The event, delivered in association with EPSRC, was hosted by Emer Maguire, Science Communicator and Alumna, and focused on the local and global impact of the research taking place at the University. 

Contributors from Queen’s University Belfast included: Dr Myra Lydon, Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellow of Environmental Change and Resilience; Dr Jonathan Coulter, Reader in Material and Advanced Technologies for Healthcare and Dr Antonino Masaracchia, Research Fellow of Applied Machine Learning for Wireless Communications. 

The event was a blend of panel discussions and video content exploring the research of QUB. 

Our first contributor was Dr Myra Lydon. 

Myra is working within the Intelligent Infrastructure group at QUB, and has helped to develop structural health monitoring systems (SHM) for iconic structures across Northern Ireland.

Her current research SMART Infrastructure aims to enhance the resilience of road networks through data analytics and greater interoperability across asset management systems, focusing specifically on the vulnerability of bridge structures within the network.

She is currently working with the Northern Ireland Department for Infrastructure to develop a digital road map of Northern Ireland road network and a new data-based bridge management system.

Next up was, Dr Antonino Masaracchia. 

Antonino Masaracchia (Member, IEEE) received his Ph.D. degree in electronics and telecommunications engineering from the University of Palermo, Italy, in 2016.

Since 2018, he has been a Research Fellow with the Centre for Wireless Innovation, Queens.

His research interests include fifth generation (5G) and beyond 5G networks (6G) oriented services, convex optimization and applied machine learning techniques to wireless communications, reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS), UAV-enabled networks, and ultra-reliable and low-latency communications (URLLC).

Our final contributor of the event was Dr Jonathan Coulter. 

Jonathan is a Reader and Associate Professor in Nanotherapeutics within the School of Pharmacy, Queen’s University Belfast.

His research focuses on identifying novel approaches to increase the effectiveness of radiotherapy while limiting damage to surrounding normal tissue.

This is achieved via two key approaches:

1) taking advantage of the unique biological features of the tumour to achieve therapeutic benefit

or 2) exploiting the unique physical properties of common materials to produce tiny particles called nanoparticles, which in turn act as potent sensitisers to radiotherapy.

He is past Chair of the Association of Radiation Research (UK) and a committee member of the Irish Radiation Research Society.

Professor Roger Woods, Dean of Research for the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences, says: “The event has been a fantastic opportunity to hear about the innovative and revolutionary research being carried out at Queen’s.

“Our researchers continue to make a difference to lives and livelihoods in Northern Ireland and around the world. Through cutting-edge research, experts at Queen’s are developing solutions to real world problems on our doorstop, which has a positive impact right across the globe.”

A special mention also to the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Impact Acceleration Account fund, without which our researchers could not complete their work.