Images of Research

Reclaimed & Reimagined: Later-Life Women in the Archive, by Dr Katherine Fama, UCD School of English, Drama and Film

My handmade book explores portrayals of women’s ageing in the nineteenth century archive at Winterthur Library and Museum. It is designed to create new conversations about histories of menopause and the experiences of later-life women. Using cyanotype printing and drawing, the book brings together scholarship, medical and cultural portrayals of menopause, and older women’s diaries and craftwork. The individual cards share moments of archival discovery. The book’s crossing pieces draw a contrast between descriptions of older women as disintegrating, idle, and unwanted and the clear evidence of their cultural, material, and medical contributions. Artworks created by Katherine Fama and Kirin Maker will be used in a series of community workshops. We will invite the public into age studies through creative work with historical texts and a set of craft and writing projects.

Digital Twin of an Oyster Mushroom Cluster, by Dr Meiqing Wang & Dr Dimitrios Argyropoulos, UCD School of Biosystems and Food Engineering

These red instances depict the ‘digital twin’ of a batch of oyster mushrooms being read by a deep learning algorithm, designed to optimize mushroom farming by adapting the environment to become more favourable to growth. The mushrooms are training an image recognition system, which employs computer vision to gather data and interpret these in real time, adjusting humidity, temperature and light conditions to best suit mushroom fruiting.

Climate Change and the Missing Arctic Lake, by Dr Sam Kelley, UCD School of Earth Sciences.

The photograph shows a series of icebergs stranded in a dry lake basin in western Greenland. Anthropogenic warming of Earth's climate has driven recession of the Greenland Ice Sheet, in this case removing the ice, which dammed this lake basin. These stranded icebergs are emblematic of the rapid landscape changes the Arctic faces as climate warms.  

Concrete Sentinels, by Jennifer Coughlan, UCD School of Biology and Environmental Science.

Our ports and harbours are traditionally protected by rock armour and seawalls. Engineered as flat surfaces they often lack the nooks and crannies that occur on natural rocky-shores where biodiversity finds shelter, protection and sustenance. Researchers in the Ecostructure project merged ecological surveys, photogrammetry and modelling approaches to select 3D models of surfaces that worked best for enhancing biodiversity. These were used to develop engineering-standard habitat units constructed using eco-friendly concrete. Units have been incorporated along rock armour on Great South Wall, to test their potential for biodiversity and storm mitigation. For two years, UCD researchers have studied the invertebrates and fish colonising these new habitats to give insight into the benefits of these scaled-up eco-engineering approaches. If we can increase the ecological benefits in our busiest commercial port, maybe these blocks can become a symbol of resilience in an increasingly challenging environment, just like the chimneys towering above them.

From House to Home: Lived Experiences in Social Housing, by Dr Kelly Fitzgerald, Tracey Hayes and Lyndsey Anderson, UCD School of Irish, Celtic Studies and Folklore.

From House to Home An Oral History Collection of Lived Experiences in Social Housing in Dublin. The Irish Council for Social Housing collaborated with Kelly Fitzgerald on an intentional impact project for the international festival on social-housing. One element of this is the Oral History Project to collect oral history of lived experiences in social housing in Dublin with a focus on the past as well as the present, providing a platform for tenants’ stories and offering insights into their experiences in a nuanced, deeply explored manner. Housing, one of the most contentious issues in Irish society at the moment, requires qualitative research to examine the life behind the individual. It is far too simple to imagine everyone is sharing similar experiences and comparable backgrounds. Our research demonstrates that is far from the case. Top: Lynn Hooper, Nobby Hanlon, Imelda Doyle, Sadie Larkin  Bottom: Sadie Larkin, Terry Kearney, Antoinette Reid

Existing and Proposed (Maximized) Wind Farms in the North Sea, by Dr Joerg Rekittke & Maximilian Schob, UCD School of Architecture, Planning and Environmental Policy.

Our research focuses on the offshore wind energy potential in maritime Northern Europe. Although offshore territory appears “empty,” it is evidence of large-scale design. The study area encompasses the exclusive economic zones (EEZ) of several European countries. The related design research aims to maximize the contribution of offshore wind energy to the global energy transition. We used extensive geographic data to inform our design decisions and highlight the importance of geographic context in offshore wind farm design. The outcome has emerged from hard facts and data rather than the designer's preferences. The geographical conditions, along with the underlying legal and political frameworks, take the helm out of the designer's hands—a reality that future designers must accept. The research demonstrates that it is less the designer who defines the shapes and sizes of offshore wind farms, but rather the existing shipping routes—a design based on geographical data and geography.

Blind-Folded Art, by Dr Miguel Niolau, UCD School of Business.

If you were only allowed to randomly paint a canvas and get a score as to how similar it was to a hidden target image, how would you fare? We gave this task to an evolutionary algorithm, a program that mimics genetic evolution. It could use 100 semi-transparent polygons with four corners and any 8-bit colour, so the total number of possible solutions is far bigger than the estimated number of atoms in the universe. When trying to evolve the Mona Lisa painting, and with a very limited number of attempts, the resulting image is not perfect, but it is easily recognisable, and artistic on its own right.

Airflow Over an Ageing Wind Turbine Blade, by Hugh Irving, UCD School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering.

This image, captured of a wind turbine blade model in the UCD wind tunnel, depicts the effects of wind turbine blade ageing on its aerodynamics. This image was captured using a Phantom high speed camera, using smoke injected into the airflow from the leading edge of the model and lit by green continuous wave laser. Airflow in the image is from left to right. In the left of the picture we see relatively undisturbed flow, which then experiences shear effects in the centre of the picture and breaks down into full turbulence on the right. As wind turbine blades age they surface becomes rough, affecting performance greatly. As Ireland and the world moves towards green energy, the performance and life cycles of these ageing wind farms will become a critical to our society.

When Trains Listen to Tracks, by Dr Afrooz Kazemi, UCD School of Civil Engineering.

What if trains could feel the tracks beneath them and tell us when something is wrong? My research turns this idea into reality. Using sensors mounted on regular trains, I collect vibration signals as the trains move. These signals, once just noise, are now powerful data streams that I analyze using machine learning to detect damage in the railway tracks. This “drive-by” monitoring method means we don’t need to send inspectors or special vehicles. The trains themselves become inspectors. My work focuses on building AI models that can identify different types of track degradation and classify them by maintenance needs, helping improve safety and reduce costs. This image captures the fusion of movement, data, and insight, showing how every journey can become a health check for our transport infrastructure. It’s not just about railways, it’s about building smarter, more sustainable systems.

Studying Our Galaxy's Most Powerful Particle Accelerators, by Professor John Quinn, UCD School of Physics.

This image is of VERITAS Telescope 1 observing the recently discovered supernova remnant G17.8+16.7 in the galactic plane. When massive stars die they produce spectacular supernovae, accelerating stellar material to close to the speed of light and leaving behind exotic objects such as neutron stars and black holes. Supernovae remnants have been found to be accelerators of particles to very high energies, in the process producing x-rays and gamma rays. VERITAS, an array of four 12 m telescopes for TeV gamma-ray astronomy located the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory (FLWO) in Arizona, is operated by an international team of scientists including members of the UCD School of Physics. VERITAS measurements of the gamma-ray flux, spectra and morphology of such objects provide key information to understand the physical processes at work in the high-energy universe. Image taken by John Quinn while conducting observations with VERITAS at FLWO in May 2023.

When the Mountain Shapes the Wave, by Dr Ivan Lokmer, UCD School of Earth Sciences.

This image captures a simulated snapshot of the seismic wavefield generated by a long-period source 600 meters beneath the summit of Mt. Etna. The distortion from a perfectly circular pattern illustrates how the volcano’s pronounced topography affects the propagation of seismic energy. These simulations play a key role in decoding seismic data and revealing the subsurface processes that drive volcanic activity.

The Mysteries of Manuscripts, by Professor Danielle Clarke, UCD School of English, Drama and Film.

This is an image of Folger Ms V.b.198, a miscellany of verse compiled and authored by Lady Anne Southwell (1574-1636). What we see here is her signature, and then underneath, in the hand of the scribe, a statement that the text above (a playful letter explaining the virtues of poetry) is a “vera Copia” (a true copy), with the name of the scribe and the date. Both have been scribbled out and are obscure. It is possible to use various imaging technologies to excavate the layers of production in a manuscript like this; but core questions remain. What is the relationship between the author, and the scribe? Why did someone want to erase the identity of the scribe? Was the letter dictated or written up from notes? This is an example of the complex material, textual and conceptual research questions raised by working with paper archives.

Survey Section, by Paul Durcan, UCD School of Architecture, Planning and Environmental Policy.

The attached hand-drawn sketch was carried out spontaneously during a field trip, on site, standing on a bridge looking up the river Duiske in the town of Graiguenamanagh on the Kilkenny, Carlow border. Graiguenamanagh is the focus area for a design research project currently running in the school of architecture in UCD. The focus of the research project is concerned specifically with the town’s relationship with the Duiske river and the Barrow river. The rivers have been a critical agent in the town’s formation across several centuries and remains an essential component of its future. They have contributed positively to its economic development such as powering mills, providing transport and communication to the outside world, and more recently providing amenities to boost tourism in the area. The sketch captures the unique relationship of the river with it’s man-made surrounds, in this case an old forge which was once powered by the river adjacent to it. The heritage buildings have been neglected over time due to decay and flood damage and pose an opportunity for the town’s renewal and relationship with the river.

Experiment Failed, But a Flower Bloomed, by Yixin Chen, UCD School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering.

While testing the nanopore, the signal faded into silence. From experience, I knew the pore was likely clogged. To uncover the cause, we turned to SEM. What we discovered was not a flaw, but a wonder—a tiny flower-like structure blooming right at the heart of the nanopore.  When results do not arrive as planned, beauty sometimes emerges instead. So when your own experiments falter, take heart—failure may simply be clearing space for another flower to bloom where you least expect it.

What's That On My Head? Baby EEG at UCD, by Assoc Prof Nuala Brady with Dr Aine Ni Choisdealbha and Florencia Sandoval Gomez, UCD School of Psychology.

At the UCD Babylab, we use electroencephalography (EEG) to learn about what is happening in babies' brains. EEG involves placing sensors on the scalp to measure patterns of ongoing brain activity. We can examine how these patterns change in response to all kinds of different input like sounds, images, and even touch. Dr Áine Ní Choisdealbha and Florencia Sandoval used EEG to study how parts of the brain involved in movement activate when babies watch other people's actions. It's like they are imagining imitating the other person, which is one of the earliest ways we learn about other people's mental states, like intentions. Our elasticated EEG nets have soft, spongy containers for the sensors. They are designed to be comfortable for babies take part in our research, babies just like the little one in this image whose parent has given us permission to share it.

Stitched Together by Science: Weaving Rare Disease Across Species, by Assoc Prof Niamh O'Sullivan, UCD School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science.

This repeating textile motif mirrors the nervous systems of humans and fruit flies. Despite vast differences in size and complexity, these organisms share fundamental biological similarities. The same core genes shape both nervous systems — a discovery that has powered over a century of research into human disease using flies. In my lab, the fly is more than a model; it’s a vital research partner. Its simple nervous system and powerful genetic tools allow us to explore the causes of rare and complex neurodegenerative diseases. By manipulating fly genes, we uncover how these disorders develop — and how they might be treated. This fabric, created as part of the ‘Cut From the Same Cloth’ project funded by Research Ireland, transforms scientific data into visual design, revealing the evolutionary threads connecting all living systems. Through art and science, it celebrates the hidden links between species and the shared biology that drives medical discovery.

AI Glitches Too, by Kayley Moylan, UCD School of Information and Communication Studies.

Art Therapy (AT) is a psychotherapeutic approach to processing difficult emotions through creativity. Its openness to diverse forms of expression presents potential opportunities for support by recent technological advancements. In my PhD research, I have worked with ATs across Ireland to understand their perceptions of the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to shape their practice. AI tools’ capacity to generate beautiful, emotive imagery surprised ATs, who yet found a darkness to flood these images—holding within their creations; the shadows of our prejudiced past, distorted realities, and false perfections. This vision – a collage of these creations – reflects the non-linearity and messiness of human experience. ATs’ creations here, are layered on top of one another, signifying the layers of oneself that must unfold when working through mental health challenges. Like AI-systems, those struggling, may too carry shadows. However, with appropriate support, can learn to face the distortions, embrace the messiness – leading to better tomorrows.

Fly Brain Glows Like Holiday Lights, by Emma Cadoria, UCD School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science.

At first glance, this might look like a miniature Christmas tree glowing in red, green, and blue—but it’s actually the brain of a fruit fly. The colours reveal the inner workings of cells: red lights up the endoplasmic reticulum, the cell’s protein factory; blue marks the nuclei; and green shows Dcp-1, a signal of programmed cell death. In my research at UCD, I use these tiny brains to study a devastating childhood neurological disorder called Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP). By modeling the disease in fruit flies, we can observe what happens at a microscopic level to better understand patients’ diseases. Supervised by Professor Breandán Kennedy and Associate Professor Niamh O’Sullivan, this work shows how even the smallest brains can shine a light on big questions about human neurodegenerative diseases.

Heritage: Demystifying the Class System in Ireland’s Legal Profession, Dr Saoirse Enright, UCD School of Law.

This triptych captures an intergenerational journey of class, identity, and education. It illustrates how heritage can intersect with one’s sense of self and place in society in obscured ways. A child sits on her mother’s lap. Her aunt plays the banjo, while her grandfather, Pecker Dunne, a renowned Traveller musician, is on the fiddle. Though their time together was brief, she recognises how deeply his legacy resonates with her inner compass. Her PhD conferral is as symbolic as the translation of her name: freedom. The irony is not lost, as Saoirse is now etched on the walls of UCD, in recognition of her research on class within Ireland’s legal profession—spaces historically unrepresentative of her heritage. A newspaper clipping of Pecker and writer John B. Keane blurs the image, symbolising the unspoken nature of class divisions and her familial ties to them, now deepened by her engagement to Keane’s grandson.

Afterlives of Democracy, by Assoc Prof Samantha Martin, UCD School of Architecture, Planning and Environmental Policy.

The Athenian Agora is considered the wellspring of democracy. Its classical architecture serving as a backdrop to debate and dialectic. After the demise of democracy, the buildings of the Agora were reimagined and adapted to suit the ambitions of monarchy and later empire. This image is a collage: at the bottom is a drawn plan of the post-classical (Hellenistic) Agora and at the top is a view across the Agora from the Hellenistic Stoa of Attalos (reconstructed in the 20th century). The dotted lines show the viewpoints towards classical structures from the position of the camera. 

Upcycling the Past: Discovering the Oldest Manuscripts in UCD Library, by Dr Elizabeth Mullins, UCD School of History.

Researching medieval manuscript fragments can feel like trying to solve a jigsaw whose pieces are uncertain, but also like holding the key to uncovering the frequently amazing biographies of books. This reality came home to me some years ago when I spied a series of fragments in the spines of two of the oldest printed books in UCD Library. Analysis of the fragments’ script and clues within the volumes, whose binding they had been upcycled to support, revealed how this vellum sellotape was from a manuscript of the Old Testament that was produced in a monastery in Germany in the early 9th century. Even more exciting was the discovery that other fragments from this manuscript are preserved in the spine of an early printed book now in a library in New Zealand, thus allowing the Library’s smallest and now oldest identified material to tell a story of global significance.

Silica Stories: Emmer Wheat at the Microscale, by Dr Robert Power, UCD School of Archaeology.

This image shows emmer wheat (Triticum dicoccum) at the microscale: long, charred phytoliths (opaline silica) and glowing calcium oxalate crystals under cross-polarised light. Phytoliths may have proliferated in grasses during the Cenozoic, perhaps part of an evolutionary arms race with herbivores, leaving durable traces that survive burning and lodge in mineralised dental calculus for millennia. By reading these shapes, we can track how cereals spread from Near Eastern domestication to their adoption in Ireland by the Neolithic first farmers. These remains come from an emmer plant in the UCD School of Archaeology plant reference collection, grown at an experimental farm in Cornstown, North County Dublin. This Z-stack was photographed on a Nikon 80i with a λ (lambda) compensator and 10× dry objective. I like to think of plant silica as an ancient "data layer": while our computers run on silicon, plants wrote their own history in silica.

Dinner Diligence, by Assoc Prof Dara Stanley, UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science.

A red-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius) working hard to extra nectar and pollen from common knapweed (Centaurea nigra). She has large pollen sacs ready to bring back to feed her developing larvae, and works tirelessly to keep collecting food for them throughout the day. Our research on bumblebees and agri-environment schemes consistently shows the value of knapweed for bumblebees, especially our rarer species. The loose pollen on this bee’s body is what will get deposited on the next flower, pollinating it. Over 90% of all wild plants rely on pollination in this way. We often analyse pollen grains carried on bee bodies and in pollen sacs as a record of what plants they are foraging on, and to estimate the pollination services they deliver. We can record bumblebee activity using tiny RFID tags attached to their back, and have used machine learning to help identify pollen grains they carry. 

A Stroll for the Soul, by Dr Attracta Lafferty, UCD School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Systems.

This image portrays two colleagues strolling through the beautiful UCD Woodlands during a ‘walk and talk’ lunchtime session, which took place as part of an eight-week UCD wellbeing programme. The workplace-based pilot programme was organised as part of the HRB-funded CAREWELL research project, which aims to promote health and self-care among employees who unselfishly give their time to care for sick or dependent family members. This 40mins lunchtime walk around the campus woodlands allowed these family carers time out for themselves, to relax, to take in all that nature has to offer in the beautiful surroundings of the Woodlands, while spending quality time with their peers. This is precious ‘respite’ time away from the realities of juggling work and care responsibilities. Providing family carers with a safe space in the workplace to engage in meaningful activities with peers can potentially help them to enhance their well-being, while remaining productive in their work. NOTE: Modified using PowerPoint's ‘Artistic Effects- Mosaic Bubbles’ to protect anonymity.