I am a lecturer in Aerospace and Mechanical and the Director of engCORE. My main areas of research are in bulk, SMART and Sustainable Materials, surface degradation and smart technologies, 3D printing and innovative design. I have successfully delivered, since arriving in SETU Carlow, on Research projects worth a combined total of approximately €2m.

I have worked with companies who engaged in preliminary research and who subsequently requested of me to undertake further research. I have delivered large and small projects in the IT, Construction, and academic arenas. I have developed academic programmes, implemented Training Courses as part of an ISO 9000 initiative, and supported global teams during extensive IT network upgrades.

Beyond the opportunities within SETU, I have and am collaborating with a wide range of national and international institutes, such as DIT, DCU, MTU, TU Delft, Uni. Do Aveiro, as I believe that this develops strength, and depth, in projects and research, whilst concomitantly promoting excellence and challenging pre-conceived concepts. This is evidenced by my 5+ years of an ever-widening network of collaborators across the UK, Europe, and further afield.

In 2020 I additionally won HCI funding (approximately €3.1m) to develop 2 Level 9 engineering programmes, and infrastructural development funding of approximately €0.55m since 2017 to develop a modern materials test facility, all at SETU Carlow. I was also active in delivering Athena Swan to SETU and have participated in a number of COST Actions and the CIRCULÉIRE programme.

My active research portfolio are in the areas of Smart & Advanced Materials, Advanced Manufacturing, Electrochemistry, and Surface Engineering/Degradation Phenomena, and their application in Applied Research and the development of Smart Materials and Renewable Energy (wind, marine) devices. Since 2022 I have secured funding for 3 EI-funded Innovation Partnership Projects (total: ~€1M), to develop novel and disruptive solitions in the Built Environment, Road Infrastructure, and Cold-Chain Management industries. I am also a member of a number of national projects, including the SEAI-funded SPOTBlade, through which I, with my research team, am investigating the development of micro-textured and smart coatings as SMART technologies for antifouling and thermal energy control technologies.

I actively supervise postgraduate students, in fields such as bioplastics. and electrochemistry - extremely novel Al-deposition project, in collaboration with the Universities of Leicester, Loughborough, and Newcastle. I am also committed to continued supervision of the Defence Forces Masters programmes, through which I have to-date graduated a number of students.

I am a lecturer in the Aerospace & Mechanical Department at SETU Carlow, with a commitment to the development of advanced materials education in the South-East region in Level 6-10 undergrad/postgrad programmes, through legacy and AI-driven approaches. To this end I have been highly successful in HCI Pillar 1 (€360k) & Pillar 3 (€2.7m) awards in 2020, and in procuring substantial funding to purchase a range of state-of-the-art equipment from internal (€140k President’s Vote, €240k SETU Capital Equipment Call 2024) and external (Enterprise Ireland Capital Call) sources (total: ~€1M since 2017). I have also procured investment in advanced modelling and simulation software (~€130k) I'm also involved with the Level 6 Certificate in Manufacturing and Design Engineering.