Getting ready for Fulbright visit to NC State

As the clock ticks down to my Fulbright visit in June to North Carolina State (NC State) University, I have been preparing for it in a number of ways. I made presentations about my study to UCD Institute of Food and Health colleagues in December 2017 and at the Internet of Things 4 Food (IoT4F) Conference in UCD in March 2018. In January, I travelled to the (opens in a new window)Argent Energy biodiesel plant at Ellesmere Port near Liverpool where I was kindly given a tour of the facility by Heather Swinbank. It is an impressive site which can deal with a wide range of oil-filled residues including fatbergs and convert them into an environmentally friendly biodiesel as a renewable energy source.

Argent Site Visit

In March 2018, I attended the Fats, Oils and Grease (FOG) Conference in Cranfield University, UK. It was an ideal opportunity to meet industry representatives and researchers to get the latest information on the scale of problems associated with fatbergs and the suggested solutions along with monitoring possibilities. I met some of the people who were interviewed for the ‘Fatberg Autopsy – Secrets of the Sewers’ TV programme which has since been broadcast on Channel 4.

After the FOG conference, I travelled further south to visit the ‘Fatberg!’ exhibit in the (opens in a new window)Museum of London. The curator, Vyki Sparkes, was kind enough to show me around and explain the background to the exhibit which has pride of place inside the main entrance. There has been an impressive increase in visitor numbers to the museum since the ‘Fatberg!’ exhibit opened in February 2018. It was also interesting to tour the rest of the museum and find out all about the history of London from ancient times to modern day fatbergs! It was fascinating to hear how the exhibit was designed to communicate messages to the general public. Speaking of communication, the latest articles about my Fulbright study by Claire O’Connell for UCD Today and the Irish Times can be found in the media section of this website.

Photo collage from visit to Museum of London

Thanks to the CONNECT Centre and UCD Estates, I have done some preliminary monitoring of a UCD campus sewer. The initial design of the setup was not ideal, so it has required adjustment. In addition to the IoT4F conference, I plan to present preliminary findings at the Annual International Meeting of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers ((opens in a new window)ASABE) in Detroit at the end of July after my Fulbright study at NC State. My US diary is already getting quite full as I have arranged a number of meetings, both professionally and with distant cousins when my family visits. I am really looking forward to it all!