SCIENCE FOUNDATION IRELAND ANNUAL REPORT 2015
5
Manufacturing and materials
Prof Michael Zaworotko’s (UL) research outlines a technique for the
sequestration of CO 2 , either from gas mixtures or directly from air,
which could help decrease carbon emissions. His work was published
in Angewandte Chemie.
Prof Valeria Nicolosi from the Amber SFI Research Centre (TCD)
was awarded €2.5 million for an ERC Consolidator Grant, her fourth
ERC award in five years. Her latest research focuses on developing
exceptionally long lasting batteries that can be easily adapted to be
incorporated into multiple devices such as smartphones, clothing and
medical devices.
Dr Peter Crowley’s (NUIG) research on the structure of a PEGylated
protein is an important contribution to the design of protein-based
therapeutics for the biopharmaceutical sector, a major growth
industry in Ireland. This work was published in Nature Chemistry.
Prof Jonathan Coleman from the Amber SFI Research Centre (TCD),
in collaboration with Thomas Swan Ltd, produced a novel method
for making larger amounts of graphene 2D nanosheets which will
prove valuable in making large quantities of materials for future
experimental and commercial use. Prof Coleman was included in
Thompson Reuters “The World’s most Influential scientific minds
2015” list for his work.
Energy
Oxymem, a spin-out company from UCD,
continued to scale in 2015, with over 40
people now employed in Westmeath. The
company’s success is built on a technological
breakthrough that dramatically reduces the
operating costs for wastewater aeration and
results in fourfold savings on energy costs
when compared to forced aeration. Prof Eoin
Casey, the company co-founder, is a recipient
of funding from Science Foundation Ireland
through a variety of schemes, including the
Technology Inn ovation Development Award
(TIDA) Programme.
In a paper published in Nature
Materials, Prof Paul Hurley (Tyndall,
UCC) and his team, in collaboration with
researchers from Stanford University, have
found that the introduction of a novel
material into the structure of a submerged,
water-resistant solar cell results in increased
efficiency in energy production. This has
important implications in the renewable
energy sector.
In a paper published in Energy, Dr Kevin
McDonnell (UCD) and his team developed
a decision support system for improved
biomass supply chain management. This
system assists in selecting when and which
forest to harvest, and how long to store
wood materials, thereby reducing moisture
content and optimising the energy efficiency
of the biomass resource.
Luminescent Solar Concentrators (LSCs)
are a simple way to harness light over large
areas and convert it to electricity. Dr Rachel
Evans’ (TCD) research has supported the
development of novel molecules that help
LSCs harvest more light, thereby making
these devices more efficient. Her work was
published in Advanced Functional Materials.
Prof Henry Curran, Director
of the Combustion
Chemistry Centre at NUIG,
was amongst the 2015
Thompson Reuters ‘World’s
Most Influential Scientific
Minds’ list of researchers.
Ten Irish researchers in total
made this list - five from NUIG, one
for UCD, one from UL, one from
Teagasc and three from TCD.
ICT
Dr Naomi Harte from ADAPT (TCD) published a paper in IEEE
Transactions on Multimedia that presents a new publicly-shared
database for audio-visual speech recognition (AVSR). Progress in the
field of automatic AVSR has been limited to date due to the scarcity
of suitable research databases. This database is of such sufficient
size and quality that it is set to become a resource and benchmark
system for research groups worldwide, thereby helping to further
the state of the art in AVSR research.
Mr Brian Corbett and Dr Fatima Gunning’s research (IPIC/Tyndall)
which was published in Optics Express takes significant steps in the
development of the next generation transmission systems to meet
the ever increasing demand for high bandwidth Internet traffic.
Dr Rachel McDonnell’s (TCD) different stylisation techniques for
use in 3D animated films, have enhanced the perceived realism,
appeal, eeriness and familiarity of the characters. Her work has
been published in ACM Transactions on Graphics.
Ms Claire McInerney, Education and Outreach Manager (UL/Lero)
led the rollout of the teacher CPD Programme for the Junior Cycle
Short Course on Coding.
Dr Chris Bleakley’s (UCD) research focuses on a
novel method for indoor WiFi location estimation
which could support indoor personal navigation
(e.g. airports), patient tracking in hospitals, the
locating of emergency contacts and the evacuation of
users in emergencies, or the detection of and location of
intruders.
Dr Peter Corcoran’s (NUIG) work on iris recognition has important
implications for the security of sensitive financial and personal
data that people access on their hand held devices. His work was
published in IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics.
Prof Barry O’Sullivan from the SFI Research Centre Insight (UCC)
led the development of ‘Magna Carta for Data’, an initiative with the
European Commission to improve European regulation around data
privacy.