Professor Ken Gavin, Professor of Subsurface Engineering, TU Delft
Dr. Gavin is Professor of Subsurface Engineering at TU Delft since April 2016. His primary research focus is on deep foundation systems and the impact of climate change on transport networks. He has led a number of EU FP7 collaborative research projects and H2020 projects focussed on infrastructure resilience. In addition he has led or participated in joint industry projects focussed on offshore renewable developments. These include the instrumentation and analysis of a novel twisted jacket structure installed in the North Sea with Mainstream Renewable Power, Science Foundation Ireland sponsored research on the effect of ageing on axially loaded piles, and the development of novel offshore anchor systems. He was a member of the academic work group of the Pile Soil Analysis (PISA) project together with researchers at Oxford University and Imperial College that developed a new design approach for offshore monopile foundations that is now widely applied in industry. Ken is an active Associate Editor of the Canadian Geotechnical Journal and has been a keynote speaker at CETRA 2014 in Split, Croatia, ISFOG 2015 held in Oslo, Norway and at CPT18 in Delft.
Professor Lizbeth Goodman (BA, MA, MLitt, PhD)
Lizbeth Goodman is Chair of Creative Technology Innovation and Full Professor of Inclusive Design at University College Dublin, where she directs SMARTlab and the Inclusive Design Research Centre of Ireland at UCD (IDRC) within the College of Engineering, and is an Executive Board member of the Innovation Academy (member institutions: Trinity College, UCD and Queen's University, Belfast). For UCD she leads on the implementation of diversity, access and inclusion initiatives and educational and pedagogic strategy in learning futures through the IDRC and chairs the Marie Curie ASSISTID Programme (on creative Assistive Technology for People with Intellectual Disabilities/Autism) for the DOCTRID Research Institute and Respect: the first top tier research institute bridging the Republic and Northern Ireland. Also on behalf of UCD and the national universities network, she was elected to Chair the Social Sciences Panel of the Royal Irish Academy in 2012. Previously, she was Director of Research for Futurelab - Lord David Puttnam's thinktank for the future of education in the UK- and served in that capacity on the Prime Minister's SHINE Panel to help select and support gifted creatives of all ages, across all disciplines. For RITSEC in Cairo, she serves as Director of the Genius Award Programme. In Ireland in 2014, she established a new Award for excellence in using creative technology for the sharing of knowledge across generations and levels of physical and cognitive ability: the Duais Eagnaí (Wisdom Awards) in memory of the late Daniel O'Hare. In 2008, she was awarded the top industry prizes for Best Woman in the Academic and Public Sectors, and Outstanding Woman in Technology by Blackberry Rim. Most recently, she was selected by a global panel of industry, academic and NGO experts as one of the CSR Global Top 50 Most Talented Social Innovators: awarded in Mumbai in February 2015.
Originally trained as an artist and performance practitioner in theatre, design and multimedia screen direction, and having earned several degrees in those creative fields, she later went on to apply her knowledge of the Arts and Design to the field of Interactive Learning Technologieis, and to STEAM education. She is well known as an expert in Inclusive Learning and Assistive Technologies to support inclusive communication and learning for all, as well as in interdisciplinary Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation, with a focus on Art-Technology initiatives including STEAM education challenges as they impact on the lives of diverse communities, globally. She currently directs the INCLUDE Project with VR First, Intel, HTC Vive, Microsoft and IBM Watson, with partnership from the UN and WEF, supporting the democratization of global learning programmes through provision of Augmented and Virtual Reality training studios, tools and methods across Ireland and globally. In this regard she was recently appointed VP of the IEEE VSMM (Virtual Systems and Multimedia) Conference. In all her work, her main aim is to create and support the Faculty of the Future, providing PhDs to elders of the world community through practice-based research on the ground in communities of need. Coopetition Gaming and Augmented Reality using Outlier AI algorithms inform the development of the learning platform of the future, to support inclusive education for all whilst delivering to the aims of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.
Dr. Sree Nanukuttan
Sree started his career at an Architectural Consultancy in 2001 specialising in project management and structural retrofit. He joined Queen's in 2002 and went on to develop a concrete test instrument that is now commercialised and marketed by Amphora NDT Ltd. After completing his PhD in 2007, he worked alongside optoelectronics researchers in developing fibre optic sensors for concrete structures. He is currently a senior lecturer at Queen's University and specialises on Concrete Technology and Management of Built Infrastructure. This involves concrete performance testing and modelling, condition assessment and management of bridges, piers, culverts and also developing a management strategy for new structures in extreme environments. His work is supported by local housing associations, Transport Northern Ireland and SMEs in Concrete and Built Environment. He is a RILEM member and contributes to Technical committees on durability and concrete performance and is the past president of CERAI (2014-16).
Andrew McIntosh
Andrew McIntosh is the Director of R&D for banah UK Ltd. Having initially studied biochemistry, he has spent the last 21 years within the construction materials industry commencing with Aggregate Industries as a lab technician in 1997. Over the intervening years he has been responsible for production, quality control, research and product development in the ready-mixed concrete and dry bagged mortars markets with experience of a range of cement and binder systems. Since joining banah, he has led the research and development of banahCEM geopolymer binder and now heads up a multi-disciplinary research team as they continue to develop geopolymer and natural calcined pozzolanic solutions, providing the global construction industry with a blueprint for a climate friendly future.
Professor Laurence Gill
Laurence Gill is a Professor in Environmental Engineering in the School of Engineering, Trinity College Dublin. His research interests involve studying the fate and transport of both air and water-borne pollutants in the natural and built environment, the development of passive treatment processes, the ecohydrology of wetlands and the characterisation of karst hydrological catchments. Much of the work involves extensive field studies which are then used to develop mathematical models to gain further insight into the processes. Prior to joining at Trinity College in 1999, he spent several years working in the UK water industry on the design of water and wastewater treatment processes for urban populations.
Professor Ahmed Elghazouli, FREng,
Ahmed Elghazouli is Head of the Structural Engineering Section at Imperial College London. He has over 25 years of research and consulting experience in seismic design and structural robustness under extreme loads, and has published over 250 papers in these areas. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of ICE and IStructE. He currently chairs the BSI committee on seismic design. He is also past chairman of SECED and UK National Delegate to IAEE and EAEE, and has participated in key national and European code development activities.
Dr. Christine Buisson
Dr. Christine Buisson is a senior researcher at The French Institute of Science and Technology for Transport, Development and Networks (IFSTTAR) working in the area of traffic modelling for the last 25 years. Her main expertise lies in developing models and assessments tools for freeway congestion. She teaches transportation control and modelling at École Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'État (ENTPE) at the University of Lyon. She is a part of the join research unit "Laboratory Engineering, Traffic, Transport" (LICIT) of IFSTTAR and ENTPE. She has published over 100 peer-reviewed journal and conference articles and has an h-index is of 38. She is currently a member of the board of the ECTRI transportation management thematic group. She is one of the organizers of the biennial French dynamic transportation simulation meeting. She coordinated the French project Mocopo about modelling and observation of freeway congestion and pollution.
Tony Dempsey
Tony graduated from Trinity College Dublin.
He is a Director of Roughan & O'Donovan Consulting Engineers with 25 years experience in the design of civil engineering infrastructure including bridges.