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Meet our security research experts
Dr Marguerite Barry
Dr Marguerite Barry
Human-centred design, information and data ethics
“I’m particularly interested in how we can find ways to design and develop technologies that could be good for us”
Consultancy Interests:
- Ethics in technological design, information ethics, data ethics
- Understanding interactivity through concepts, context & design
- Technology and well-being, design to support mental health
- Science, technology and society (STS) studies
Summary Experience:
Assistant Professor Marguerite Barry joined the School of Information and Communication Studies in University College Dublin (UCD) in 2017.
Marguerite’s research interests are in human-computer interaction (HCI) and design for communication using digital media using and artificial intelligence (AI). Her work focuses on developing a deeper understanding of interaction in context and techniques for addressing ethical issues from research design through to deployment. Recent work has focused on ethical design for technologies to support well-being, especially in mental healthcare, and in developing practical ethical frameworks to inform design. Marguerite’s work is shaped by science, technology and society (STS) studies and historical approaches to digital media but is also motivated by over a decade of industry experience in digital media project management and media production.
Current Projects:
- Marguerite has developed the first MSc graduate programme in Communication and Media studies at UCD delivering a combination of HCI and media studies teaching to students from September 2019
- Current research projects include
“Fostering digital social capital through design for wellbeing”
(D-REAL (SFI) CRT 2019-2023)
“Protecting online decision making processes: Privacy by design and ethics governance”
(H2020 MSCA-ITN 2017-2020)
Marguerite has held/holds the following positions:
- Member of the ADAPT Ethics & Privacy Working Group and UCD Human-Computer Interaction (HCI@UCD) group
- Prior to joining UCD Marguerite was Strategic Director at X Communications digital media agency in Dublin
Dr Eimear Byrne
Dr Eimear Byrne
Coding Theory & Applications, Discrete Mathematics
Consultancy Interests:
- Coding Theory
- Security, Privacy & Error-Correction
- Mathematics of Communications
Summary Experience:
Eimear Byrne is an Associate Professor in the School of Mathematics and Statistics in UCD. Her work is centred on coding theory, the mathematics of communications and combinatorics. Coding theory plays a role of fundamental importance in all areas of digital communications technology such as deep space communications, mobile telephony and distributed storage. Eimear is interested in applying coding theoretic techniques and models to contemporary applications involving privacy, security and integrity of digital data transmission and storage and in addressing fundamental questions in coding theory.
Current Projects:
Horizon 2020 MSCA: Algebraic Covering Codes Enabling Network Transmissions (ACCENT)
May 2018 - April 2020
Irish Research Council: Rank Metric Codes: Decoding Algorithms, Zeta Functions And The Riemann Hypothesis, Oct 2018 - Sept 2022
Eimear has held/holds the following committee positions:
- Member of the editorial board of the journal Advances in the Mathematics of Communications, http://www.aimsciences.org/journals/amc/index.htm
- Head of Research Innovation & Impact for the UCD School of Mathematical Sciences 2014-2019
- Head of Taught Graduate Degrees for the UCD School of Mathematical Sciences 2011-2014
Dr Anca Delia Jurcut
Dr Anca Delia Jurcut
Network and Information Security
Consultancy Interests:
- Cryptography
- Security for Internet of Things
- Application of Blockchain technologies
- Security Protocols Design and Analysis
- Automated Techniques for Formal Verification
- Computer Algorithms
Summary Experience:
Anca Delia Jurcut is an Assistant Professor in the School of Computer Science at UCD. Anca specialises in Network and Information Security. Her interests include Security Protocols Design and Analysis, Automated Techniques for Formal Verification, Attack Detection and Prevention, Cryptography, Security for Internet of Things, Mobile Edge Computing, Application of Blockchain Technology in Security and Privacy.
Some of the key contributions of Anca’s work include: development of a novel logic-based technique for the formal verification of protocols; the design and implementation of a tool for the automated analysis and design validation of protocols that is currently internationally used for the formal verification of security protocols; design and implementation of an automated tool for the formal analysis and design validation of protocols; discovery of several hitherto unknown protocol design flaws and the publication of new verifiably correct protocols and development and publication of a new set of design guidelines to guarantee protocol robustness against attacks
Recent project have included:
- Development of CDVT/AD for the formal verification of security protocols
- Enhancing Security in Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC) and Internet of Things (IoT) Integration
- A secure framework to automatically detect and prevent DoS attacks in software defined network (SDN)
Anca has held/holds the following positions:
- H2020 (Cryptography and Cybersecurity call) expert reviewer and on the review committee for successful H2020 proposals for the European Commission.
- Conference programme committee member
- Journals and conferences reviewer
Dr Quinn DuPont
Dr Quinn DuPont
Cyber, Security, Fintech
Consultancy Interests:
- Information ethics
- Digital innovation and governance
- Cybersecurity
- Fintech
- Blockchain
Summary Experience:
Quinn DuPont is an Assistant Professor in the School of Business at University College Dublin. He has a PhD in Information Science (Toronto) and was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at University of Washington. Quinn is an expert in information ethics, cybersecurity policy, digital innovation and governance, and blockchains and cryptocurrencies. Quinn’s current work is moving towards the policy, governance, risk management and behavioural aspects of his areas of expertise. Quinn is the author of Cryptocurrencies and Blockchains (Polity). Previously, Quinn was a Senior Information Specialist at IBM where he worked in the area of Risk Management.
Recent projects have included:
- Research Fellow at University College London’s Center for Blockchain Technologies
- Founder and Editor in Chief of the Blockchain Research Network
- Education Chair of IEEE Blockchain Initiative
- Former member of ISO TC307 Blockchain and DLT standardization committee (2017-2019)
Quinn has held/holds the following committee positions:
- Associate Editor of Frontiers in Blockchains
- Journal reviewer
Dr Eugenio Lilli
Dr Eugenio Lilli
Cyber Security, US / Middle East Foreign Policy
- Cyber security strategies
- Public-private sector cooperation
- Internet governance
Summary Experience:
An expert in national and international security including defence, homeland, and foreign policy, Eugenio is a lecturer and coordinator of the MA in American Politics and Foreign Policy, at the Clinton Institute for American Studies, University College Dublin.
Recent and current projects:
- Studies on the development of cyber security policy and strategy in the United States.
- Studies on public-private sector cooperation in national strategies of cyber deterrence.
- Co-editor of the 2019 Irish Defence Forces Review, ‘The 22nd Century Military Force: Technology, Innovation and Future Force Concepts.’
Eugenio has held/holds the following committee positions:
- Member of the International Studies Association (ISA), British International Studies Association (BISA), and Irish Security Research Network.
- Member of the Editorial Board of REDEN (Revista Española de Estudios Norteamericanos).
- Former advisor to a member of the Italian Senate’s Committee on Foreign Affairs.
- Convenor of British International Studies Association, US Foreign Policy, 2018 - 2019.
- Founder and Chair of King’s College London, US Foreign Policy Research Working Group, 2014 – 2016.
Dr Daniel McCrum
Dr Daniel McCrum
Cyber and physical threats to critical infrastructure
Consultancy Interests:
- Resilience of built environment and infrastructure to natural hazards
- Earthquake engineering and structural dynamics
- Infrastructure condition assessment subject to natural hazards
- Structural mechanics and novel computational techniques
Summary Experience:
Daniel McCrum is an Assistant Professor in the School of Civil Engineering at UCD. Daniel’s research specialises in earthquake engineering, structural dynamics and critical infrastructure protection to combined cyber and natural hazards.
Prior to joining UCD Daniel worked as a lecturer in structural engineering at Queen’s University Belfast, a consulting structural engineer in Ireland and the UK and as a data analyst in the Accenture Analytics Innovation Centre.
Recent work has included:
- Knowledge Transfer Partnerships
- UCD Advanced PhD Scholarship
- Northern Ireland Advanced Competence in Engineering Centre
- Institution of Civil Engineers Research and Development Grant
Daniel has held/holds the following committee positions:
- In 2016 Daniel was a Fulbright Visiting Research Scholar in UCLA
- Chartered Structural Engineer, Institution of Structural Engineers
- Earthquake Engineering Field Investigation Team
- Society of Earthquake and Civil Engineering Dynamics
- Disaster Response Team Ireland
Prof Tahar Kechadi
Prof Tahar Kechadi
Digital forensics, cyber-security, data analytics
Consultancy Interests:
- Cyber-crime investigations
- Cybersecurity & Digital forensics
- Data Mining & machine Learning
- Distributed data mining
- Medical data analytics
- Heterogeneous distributed systems
- Grid and Cloud Computing
Summary Experience:
Professor Kechadi is a Professor of Computer Science in the UCD School of Computer Science. The core focus of his work over the last decade has been on managing and analysing data quickly and efficiently. In this digital world, we produce more data than we can analyse and exploit. ‘Big data' will continue to grow at rapid pace, will underpin new waves of innovation in nearly every sector of the world economy, and will reshape the way we build and use computers (hardware and software). The problem is how to manage and process all these huge volumes of data. Both the analysis of large datasets and the computing environments have created new problems and challenges for efficient execution and optimal system performance.
Tahar considers the challenges of data analytics in the heterogeneous, complex, distributed environment. For more effective and efficient analysis of large datasets we now recognise that data analytics (DA) is a multi-step process and the user is at the centre of some steps. One of his research objectives is to study multi-process DA steps and their interrelationship with overall process performance. Another key objective is to design and develop DA techniques that delineate a careful division of work between the user and computer. One way to tackle this challenge is to provide constant feedback to the user and engage with the user only when it is required. And finally scalability and privacy issues: as datasets are becoming extremely large, containing data of various types and related to different systems or users. Tahar is considering these issues from cybersecurity, computer forensics and cybercrime investigations and healthcare perspectives.
Recent projects have included:
- PI at Insight Centre for data analytics,
- Expert witness in the High Court
- Tahar is currently the Director of an International BSc degree in Computer Science in Sri Lanka, which he designed and implemented.
Tahar has held/holds the following committee positions:
- Scientific committee member for a number of international conferences
- Organised and hosted one of the leading conferences in his area
- Editorial board member of the Journal of Future Generation of Computer Systems and of IST Transactions of Applied Mathematics-Modelling and Simulation.
- Member of the communication of the ACM journal and IEEE computer society.
Dr Eleni Mangina
Dr Eleni Mangina
Applied AI and Data Analytics, Emerging Technologies (UAVs, VR, AR)
Consultancy Interests:
- Applied Artificial Intelligent Systems
- Robotics
- Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)
- Virtual and Augmented Reality applications for education/training
- Data Analytics for Decarbonisation
Summary Experience
An active researcher in the area of artificial intelligence application in domains such as engineering, power industry, bioinformatics, education, agriculture, supply chain management and music. Recent research focus includes robotics, remotely piloted aircraft systems and virtual and augmented reality applications in education through simulation.
Recent Projects have included:
- Coordination of a 10 EU member consortium ARETE (Augmented Reality Education Systems) H2020 funded
- Development of an Augmented Reality (AR) solution for an online literacy programme for primary school students with ADHD
- Development of digital applications to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of humanitarian action for Red Cross in Ireland and India.
Funded collaborator with
- Energy Systems Integration Partnership Programme
- VistaMilk SFI Research Centre – Milk by Design
- CFI CRT’s (ML-Labs and D-REAL)
Prof John Murphy
Prof John Murphy
Performance engineering of networks and distributed systems
Consultancy Interests:
- 'Smart’ Campus
- Internet of Thingss
- Performance Engineering
- Telecommunication Systems
- Enterprise Software
- Middlewar
- Mobile Networks
- Queueing Theory
Summary Experience:
John Murphy is a Professor in the School of Computer Science at UCD and Director of the Performance Engineering Laboratory. John specialises in performance engineering. In 2016 John won a US-Ireland Research Innovation Award. Developed in 2015 by the American Chamber of Commerce, Ireland and the Royal Irish Academy, the awards recognise and acknowledge exemplary ideas, originating in Irish organisations, making a social and economic impact through research innovation in meeting market needs. John won the award for the Real Time Collaboration Engine (RTCE) which was created as a result of a decade long interaction between the Performance Engineering Laboratory (PEL) at UCD’s School of Computer Science and IBM Dublin Software Lab. The RTCE analyses log files from several different sources to find patterns and symptoms that indicate malfunction.
Current interests include advancing state-of-the-art, cognitive-edge computing to enable smart campus applications, with support from IBM. The information from this use-case is valuable for UCD campus real estate managers, allowing a more efficient way to monitor the building’s heating system. While this has been tried before, UCD has been entirely rethinking the way this is effectively offered through the use of edge computing.
Recent projects have included:
•Jet Propulsion Laboratory
•Consultant to US Department of Justice
John has held/holds the following committee positions:
•IBM Faculty Fellow
•Fellow of the Institute of Engineering and Technology
•Senior Member Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
•Senior Member Association of Computing Machinery
•Fellow and Chartered Engineer – Engineers Ireland
•Fellow of the Irish Computer Society
Dr Alessia Paccagnini
Dr Alessia Paccagnini
Economics and Econometrics, Blockchain / cryptocurrencies
Consultancy Interests:
- Blockchain
- Cryptocurrencies
- Econometrics
- Monetary policy
Summary Experience:
Alessia Paccagnini is currently a Lecturer/Assistant Professor at the at the University College Dublin School of Business. Alessia’s interests include Econometrics, Applied Econometrics, Classical and Bayesian Econometrics, Time-Series Analysis, Forecasting, Macroeconomics, Applied Macroeconomics, Monetary Policy, DSGE Modelling, and Applied Finance.
Recent projects have included:
- Cryptocurrencies and blockchain, their behaviours and their impact on the economy.
- Uncertainty and Monetary Policy
- Big Data Analysis using Factor Models
- Portfolio Choice under Uncertainty
- Cryptocurrencies and Economics
Alessia has held/holds the following committee positions:
- Academic Director of Master in Quantitative Finance at Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School
- Co-Chair University College Dublin Women in STEM
- Research Associate at the Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis (CAMA) at Model Uncertainty and Macro-Econometrics Program and COVID19 and Macroeconomy
- Editorial Board Member of Forecasting
-
Member of Irish Economics Associations, European Economics Association, American Economics Associations, Econometrics Society
- Research Associate at the Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis (CAMA) in the Model Uncertainty and Macro-Econometrics Program
- Member of the Advisory Board of Irish Academy of Finance from 2018
Website: https://sites.google.com/site/
New Papers: https://ideas.repec.org/f/
Dr Liliana Pasquale
Dr Liliana Pasquale
Software Engineering, Security Regulatory compliance
I am interested in the development of software systems that are secure and can comply with data protection regulations.
Consultancy Interests:
- Adaptive Security and Privacy
- Software Regulatory Compliance
- Forensic-ready systems
- Self-protecting cyber-physical systems (CPS)
Summary Experience:
Dr. Liliana Pasquale is an Assistant Professor in the School of Computer Science in UCD and a researcher in Lero - the Irish Software Research Centre. Dr Pasquale’s work is focused on building software that is secure, that can prevent as well as investigate security incidents and includes:
- Engineering Self-protecting cyber-physical systems: developing self-protecting cyber-physical systems (CPS) that are able to continuously protect assets from harm even when security goals, the system itself and/or the operating environment change at runtime
- Engineering Forensic-Ready Systems: designing and developing "forensic-ready" cyber-physical systems that can store in advance data that may be relevant to diagnose potential security incidents
Recent projects have included:
- Development of modules on secure software engineering and software engineering
- H2020 CyberSec4Europe: Pilot of a European research centre on security
- SFI Starting Investigator Research Grant on Engineering forensic-ready cyber-physical systems
- Intern at the IBM TJ Watson Research Centre
Liliana has held/holds the following committee positions:
- Member of Lero – the Irish Software Research Centre
- Review committee member of the IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering Journal and the ACM Transactions on Software Engineering Methodologies
- Member of the program committee of the most prestigious software engineering conferences, such as the International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE), the Foundations of Software Engineering (FSE) conference, the Automated Software Engineering (ASE) conference and the Requirements Engineering (RE) Conference.
Prof Kalpana Shankar
Prof Kalpana Shankar
Information ethics, data management
Consultancy Interests:
- Digital and information ethics
- Sustainable data and technology
- Ethical design
- Human-computer interaction
- Information management
Summary Experience:
Professor Kalpana Shankar is a Professor of Communication and Information Studies in UCD. Her current projects focus on the sustainability and longevity of data archives and research evaluation and peer review at Science Foundation Ireland. Past projects include open data in Ireland and aging and technology for the home.
Recent projects have included:
- A project on the state of open government data in Ireland to examine the concepts of value, sustainability/longevity, and trustworthiness across sectors and projects
- An examination of the concept of data sustainability from historical, organisational, and operational perspectives
Kalpana has held/holds the following committee positions:
- One of two Irish representatives to the Management Committee to the European Commission funded COST (Committee on Science and Technology) Action New Frontiers in Peer Review (PEERE) (2014-2018)
- Elected member of the Council of the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST)
- Member of the Social Sciences Committee of the Royal Irish Academy
Prof John Sheridan
Prof John Sheridan
Optical encryption, security and watermarking
...an engineer who tries to help both technology & people perform as well as they can
Consultancy Interests:
- Optical engineering and applied optoelectronics
- Optical encryption, security and watermarking
- Optical Signal Processing
- Fast numerical algorithms for the design and analysis of optical systems
- Holographic materials
- Optical fiber Bragg grating sensors
- Optical metrology
- Biomedical optics
- Solar light simulators and energy conversion
- LED based lighting and light therapy
Summary Experience:
John T. Sheridan is Professor of Optical Engineering in the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, UCD and is director of UCDs’ Masters in Optical Engineering. Optical engineers typically are interested in designing, fabricating and testing optical systems and components for use outside the laboratory with a focus on producing results that meet some reasonable cost and/or reliability requirement, under non-ideal working conditions. As such Professor Sheridan is actively engaged in collaborative projects with national and international industrial partners. Some of his industrial collaborators have included AR/VR wearable manufacturers and companies involved in commercial lighting.
Professor Sheridan also works in the area of optical encryption and security. Most recently this has included the development of Computational Terahertz Imaging for manufacturing applications.
Recent projects have included:
- Co-editor of Linear Canonical Transforms in the Springer Series on Optical Sciences and Co-author of the monograph Optical Encryption and Decryption SPIE Press.
- He has recently acted as lead editor on the Applied Optics Feature Issue: Optics in Ireland.
- He cofounded Generic Light (Company Number 420398, 28/11/2006).
- In 2011 he co-founded and is a director of the UCD spin-out company Equilume Ltd, www.equilume.com. Equilume was a runner up in the NovaUCD commercialisation awards in 2012 and went on to win the Enterprise Ireland “One To Watch” award in 2012. In 2014 the company was shortlisted for an Irish Times Innovation Award. The bio-optical product is used to enhance horse breeding. Units are currently being sold and in use in Australia, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, South Africa and the USA.
- He presented the following public lecture at the UCD Light & Shadow event. See: https://youtu.be/41akWQxQoCQ
John has held/holds the following committee positions:
- 2014 elected a Fellow of SPIE the International Optical Engineering Society.
- 2016 elected a Fellow of the Optical Society of America (OSA).
Dr Nam Tran
Dr Nam Tran
Wireless communications design
‘With the increase in energy demands as a result of 5G, we need to develop smarter ways to transmit signals between devices and base stations, reliably and with minimal amounts of energy. My research will enable this.’
Consultancy Interests:
- Optimising wireless communication transmission
- Energy-efficient communications
- Cloud radio access networks
- Massive MIMO
- Full-duplex transmission
Summary Experience:
Le-Nam Tran is an Assistant Professor with the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at UCD. Le-Nam’s research interests are primarily on applications of optimization techniques on wireless communications design. Recent work has been in the areas of energy-efficient communications, cloud radio access networks, massive MIMO, and full-duplex transmission.
Recent projects have included:
- Applications of (convex and nonconvex) optimisation techniques for wireless communications
- MIMO techniques: performance limits, small-cell deployment, distributed precoding/beamforming, large-scale antenna array, (i.e., massive MIMO)
Le-Nam has held/holds the following committee positions:
- Associate Editor of EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking
- Symposium Co-Chair of Cognitive Computing and Networking Symposium of International Conference on Computing, Networking and Communication (ICNC 2016)
- Senior Member Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
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