorganization projects for industrial sector companies such as GEC in the UK.  Daniel has worked in AMT consultancy in the electronics industry sector.  Daniel is currently a senior lecturer at UL and has lectured for 20+years in: Automation, Sensors & Actuators, Robotics, Instrumentation, Avionics, Sensors, Electrical Machines.  He is Course Director for BEng Robotics & Course Board member - UL BSc Energy. His research interests include:  robotics, land-based and marine robots (both ROVs and AUVs), industrial robots, autonomous mobile vehicles, controller design, automation, sensor integration, motion control, marine renewable energy, and airborne wind energy. Successes in research funding (SFI - Charles Parsons Energy Research Awards, HEA PRTLI 4- Environment & Climate Change, HEA PRTLI 3 Deep Ocean Habitat Mapping, IRCSET, Marine RTDI Measure, ERDF Interreg, Framework Programme and other funding (Marine Technology - Robotics & Ocean Energy) are the result of hard work driven by the vision that the Marine Technology & Renewable Energy Sector will grow in crucial importance.  Daniel is the founder and director of the Mobile & Marine Robotics Research Centre in the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, University of Limerick

Elfed Lewis was born in Holyhead, Wales in 1959.  He received a B.Eng degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from University of Liverpool in 1981.  He was awarded a PhD from University of Liverpool in 1987 for work on high-speed photography and spectroscopy of electric circuit breaker arcs during the current zero phase.Following this, he worked as development engineer with BICC Telecom. Cables, Prescot, Merseyside in conjunction with University of Liverpool developing chromatic modulation based optical fibre sensors for a wide range of applications.  In 1989 he joined Liverpool John Moores University, where he initiated the research activity in Optical Fibre Sensors.  The group investigated sensors for environmental monitoring including water contamination and pH. In 1996 he joined University of Limerick.  He is Head of Department Electronic and Computer Engineering and Director of the Optical Fibre Sensors Research Centre, which he founded in 1996.  The group is primarily engaged in investigating sensors for environmental monitoring (e.g. water quality, vehicle exhaust emissions, UV light intensity), food quality assessment and parameters associated with high power microwave sources (e.g. Electric Field, Electron Beam proximity).

Brendan O'Flynn received his BE Hons in 1993, and in 1995 his MEng Sc degree from University College Cork, National Microelectronics Research Centre. Brendan is WSN Group head, a senior staff researcher at the Tyndall and is Research Activity leader for the WSN group, directing the research activities of the group in the implementation and deployment of wireless sensing systems in a variety of industry funded, nationally funded and European projects. His focus is on Wireless embedded system development for deployment in the monitoring of Health, Energy and the Environment.

Brian Ward graduated with a B.Sc. in Applied Physics (NUIG) and a Ph.D. in Physical Oceanography (NUIG, 1998).
Marie Curie Fellow at the Geophysical Institute/Nansen Centre (Bergen, Norway) from 1999 to 2000.
Postdoctoral Fellow at the NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, (Miami FL, USA) 2001.
Researcher at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (Woods Hole MA, USA) 2002 to 2006.
Assistant professor at Old Dominion University (Norfolk VA, USA) 2006 to present (currently on leave of absence).
Current position: Lecturer in School of Physics, NUIG, and Adjunct Scientist, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (Physical Oceanography Department).

James Chapman - A significant proportion of James’ work focuses on the development of antifouling and antimicrobial materials, and proves to be highly interesting to academia and industry worldwide. The work has already made some significant contributions to the understanding of materials and their capacity to withstand microbial dominance. James has recently supervised 5 undergraduate project students investigating macroalgae as a “Bioinspired” antifouling materials, nanofunctional materials among other surface active polymers and was awarded international recognition at the International Biodeterioration and Biodegradation Conference in September 2012. James has won numerous grants this year to facilitate research in this field and has had an unprecedented output of numerous first author papers, an antimicrobial book and 2 invited book chapters. His other interests are outreach and dissemination of research to young students and teaching undergraduate and postgraduate students, utilising modern technologies to produce alternative learning approaches – for the modern student.

Dermot Brabazon worked from 1995 to 2000 with Materials Ireland, researchcentre in University College Dublin. During this period he developed a number of unique materials tests and products for client companies. He has supervised to completion 19 research PhD and MSc students, published more than 150 peer reviewed papers. He was Chairman of the IMechE (RoI) and the Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering division of Engineers Ireland from 2008 to 2010. He was elected to the Board of Directors of ESAFORM in 2010. His research interests lie in areas of rapid prototyping, laser processing, material science, semi-solid material processing, and in the simulation and development of product and process technologies. Dermot is currently Director for the Advanced Processing Technology Research Centre.

Donal Kennedy graduated from CIT in 2010 with a BSc(Hons) Applied Physics and Instrumentation, and was awarded Faculty of Science best degree student of the same year. My final year project was on process control and SCADA(Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition): this involved designing and building a small process rig suitable for laboratory programming for future students, and development of a control system for the rig using a SCADA package which had recently been purchased by the department. Shortly after graduation I accepted a job with Kentz on a GTL(Gas to Liquids) project in northern Qatar, the largest of its kind in the world. My duties while there included QA/QC management, construction supervision, and loop checking, calibration and troubleshooting of over 8000 I/O loops. After a year in Qatar I took a few months off, worked for several months in Rotterdam on an oil refinery upgrade project as an instrumentation technician, and then applied for this PhD position in Tyndall, where I have been working with WIMUs since April 2012 to develop a wave motion sensor for marine monitoring. Research Interests: Wireless Inertial Measurement Units, Environmental Monitoring, Motion Data Analysis

Brendan Heery completed a bachelors in Mechatronic Engineering from DCU in 2001. He has worked as a prototype engineer with a consulting company and as a research assistant previous to his current position. Before returning to research he has spent 3 years as a school-teacher teaching both Mathematics and English.Brendan has a keen interest in the environment and related public health issues. He has previously worked on a number of water and sanitation projects in developing countries. Consequently he is enthusiastic about his current area of research.

James Kelly holds a Masters in Engineering (major: Sustainable Energy) from University College Cork, Ireland, and a Bachelors in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.  He is currently a PhD candidate at the Hydraulic and Maritime Research Centre (HMRC), University College Cork, Ireland, where he worked at a research engineer in the ocean energy field from 2009-2011 before beginning his PhD.  His thesis focuses on real-time monitoring and control of ocean energy converter

Oshoke Wil Ikpekha graduated from Dublin City University in 2011 with an MSc degree in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering. His thesis was entitled ‘Gas phase deposition of deep polymeric micro cavities’, using plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) technique to create film barrier on surfaces of micro-cavities in Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrate devices. Oshoke has previously carried out top research as a Hamilton scholar and a research student in the Biomedical Diagnostic Institute (BDI) and the National Centre for Plasma Science and Technology (NCPST) respectively. He was involved in a two stage Photo-Lithographic microfluidic device design, manufacturing and testing in the Lee bionano laboratory at University College Dublin (UCD) as a visiting researcher as part of an interdisciplinary research project.

Carla Cummins graduated from a degree (2008) and a PhD (2012), both in the field of bioinformatics. I’ve been working as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Centre for Geocomputation as part of the MMS group since February 2012 with Dr. Tim McCarthy. The focus of my work is implementing online data portals for marine data.

Admir Kaknjo graduated from University of Sarajevo in 2012 with a MSc degree in Electrical Engineering. His thesis was entitled „Localization of holonomic mobile robot using robotic vision and Extended Kalman filter“. Admir was involved in design and development of holonomic mobile robot (Holbos) at Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Sarajevo. From September 2012, he is working on development of Smart Event Triggered Ocean Monitoring Platform as a PhD student at Marine Mobile Robotic Research Center at University of Limerick, Ireland.