Six postgraduate research students at Institute of Technology Carlow have been awarded Irish Research Council funding under the Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship Programme (GOIPG) 2021.
The IT Carlow awardees are: Manasa Hegde; Uday Kalvani; Mutian Wang; Katie Phair; Eoghan Chelmiah and Marta Mroczkowska.
The GOIPG scholarships provide awardees with funding for fees, research expenses and a yearly stipend. The programme funds bottom-up, excellent research across all disciplines and is renowned for being extremely competitive, with an average success rate of 18% over the past five years. Successful awardees under the programme are recognised as demonstrating world-class potential as future research leaders
IT Carlow Head of Postgraduates Studies Dr Brian Jackson offered his congratulations to the awardees. “We are delighted for our GOIPG awardees. Their success is a tribute to their hard work and to the support and dedication of their supervisors”, said Dr Jackson.
Manasa Hegde’s project is entitled “Development of multifunctional hybrid sol-gel coatings to improve cavitation erosion resistance and antifouling properties of materials for marine applications.”
The effects of cavitation erosion and biofouling have led to significant losses for the Irish marine industry, which is estimated to be worth €9billion by 2030. Hybrid organic-inorganic coatings are being developed tested to evaluate their potential in marine renewable energy industries. Manasa’s research is to synthesize hybrid coatings by sol-gel process and investigate the cavitation and fouling damage caused on different surfaces.
Manasa is supervised by Dr Edmond Tobin (IT Carlow), Dr Yvonne Kavanagh (IT Carlow) and Professor Brendan Duffy (TU Dublin).
Supervised by Dr. Mark Wylie (IT Carlow), Uday Kalyani’s project is entitled “Structural Analysis of an Electronics Chassis and Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) for Launcher Environment.”
Its aim is to gain a better understanding of the electronic systems from a mechanical/structural perspective using simulation software and shock testing equipment. It will guide electronic engineers on how to improve reliability through their design and offer new insight into vibration mitigation techniques that will allow the electronic systems to perform longer and more reliably.
Mutian Wang’s project is entitled “Investigating the function, persistence and biosafety of novel functional constructed microbiomes for improved bioremediation of petroleum impacted soil.”
Supervised by Dr Kieran Germaine (IT Carlow), Mutian’s project analyses a consortia of oil degrading bacteria for safe use in the environment. It uses -omics technology to investigate the fate of the consortia in the sol and its effects on the soil microbiome, and will determine the key genes that are involved in the oil degradation process.
Supervised by Dr Damien Brady (IT Carlow), Katie Phair’s project is entitled “Inhibition of Cronobacter Pathogenicity using milk powder-based constituents.”
The Irish dairy industry is valued is €2 billion annually, with Ireland producing 10% of the global infant formula. Cronobacter are opportunistic pathogens and biological hazards in dairy processing facilities producing powdered milk. These bacteria can survive in extremely dry environments and have been linked to infections such as sepsis, meningitis and bacteremia in populations including neonates and infants. The aim of this project is to examine Cronobacter virulence and infection strategy to inform a novel inhibition method using milk-powder based constituents.
“Intelligent Prognostics of Electric Propulsion Systems for Sustainable Eco-Friendly Vehicles” is the name of Eoghan Chelmiah’s project that is supervised by Dr Darren Kavanagh (IT Carlow).
This project is centred on the electric revolution within the transport sector, including the electrification of the powertrain. This applied research project focuses on novel electronic sensing and machine learning (ML) algorithms for advanced condition-based monitoring (CbM) of the electric machines used for the propulsion of electric propulsion systems.
Marta Mroczkowska’s project is entitled “Development of piscine gelatine-starch blend thermoset bioplastic as a replacement for petroleum-based plastic and assessment of its biodegradation in soil environment.”
She is supervised by Dr Kieran Germaine (ITC).
This project aims to develop a compostable bioplastic, which uses food industry waste streams by investigating the use of cutin, a natural polymer that can be extracted from tomato peels and has water resistant properties.