IVI Staff

Dr Marco Alfano

Dr. Marco Alfano is a Senior Researcher at IVI and lead of the IVI Digital Health & Wellbeing research cluster. He is also a visiting scientist at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) and is affiliated with Lero, the Research Ireland Centre for Software. He is currently working on responsible use of AI in health and wellbeing by facilitating person/patient empowerment and seamless communication within the digital health ecosystem (http://cohealth.ivi.ie/). His research interests include Responsible AI, Digital Health Transformation, Patient Empowerment, Human-machine communication, Data analytics, Semantic Web, Smart cities, Cybersecurity, and Open Data/Big Data. He has authored more than sixty peer reviewed articles for journals, books, and conferences. He has participated in several European projects and has received grants from international bodies, such as the European Union (under the FP7 and H2020 framework programs), and national bodies, such as Research Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, and the National Research Council of Italy.

Caroline Creamer

Caroline has worked in a research and management capacity on a number of EU-funded projects over the past 16 years, including the Four Cities Project (Urban Regeneration, Planning and Community Participation) with Maynooth University; EQUAL at Work (Inclusive Employment and Recruitment Practices in the Irish Labour Market) with the Dublin Employment Pact; SPAN (Strategic Planning and Multi-level Governance) with Maynooth University; and more recently, CroSPlaN (the Cross-Border Spatial Planning Development and Training Network) with ICLRD.  A qualified town planner, her research interests include spatial planning practice and policy, leadership in place-making and place-shaping, regional and local development and regeneration, collaborative and participative decision-making, and inter-territorial and cross-border development.

Caroline holds a Diploma in Environmental Resources Management from Dublin Institute of Technology, an MA in Geography from Maynooth University, an MA in Town and Country Planning from University of the West of England / Open University, and is currently a part-time PhD candidate in Maynooth University.

Professor Martin Curley

Martin Curley is Professor of Innovation at Maynooth University. Most recently, Martin was Director of the Digital Transformation and Open Innovation at the Health Service Executive (HSE), helping enable the digital transformation of Ireland’s health service and also served as Chief Information Officer (CIO) at the HSE. Prior to joining the HSE Martin was Senior Vice President and group head for Global Digital Practice at Mastercard. Previously Martin was vice president at Intel Corporation and Director/GM of Intel Labs Europe, Intel’s network of more than 50 research labs which he helped grow across the European region. He also served as a senior principal engineer at Intel Labs Europe leading Intel’s research and innovation engagement with the European Commission and the broader European Union research ecosystem. Prior to this Curley was Global Director of IT Innovation and Director of IT Strategy and Technology at Intel. Earlier in his Intel career, he held a number of senior positions for Intel in the United States and Europe. He also worked in research and management positions at GE in Ireland and Philips in the Netherlands.

Martin has a bachelor’s degree in electronic engineering and a master’s degree in business studies, both from University College Dublin, Ireland. He received his Ph.D. in information systems from the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. Curley is the author of eight books on technology management for value, innovation and entrepreneurship. He is a Member of the Royal Irish Academy, fellow of the Institution of Engineers of Ireland, the British Computer Society and, the Irish Computer Society. Martin is co-founder of the Innovation Value Institute at Maynooth University, a unique industry-academia collaboration driving research and development of advanced IT and Digital maturity frameworks. He was previously a visiting scholar at MIT Sloan Centre for Information Systems Research and a visiting research fellow at the CERN Open Lab in Geneva. He was the inaugural winner of the Engineers Ireland Innovation engineer of the year in 2006 and was jointly awarded European Chief Technology Officer of the year for 2015-2016.

Dr Tadhg E. MacIntyre

Tadhg E. Maclntyre PhD is an Associate Professor in Environmental Psychology at the Innovation Value Institute, Maynooth University where he has a leading role in three EU funded Horizon projects. Tadhg is also a funded investigator with Research Ireland Insight Centre for Data Analytics and has been a Visiting Professor at the Technical University of Munich (2019-2020) and Inland University of Applied Sciences (Norway) from 2022-2025. Tadhg graduated from UCD with a  PhD in psychology in 2007 focused on cognitive aspects of human movement. More recently his research has been focused on nature-based solutions and interventions for urban health. Tadhg currently coordinates the Horizon Europe GoGreen Next project (2024-2028)focused on urban health and climate change (€6 million). He recently led the Horizon 2020 project GoGreen Routes (2020-2024) which received €10.5 million  (2020-2024) directly from the EU. Since June 2025, he is a work package lead of Horizon Europe project Green Talent (2025-2029) where his work is concerned with developing a learning ecosystem for innovators in climate change and sustainability. He also is a reviewer for EU funding calls (e.g. ERC, EU Horizon proposals, and MSCA), in addition to national funding in the US, Norway, Czech Republic, Switzerland and Canada and the UK (e.g. Leverhulme Awards).

Dr Zohreh Pourzolfaghar

Zohreh Pourzolfaghar is Assistant Professor for the School of Business in Maynooth University. She is a members of Lero, the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Software. Zohreh formerly has been Research Fellow at Innovation Value Institute (IVI), Maynooth University’s digital transformation research centre. She is a senior research member of the Business Informatics Group. She is the theme lead in a project investigating the application of Enterprise Architecture in Smart Cities, funded by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI). She has been Principle Investigator for an Industry Fellowship Programme, funded by SFI. Zohreh presented her work at international conferences and has published research in Journals and Conference Proceedings. Zohreh is also leading research within the Cost Action CA16222 (WISE-ACT), a European-wide network.  She has been thematic lead in a successful European Marie Curie PERFORM project. She is a member of the supervisory board of the EU project PERFORM, that focuses on Digital Retail. She has been awarded the SFI industry fellowship (2018) working with industry on topics related to Smart Cities and Building Information Management. She is the Co-PI for submitted H202 Techland proposal. Zohreh received her Ph.D. in Project Management in design process of building projects. Zohreh has years of experience working with project-oriented construction companies to improve organisatioanal productivity and their work processes.

Pedro Campilho

Amelia Carroll

Amelia is a Research Assistant for the GoGreen Next project. You can learn more about GoGreen Next here.

Dr. Edmund Chapman

Edmund’s Executive Assistant role at IVI involves general administration, communications, content creation and assisting with events. Edmund has worked in various research, communications and admin roles including at Maynooth University and the Irish Research Council. He leads on communication and outreach for the IVI Summit as well as supporting various administrative elements.

edmund.chapman@mu.ie

Carol Connolly

Carol is a Senior Executive Assistant with IVI coordinating event and outreach management, workshop coordination, digital media communication and day-to-day operations. Carol leads all administrative and organisational aspects of the IVI Summit.

carol.connolly@mu.ie

Dr Michael Hanley

Michael Hanley leads educational innovation initiatives, curriculum development, and strategic academic programmes at IVI. He is recognised for integrating research-based frameworks and data-informed processes into institutional practice. He is a specialist in digital and AI transformation in complex public and private sector organisations, with a track record of aligning organisational strategy with national and regional policy.

As well as his experience in higher education, he has worked previously as as Director of Online Learning at Cúram Software (an IBM Company), and Digital Media Manager at the Educational Multimedia Group. He is Course Director for the “Leading Digital Transformation in Organisations” micro-credential at Maynooth University and co-creator and lecturer on the MSc in Healthcare Transformation at the University of Limerick. He has directed multiple large-scale academic and industry collaborative projects, such as Grad2Work, the Tech Industry Alliance Sustainable Software Development Toolkit, and the DIGIFABS EU project.

Michael is a member of the Maynooth University Social Science Institute (MUSSI), serves on the Steering Board of the Irish Local Government Cybersecurity CORE programme (LG-CORE), and a Irish Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition Steering Group member. He is also a Fellow of the Learning & Development Institute. He has contributed to national and international academic and professional conferences, including addresses at the Maynooth University DEARS Symposium and workshop facilitation at the IVI Summit, and has been published in the International Journal for Digital Society and other journals.

Michael holds a Doctorate in Education Leadership from Maynooth University, and an MSc (Hons) in Education Technology from the National College of Ireland.

Research Interests:

• · Digital transformation in higher education
• · Academic–industry partnership and innovation
• · Organisational capability and change management
• · Post-digital education futures
• · Data-informed leadership, strategy, and governance in complex organisations
• · Sustainable digital & AI skills in professional education
• · Human capital policy development
• · Flexible pathways to education for adults

Indudhara Havaldar

Paul Heynen

Paul has been working with IVI as operations manager since its formation in 2006. Paul is responsible for the non-research business operations functions in IVI including community, member and partner engement, financial administration, liaison with central university administrative functions, and on-going management and development of IVI-specific IT systems and platforms. Prior to joining IVI, Paul worked in the semiconductor industry for 11 years in various engineering and management roles, most recently as a product manager for an advanced process control software and analytics start-up.

Sara Lynch

Sara is a Psychology BA graduate from Trinity College Dublin and is currently working as a research assistant for the GoGreenNext project. Her work explores the links between nature, climate change and well-being, and she is involved in creating a nature-based walking intervention known as GoGreenTrails. As a multilingual individual with Finnish/Irish roots, Sara also assists in translation as part of her role in GoGreenNext and other projects. 

Lee-Anne Kallam

Lee-Anne Kallam joins the team bringing with her extensive experience in financial, project and operations management. In her role as Research Programme Manager for Empower, Lee-Anne will coordinate and manage the newly established multi-million Euro Data Governance Research Programme. Working closely with the four SFI-funded research centres, Lero, Insight, Adapt and FutureNeuro and being member of the Steering Committee, she will oversee, coordinate, consolidate, report, and manage relationships between the operations teams. By bringing her information systems background and executive business management skills to Empower, she is confident that she will make a significant contribution to its success in establishing its external presence.

Roshmita Kanungoe

Roshmita Kanungoe is a Project Manager working with Innovation Value Institute (IVI) in Maynooth University, Ireland since 2021. Her expertise lies in leveraging technology and research to deliver impactful results. Roshmita has experience in managing capacity building, industrial and public sector projects nationally and in EU, with a focus on digital transformation. Prior to her current role, Roshmita worked as a developer, delivering SaaS products for the FMCG industry.

Denise Manton

Denise Manton has 20+ years of multi-disciplinary experience with a focus on innovation driven technology and digital transformation initiatives both in industry and in academic research environments, operating at various levels from software engineering to senior management. In her role as Executive Officer of Empower, she will drive the long-term strategic planning of the research programme and lead engagement and collaboration with diverse stakeholder groups, building a community of practice to overcome the global challenges in the area of data governance. Denise is also responsible for ensuring the key objectives are met and growth of the programme achieved.

Caoimhe McPeake

Caoimhe is a Research Assistant for the Digitising Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension Pathways project, led by Dr Ciara McCormack.

Emma O’Toole

Emma is a Senior Research Assistant and recent postgraduate of the MSc in Public Policy & Human Development from the United Nations University, where she specialised in Innovation Governance. Emma is very excited to work with the GoGreen Next project team and contribute to and coordinate the efficient delivery of all communications and dissemination outputs related to the project, in conjunction with the PI, Dr Tadhg Macintyre.

Ana Rodriguez Armendariz

Ana is a researcher for the Clarina AI project. She is a MPhil by Research student at Dublin City University, where she is a FIA United Against Online Abuse scholar focused on education countering online abuse in sport.

Samarth Santosh

Samarth Santosh is a technical business analyst specializing in Data Governance and Data-Driven digital transformation. He is a co-author on the Data Governance Roadmap for Ireland as well as a member of the Data Governance Roadmap taskforce at EMPOWER. Currently he is working on a number of industry projects with the Innovation Value Institute focusing on process mining as well as helping build the policy and infrastructure in the TEHDAS 2 project that focuses on the creation of a European Health Data Space.

Rajat Singh

Rajat is the Program Manager for Innovation Vouchers at the Innovation Value Institute. In this role, he is responsible for identifying and assessing opportunities to secure Innovation Vouchers (IV) that support collaborative projects between SMEs and IVI. He holds a Master’s degree in Business Analytics from the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. Following his graduation, he gained experience as a Business Analyst at Accenture for two years. Prior to his time in Ireland, he has worked in business development, focusing on cybersecurity and cloud solutions.

Leonard Yesudas

Professor Piero Formica

Prof. Piero Formica is an Italian writer and academic, active in the field of knowledge economics. He graduated cum laude, with a mention of scientific aptitude, in 1965, with a thesis on the pure theory of international trade at the University of Messina. Between 1966 and 1968, he studied international economics at the Bologna Centre of Johns Hopkins University.

In the early 1970s, Formica was an economist in the Economic Outlook Division of the OECD and part of the editorial team of Economic Outlook – a six-monthly analysis of the main economic trends and prospects for the next two years.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Piero Formica was involved in academic activities in the United Kingdom (London and Birmingham) while affiliated to Università degli Studi “Gabriele d’Annunzio”, where he inaugurated the Chair of International Economics, and the Alma Mater Studiorum in Bologna, where he was a member of the Board of Directors for four years. During that period, Formica was involved in European programmes to develop incubators and science and technology parks. He collaborated with the European Business Network – a network of about 140 Business and Innovation Centres and other organisations supporting the development and growth of innovative entrepreneurs, start-ups and SMEs – and for more than a decade (1995-2006) he was a member of the Scientific Committee of the International Science Park Association (IASP).

During the 2000s, Piero Formica spent his academic life almost entirely in research at the convergence of the physical, natural, and human sciences, publishing books and articles in international scholarly journals. At the University of Tartu, Estonia, he designed the first master’s degree dedicated to innovative entrepreneurship and taught there, initially through the European Union’s Marie Curie programme, until 2014. In the United Arab Emirates, he inaugurated the Chair of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Abu Dhabi Men’s College in 2003, the first college established by the Higher Colleges of Technology. From 2006 to 2009, he was Professor of the Economics of Knowledge, Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Jonköping University in Sweden, where he founded the International Entrepreneurship Academy.

Since 2010, Piero has been a Senior Research Fellow and Thought Leader at the Innovation Value Institute of Maynooth University in Ireland. In December 2025, he received the title of Distinguished International Collaborator of this University.

Piero is a board member of several academic journals, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, of Entovation International (Boston, USA), the Smithsonian Curiosity Council, and Magister Peloritanus ‘for Innovation and Entrepreneurship’ at the Accademia Peloritana dei Pericolanti, founded by the University of Messina in 1729. In 2017, he received the Innovation Luminary Award from the Open Innovation Strategy and Policy Group, under the aegis of the European Union, “for his outstanding work on sustained contributions to entrepreneurial research, development of the Experimental Labs approach and advocating for an Innovation Renaissance”.

His most recent books include One Health: Transformative Enterprises, Wellbeing and Education in the Knowledge Economy (2023), Sciencepreneurship: Science, Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Economic Growth (2023), Human Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence: Exhibition at the Mind Gallery (2024) and Economic Humanism: An Imperfect Utopia where Homo Solidalis Lands (2025).

Professor Jan vom Brocke

Professor Jan vom Brocke is a Distinguished Professor of Process Science at Maynooth University in Ireland. He is the Director of the European Research Center for Information Systems (ERCIS) and holds the Chair of Information Systems & Business Process Management at the University of Münster in Germany.

Jan has published among others in Management Science, MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, Journal of Management Information Systems, Journal of Information Technology, Journal of the Association for Information Systems, European Journal of Information Systems, Information Systems Journal, Journal of Strategic Information Systems, and MIT Sloan Management Review.

Jan’s research has been pioneering in many areas, especially in the fields of business process management, design science research, digital nudging and green information systems. He is considered one of the co-founders of ‘process science’, an interdisciplinary field that analyses socio-technical change from different disciplinary perspectives. In particular, digital trace data is analyzed to capture and explain change, and to intervene in change to advance businesses and sustainable societies.

Professor vom Brocke’s work has been recognised with numerous international awards. He has been named a Fellow of the Association for Information Systems (AIS), a Schoeller Senior Fellow of Friedrich-Alexander University (FAU) in Germany, a Fellow of the ESCP Centre for Design Science in Entrepreneurship, and a Digital Leader in his home country Liechtenstein. International rankings consistently place Jan among the top 50 in the world and the top 10 in Europe. In the current Stanford List of World`s Top 2% Scientists, Jan is ranked in the top 0.5% (in the career-accompanying database) and the top 0.1% (in last year`s data set) across all scientific fields.

Jan brings teaching experience from 26 universities in 13 countries on Executive, PhD-, Master and Bachelor-level, incl. many of the FT50 Top Business Schools, such as the University of St.Gallen in Switzerland, the Vlerick Business School in Belgium, the University of Warwick in the UK, Aarhus University in Denmark, and the Smurfit School of Business in Ireland. His students won international prizes like the Accenture Campus Challenge or the SAP DemoJam, and they received prestigious recognitions like the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting Young Researcher Invitation.

Professor vom Brocke has a track record of building impactful academic institutions. At the University of Liechtenstein, he established the Institute for Information Systems, which has become one of the top 40 worldwide with his leadership, the top 5 in Europe and 1^st in the competitive Germany-Austria-Switzerland region. He is also the founder and president of the Liechtenstein chapter of the AIS, which has been honored with the ‘AIS Outstanding Chapter Award’ ten years in a row since its establishment in 2014.

Jan served as Vice President for Research at the University of Liechtenstein for two consecutive terms and is currently Vice Dean for Internationalization at the Faculty of Business and Economics at the University of Münster. He has chaired many international conferences, such as the European Conference on Information Systems in Münster, and is a member of the editorial board of numerous high-ranking journals in the field of information systems and management.

Professor vom Brocke has secured over €50 million in competitive research funding as for example from the European Union (EU), the Liechtenstein Research Foundation, the Swiss Research Foundation, the German Research Foundation, the local government, and industry.

Jan vom Brocke is an invited speaker and trusted advisor to many DAX 30 and Fortune 500 companies as well as Start-ups and supports governments across Europe on their digital transformation journey.

Dr. Azra Aryania

Azra Aryania is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Innovation Value Institute (IVI), Maynooth University. She holds a Ph.D. in Computer Engineering – Artificial Intelligence and Robotics. Her doctoral research focused on enhancing social engagement behaviours in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder through the imitation of a social robot’s movements. Her current research at IVI focuses on ontology-driven process mining to automate compliance with Data Sharing Agreements in socio-technical systems. This work integrates ontology-based reasoning, conformance checking, and process mining to enable automated compliance assessment in data-driven environments. Previously, she was a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institut de Robòtica i Informàtica Industrial (CSIC-UPC) in Barcelona, Spain, where she modelled user intentions in disclosing personal information to robots and investigated trust and transparency in human–robot interaction, addressing challenges related to data governance and privacy. Her research interests include Trustworthy AI, Process Mining, Human–AI/Robot Interaction, and Data Governance. She has published in leading journals and conferences such as Information Sciences, ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction, International Journal of Social Robotics, Journal of Grid Computing, and IEEE RO-MAN.

Dr Sara Ben Lashihar

Dr Heidi Elnimr

Her doctoral research at Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien) developed an innovative framework for personalized therapeutic interiors, combining architecture, neuroscience, and human-computer interaction. This interdisciplinary approach reflects her belief that meaningful innovation comes from crossing disciplinary boundaries. Her research has led to a granted patent, for an indoor wayfinding system for built environments, reflecting her commitment to turning research into applicable design and innovation outcomes.

A core part of her work is using data to inform design decisions. She applies quantitative and qualitative research methods, data analysis, and digital tools to better understand how people interact with indoor environments and how design can respond to real user needs. Her expertise includes SQL, R, Tableau, and interdisciplinary research methods that support evidence-based and human-centered design.

As Ambassador of the Smart Healthy Age-Friendly Environment initiative in Europe and evaluator of COST Action open calls, she actively shapes the dialogue on smart, healthy, and age-friendly environments across Europe.

Dr. Elnimr is eager to collaborate with researchers, industry partners, and policymakers who share her vision of creating environments that are not only sustainable but also inclusive, supportive, and technologically innovative.

Dr. Peter Jean-Paul

Peter Jean-Paul has worked as a project specialist leading several key national projects within the government of Saint Lucia including: “Establishing a Data Driven Policy Development Unit within the Ministry of Physical Development and Urban Renewal” and “Enhancing Saint Lucia’s strategic frameworks to access Climate Finance”.  He has also worked with international organizations like the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) and Caribbean Community Climate Change Center (CCCCC). He has a Bachelor of Science with a double major in Computer Science and Mathematics (Trinidad and Tobago), a Masters in International Human Resource Development (Taiwan) and a PhD in Electrical Engineering (New Zealand). He has won several international scholarships and awards including an international Commonwealth Scholarship to do his PHD and a research award for placing first in the 3 Minute Thesis competition in New Zealand.  Peter Jean Paul has strongly affirmed that digital transformation backed by a strong human resource is key to meeting some of the intractable sustainable issues of our time. Passionate about innovative practical research Peter has dedicate his academic and professional career to realizing the aims of the sustainable development goals. When he is not researching he is volunteering with Red Cross and Salvation Army to improve the welfare of the less fortunate.

Dr Mehran Kianvand

Mehran is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellow working on the Digi+ project.

Dr Claudia Roessing

Claudia Roessing has completed her PhD at Maynooth University, where she investigated the variations of data lifecycles based on data requirements in the Smart City scenario. She has years of experience in the software development industry with a background in Business Analysis and Consulting and Computer Science. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the VISION project, which is financed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and focuses on reducing the use of virgin materials in the Irish building sector.

Marina Antoniadou

Marina is a PhD student under the EU project GoGreenNext, which aims to develop evidence-based policies to improve climate, biodiversity, and human health and explore their interconnections, especially in urban areas. Marina completed her undergraduate degree at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, where she graduated with a BSc in Geology. She continued her studies at the same university, earning an MSc in Meteorology, Climatology, and Atmospheric Environment. Her Master’s thesis focused on the seasonality of extreme precipitation and temperature events over the Mediterranean region, utilizing circular statistics. Her PhD research explores the impacts of climate change on human health through its effects on air quality. By examining variables such as temperature, precipitation, and humidity, along with air quality indicators, Marina aims to quantify observed relationships and create future projections using a Generalised Additive Model (GAM). This research is crucial for developing strategies to mitigate the impacts of climate change on air quality and public health.

Fjolla Berisha

Fjolla Berisha holds an MSc in Computer Engineering and is currently a PhD candidate in Computer Science at Maynooth University as part of the ENTRUST Doctoral Network. Her work centres on data sovereignty in agriculture: she designs and tests usage-control mechanisms that let farmers set and technically enforce policies regarding who can use their data, for what purpose, and for how long. By turning these policy-enforcement ideas into practical, easy-to-deploy software, she helps farming communities to be sovereigns of their information while still benefiting from digital technologies.

Leidiane da Silva

Received the B.Sc. degree in business administration from the Universidade Paulista (UNIP), Brazil, and the M.Sc. degree in business analytics from the National University Ireland, Maynooth (NUIM), in 2023. She is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree in business with the National University Ireland, Maynooth.

She is a part of the EnTrust Ph.D program and works in the education and research office at Airfield Estate. Her work and interests include data quality and trustworthiness assessment, machine learning techniques, agri-data and business analytics.

Michaela Merceda Degbeon

Michaela is a part-time PhD researcher at IVI.

Coleen Griffin

Simon Hanratty

Simon is currently studying for a PhD while on career break from Irish Life where he served as CIO. He has more than thirty years’ experience across a range of industries in IT, Strategy/Change and Operations roles including more than twenty years at managerial level. Simon holds a master’s in design Innovation from Maynooth University and is a graduate of INSEAD and the Smurfit Business School.

Rozita Hashemi

Rozita is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at Maynooth University, Ireland, supported by the ADAPT Centre. She holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science, an MBA, and an MSc in strategic management. With over a decade of professional experience in data management, she brings a strong industry perspective to her academic work. Her research on data value in the construction industry represents a timely and significant contribution to advancing data-driven practices in the built environment sector.

Sana Kiran

Sana Kiran is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at the Innovation Value Institute, Maynooth University, Ireland. Her academic trajectory commenced with the acquisition of a bachelor’s degree in information technology from Pakistan, followed by a master’s in software engineering from China. Sana’s areas of research encompass data quality, open data, smart mobility, smart cities, and data governance.

Her current research project, generously funded by Lero, the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Software, represents a significant contribution to the field. Lero, globally recognised, holds the distinguished second position among software research centres worldwide for citations. Through her work, she aspires to contribute to the ongoing evolution of software excellence and play a pivotal role in shaping smarter, more connected cities.

Stephanie Lewellen

Stephanie Lewellen is a part-time and remote PhD student at Maynooth University and a Product Manager in the software industry.

Alejandro Mosquera Botello

Alejandro is an Erasmus Mundus Scholar from the Public Sector Innovation and e-Governance (PIONEER) programme, holding BA degrees in Law and Political Science. His expertise lies at the intersection of automated decision-making in the public sector and community building. By combining a strong background in participation and policymaking with technical data governance, Alejandro ensures that his project’s outputs are both technically sound and socially impactful.

Ada Nicke

Ada is a PhD candidate in Environmental Psychology at Maynooth University. She conducts her PhD research as part of the EU Horizon funded GoGreen Next project. Ada completed her BSc in Liberal Arts and Sciences (Majoring in Earth, Energy and Sustainability) at Leiden University College (The Hague, Netherlands) and her MSc in Environmental Psychology at Maynooth University. She conducted her BSc thesis research in Sydney, Australia on an exchange semester, exploring challenges and opportunities for place-based climate change communication through expert interviews. For her Masters thesis she developed an integrative framework for advancing Environmental Psychology within Planetary Health education. Her PhD research explores the definition and application of the multidimensional health concept Planetary Health in urban areas. As part of this research she is also involved in the work of the Planetary Health Cluster, which is comprised of 5 projects working on diverse Planetary Health related issues, including GoGreen Next. Ada’s PhD research advances the understanding of the interconnectedness between human and environmental health and aims to facilitate urban intervention and policy design for Planetary Health. 

Niamh Petrie

Niamh Petrie is a PhD student conducting research at the Innovation Value Institute, Maynooth University. With a background in Psychology (BSc Psychology, 2024), she is committed to advancing scholarly understanding and informing policy on age-friendly communities.

Niamh’s current doctoral research investigates the impact of age-friendly housing on social connection and social participation, with particular attention to the ways in which the built environment and community design can foster inclusion, civic engagement, and wellbeing among older populations.

This project is funded and supported by Lero, the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Software, in partnership with Age Friendly Ireland (AFI), and seeks to contribute to policy and practice in advancing sustainable, inclusive models of housing and community development.

Previous publications include:

· Older Adults Who Receive Care Coordination from the Third Sector in Ireland: Who Are They, and What Do They Need? Journal of Social Service Research (2025) https://doi.org/10.1080/01488376.2025.2487546

· Amplify and Advocate: Implementing a Youth Mental Health Advocacy Project, a Collaborative Rights-Based Approach Using COM-B, APEASE, and the Lundy Model. Journal of Community Psychology (2025) https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.70009

Ahsan Rehman Gil

Andrea Paola Tordecilla Sanders

Andrea Paola is currently studying a PH.D. In Innovation Value Institute (IVI) at the Business School in Maynooth University, Ireland. Andrea began her academic career with double background in international business and marketing, followed by a master’s degree in advertising and public relations at RUDN University in Moscow, Russia. Andrea is the author of a scientific paper related to the marketing strategies that influence in the decision making in digital stores. Andrea’s current areas of the research are ethical data governance in artificial intelligence.

Erica Tegolo

Erica Tegolo owns Bachelor in Administration and Organisation Science and Labor Consultancy at the University of Palermo. She has received the MBA degree from IAE, University of Bordeaux. She’s currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree at the School of Business, National University Ireland Maynooth (NUIM), representing the awarding institution.

The Ph.D. is part of the EnTrust Doctoral Network, Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship, which aim is to train a cohort of 11 Doctoral Candidates (DCs) to establish a new generation of Data Executives. She is representing DC09 and the objective is represented by the development of a Fair data exploitation principles and framework. The host organisation is Teagasc, the Agriculture and Food Authority in Ireland and I am currently based at the department of Rural Economy and Development Program (REDP).

Dr Kolawole Adebayo

Dr Mansoor Ahmed

Dr. Mansoor Ahmed is a distinguished Research Fellow and Principal Investigator at Maynooth University’s Innovation Value Institute, where he leads nationally and EU-funded projects on AI ethics, GDPR-compliant data protection, and responsible data sharing in health and public services. With a PhD in Computer Science and Technology from Vienna University of Technology and over 10 years of academic excellence, Dr. Ahmed specializes in cybersecurity, blockchain technologies, data governance, AI ethics, and regulatory compliance.

Currently holding a prestigious Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Fellowship, Dr. Ahmed investigates privacy implications of AI in public services while developing comprehensive data protection guidelines. His expertise spans data governance, AI ethics and regulatory compliance, information security, and privacy-preserving systems. He has successfully secured competitive research funding, including awards from SFI, MSCA European Commission, and industry partnerships with META.

Dr. Ahmed’s research impact is evidenced by over 75 peer-reviewed publications in high-impact journals. He has supervised multiple PhD dissertations and serves on editorial boards of international journals while maintaining active memberships in ISO/IEC technical committees.

His collaborative work with industry giants like META, regulatory bodies including NSAI and CEN, and contributions to European Health Data Space (EHDS) initiatives demonstrate his commitment to translating cutting-edge research into real-world solutions. He is passionate about leveraging emerging technologies for ethical and sustainable development, He thrives at the intersection of innovation, education, and policy. Whether collaborating on cutting-edge research, shaping academic programs, or driving policy change, he is committed to creating systems prioritizing societal well-being and trust.

Dr Zain Anwar Ali

Dr Ali joined Maynooth University as a Senior Postdoctoral Researcher on a project titled “Control Co-Design and Optimization of Heterogeneous Arrays of Wave Energy Converters,” funded by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and the National Science Foundation (USA). Prior to this, he completed two postdoctoral positions in Systems Science and Control Engineering: one at Beijing Normal University in September 2021 and the other at South East University in May 2021. He also served as an Associate Professor at Jiaying University, China, where he lectured on Linear Control Systems, Digital Electronics, Industrial Automation, and Robotics.
At Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology, Dr. Ali held multiple roles, including Associate Professor, Assistant Professor, and Director of the Continuing Education Program. He was instrumental in founding the Bio-Inspired Computation and Optimization research cluster and taught a wide range of courses, from undergraduate to Ph.D. levels.

His research interests include Bio-Inspired Optimization Algorithms; Circular Economy with Artificial Intelligence; Control Theory and Control Engineering; ​Robotics; Autonomous Unmanned System i.e. (Aerial and Underwater Vehicles); Industrial Controls & Automation; Programming Logic Controller PLC.

Dr Niall Connolly

Niall is an Assistant Professor in Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Niall is a Funded Investigator  with CONNECT, the SCF Research Centre for Future Networks and Communications.

Niall’s research interests are in technology adoption, with a focus on enabling sustainable technology adoption in both private and public settings. The work covers strategic alignment of digital strategies with organisational goals, governance structures, business models, business model innovation, corporate venturing and climate for creativity.

Niall is currently studying:

• How neutral host networks can be optimised for economics, access and carbon footprint;
• How “place based” manufacturing can be supported through technology – using garment manufacturing as a use case.;
• Developing digital capability within the manufacturing sector;
• Measurement and performance of innovation ecosystems.

Dr Kevin Credit

Dr Kevin Credit is an Assistant Professor at the National Centre for Geocomputation at Maynooth University. His recent research interests focus on using machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) approaches to answer questions related to transportation, public health, economic development, and spatial patterns of inequality in urban areas. In particular, he is interested in how ML and AI methods can be designed to: 1) more explicitly integrate spatial information and spatial ways of thinking, 2) assess problems of causal inference, and 3) provide better insight into the explanatory relationships driving model results. Kevin’s recent and ongoing work in this area includes the exploration of new spatial-causal ML approaches, an analysis of building retrofit and energy efficiency in Ireland, and the development of an integrated health + environment spatial data dashboard for the Dublin 8 neighbourhood. 

Kevin is also a Funded Investigator in the Digital Content Transformation (DCT) strand of the ADAPT Centre; an Affiliate Member of the Hamilton Institute, Maynooth University; a Committee Member for the Irish Transportation Research Network (ITRN); and aFellow of the Center for Spatial Data Science at the University of Chicago.

Dr Jean Cushen

Jean is an Associate Professor of HRM within the School of Business, Maynooth University. Jean also serves as Deputy Head of School with responsibility for Accreditation, having previously held the role of ‘Academic Director Postgraduate Teaching and Learning’. Jean’s research explores the contemporary employment experience focusing on sustainability leadership, financialization and human resource management (HRM). Jean has published on these topics in top ranked international journals including ‘Accounting, Organizations and Society’ and ‘Work Employment and Society’. Jean has also contributed to HRM related publications including HRM encyclopaedias and textbooks, Skillnet, CIPD and IBEC publications. Jean teaches in the areas of HRM and ‘careers’ and ‘research methods’. Jean is an academic member of the CIPD, an Academic Fellow of the International Council of Management Consulting Institutes and is on the judging panel of the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition. Before joining MU, Jean worked as a lecturer in Dublin City University (DCU) and Queens University Belfast. In her first year in DCU Jean was awarded the ‘President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching’. She completed her PhD in 2010 in Trinity College Dublin with a full scholarship from the IRCHSS. Prior to entering academic life Jean worked for several years as a ‘Human Capital Consultant’ for the global professional services company Willis Towers Watson; then Watson Wyatt. During this time Jean worked both in Dublin and Toronto and advised organisations on the design and implementation of a range of HRM techniques.

Prof. Brian Donnellan

Professor Brian Donnellan is Professor of Management Information Systems at Maynooth University.

Previous senior management positions in Maynooth University include  Vice President of Engagement and Innovation, Vice President and Dean of International Affairs and Academic Director of the Innovation Value Institute. He is active researcher in four Science Foundation Ireland research centres.

A native of County Clare, he graduated from University of Limerick with a B. Engineering in Electronic Engineering, an MBA and PhD (Computer Science and Information Systems). Prior to becoming an academic, Brian spent 19 years working in the IT industry, where he was responsible for Computer-Aided-Engineering for New Product Development.

Dr Xiaoyu Du

Dr Nada Elnahla

Nada Elnahla is a Lecturer/Assistant Professor of Marketing in the Maynooth University School of Business. She holds a PhD in Management/Marketing from Carleton University, Canada, and a PhD in Comparative Literature from Cairo University, Egypt.

Nada’s current research explores the impact of traditional and smart surveillance in the retail sector on the different stakeholders and its ethical implications, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on retailing, specifically on retail workers, loyalty programs, and consumer behaviour. She has presented her work at international conferences and has published research in peer-reviewed academic journals and conference proceedings.

Her teaching experience includes undergraduate and postgraduate education programs in the fields of marketing, digital marketing communications, consumer behaviour, and literature.

Prof. Anna Hickey-Moody

Anna Hickey-Moody is the Director of the Arts and Humanities Institute and inaugural Senior Academic Leadership Ireland (SALI) Professor of Intersectional Humanities. Her qualitative and theoretical research explores intersecting angles of disadvantage through philosophical and creative approaches. Anna came to Maynooth to develop interdisciplinary research culture exploring intersectionality across the humanities. Prior to joining Maynooth, Anna was Professor of Media and Communication at RMIT University, Melbourne where she held an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship called Interfaith Childhoods. For this large research project, Anna created a responsive arts based research design that allowed her to collaborate with hard to reach communities through building strong relationships with children through art making. She worked with schools, communities and religious organisations across Australia and the U.K to collect and share stories of faith told by diverse religious and secular people. This method offered a way of developing public understandings of what belonging feels like in superdiverse, multicultural cities. You can read what the research participants had to say in the book Faith Stories: Sustaining Meaning and Community in Troubling Times (MUP, 2023). Anna also led the Creative Research in Methods and Practice (CRiMP Lab) and you can read the lab’s work in New Materialist Affirmations a collection coming out with Edinburgh University Press in 2024.  This feminist research laboratory supported a community of queer and gender diverse researchers working at the intersection of creative practice as a research method, visual sociology and creative anthropology at RMIT. Before joining RMIT University, Anna was Associate Professor of Gender and Cultural Studies at the University of Sydney. She has also held positions at Goldsmiths, London and Monash University, Melbourne. Anna is a very experienced PhD supervisor and is available to supervise projects exploring religion, disability, sexuality, gender, race, youth. She has published widely on gender, sexuality, disability, religion and race and racism as they shape young lives. At the moment Anna is writing up stories from a regional brown coal mining area and thinking about the relationships between pleasure and class in the lives of mining communities

Gabriel Hogan

Gabriel Hogan is affiliated to the Science Foundation Ireland ADAPT centre.

Dr Alireza Keshavarz

Alireza Keshavarz is a Lecturer in Marketing at Maynooth University Business School. He holds a PhD in Management Sciences (Marketing) from HEC, Paris. His research interest lies in strategic marketing, strategic sales force management, and strategic marketing ambidexterity. Alireza’s main research revolves around the dynamics and competitive effects of salesforce compensations and mobility. He also investigates the gender pay and promotional gaps within salesforces in organizations. Alireza is currently a member of AMA, EMAC, CNRS Lab GREG-HEC, and Labex ECODEC. His research has been presented at and published in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (JAMS), Journal of Business Research (JBR), and the proceedings of several conferences, including AMA, EMAC, Marketing Science, and SMS. He teaches sales management, marketing, marketing analytics, business analytics, and marketing research in bachelor’s, master’s, and MBA courses.

Dr Emmanuel Kypraios

Emmanuel Kypraios is a Lecturer/Assistant Professor in Management at Maynooth University School of Business.

Emmanuel’s research interests lie at the intersection of economic sociology, sociology of finance, organization theory and strategic management, with particular focus on sustainability and the socio-cognitive mechanisms that underlie decision-making processes.

His previous academic appointment was visiting Professor of Strategy at the Ecole Hoteliere in Lausanne, Switzerland. Emmanuel earned his PhD at Università della Svizzera italiana (USI)/University of Lugano, Switzerland. He studied at Johns Hopkins University, MD, USA and holds a MSc (Financial Management) from SOAS, University of London, UK, and a BA (Economics) from Bard College, NY, USA.

Before joining academia, Dr. Kypraios spent 12 years in the financial industry as a senior trader and broker of equity derivatives working for different financial institutions such as BNP Paribas, Hypovereinsbank, hedge fund groups such as Integrated Asset Management and wealth management companies in Munich, Frankfurt, London, Paris and lately in Lugano, Switzerland.

Dr Ian Marder

Ian’s research focuses on criminal justice reform generally, and on the implementation of restorative justice and restorative practices in criminal justice specifically. This includes funded projects that explore topics of relevance to IVI, such as developing ethical forms of data governance that enable victims of crime to access services and supporting criminal justice agencies and community justice organisations to engage with open research and open data.

Dr Ciara McCormack

Dr Ciara McCormack is an Assistant Professor in Sport Science and Health at Maynooth University and a Clinical Exercise Physiologist. Her research focuses on the role of exercise and digital health in the primary and secondary prevention of chronic diseases, particularly cardiovascular and respiratory conditions. She is passionate about designing, delivering, and evaluating patient-centred, technology-enabled interventions that use physical activity to improve long-term health outcomes and healthcare delivery.

Ciara is currently embedded in the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, where she is leading a national programme to transform pulmonary hypertension (PH) research and rehabilitation services in Ireland. She is the lead researcher on an SFI CONNECT collaboration with Johnson & Johnson, delivered through the Innovation Value Institute (IVI), which is focused on digitising pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) pathways. This project is exploring how digital technologies can be integrated into routine clinical care to enhance patient monitoring, engagement, and access to exercise-based rehabilitation.

Her broader research spans hospital, home, and community settings, leveraging both quantitative and qualitative methodologies to examine how lifestyle and physical activity interventions—supported by digital tools—can impact disease progression, symptom management, and healthcare utilisation. She is particularly interested in creating scalable, technology-enabled models of exercise delivery for adults aged 40+ and people living with chronic diseases, with an emphasis on addressing health inequalities.

Ciara completed her PhD in Clinical Exercise Physiology at Dublin City University, where she developed, delivered, and evaluated a home-based physical activity intervention for PH patients, co-designed with patients and underpinned by behavioural science. This work, conducted in collaboration with respiratory consultants at the Mater Hospital, has informed similar programmes internationally.

She is currently involved in multiple national and international projects on exercise and rehabilitation for people living with pulmonary hypertension, heart failure, and vascular disease, and serves on the GoGreenNext Advisory Board, contributing expertise on inclusive methodologies and the integration of digital and lifestyle interventions into sustainable healthcare initiatives.

Beyond her academic and clinical roles, Ciara is committed to public engagement and health advocacy. She works closely with the HSE on Ireland’s Physical Activity Guidelines and contributes to national efforts to embed rehabilitation and physical activity pathways into chronic disease management. She also represents Ireland on the global Exercise is Medicine Emerging Leadership Programme, supporting the implementation of physical activity as a standard in clinical care.

Her work has been recognised through multiple awards from organisations such as the American Thoracic Society, the European Respiratory Society, and DCU Invent. Ciara regularly contributes to national health campaigns, appears on RTÉ Radio 1 as an expert on physical activity and health, and provides consultancy to healthcare, community, and corporate groups seeking to implement evidence-based, digitally supported physical activity programmes.

Dr Joanna McHugh Power

Dr Joanna McHugh Power is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Maynooth University. She received her PhD in Experimental Psychology from Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience in 2010 and gained postdoctoral experience on projects concerning social engagement in later life. In 2014 she received a Leadership in Ageing Research Fellowship from the Institute of Public Health, in which she focused on social factors determining cognitive decline in later life, gaining experience in the Irish and Northern Irish cohorts for the longitudinal study of ageing (TILDA and NICOLA). Joanna joined Maynooth University in 2019. Joanna has received over 3 million euro as PI or co-PI on projects concerning social functioning and most particularly loneliness in later life. Currently she is a co-investigator on the Canadian Institute of Health Research funded project “Intersectional and life course approaches to loneliness”; on the Dutch government funded project “Interventions in the built environment targeting loneliness in young adults”, and she is leading the HRB-funded project “Housing and health in older adults”. Joanna has authored more than 80 publications in the field of gerontology and most commonly loneliness. As current Chair of the Loneliness Taskforce Research Network and member of the government-facing Loneliness Taskforce (lonelinessresearch.org) Joanna is committed to influencing policy on loneliness and ageing. Joanna is collaborating with Professor Markus Helfert in the IVI on the LERO/SFI funded project “Data governance and evidence-based policy making – partnership for research on ageing and older people”.

Dr Shane McLoughlin

Dr Andrew Meehan

After a significant time working in Intel as a Process Engineer I joined the Electronic Engineering department in September 2008.

I completed my Postgraduate Diploma in Teaching & Learning in 2023, which has added my previous qualifications in Applied Physics (Cert in applied Physics, GMIT, Diploma in Applied Physics GMIT and Degree in Applied physics from UL).

I also have qualifications in Design of Experiments, Six Sigma Yellow belt and a Diploma in Problem Based Learning from Aalborg University.

I was part of a three-member team in the department that introduced the concept of Problem Based Learning as a teaching and assessment methodology that better matches the real-life experience that our students will undertake.

I teach from 1st year to 5th year on our ME integrated master’s program and hold the role of Capstone Project co-ordinator for the past 10 years. As part of my duties, I am the Work Placement Officer, since 2010 and have been the EE department MAP officer since 2010.

As well as having been awarded a number of SPUR scholarships over the past number so years, and in 2024 was awarded a Teaching & Learning Fellowship.

Dr Peter Mooney

Peter Mooney is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Maynooth University, Ireland. Having received his PhD in Computer Science from Maynooth University Peter moved away from academia and worked for over 10 years as a Research Fellow with the Environmental Protection Agency Ireland specialising in open data access for scientific, environmental and geospatial data at national and European levels. He returned to academia and took up his current post in 2016. Peter’s main areas of research lie at the intersection of Computer Science and Geocomputation with particular emphasis on applying computational models and approaches to working with volunteered, user generated, and citizen collected geospatial data and information. In recent years his work and that of his research group has broadened and expanded to include smart farming, the integration of machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) in problems within the geocomputation domain, and computational/AI processes within circular economy transformations. Peter is a passionate advocate and educator for the widespread use of open data, open science and open-source software and has been consistently actively involved with the FOSS4G (Free and Open Source Software for Geomatics), OpenStreetMap and open geodata communities globally for many years.

Prof. Rosemary Monahan

Rosemary Monahan is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science and an affiliate of the Hamilton Institute at Maynooth University. She holds BSc and MSc degrees in Computer Science from UCD, a PhD from DCU and is the Maynooth University institutional lead for ADAPT, the SFI Research Centre for AI-Driven Digital Content Technology.

As a founding member of the Principles of Programming Research Group she specialises in the static and dynamic analysis of software. She has expertise in the modelling, analysis and verification of software, working with international academics and industry to develop and employ techniques increasing the dependability of software systems (such as those in the medical, automotive, and aerospace domains).

Professor Monahan is co-founder of the international VerifyThis competition series, bringing together both academic and industrial users of tools which guarantee the correctness and reliability of software systems. She is a Principal Investigator (PI) under the Science Foundation Ireland Frontiers for the Future Programme, working on verification and visualisation of AI based-systems (MAIVV, 2021-2025), and a Funded Investigator (FI) working on VERIFAI: Traceability and Verification of Natural LAnguage Requirements in ADAPT, the SFI Research Centre for AI-Driven Digital Content Technology.

Recent projects include research funded by Enterprise Ireland and H2020 ESCEL JU programme to improve workflows and tools for verification and validation of software systems (VALU3S, 2020-2023). She is passionate about providing solid mathematical foundations for software systems and in next-generation verification technologies applied to AI-based software. “Arís: Analogical Reasoning for reuse of Implementation & Specification” is a recent project concerning applying models of analogical reasoning to the domain of reliable software development and re-use.

Professor Monahan has been PI on two SFI Discover projects (InSPECT 2019-2022; CoCoA 2021-2023) producing educational resources that teach the science of problem-solving through computational thinking and she is currently a funded collaborator on CoCoA23 (2023 – 2025) improving scientific problem solving skills through co-creation, collaboration and active learning. She is a named supervisor in the SFI Centre for Research Training in Foundations of Data Science and the SFI Centre for Research Training in Advanced Networks for Sustainable Societies, and supervises PhD students funded by the Irish Research Council.

As the Director of the Erasmus Mundus MSc in Dependable Software Systems (2012-2018), she has secured and managed €2.5 million in EU funding, providing foundations for the subsequent DEPEND Erasmus Mundus programme. Recent collaborators include UTRC, Ireland; Microsoft Research, USA; Amazon Web Services, USA; and INRIA, France; with research funded via the Irish Research Council, Science Foundation Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, and Horizon 2020.

Dr Ali Nazarpour

Dr Ali Nazarpour is Assistant Professor in Management at Maynooth University School of Business. Ali has been awarded PhD in Operations and Supply Chain Management from University College Dublin, Smurfit School of Business. He earned his BSc degree in Industrial Engineering and Master’s degree in Business Administration from Iran University of Science and Technology. Prior to his PhD studies, he worked for two years in the construction sector and seven years in the automotive industry where he served as Sales Supervisor, Marketing and Sales Planning Chief, and Inventory Management Project Manager. Parallel to working in industry Ali was also engaged in teaching and research activities. His dual interests in industry and academia lead to undertaking his PhD and subsequent career as a researcher and lecturer.

Prof. Fabiano Pallonetto

Fabiano has a wide experience in the energy, IT and transport sectors working as an entrepreneur, data scientist and researcher across different industries and disciplines. My academic background in Computer Science and Engineering and my industry experience in Energy, Sustainable Mobility, Data Analytics, Control Algorithms and Optimisation makes me a pivotal asset for research based and commercial data centric projects. My goal is bridging academic research to industrial needs applying my multidisciplinary industry and entrepreneurship experience to build solutions and solve technical challenges for the deployment and integration of the smart grid and its associated carbon footprint reduction and promoting Sustainable Development Goals.

Dr Wael Rashwan

Dr Patrick Rigot-Müller

Dr. Patrick Rigot-Müller is a lecturer in Operations and Supply Chain at Maynooth University School of Business. His research interests include Maritime Transport, Supply Chain Digitalization and Sustainability. He has previously worked for Normandy Business School and Newcastle University (School Of Marine Science and Technology). He has published articles in conferences and peer-reviewed academic journals such as, Transportation Research Part A, Energy Policy or Technological Forecasting and Social Change.

He has delivered graduate and executive education courses for more than 10 years for many institutions such as Ecole Polytechnique de Lausanne, HEC Paris, Imperial College London, ESSEC, Ecole Centrale Paris, and Ecole des Ponts ParisTech.

He has an extensive industry background with more than 20 years of consulting in Supply Chain and applied research in Digital Manufacturing. His projects covered the areas of industrial strategy, logistics strategy, network design, shipping plan optimization, outsourcing, warehouse operations, forecasting and S&OP process design, investment analysis, production plant and warehouse design… for a wide range of companies and organizations such as Total, L’Oréal, Solvay, Nespresso, Lexmark, Sephora, Alcatel-Lucent, Ministère de la Défense, Ministère des Transports, Novartis, Veolia, Vallourec, Essilor and Renault.

Dr Linzi Ryan

Dr Joe Timoney

Dr. Joe Timoney studied Electronic Engineering, completing his PhD in 1998. He joined the Dept. of Computer Science at NUI Maynooth in the following year. He teaches on undergraduate programs in Computer Science and in Music Technology. His research interests are based in the area of audio signal processing, with a focus on musical sound synthesis and the digital modelling of analogue subtractive synthesis. He has supervised a number of PhD students in the fields of Audio analysis and Digital Audio watermarking. Additionally, he has worked on EI innovation vouchers and a Commercialisation project on Watermarking. In 2003 he spent a 3 month research visit at ATR laboratory in Kyoto, Japan, and in 2010 made a research visit to the College of Computing at Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China. He has developed a strong research collaboration with the Dept of Signal processing and Acoustics at Aalto university in Finland. He is a member of the Audio Engineering Society. Alongside his academic work, he also is a keen DIY electronics enthusiast and has built a number of synthesizers and drum machines. He participated in last year’s Mini-Maker Faire as part of the NUI Maynooth team.

Prof. Elaine Wallace

Elaine is Professor of Marketing at the School of Business. Previously, she was Associate Professor in Marketing and Head of Department at University of Galway. Elaine also previously worked in marketing, brand management, and product management roles in companies including Siemens Limited, Unilever, SmithKline Beecham and Boots Healthcare.

Dr Grace Walsh

Grace is a Senior Research Fellow, having completed her PhD in 2013. Her work is funded via CONNECT, the Irish Research Centre for Future Networks. Her current active research projects include:

• The viability of Neutral Host Networks as a way to improve telecommuncations coverage in rural areas;
• The role of Decentralised and Distributed Networks in supporting creativity: examining the Privacy-Personalisation Paradox;
• Pseudonyms as digital identity to support inclusivity, maintain privacy, and enable legitimacy.

Dr Hao Wu

The research on Architecture research at Computer Science Department aims to formalise/generalise architecture models, create automated tools and domain specific languages for manipulating different kinds of models at enterprise level. In particular, we are currently using our unique techniques for solving complex constraints to increase confidence in using Architecture models.

Dr Viviana Bastidas

Dr Marija Bezbradica

Prior to coming to DCU, I obtained a BSc and MSc at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering (ETF), Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Belgrade, Serbia. My research areas are interdisciplinary and include complex system modelling, specifically Cellular Automata (CA) and Agent Based Models (ABM), data analytics, applied mathematics, statistics as well as high performance computing (HPC) and distributed systems.

My past research includes building stochastic models of in vitro drug delivery systems (DDS) by using CA and ABM, in collaboration with Sigmoid Pharma Ltd. My interests also cover HPC optimisations of large-scale models in collaboration with the Irish Centre for High-End Computing (ICHEC). Since I became a member of DCU, I was involved in lecturing and tutoring of a number of courses for undergraduate and postgraduate students covering statistical data analysis, quantitative methods, probability and statistics, and operating systems.

Dr Gültekin Cakir

Dr Gültekin Cakir is a lecturer and academic programme coordinator at the Faculty of Business, Technological University Dublin, and a member of the Strategy & Leadership Group in the School of Management, People and Organisations. He holds a PhD in Business and Management from Maynooth University and a Master’s degree in General Management from the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Dortmund, Germany. He teaches modules on undergraduate, graduate, and executive levels in Strategy and Digital Innovation & Emerging Technologies. Before joining TU Dublin, Gültekin was a Research Fellow at the Innovation Value Institute, Maynooth, where he worked with companies, start-ups, other institutes and collaborators on diverse research projects centred around digital innovation and organisational digital maturity. Gültekin is a member of the Digital Retail Research Cluster at IVI and was a recipient of the EU Horizon Europe Marie Curie Skłodowska scholarship award within “PERFORM”, a European training project focusing on the digital transformation of the retailing industry, where he was also chair of the ESR Committee.

Dr Rajibul Hasan

Since 2023, Dr Rajibul Hasan has been Professor of Marketing at EM Normandie. He received his PhD from the University of Kent in 2016, and his research has been published in journals including Tourism Management, Journal of Travel Research, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, and the Journal of Business Research.

Dr Beatrice Heneghan

Dr Beatrice Heneghan is Director of ICT at NUI Galway with responsibility for delivering transformative ICT for the enablement of impactful research, innovation and teaching in an enhanced student learning environment. In her prior role Beatrice served as Head of Information Systems and Innovation at Mayo County Council. Previously, she held posts in ICT and Digital Transformation in Laois and Limerick local authorities.

Beatrice served as Chair of the local government sectoral Architecture and Standards Group (ASG) and on the national ePlanning and Central Data Unit boards. She is a member of Lero – the Science Foundation Ireland Software Research Centre, the Maynooth University Business Informatics Research Group and the Innovation Value Institute (IVI). She is also a member of the International Advisory Board for the Professional Doctorate in Engineering programme at the University of Limerick and contributes as a guest lecturer to the programme. In 2021 Beatrice received the IVI Leadership in Digital Transformation in the Public Sector award.

While having wide experience in the Information Systems (IS) field her particular expertise is in the area of data governance and enterprise architecture with a focus on business/IT alignment in the design and delivery of strategy. Beatrice holds a doctorate in engineering from the University of Limerick and master’s in software engineering from NUI Galway. Beatrice has presented at national and international academic and practitioner conferences and continues to collaborate on research in IS.

Dr Rehan Iftikhar

Dr Rehan Iftikhar is an Assistant Professor of Digital Marketing & Information Systems at DCU Business School. He holds a M.Sc. degree in Engineering Management from the University of Exeter, UK, and a Ph.D. degree in Business and Management from Maynooth University, Ireland. Previous to this role, he worked as a Lecturer in Maynooth University. He has an engineering background and previous experience of working as a Project Engineer and an Operation Analyst.

His research is regarded highly and has been published in  renowned journals, such as the Journal of Global Information Management, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, and Journal of General Management. He has also won multiple awards for his research including the best paper award at European Conference of Information Systems (ECIS). Dr Iftikhar’s main research interests are digital transformation, disruptive technologies, digital marketing, digital retail, and technology management.

Fiona Lynch

Prof. Adegboyega Ojo

Adegboyega Ojo is Full Professor at the School of Public Policy and Administration, Carleton University, Canada. Prof. Ojo is also Canada Research Chair in Governance and Artificial Intelligence. His research is primarily in the area of digital government. He studies how digital and data technologies can be used to support innovation in government institutions and address societal challenges. Prof. Ojo is keen on understanding the conditions and technical design requirements for the beneficial and ethical use of data-driven innovation, advanced analytics, and artificial intelligence-based solutions in different public service and policy contexts.

Before joining Carleton University, he was a faculty at Maynooth University School of Business and earlier a Senior Research Fellow & Head of the E-Government Unit at the Insight Centre for Data Analytics, University of Galway, Republic of Ireland. He also worked at the Centre for Electronic Governance, United Nations University in Macao SAR, China, where he supported governments in Africa, Asia, and Latin America in developing digital government strategies. Adegboyega is Associate Editor of the Government Information Quarterly Journal (Elsevier), Digital Government: Research and Practice journal (ACM) and also the Information Polity Journal (IOS Press). He holds a PhD in Computer Science (Artificial Intelligence) from the University of Lagos, Nigeria.