Professor Eugene O'Brien, BE, MEngSc, PhD

Eugene O’Brien is Professor of Civil Engineering in UCD's School of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering. He recently received a Graduate Research Education Programme (GREP) award to introduce Ireland’s first doctoral programme in Sustainable Development, which will explore themes such as sustainable land use and sustainable transport.

His primary research interests include the dynamic interaction of trucks with bridges and roads; and weigh-in-motion of road vehicles. He has received funding under the last four EU Framework Programmes, which has allowed him to participate in several major international projects. These include ARCHES (developing more efficient techniques for road and bridge maintenance) and ASSET (exploring ways to add intelligence to roads in order to, for example, improve road safety). New projects currently under development are looking at the long term future of European Freight Transport.

Professor O’Brien recently made a breakthrough discovery in predicting where potholes will appear on our roads using Bayesian statistics and mathematical models, which can predict where damage will appear on a road surface and give an indication of when a road surface is likely to fail.

Professor O’Brien also has teaching responsibilities within the Bachelor of Engineering Degree, including modules on Concrete Design, Dynamics of Structures and Bridge Engineering. One of the successful innovations he has introduced is a series of case studies whereby final year students are given an engineering challenge and have to defend their solution before a panel of faculty members and invited industry guests. He also supervises a number of PhD students.

Professor Eugene O'Brien, BE, MEngSc, PhD

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