The annual Wrixon Bursaries for postgraduate students at Tyndall were recently announced, with three students each receiving a Research Excellence Bursary, and two students winning the Travel Bursary.
The bursaries support international study visits and the promotion and recognition of research excellence among Tyndall’s postgraduates.
Congratulating the awardees, Professor William Scanlon, Tyndall CEO, said:
“This year’s recipients are worthy winners of the Wrixon Bursaries, and I am pleased that their accomplishments have been recognised. These annual Wrixon Bursaries are awarded to our postgraduate students in recognition of research excellence in new deep-tech discoveries and next generation innovations that address global challenges in ICT, health, agri-food, the environment, and energy. We hope that this Bursary continues to inspire and support our postgraduate community to continue with their important research.”
The 2023 recipients of the Research Excellence Bursaries are:
Liudmila Khokhlova
Non-invasive Assessment of Knee Condition Using Acoustic Emission Monitoring
Liudmila is researching the development and evaluation of a novel, robust, and reliable non-invasive method for knee status assessment using acoustic emission monitoring. The study identifies optimal frequency range, sensor placement, and metrics for reliable knee acoustic emission monitoring linked to cartilage damage.
Zhongzheng Wang
The Design of Ultra-Low-Power Electrochemical Sensor Readout Analog Front-to-End ICs
Electrochemical sensors are employed for the identification of specific chemical species, which are extensively adopted across various fields including agricultural production, food quality monitoring, and medical diagnostics, etc. It enables the translation of chemical information, for example, nitrate concentration, into electrical signals like voltage or current. A function-specified category of Integrated Circuits (IC), called sensor interfaces, is engineered to sample the sensor signals, and convert them into digital values. Zhongzheng’s PhD work is to design novel electrochemical sensor interfaces, with an emphasis on achieving high precision, less-complexity, and ultra-low-power consumption.
Stephen Murphy
Machine Learning Equalisation for Future Optical Networks
With the rise of remote work and cloud services, access to reliable high-speed broadband has become more important than ever. This has led to the National Broadband Plan in Ireland, which will provide every rural home and business in the country with an optical fibre link. These systems are based on 10 Gbit/s XGS- Passive Optical Network technology. But the ever-increasing demand for bandwidth to support services such as 8K video streaming, virtual and augmented reality applications, and future mobile services such as 6G, mean that researchers are now looking into 100 Gbit/s systems and beyond. Stephen’s research focuses on how novel signal processing algorithms based on neural networks could be used to overcome non-linear fibre and photonic device behaviour, and thus enable such ultra high-speed systems.
The 2023 recipients of the Travel Bursaries awards are:
Daragh Crowley
Daragh will be travelling to the Children's National Hospital in Washington DC, where he will be working on surgical guidance systems using electromagnetic tracking. The project will involve using wireless tracked sensors developed at Tyndall in surgical simulators and preclinical testing.
Saif Wakeel
Saif will be traveling to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, USA. He will be working on developing a library of multi-photon polymerization-based 3D printing of novel micro-optic components for pluggable photonic packaging demonstrators.
The Wrixon bursaries were launched in 2022 to mark Tyndall’s 40th anniversary and are made possible through the generosity of Professor Gerry Wrixon, past President of UCC and a leading member of the team that founded Tyndall.