Dr Mark Wylie is a lecturer and researcher in the Aerospace, Mechanical and Electronic Engineering (AME) Department at SETU, Carlow campus. He is a member of the SETU Engineering Centre of Research and Enterprise (engCORE) team. Dr Wylie is a Mechanical Engineering graduate and received his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from DIT in 2012 for his research in catheter delivered ultrasonic angioplasty for use in Percutaneous Transluminal Interventions (PTI). This work involved the characterisation of a low frequency ultrasonic device and its efficacy for use in tissue ablation as delivered via small diameter ultrasonically vibrating Nitinol wire waveguides. Finite Element Analysis (FEA), design and testing of a clinically relevant medical apparatus capable of ablating soft and hard diseased atherosclerotic lesions was carried out. Following his postgraduate research, Dr Wylie obtained a role as Team Lead for a sounding rocket experimental payload with ESA, DLR and SNSB. A novel lightweight deployable carbon fiber telescopic boom system was designed and tested during a sub-orbital flight. This role led Dr Wylie to a position as Principal Mechanical Engineer in the Space Department at Curtiss Wright Defense for a 4 year period. This role involved designing and qualifying rugged Data Acquisition (DAq) and other electronic systems on-board manned and un-manned spacecraft. This included the ACLS and PLDR on the International Space Station (ISS), VEGA-C, Ariane 5/6, Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser and Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner. Dr Wylie has also provided mechanical design and analysis for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) VIKI camera system, Ariane 6 Time Triggered Ethernet (TTE) , NG Cam and GNSS system and the PLATO space telescope satellite temperature control system.

Dr Wylie currently supervises MSc and PhD research students in the areas of cold-weld adhesion for spacecraft repair after a hypervelocity space debris impact [forms part of collaboration with MCAST Malta. ASTROBEAT project, lSS experimental payload via NANORACKs Sept 2024], performance characteristics of piezoelectric components under Shock Response Spectrum (SRS) and structural analysis of electronic chassis and Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) for spacecraft launch environment.