DUNDALK INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH LEADERS SEMINAR SERIES

DUNDALK INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH LEADERS SEMINAR SERIES

THE RESEARCH OFFICE IS DELIGHTED TO ANNOUNCE THE INAUGURAL 2015 RESEARCH LEADERS SEMINAR SERIES. THIS SERIES IS WHEREBY THE INSTITUTE’S LEADING RESEARCH LEADERS PRESENT AN OVERVIEW OF THEIR CURRENT RESEARCH ACTIVITY AND HOW IT IS SHAPING AND CONTRIBUTING TO THEIR RESPECTIVE RESEARCH AREAS. We are particularly proud that the presented research cuts across all domains, from Bioscience to the Humanities and Social Sciences. This is further evidence of the breadth and depth of the excellent research currently being undertaken across the Institute and its contribution to the strategic vision of the institute.

I invite you to read through the various biographies and abstracts of the contributing authors and if you would like to attend one of the seminars please register with Mary Reilly in the Research Office at mary.reilly@dkit.ie. All Research Leaders Seminar Series commence at 1:00 p.m. in the Seminar Room of the RDC.

We look forward to seeing you at the seminar series Best Wishes

Dr Tim McCormacHead of Research and Graduate Studies

FOREWORD

TIMETABLE

15 APRIL 2015

29 APRIL 2015

13 MAY 2015

27 MAY 2015

10 JUNE 2015

9 SEPTEMBER 2015

23 SEPTEMBER 2015

07 OCTOBER 2015

14 OCTOBER 2015

21 OCTOBER 2015

04 NOVEMBER 2015

18 NOVEMBER 2015

02 DECEMBER 2015

16 DECEMBER 2015

MARK HOLLYWOOD

SINÉAD LOUGHRAN

RAYMOND BYRNE

HELEN LAWLOR

COLLETTA DALIKENI

EIBHLÍS FARRELL

MARTIN MAGUIRE

KIERAN NOLAN

CONOR BRADY

JULIE DOYLE

ELEANOR JENNINGS

FERGAL MCCAFFERY

ANNALEIGH MARGEY

THOMAS KELLY

SPEAKERS

Dr Mark A HollywoodA MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACH TO DEVELOP NOVEL DRUGS AND ELUCIDATE THEIR MOLECULAR MECHANISM

15 April 2015

This first part of the talk will focus on the development of novel ion channel modulators and assess their structure-activity relationships. The remainder will detail how we utilized the strengths of electrophysiology, molecular biology, mathematical modelling and structural biology to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of action of novel GoSlo compounds.

Dr Mark Hollywood gained a BSc (Hons) in Physiology in 1989 from Queen University of Belfast and began his research with Noel McHale on the innervation of the lymphatic system. Mark then worked for two years in the Veterinary Research Division of the Department of Agriculture. He returned to Queens in 1991 to begin his PhD on the innervation of sheep mesenteric lymphatics. Following the award of his PhD in 1994, he became a post-doctoral worker in the Smooth Muscle Group. During this time they successfully isolated lymphatic and urethral smooth muscle cells and studied them using the patch clamp technique. Following his postdoc, Mark became a Lecturer in the Department of Physiology in 1995 and a Senior Lecturer in October 2001. In 2005, Mark along with colleagues, Prof Noel McHale, Dr Keith Thornbury and Dr Gerard Sergeant were recruited by Dundalk Institute of Technology to set up the Smooth Muscle Research Centre in Ireland. Marks research is currently focused on examining the mechanisms underlying spontaneous activity in urethral pacemaker cells and how they modulate the bulk smooth muscle. He is currently developing a combined patch clamp/confocal microscopy system to allow him to simultaneously image whole cell Ca2+ at frame rates in excess of 200 fps using a novel back illuminated EMCCD camera and correlate this to the resultant electrical activity observed in isolated urethral pacemaker cells. mark.hollywood@dkit.ie

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Dr Sinéad LoughranTAKING ONE STEP BACK AND ONE LEAP FORWARD IN THE TREATMENT AND PREVENTION OF COLORECTAL CANCER

29 April 2015

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a life-threatening disease that can develop as a consequence of a sustained chronic inflammatory pathology of the colon. Although not devoid of adverse side effects, the anti-inflammatory drug celecoxib (CLX) has been shown to exert protective effects in CRC therapy. The purpose of this study was to develop and characterise a novel CLX microbead formulation suitable for use in the treatment and prevention of CRC, which has the potential to minimise the side effects associated with CLX. The study involved the assessment of the effectiveness of CLX formulations in an in-vitro cell model of CRC and a comparison of these effects to that of the marketed CLX product, Celebrex. In-vitro cell viability and motility were shown to be significantly reduced after treatment with CLX liquid formulations relative to the control, whereas the results for treatment with Celebrex were comparable with the control. Dissolution experiments and correlation analysis demonstrated that the formulations that showed a greater extent of drug release had reduced cell viability and motility. The CLX liquid formulations were translated into colon-targeted CLX microbeads suitable for use in a future in-vivo mouse study. These results represent a significant step forward in the chemopreventative treatment of CRC using CLX, as the microbead formulation developed suggests the possibility of presenting CLX in a format that has the potential to minimise the gastrointestinal and cardiovascular side effects.

Dr Sinéad Loughran has a PhD in the field of molecular biology from Dublin City University and has worked in the area since 2002. Her PhD centred on a cancer of the lymphatic system; Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (HL) and specifically, the role of a protein involved in HL cell survival and how the Epstein Barr virus interacts with that protein. Together with Dr Dermot Walls at DCU’s School of Biotechnology, she identified the protein as potentially a very useful target for new chemotherapy treatments. Dr Loughran took up postdoctoral positions at the National Centre for Sensor Research to study cancers caused by viruses and later in the Viral Immunology Group at DCU to work on the influenza virus in a major study which unravelled the immune basis for why pneumonia often supersedes flu infection. In 2012, she joined DkIT’s Department of Applied Science on a full-time basis and currently lectures to students on the BSc in Pharmaceutical Science, BSc in Applied Bioscience and BSc (hons) in Biopharmaceutical Science programmes.  Her research interest is primarily in the area of viral oncology and she has expanded her research here at DkIT to the area of colorectal cancer through collaboration with Sigmoid Pharma Ltd. sinead.loughran@dkit.ie

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Mr Ray ByrneDKIT WIND TURBINE POWER PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS AND THE LOCAL FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE IT.

13 May 2015

The performance of any wind turbine can be influenced by a number of site specific factors such as local obstacles, regional topography and seasonal wind variations. The wind turbine at DkIT has been in operation since 2005. Its supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) logs wind speed, wind direction, power output and range of other parameters in 10-minute average values. A multi-annual analysis of the SCADA data to assess the power performance of the turbine from different directions will be presented along with insights into how local factors affect its performance. A new method of wind resource measurement using light detection and ranging (LIDAR) technology will also be presented. Ray Byrne has been working as a researcher in the Centre for Renewable Energy at Dundalk Institute of Technology (CREDIT) since 2005. He research interests include wind resource analysis, wind turbine siting and sizing for onsite autoproduction applications and energy storage. He is a participant member of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) responsible for wind turbine and electricity storage system standards development. He is also a participant member of the International Energy Agency (IEA) Wind Task 27 research group on behalf of Ireland. Raymond holds an MSc in Renewable Energy Systems from Loughborough University in the UK, an honours degree in Applied Physics/Electronics from NUI Galway and is currently undertaking part-time PhD studies at the University of Ulster. raymond.byrne@dkit.ie

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Dr Helen LawlorTHE IRISH HARP ON THE WORLD STAGE

27 May 2015

The Irish harp has long been used as a symbol and emblem of Ireland. It carries centuries of musical, cultural and ideological meanings that remain relevant to this day.  This talk will focus on the use of the harp during the mid to late twentieth century by singer and harpist Mary O’Hara and will examine how her music was interpreted by her audiences worldwide.   Her music spanned the international folk music revival and interacts with issues of nationality, identity and spirituality.   She was a star performer for five decades and one of the most influential Irish musicians of the twentieth century.  This research is based on material from the Mary O’Hara collection, housed at the Burn’s Library, Boston College. Dr Helen Lawlor is a musician and academic, specialising in Irish harping. Her research is focused on issues of gender, identity, style and transmission in Irish traditional music. She holds a Bachelor in Music Education degree (Trinity College Dublin), Masters in Musicology (University College Dublin) and a PhD in Music. She was awarded an Ad Astra Research Scholarship for her doctoral studies under the supervision of Professor Thérèse Smith. Her PhD dissertation was entitled ‘Contemporary Irish Harping’ and provided a musical ethnography of Irish harping in the twentieth century. She now lectures ethnomusicology, music education and Irish music at Dundalk Institute of Technology.

Dr Lawlor’s research on the harp tradition is published as a monograph entitled ‘Irish Harping 1900-2010’ (Four Courts Press, 2012). She has also contributed articles to the Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland, The Companion to Irish Traditional Music, Ancestral Imprints and Sonus. While a doctoral student at UCD she co-edited Issue 3 of The Musicology Review. She is currently preparing a book on harping from the ninth century to the present day for publication in late 2015 (Harp Studies, Four Courts Press) which is co-edited by Dr Sandra Joyce. She has delivered invited guest lectures in the US at Harvard University, the New England Conservatory and the American Irish Historical Society (2013). In February 2015 she lectured at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland as part of EU funded Erasmus + programme. Other guest lectures have been delivered at Maynooth University, University of Limerick, University College Dublin and the 2013 Breandán Breathnach Memorial Lecture at the Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy. As a musician Helen has performed and taught traditional Irish harping at numerous international music festivals including the Interceltic Festiva(Lorient), Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy and The Gaelic Roots festival in Boston. Her music has been broadcast on various radio programmes, including a feature interview and performance on the ‘Rolling Wave’. She has also recorded with renowned singer Lorcán MacMathúna on his album ‘An Rogaire Dubh’. helen.lawlor@dkit.ie

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Dr Colletta DalikeniLESSONS FROM RESEARCH ON THE EXPERIENCES OF CHILD PROTECTION SOCIAL WORKERS AND ASYLUM SEEKING FAMILIES

10 June 2015 Ireland has become an increasingly multi-cultural society since the mid-1990s, changing from a country of emigration to one of immigration. During the period this research was conducted (2007-2013), in response to this multiculturalism, the Irish Government embarked on several commendable initiatives. These changes have yet to be fully recognised within Child Protection and Child Welfare Services (CPCWS). The development of national guidelines in recent times has failed to provide adequate guidance for social workers on how to respond effectively to asylum-seeking families, a relatively new service user group for community care teams. Much of current Irish research sheds limited light on how social workers ought to respond to asylum-seeking children (ASC) and their families within a child protection context, where families present with extremely complex needs resulting from forced migration. This doctoral research was conducted in Ireland in one region covering five social work offices. The researcher used a multi-method approach comprising of action research and biographical narrative method of interviewing (BNIM) and framework analysis. The study examined the experiences of social workers and asylum-seeking families (ASF). The first of its kind in this field in the Republic of Ireland, the study design is primarily qualitative with an overall action research orientation. The study highlights the need for appropriate and on-going culturally competent training for social workers in this area. Its findings illustrate the complexity of social work practice in this area and indicate the need for a clearer, coherent and focused approach to child protection and welfare work, that not only is centred on the child but also acknowledged the cultural setting in which the child was reared. These suggestions are rooted in the enhanced model of cultural competence developed from the study’s findings and provide the basis for future research. Colletta Dalikeni is a Lecturer in Social Care, and is interested in issues related to asylum seekers, refugees and immigrants- issues of cultural diversity and cultural identity and how these impact on delivery of services. She is also interested in culturally competent social work practice and international social work generally. Originally from Zimbabwe she has been living and working in Ireland since the late 1980s. Upon qualifying as a social worker at University College Cork, Colletta worked with the HSE in the Child Protection area for eight years where she developed a keen interest in issues related to and affecting asylum seekers and refugees. Her PhD, awarded by Queen’s University Belfast in June 2013, was an in-depth qualitative study of the views and experiences of asylum seekers in the child protection and welfare system in Ireland. The study was based specifically on experiences and views of social workers and families, in particular the way in which the quality of the relationship and intervention between social workers and families can be enhanced.

Apart from her full time work teaching at DKIT Colletta gives her time as a volunteer with NGOs such as Culture Connect- an organisation based in Drogheda and involved in the integration of immigrants in Ireland. She is a committee member of the Irish branch of BASPCAN- the British Association for the Study and Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect. colletta.dalikeni@dkit.ie

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Dr Eibhlís Farrell “IO LA MUSICA SON“ SCIENCE, PHILOSOPHY AND THEORY IN THE PRACTICE OF COMPOSITION 9 September 2015 This presentation discusses the historical theoretical and philosophical background to music composition and how composers and theorists have adapted to changing worldviews, concepts and practices. In this context she presents her own insight into the compositional process and how this is shaped by many external influences and principles. Dr Eibhlis Farrell is a composer member of Aosdána, the state-sponsored academy of artists which honours artists who have made an outstanding contribution to the arts in Ireland. She has also served on the Toscaireacht. She is a graduate of Queen’s University, Belfast, Bristol University and Rutgers University, New Jersey and studied composition with Raymond Warren in England and Charles Wuorinen in the United States. She has a prolific output and her works have been widely performed and broadcast internationally. She has represented Ireland at the UNESCO sponsored Internation-al Composers’ Rostrum. In 2011 she was honoured by Rutgers University with the Distinguished Alumna Award for Distinguished Accomplishments and Service in the Humanities in Music and Music Education. Music adviser for the American Irish Historical Society in New York, Dr Farrell is a former Head of the Conservatory of Music and Drama at DIT and is currently Head of Music and Creative Media and Director of the Centre for Research in Music at Dundalk Institute of Technology. eibhlis.farrell@dkit.ie

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Dr Martin MaguireLOUTH IN REVOLUTION 1912-23 THE LABOUR EXPERIENCE 23 September 2015 This lecture will look at the experience of the working class of Co Louth in the revolutionary period through the history of work, organisation, mobilisation in the county.

Dr Martin Maguire is the Senior Lecturer in the Department of Humanities and Director of the BA (Hons) in Digital Humanities programme.

As an historian his research interests are in the social, economic and political history of 19th and 20th Century Ireland.   His publications include several books on civil service trade unions and on the formation of the Irish State in the revolutionary period.  He has also published many articles on the social history of Irish Protestantism. martin.maguire@dkit.ie

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Mr Kieran NolanVIDEOGAMES AS SELF-REFLEXIVE NEW MEDIA RESEARCH ARTEFACTS 7 October 2015 In this presentation Kieran will talk about his learning journey and research outputs to date in the convergent areas of new media art and experimental videogame design. Also he will discuss how the theory and practice processes of his research are aligned and link to each other.

Kieran Nolan is an artist-researcher exploring the connective and aesthetic properties of arcade videogame interfaces. He is Programme Director of the BA in Media Arts and Technologies at Dundalk Institute of Technology, and co-organiser of the Picteilín Creative Media and Games Studies Conference. Kieran is also a PhD candidate in Digital Arts and Humanities with the GV2 Research Group at Trinity College, Dublin. His PhD research explores the collision of arcade videogame aesthetics, new media art, and interaction design.

Kieran’s research work has been published at conferences and exhibitions worldwide, including The Science Gallery (Dublin), Eurogamer Expo (London), Future and Reality of Gaming / F.R.O.G. (Vienna), International Symposium of Electronic Arts / ISEA (Belfast), ZIL Cultural Centre (Moscow), the A MAZE. International Independent Video Games Festival (Berlin), METEOR (Tokyo), MAKE (Cork), Transmediale (Berlin), and Vector Game Art and New Media Festival (Toronto). kieran.nolan@dkit.ie

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Dr Conor BradyMUCH MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE ONGOING ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN THE BOYNE VALLEY 14 October 2015 In this talk it is proposed to give an overview of the different related research projects I have been involved in in and around the Brú na Bóinne WHS over the past number of years. Early research involved mapping the evidence for earlier prehistoric settlement in the ploughed fields of the Brú na Bóinne area. Follow-up study funded by the Heritage Council involved the geophysical survey of a selection of selected lithic scatter sites which in turn led to the identification and excavation of the Rossnaree Enclosure. I was a collaborator on the interdisciplinary INSTAR Boyne Valley Landscapes project which aimed to create a GIS of all archaeological and natural heritage data for the Boyne Valley as a digital research resource. A major element within this work was the assessment of the Meath County Council LiDAR data for the WHS area. Experimental surveys using new remote sensing technologies were conducted in recent years: at Newgrange using microgravity was tested to assess its suitability for identifying possible hidden chambers in the mound and at Site E a large-scale multi instrument survey methodology - the Geophysical Exploration Equipment Platform (GEEP). Other ongoing projects with significant community involvement include the Hill of Slane Archaeological Project and the Millmount Archaeological Remote Sensing Project. Conor has been a lecturer in archaeology in Dundalk Institute of Technology since 2002. He has also been carrying out landscape-based archaeological fieldwork in the Brú na Bóinne area since the late 1990s. He was a contributor in the preparation of the Brú na Bóinne WHS Research Framework for the Heritage Council. He served as a member of the Royal Irish Academy Committee for Archaeology from 2008 to 2014 and is currently secretary of the multidisciplinary Royal Irish Academy Committee for Historic Studies. Conor is also a member of the County Louth Heritage Forum, the County Meath Heritage Forum (Built Heritage Working Group) and is a member of Council of the County Louth Archaeological and Historical Society. He is also currently vice chairman of Slane Community Forum. conor.brady@dkit.ie

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Dr Julie DoyleEMPOWERING HEALTHY AGEING THROUGH GOOD TECHNOLOGY DESIGN 21 October 2015 It is recognized that empowering individuals to manage their own health and wellbeing will result in more cost-effective healthcare systems, improved health outcomes and will encourage healthy individuals to remain that way. With the advent of the quantified-self movement in recent years, there has been an increase in technology applications supporting wellness self-management. Such applications allow people to self-track and self-report, with many providing feedback. However, little research in this area has examined how best to support older adults in health self-management. This talk discusses findings from a number of studies carried out by the CASALA research centre examining the design and evaluation of health and wellness technologies for older adults. From sophisticated smart homes, to tablet applications, the attitudes of older adults towards technologies, self-management, and various data visualisations will be discussed, in addition to the effects such technologies have had on the wellbeing of our study participants. Our findings contribute to a greater understanding of older adults’ attitudes and behaviours in relation to wellbeing self-management that can facilitate the creation of new, personalized health and wellbeing interventions for this population. Julie’s research is in the field of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) with a focus on health and wellness technologies for use by older adults and clinicians. In her current position as research fellow at CASALA, Julie leads HCI research that crosses the fields of ambient assisted living, falls prevention, emotional wellbeing and telehealth. Julie is the Principal Investigator on a falls prevention project that involves partners including the HSE (Health Service Executive), University College Dublin and Fujitsu. Julie oversees all user-centred application design and development at CASALA. Her current research is examining (1) the effectiveness of various types of feedback to convey health and wellbeing information to older adults, (2) how to increase older adults’ awareness of their own health and (3) ultimately support them in self-management of their health with the goal of enhancing quality of life.

Julie has published over 30 papers in peer-reviewed journals, books and conference proceedings and has presented her work at a number of international conferences and invited seminars. Julie chaired the 7th Annual Irish HCI conference, which was hosted by CASALA at Dundalk Institute of Technology in 2013. Most recently, Julie spoke at TEDx Fulbright Dublin on the topic of designing technologies for ageing populations. julie.doyle@dkit.ie julie.doyle@casala.ie

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Dr Eleanor JenningsTHE INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE ON LAKE PROCESSES PAST TRENDS AND FUTURE PROJECTIONS 4 November 2015 Lakes are highly sensitive to changes in local weather, and are often referred to as sentinels of climate change. Tracking these changes and their impacts depends on collection of appropriate data at appropriate timescales. Long term historical changes can be monitored through lake sediment archives; however, there is now a growing awareness of the importance of the effects of extreme weather events on processes occurring in lakes. These events can only be tracked through the use of in-situ high frequency monitoring systems that monitor a suite of relevant parameters. In-situ monitoring buoys are now being used across Europe, including in Ireland, to quantify the effects of both current and future climate change on lake ecosystem functioning. Data are presented on the effects of climate change and extreme climate events on ecosystem quality and on the quality of drinking water sources both in Ireland and globally. Dr Eleanor Jennings is a lecturer in environmental science in the Department of Applied Sciences, Dundalk Institute of Technology, and currently Director of the Centre for Freshwater and Environmental Studies. She has an extensive knowledge and research experience in freshwater systems in Ireland and globally. Her main areas of research are nutrient cycling and modelling of catchment and in-lake processes, including climate changes impacts. Through her work she has active and on-going collaborations with groups in Europe and in the US. Current research projects include research into dissolved organic carbon processing in humic lakes, assessment of faecal indicator bacteria in stream sediments, the application of dynamic modelling to manage nutrient export in agricultural catchments, and estimation of current and future catchment water balances in rural Uganda. She is an active member of GLEON (Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network) and is also Chair of EU COST ACTION ES 1201 NETLAKE (Networking Lake Observatories in Europe), which currently has participants from twenty-three COST countries and three non-COST countries, and will run from 2012-2016. eleanor.jennings:@dkit.ie

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Dr Fergal Mc CafferyMEDICAL DEVICE SOFTWARE ENGINEERING AND THE ROLE OF THE RSRC IN RELATION TO THIS 18 November 2015 This presentation will discuss how the area of Medical device software engineering has evolved over the last few years. What the most significant changes have been within this area and how the RSRC has grown and developed to now be recognised as a leading international centre for medical device software engineering research. We will discuss how basic research projects within the research centre have led to the development of new international medical device standards, commercialisation projects and also to the creation of spin out companies. I will also discuss how the RSRC is now positioned to address the next challenges posed within the medical device industry. Dr Fergal Mc Caffery is a Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Principal Investigator. He is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Computing and Mathematics, DkIT. He is Director of the Regulated Software Research Centre (RSRC) in Dundalk Institute of Technology and the Medical Device Software Engineering competency area leader in Lero. He has been awarded over €8 million in funding including SFI funding through the Stokes Lectureship, Principal Investigator, CSET and Centres Programmes to research the area of medical device software. Additionally, he has received EU FP7 research funding to improve the effectiveness of embedded software development environments for the medical device industry. He also has received Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation funding for a number of different projects.

He has published over 160 peer-reviewed conference and journal papers and is on the editorial board/programme committee for a number of leading software engineering conferences and journals. Additionally, he represents Ireland at International medical device software standards meetings and is an active member of the IEC SC62A JWG3 working group that is responsible for the International standard for medical device software lifecycle processes (IEC 62304) and also the IEC SC62A JWG7 working group that is responsible for the development of a new International standard for Healthcare Software (IEC 82304). In this capacity he played a leading role in the development of IEC/TR 80002-3 that was published in May 2014. He was listed as a finalist in the Irish Software Association’s Outstanding Academic Achievement Awards Category in 2014. He is also a member of the ISO SC7 WG10 working group that is responsible for the International Standard for Software Process Assessment (ISO/IEC 15504). He is also involved in spinning out 2 companies from the RSRC. fergal.mccaffery@dkit.ie

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Dr Annaleigh Margey UNDERSTANDING EARLY MODERN IRELAND SURVEYS, MAPS AND PLANTATION GEOGRAPHY, C.1560-1640 2 December 2015 During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Ireland was the first country to be planted as part of England’s imperial expansion. This plantation was to change the political and cultural landscapes dramatically. In planted areas such as Munster, Ulster and Londonderry, these changes encompassed county, fortification, urban, and estate structures. These changes, and proposed changes, called for widespread surveying of the landscape, often through detailed maps that acted as visual aids to the administrating of plantation.

This seminar will offer an overview of the role played by these maps in the conquest of Ireland. The use of maps to implement, examine and represent English plantation structures in Ireland will be explored with reference to the extant map collections. These will include early reconnaissance, provincial maps; defence maps; plantation maps that both proposed, and monitored change; town maps and estate maps. Annaleigh Margey is a Lecturer in History at Dundalk Institute of Technology. She studied for her BA and PhD at NUI, Galway. Her PhD research titled ‘Mapping during the Irish Plantations, 1550-1636’, focused on the surveys and maps created by surveyors in Ireland during the decades of plantation. She subsequently held an Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship and a J.B. Harley Fellowship in the History of Cartography to continue this research at Trinity College Dublin. More recently, Annaleigh has worked as a Research Fellow at the University of Aberdeen on ‘The 1641 Depositions Project’ and at the Institute of Historical Research, London where she conducted research on the property and charity of the Clothworkers’ Company in early modern London. She has also worked as a researcher on a project at NUI, Maynooth and the National Library of Ireland focusing on the rentals and maps in the landed estates of Ireland collections in the library’s holdings. She has recently been awarded an R.J. Hunter Bursary to further her work on the plantations in Ireland, focusing specifically on the ‘Towns and the Londonderry plantation, 1609-1709: the urban network of a plantation county’. Most recently, she has edited a book with her colleagues Elaine Murphy and Eamon Darcy on The 1641 Depositions and the Irish Rebellion, and will shortly publish another book Mapping Ireland, c.1550-1636: a catalogue of the early modern manuscript maps of Ireland with the Irish Manuscripts Commission. She has written several articles on early modern mapping in Ireland, particularly on Ulster, and on the 1641 depositions. annaleigh.margey@dkit.ie

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Mr Thomas KellyMODELLING OF OSCILLATING WATER COLUMN WAVE ENERGY CONVERTERS 16 December 2015 The potential for the generation of useable energy from the motion of ocean waves is vast, and is one that is recognised by many within industry and government. The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland and Invest Northern Ireland estimate that a fully-developed, all-island ocean energy industry could be worth as much as €9 billion to the economies on this island by 2020, with a practical wave energy resource off the west coast of 59TWh per annum. Furthermore, the potential exists not only to generate large amounts of energy from this abundant resource, but also to develop a wave energy R&D and equipment manufacturing industry. Globally, this industry is in its infancy, and many research questions remain to be answered. 

Crucial to the success of such an industry is a deeper understanding of the mechanisms at play in the interactions between wave energy converters (WECs) and the ocean waves as well as the development of validated numerical models of WECs. The work currently being undertaken at DkIT focuses on one concept for a WEC, that of the Oscillating Water Column (OWC) in which the oscillations of the ocean waves are converted to pneumatic power before a secondary conversion to electrical power takes place. Physical scale models of proposed OWC devices have been constructed, instrumented and tested in the recently installed narrow wave tank in the Carroll’s research facility. Numerical models have been constructed and are being refined based on the results of the physical tests. 

In this presentation, the narrow tank facility is introduced, and the process of model construction and tank testing discussed. Results from both the physical testing and numerical models are presented, and the significance to real world situations considered. Thomas is a PhD researcher associated with both Maynooth University and CREDIT at the Dundalk Institute of Technology. He completed a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering at Bolton Street DIT in 1997 before spending the next 12 years working in the semi-conductor equipment industry in the field of robotics. In 2010 he completed the M.Sc. in Renewable Energy Systems at DkIT, winning the HETAC Student of the Year Award for 2010. 

Thomas is currently undertaking research in the area of wave energy conversion in associating with a private company and co-supervised by MU and DkIT, which is funded by an award from the Irish Research Council under the Enterprise Partnership Scheme.

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DUNDALK INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH LEADERS SEMINAR SERIES