Academic Showcase

(opens in a new window)Dr Ellen Rowley

Ellen Rowley is an architectural and cultural historian based in the School of Architecture, APEP, UCD. She is a writer and teacher, currently curating Belfield 50, a celebration of UCD’s 1960s and 1970s campus. Ellen mostly writes about twentieth-century Irish architecture, as a type of social history. Her books include 'Housing, Architecture + the Edge Condition' (2019) and 'More Than Concrete Blocks' (edited, 2016 + 2019), as well as (as co-editor) 'Architecture 1600–2000, Art + Architecture of Ireland, Volume IV' (2014). This history is pioneering and so, she admits, there are mistakes. In 2017, Ellen was awarded Honorary Membership of the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland, for services to Irish architecture.

You can find the Davis Now lecture series here:
UCD Davis Now Lectures

(opens in a new window)Dr. Elizabeth Shotton

The built environment stretches across time. In that time, its materials store ‘embodied’ energy and carbon, some of which help to reduce emissions of carbon to the environment, such as the use of timber. In that time too, materials get broken down by the environment, and in the face of that damage our approaches to remodelling and rebuilding change. Dr Elizabeth Shotton at UCD School of Architecture is looking forward in time at how we can make more environmentally sustainable use of timber in the built environment, and she is looking back at the construction of small harbours in Ireland to both preserve and learn from their history.

Read the full case study here: Dr Elizabeth Shotton

(opens in a new window)Professor Madeleine Lowery

Parkinson’s Disease is a neurodegenerative disease that affects parts of the brain that control the movement of muscles, and can result in the person having ‘shakes’ or tremors and experience difficulty walking and speaking. One treatment for these symptoms is Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS), which implants an electrode into the brain to calm muscle tremors and other motor symptoms.
Professor Madeleine Lowery is using computer models to build a better understanding of how DBS affects brain tissue, how it stimulates the nerves that carry signals to muscles and how it impacts the muscles themselves.  Ultimately the aim is to develop a ‘smart’ Deep Brain Stimulation system that can figure out what the person needs and can automatically deliver the correct level of timely stimulation, thereby reducing symptoms effectively and with longer battery life.

You can read the full case study here: Professor Madeleine Lowery

(opens in a new window)Professor Paula Bourke

The race is on to find new and effective ways of treating antimicrobial resistant pathogens, which represent a major threat to the health of patients undergoing surgery for medical implants. Bacterial infection is one of the most common problems associated with such surgery, compounded by the absence of new antibiotics to take up the battle. But a tripartite team involving researchers at UCD and QUB and at Jefferson University in Philadelphia are pioneering new approaches. Plasma is the fourth state of matter (the others are solid, liquid and gas. The researchers are using a combination of the direct application of cold plasma and plasma functionalised liquids. Liquids such as water or saline, can be exposed to a plasma in order to generate particular chemical characteristics, and are under investigation for a range of applications including infection control and cancer therapy. Although still in its early days, if the research is successful it could revolutionise outcomes, vastly improving the quality of life for hundreds of thousands of people each year and providing a new tool in the ongoing battle against antibiotic resistant microorganisms.

Read the full case study here: Professor Paula Bourke

(opens in a new window)Professor Aoife Gowen

Water is the most abundant molecule in the known Universe and it is vital for life, yet we understand precious little about it.  Professor Aoife Gowen is changing that thanks to her expertise in a branch of science called hyperspectral imaging, which looks at minute changes within molecules as they interact.
Her current project, which secured prestigious European Research Council fund-ing, is examining how water interacts with surfaces and how that can affect import-ant processes such as the breakdown over time of materials grafted into the body to repair bone. She is also applying her expertise to help improve the diagnosis of prostate cancer in patient samples and to monitor the growth of bacteria on surfaces.

You can read the full case study here: Professor Aoife Gowen

(opens in a new window)Dr. Fionnuala Murphy

When you figure out the environmental cost of making something, do you take everything into account? Dr Fionnuala Murphy at UCD School of Biosystems & Food Engineering takes a close look at various processes that use bio-based materials - from generating biofuels to making products from algae and agricultural and plastic wastes - and finds the true environmental cost across the life-cycle of those processes.
Dr Murphy’s work has already helped to move towards more sustainable sources for bio-fuel generation and, through major European projects, she is contributing to the development of a more sustainable bioeconomy that reduces levels of agri-food waste by using it for higher value products.

You can read the full case study here: Dr Fionnuala Murphy

(opens in a new window)Dr Sarah Cotterill

Climate change is just one more factor making the unpredictable world of fresh water supply and demand even more uncertain. Dr Sarah Cotterill is interested in finding ways of ensuring continuity of supply when, not if, water systems fail. Despite everyone’s best efforts this will happen, she says, possibly resulting from two or more things occurring at the same time or in swift succession. “That’s where resilience comes into play.” The arrival of just such an event, the COVID pandemic, provided her and a team of researchers from Ireland and the UK with the opportunity to examine how well existing water company risk management strategies performed in response to the challenges presented by a high impact, unpredictable threat. This information is of immense value in helping the water industry and policymakers devise better, more adaptable, approaches to risk management in an increasingly uncertain world.

Read the case study here: Dr Sarah Cotterill

(opens in a new window)Dr. Susan McDonnell

The Biopharmaceutical sector has become an important source of high-level, value added employment in Ireland and the number of biologic manufacturing sites across Ireland has increased from two in 2003 to 22 in 2019.  Biopharmaceutical Bioprocess Engineering is one of the School’s major research priority areas.  Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells have become the standard cells for the large-scale production of biopharmaceuticals and biologics.  Assoc Prof Susan McDonnell of the School of Chemical & Bioprocess Engineering is developing strategies to establish optimal conditions for the continuous growth and productivity of cells within the bioreactor.  A current specific project is to extend the lifetime of CHO cells in culture by preventing a form of cell death known as autophagy.

You can find details of her Master's programme here:
MEngSc Biopharmaceutical Engineering

(opens in a new window)Dr. Liana Ricci

Cities and towns in sub-Saharan Africa are highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. This is due to a combination of rapid urbanisation, socio-economic inequality, and the extent that people’s livelihoods depend on natural resources.
In light of this, Dr Ricci launched a research collaboration between African and European Universities, as well as local authorities and communities, to look at urban development, resilient infrastructure, and adaptation to climate change in the region. The collaboration improved the ability of local authorities to integrate climate change into urban development and environmental plans and programmes.
As a result, many policies in the region have been amended to include measures designed collectively by researchers, public officials, and the local community. Many residents stand to benefit from these measures, which will reduce the impact of climate change on their lives.

You can read the full case study here: Dr. Liana Ricci

(opens in a new window)Dr. Aisling Ní Annaidh

An unusual research topic for her doctoral thesis led Dr Aisling Ní Annaidh into the fascinating world of tissue biomechanics – the study of research into the mechanical and physical properties of tissue – and developing a particular focus on the skin. This has in turn led her and her team to undertake a wide range of research over the past decade with significant practical healthcare impacts. The outcomes include unexpected results leading to changes to EU standards for helmet testing, supporting innovation in Ireland’s world-leading medical devices sector and, most recently, a novel approach to the age-old challenge of customising wheelchairs for people who have a physical disability.

Read the full case study here: Dr Aisling Ní Annaidh

(opens in a new window)Professor Lizbeth Goodman

How can we make sure that technology is designed to suit all the people who might use it? And how can we build technology that helps users with specific needs, such as People With Disabilities, People With Autism Spectrum Disorder, people with medical conditions such as Obesity, or Alzheimer’s Disease and, more generally, marginalised groups in society? These are some of the questions that keep Professor Lizbeth Goodman at SMARTlab in the UCD College of Engineering and Architecture energised. She and the team in the Inclusive Design Research Centre focus on developing technology tools and innovation methods for real social change. Her work across numerous projects and programmes develops new approaches to designing inclusive technologies that suit the individual user. The research has helped people with severe physical disabilities to communicate and create in new way;  it has supported local communities; and it is developing new ways to enable all people to show their strengths.

You can read the full case study here: Professor Lizbeth Goodman

(opens in a new window)Dr. Elena Blokhina

One of the driving trends of the 21st century is technology’s ability to connect. Dr Elena Blokhina at UCD School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering is working on fundamental approaches to enabling even more efficient connection into the future. She is developing new architecture for signal generation to facilitate 5G, the latest standard in wireless infrastructure, and she is designing energy-harvesting technology to enable small devices such as sensors to use nearby movement as a power source. The impact will be a more connected and sustainable web of devices.

You can read the full case study here: Dr Elena Blokhina