Profile

I live in the countryside which is particularly nice these days as I can get out to exercise the dog and myself. While I work with technology everyday I like to switch off outside the office hours and listen to music, I’m rediscovering the joy of vinyl records or podcasts ranging from the whimsical to the more serious. My career as a researcher began during my undergraduate program (Electronic Engineering) and continued through my Masters and PhD studies (at UCC and CIT) and now as professional researcher I work with my own PhD students to develop their own careers.

I have a number of projects that I mange investigating the role of blockchain and internet of things in creating solutions that will allows us to interact with each other securely – everyone wants to be confident that the devices we are using such as our phones, tablets, smart watches  and the like can “talk” & trust each other, which is important as no one wants their personal information stolen or devices hacked.

I get up early anywhere from 5.30am onwards depending on what I have on for the day and I usually begin my day with some type of exercise, which can be hillwalking, an exercise class or going for a run. I like to start work early as it’s quiet and I can catch up on work and get my day organized, which involves meetings with various project teams across different countries and then I have PhD students working on diverse research topics so this provides an opportunity to discuss any problems or questions they have and tease out different solutions.

Educational kits give students the chance to get hands on and explore engineering, computer programming and networking, allowing them to develop skills and work on group projects while building teamwork experience. From experience this type of engagement gets conversations flowing about the technology itself but also broader conversations between the instructors and within the teams among the students themselves.