University: UCC
Ege Duran
PhD Researcher
Ege Duran received her Bachelor’s degree from Yasar University, Department of Industrial Engineering in 2019. She received her Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering from Yasar University, Izmir, Türkiye in 2022. She continues her PhD studies in Computer Science at UCC, Ireland. Her research interests include Modelling, Optimisation and Heuristic approaches. Her supervisor is Professor Barry O’Sullivan, UCC.
Recent publications: Duran, E. et al. (2020). The Uniform Parallel Machine Scheduling Problem: A Case Study. In: Durakbasa, N., Gençyılmaz, M. (eds) Proceedings of the International Symposium for Production Research 2019. ISPR ISPR 2019 2019. Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31343-2_69
Professor Claire Connolly
CRT in AI Supervisor
Claire Connolly is Professor of Modern English at University College Cork and Head of the School of English and Digital Humanities. She was PI of the interdisciplinary IRC-funded project, Deep Maps: West Cork Coastal Cultures and is currently project lead for Ports, Past and Present, funded by the European Regional Development Fund via the Ireland Wales Programme. Across both projects she has developed research interests in digital technologies and their role in preserving, visualising and communicating cultural heritage.
Martha S. Shaka
PhD Researcher
Martha Shaka is pursuing her PhD in computer science at the University College Cork, supervised by Professor Ken Brown and Professor Barry O’Sullivan. Her research interests focus on developing novel data analytics and deep learning techniques, especially for applications in health science, multi-agent interaction and resource optimisation in intelligent systems. She received an MSc in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Leeds in 2021. Her thesis leveraged deep learning techniques to capture essential differences and classify C.elegans mutant strains based on their behaviours to understand behaviour dynamics in relation to the nervous system.
Martha is one of the co-founders of capital space Ltd, aiming to enhance innovation and entrepreneurship through skills development and technology in Tanzania. In addition, She is an assistant lecturer at the University of Dodoma (UDOM) and occasionally volunteers to teach programming languages to girls in public high schools and organise local and national events inclined to share AI knowledge, such as Annual IndabaX Conferences and UDOM AI Community. Ms Martha enjoys reading and is a massive fan of football.
Supervisor: Professor Ken Brown
OTHER TEAM MEMBERS
Janet Choi
M.Sc, BSc.N, RgN
Janet Choi is the senior research coordinator and program manager for the SFI Centre for Research Training in Artificial Intelligence since April 2019.
For 12 years (2007), she worked as a Project Manager and Clinical Nurse Research Coordinator at the Centre for Research in Vascular Biology, (CRVB) UCC. This group were the first to carry out a first-in-man placebo controlled randomised control trial at Cork University Hospital by examining the role of IGF1 in acute heart failure in the context of ST elevation myocardial infarction and she has contributed, two scientific papers in the American Heart Journal (AHJ, 2018) and Stem Cells (2016) and is a named author. She was awarded a EI Commercialisation Feasibility Fund (2013) for her work in the role of wireless wearable 12-lead ECG sensors for clinical use and holds a 1H Masters Degree in Digital Health, College of Business and Law UCC (2020).
She is a qualified Registered Nurse having completed her education and hospital training in Toronto, Ontario. She took a position in the Cardiac Catheterisation Laboratory, Cork University Hospital as a registered nurse and later appointed as a Clinical Nurse Manager (2005). Subsequently she took a post at the Bon Secours Hospital, Cork as a Clinical Nurse Manager in the Cardiac Catheterisation Lab, and later guided and directed undergraduate nursing students during their clinical rotations as a Clinical Placement Coordinator, Nurse Practice Development Unit (2006).
Janet is particularly interested in artificial intelligence and its application to primary and tertiary health care. In her work, she emphasizes people first, encourages processes, and follows principles that will garner and improve results.
Lavanya Pampana
PhD Researcher
Lavanya Pampana is a first-year PhD student in the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, UCC, Cork, Ireland and she is supervised by Dr Emanuel Popovici and is co-supervised by Andriy Temko. Her research is in the field of EEG signal analysis where she will be applying ML techniques. She holds an MSc in Software Engineering from BTH, Karlskrona, Sweden. Prior to joining the CRT-AI funded Ph.D. programme, Lavanya worked in Volvo Cars, Gothenburg as a Function Visualization Developer in their R&D team. In her spare time, she reads books, learns music, loves to hike, practices dance and watches documentaries. She has also volunteered for several educational outreach programs in her spare time over the last year.
Supervisor: Dr. Emanuel Popovici
OTHER TEAM MEMBERS
Liam de la Cour
PhD Researcher
Liam de la Cour is a first-year PhD student in University College Cork, where he is being supervised by Dr. Derek Bridge. His research is in the field of Recommender Systems which is a subfield of Artificial Intelligence that seeks to predict the ‘rating’ or ‘preference’ a user would give to an item. These systems are deployed to help users overcome information overload, and help them find items that will delight them. He is particularly interested in how these systems can describe to the user why particular items will appeal to them. In his spare time, Liam can be found playing basketball, cooking, or meeting with friends.
Supervisor: Dr. Derek Bridge
OTHER TEAM MEMBERS
Professor Gregory Provan
CRT in AI Supervisor
Gregory Provan is a Professor of Computer Science at UCC. His research interests include machine learning, systems modeling and control. In particular, his recent work has focused on deep learning and deep reinforcement learning. Prof. Provan is the director of the SFI Spoke on Autonomous Vehicles, and this is one of his key application areas.
Fabio Magarelli
PhD Researcher
Fabio Magarelli, is a first-year PhD student at the Centre for Research Training in Artificial Intelligence, University College Cork, where he is supervised by Professor Geraldine Boylan and Dr. John O’Toole. His research is in the field of EEG data analysis and applied Machine Learning (ML)which is a subfield of Artificial Intelligence applied to Medicine that is concerned with tools and techniques to produce diagnostic instruments for clinicians in the field of Paediatrics such as EEG abnormalities and patterns detection. Fabio holds a BSc. In Nursing and an MSc. in Computer Science. Prior to joining the CRT-AI funded PhD programme, Fabio worked as a Research Assistant on the Delphi project at Infant Research Centre in Cork University Hospital. The project aimed to produce a ML model to detect and classify Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE) in EEG data of term babies. Fabio has also experience working as a Nurse, both in Beaumont Hospital (Dublin) and the Italian Red Cross, and as a Software Developer in University College Dublin (UCD). In his spare time, Fabio enjoys DIY, software development and electronics.
OTHER TEAM MEMBERS
Caroline Peres da Silva
PhD Researcher
Caroline Peres da Silva is a first-year PhD student in the SFI Centre for Research Training in Artificial Intelligence in University College Cork, where she is supervised by Dr. Brendan O’Flynn at Tyndall National Institute. Her research interest is in the application of Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics at the Edge, adapting and optimising algorithms to be deployed in IoT and embedded systems. Caroline holds an M.Eng.Sc. in Electrical and Electronic Engineering by UCC, where she developed a novel sensor system for seaweed and aquaculture monitoring. Prior to joining the CRT-AI funded PhD programme, she also worked as an Embedded Software Developer in Brazil, where she researched, developed, programmed, and tested embedded systems for vehicle and fleet tracking. In her spare time, Caroline enjoys playing videogames, doing papercraft projects, and playing the violin.
OTHER TEAM MEMBERS
Yanlin Mi
PhD Researcher
Yanlin Mi is a PhD student in the Department of Computer Science at University College Cork. Her supervisors are Dr. Sabin Tabrica and Professor Barry O’Reilly. Her research is in the field of Prolapse Simulation and Visualisation with Artificial Intelligence. The purpose is to visually display patients’ physical conditions and medical advice through computer animation, machine learning and other technologies, so as to provide surgical assistance for doctors. In addition, she works on the Protein Fragment And Structure Analysis project and develops a visualization web application.
She has laid a foundation for computer programming during her undergraduate degree. She has sufficient project experience in computer application development and mobile application development. More importantly, she has a strong interest in medicine and biology. In her spare time, she likes traveling and photography.
Supervisors: Dr. Sabin Tabrica and Professor Barry O’Reilly
OTHER TEAM MEMBERS
Dr. Steve Prestwich
CRT in AI Supervisor
Steve Prestwich has lectured in the Computer Science department since 1997. He is an Investigator on the Insight and Confirm projects, and a PhD supervisor in the Centre for Research Training in Artificial Intelligence. He works in areas including artificial intelligence, optimisation, machine learning, constraint programming, Boolean satisfiability, operations research and forecasting. He previously worked in the Advanced Technology Centre, Nortel PLC, Harlow Laboratories, England, and in the European Computer Industry Research Centre (ECRC), Munich, Germany. He has a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Manchester, UK, and an MA in Mathematics from St Peter’s College, University of Oxford, UK.
OTHER TEAM MEMBERS
Professor Dirk HJ Pesch
CRT in AI Supervisor
Dirk Pesch is a Professor in the School of Computer Science and Information Technology where he leads a number of research initiatives in the area of future networked systems for the Internet of Things and Cyber-Physical Systems with applications in smart and connected communities and smart manufacturing.
Dirk is the Director of the Science Foundation Ireland funded Centre for Research Training in Advanced Networks for Sustainable Societies (http://www.advance-crt.ie). He is also a co-Principal Investigator and executive member of the SFI CONFIRM Centre for Smart Manufacturing (http://www.confirm.ie), a co-Principal Investigator of the SFI funded CONNECT Centre for Future Networks (http://www.connectcentre.ie) and a steering committee member of CONNECT’s ENABLE research programme on smart communities. Dirk is also a steering committee member of the Cork Smart Gateway (http://www.corksmartgateway.ie), a smart communities initiative in Cork City and County. Since 2000, Dirk has been personally involved in Irish and European research grants totalling in excess of €80M of which approx. €16M have directly supported his own research.
Dirk has (co-)authored over 220 scientific articles and book chapters. He co-edited the first book focused on Internet of Things technologies enabling energy-positive urban neighbourhoods, published by Academic Press. He is an editorial board member of Springer Nature Wireless Networks and MDPI Sensors. He also contributes to international conference organisation in his area of expertise including flagship conferences such as the IEEE International Conference on Communications, IEEE Globecom, IEEE World Forum on the Internet of Things, IEEE Wireless Communication Networks Conference, IEEE WoWMoM, IEEE VTC, and IFIP Networking as well as other conference and workshops.
Prior to joining University College Cork in 2019, Dirk was with Cork Institute of Technology (now Munster Technological University), initially as a Lecturer, then Senior Lecturer in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. During his time in CIT, he developed research activities that led to the establishment of the Nimbus Research Centre of which he became the founding director in 2009. Under his leadership, Nimbus became a leading centre for application and industry-focused research in Internet of Things and Cyber-Physical Systems. In December 2016, CIT designated him as a Professor.
Before joining academia, Dirk was a design engineer with Nokia in Germany and the UK, developing and implementing communication protocols for a range of cordless telecommunication products. Dirk holds a Dipl.Ing (MEng) degree from RWTH Aachen University, Germany, and a PhD from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland, both in Electrical & Electronic Engineering.
Research Interests
My research mainly focuses on the design, optimisation and evaluation of communication protocols, management techniques, and system architectures for the Internet of Things (IoT) and networked Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) and their applications to smart and connected communities and smart manufacturing. In my research we use mathematical modelling and computer simulation techniques to analyse the networked systems we study. We use machine learning techniques to predict and optimise their behaviour and performance.
In addition to the design and evaluation of such systems, I am also interested in addressing the interoperability problem of IoT/CPS, which limits widespread adoption of the technology to many real world problems and situations. Within this context, I am interested in co-design approaches of IoT/CPS services with end-users, in particular in the smart and connected communities space.
More recently, I have become interested in using Internet of Things technology to support wellbeing using mobile and wearable sensing technologies to collect human behavioural data and use machine learning to analyse and predict people’s wellbeing. For this, I collaborate with colleagues from the social sciences.