The UCD STEM Challenge Fund
The UCD STEM Challenge Fund is a joint initiative between the three UCD Colleges of Science, Engineering & Architecture, and Health & Agricultural Sciences to support highly collaborative and high-impact STEM research in UCD.
Stem Challenge Funding Awardees - College of Engineering & Architecture
| Project Lead | Proposal Title | Co-Investigator(s) | Total Awarded |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dr Ronald Halim | When circular bioeconomy meets biomedicine: Harnessing the power of microalgae for brewery waste treatment and omega-3 oil production for therapeutic application. |
Eoin Brennan, Jeremy Simpson & Sara Cardoso Esteves |
€10000 |
| Dr Recep Kaan Dereli | Enhancing the Performance of Hydrogen-to-Biomethane Process by Using Chemically Engineered Enzyme Cofactors (FeNiX) |
Roderick Jones, James Sullivan & Raul Miranda Caso Luengo |
€4920 |
| Dr Daniela Boehm | The effect of cold atmospheric plasma on the formation of MSC-derived extra-cellular vesicles |
Margaret McGee, Ricardo Simon Carbajo, Polat Goktas, Kieran Brennan & Alfonso Blanco | €10000 |
| Dr Nan Zhang | Resolving structure-properties of lipid-based nanomedicines at single nanoparticle level (Resolve-NP) |
Brian Rodriguez, Xiulong Bao & Eoin Brennan |
€9900 |
| Dr Xiping Wu | Integrated Solar Energy Harvesting and Wireless Communications Solution for Zero-Energy IoT |
Chiara Cocco & Jessica Jiang (University of New South Wales) |
€5500 |
| Dr Fiona Freeman | Investigate the involvement of the STimulator of Interferon Genes (STING) pathway in the survival of osteosarcoma cells and assess the potential benefits of targeting this pathway to overcome chemores |
Gerald Barry |
€10000 |
| Dr Jennifer Keenahan | Models to aid site-selection of offshore-wind turbines |
Philip Cardiff, James Herterich, Lennon Ó'Náraigh, Mark Coughlan & Miguel Bustamante |
€9664 |
| Dr Emer Doheny | Portable device to measure oropharyngeal muscle force. |
Jayne Carberry, Eoin O'Cearbhaill & Madeleine Lowery |
€15600 |
| Dr Kevin Roche | How does invasive mollusc species' shell strength affect their availability as a food source to fish? |
Jan-Robert Baars & Marco Garcia-Vaquero |
€5066 |
Stem Challenge Funding Awardees - College of Health and Agricultural Sciences
| Project Lead | Proposal Title | Co-Investigator(s) | Total Awarded |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dr Stephen Thorpe | Development of a pancreatic cancer-on-chip model of immune cell infiltration |
Mario Manresa, Nan Zhang & Carlos Matellan |
€10000 |
| Dr Clare Reynolds | Weighing in on breast milk bioactives – the impact of breast milk pro-inflammatory bioactives on infant growth and development |
Sharleen O'Reilly, Aifric O'Sullivan & Martina Wallace |
€15118 |
| Dr Mark Pickering | Accessible solutions for measuring marine microplastics. |
Kevin Nolan |
€9390 |
| Professor Kate Pumpa | Peak performance wearables: When near enough isn’t good enough. |
Stephen Redmond, Polat Goktas, Ricardo Simon Carbajo & Jocelyn Mara (University of Canberra) | €19505 |
| Professor James Jones | Perfecting an artificial skin |
Dermot Brougham & Aisling Ní Annaidh |
€2215 |
| Dr Eoin Brennan | Induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) derived human blood vessel organoids as a powerful model to investigate vascular development and disease |
John Crean, Jessica Davis & Dermot Brougham |
€10000 |
| Dr Simon Hodge | Circles within circles: the response of hemp to a bio-fertilizer derived from insect farming and repurposed food waste |
Susanne Schilling & Rainer Melzer |
€5000 |
| Dr Stephen Lalor | Developing a workflow to map metatranscriptomic data to metagenomic taxonomical characterisation of the lower airway microbiome to reveal functionally active bacteria in the development of severe asthma |
Séamus Fanning & Guerrino Macori |
€9264 |
Stem Challenge Funding Awardees - College of Science
| Project Lead | Proposal Title | Co-Investigator(s) | Total Awarded |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dr Jennifer Mitchell | Characterising the motility of Streptococcus gallolyticus, a bloodstream pathogen of colon tumours |
Dimitri Scholz, Vladimir Lobaskin & Nan Zhang |
€20000 |
| Dr Monica De Gaetano | Nano-formulation of novel Small Synthetic Molecules in Resolution Pharmacology: an innovative approach to tackle Low-grade Inflammation in Atherosclerosis. |
Eoin Brennan & Nan Zhang |
€17000 |
| Dr Irene Hernandez Giron | Phantoms4All_UCD: A quality control framework for 3d printed anthropomorphic test objects for medical imaging devices assessment |
Saoirse Tracy, Denis Dowling & Sean Cournane | €20000 |
| Dr Derek Costello | Explore the therapeutic potential of seaweed extracts for Alzheimer's disease-related neurodegeneration |
Cormac Murphy, Alison Reynolds & Micheal MacMonagail |
€9900 |
| Assoc Professor James Rice | Green tech to address persistent environmental contaminants |
Veronica Sofianos & Marcus Baumann |
€10000 |
| Dr Marco Viola | Efficient training algorithms for deep learning on traditional and neuromorphic architectures |
Arjun Pakrashi & Vikram Pakrashi |
€4200 |
| Dr Joseph Byrne | Rigid fluorescent boronic-acid peptide probes as novel potential tools to visualise changing glycosylation within the Golgi apparatus |
Aniello Palma, Jeremy Simpson & Hannah Crory |
€7000 |
