About us
The Hydro-BPT Project is an interdisciplinary collaboration between the Schools of Engineering and Business at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, and the School of Environment, Natural Resources and Geography at Bangor University, Wales.
The Project Team pictured above comprises: (L/R): Mr. Roger Seddon (WEFO); Mr. Andrew Packwood, Research Officer; Ms. Christine Power, PhD Student; Dr. John Gallagher, Research Officer; Dr. David Styles, Research Officer; Mr. Ian Harris, Research Manager; Ms. Jennifer Brady, Postdoctoral Researcher; Ms. Lucy Corcoran, PhD Student; Ms. Tracey Lydon, PhD Student; Dr. Aonghus McNabola, PI; Prof. Paul Coughlan, Co-I; Dr. Prysor Williams, Co-I (missing Dr. Sopan Patil).
Trinity College Dublin
Dr. Aonghus McNabola is assistant professor in the School of Engineering at Trinity College Dublin and is Principal Investigator (PI) for the Hydro-BPT project. His research interests lie in the areas of fluid dynamics, environmental engineering and energy recovery. He has been involved in numerous projects in the study of air and water pollution, in the development of pollution remediation devices and more recently in the development of energy recovery devices in the water and waste-water industry.
Prof. Paul Coughlan is an associate professor of Operation Management and Co-director of the Innovation Academy at Trinity College Dublin, and is a Co-PI on the Hydro-BPT project. Following an early career in engineering management in shipbuilding and offshore construction, and then in academia, Prof. Paul Coughlan became a full-time doctoral student at the University of Western Ontario, Canada (now the Ivey School). On graduation, he joined the operations management faculty of the London Business School (LBS). From LBS he moved to join Trinity’s Business School and has built its foundations in operations management and product development management. Between 1994 and 2007, he was a Director of Magnetic Solutions Ltd, which started as a Trinity College campus company.
Ms. Jennifer Brady is a postdoctoral researcher in the Schools of Engineering & Business at Trinity College Dublin. She is an environmental science graduate and is presently at the final stages of her Ph.D. in water demand management at Trinity College Dublin. Her research focuses on gaining a detailed understanding of factors influencing domestic water consumption in Ireland together with an in-depth assessment of attitudinal and behavioural aspects surrounding water usage. This is a multi-disciplinary project combining the areas of environmental science, social science, psychology and economics and involved analysis of domestic water consumption across metered group water scheme households. She has previously worked in freshwater ecology research at the Department of Zoology, TCD.
Ms. Christine Power is a PhD student in the Schools of Engineering & Business at Trinity College Dublin. She graduated from University College Cork in 2010 with a 1st Class Honours degree in Engineering. Her research interests lie in the area of sustainable energy, with a particular focus on the energy intensive water industry. She has previously been involved in sustainable thermal energy projects investigating the applicability of biomass as a source of renewable energy in Ireland.
Ms. Lucy Corcoran is a PhD student in the Schools of Engineering & Business at Trinity College Dublin. She graduated in 2009 from TCD with a 1st class honours degree in Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering. Her final year project was a CFD analysis of the array spacing of tidal energy turbines. Upon graduating, she worked for the tidal energy company OpenHydro. OpenHydro design and manufacture marine turbines to generate renewable energy from tidal streams. Her work at OpenHydro included structural design and analysis of turbines, data analysis and design for the marine environment.
Ms. Tracey Lydon is a PhD student in the Schools of Engineering & Business at Trinity College Dublin. She has worked previously for an environmental consultancy firm in South Africa; on the design of water infrastructure and the development of water reconciliation strategies, and as a water and sanitation manager for a number of hospitals in Haïti. Her role will involve the application of open innovation and platform thinking in order to facilitate the involvement of asset owners, operators, engineering specialist, and suppliers of equipment, policymakers and researchers in the development of the micro-hydropower turbines. Solutions suitable for both the western world and a developing context will be investigated.
Bangor University
Dr. Prysor Williams is a senior lecturer in Environmental Management at the School of Environment, Natural Resources & Geography at Bangor University and is a Co-PI on the Hydro-BPT project. Much of his research sits at the interface between academia and industry and he has collaborated with companies from many sectors (e.g. agricultural, waste, water). He is currently investigating the potential of anaerobic digestion to reduce the carbon footprint of agriculture and as a pollution abatement technology, and is also looking at the environmental footprint of the red meat sector in Wales relative to industry aspirations.
Mr. Ian Harris is an agriculturalist / resource manager by training and has developed some expertise in Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and spatial data since 1994. He has been involved in a number of EA/CCW, WAG/HCC, ESRC / EPSRC, DEFRA and EU funded projects as a nominated researcher with responsibility for the GIS elements of those projects. Since 2006, Ian has been teaching GIS (ESRI ArcGis, ArcView, and MapInfo) to undergraduate and postgraduate students whilst developing GIS capability within the School of Environment, Natural Resources and Geography. He is also responsible for the spatial dataset repository held by the University.
Mr. Andrew Packwood is an ecologist who has been using GIS since 1991. He has been providing GIS and computer support to Cariad (formally CAZS) a self financing, non-profit research centre at Bangor University since 1994. He has been running bespoke short courses in GIS, GPS and Remote Sensing for Cariad for over 10 years using ArcView, Idrisi, ArcGIS, MapInfo and Erdas Imagine. This includes courses in India, Nepal and Ethiopia. He is responsible for writing the majority of the GIS practical material currently available to students. He specialises in solving GIS problems for students and staff, especially advising on data entry and export. In this role he assists Ian Harris in the creation of the spatial dataset repository held by the University.
Dr. David Styles is a lecturer in life cycle assessment (LCA) and carbon foot-printing (CF) of agricultural systems at the School of Environment, Natural Resources & Geography at Bangor University. His current research is focussed on the application of LCA and CF to quantify the environmental impact of livestock production systems, including the adaptation of these techniques to accurately assess animal husbandry and crop management practices at the farm level. Previous research included the application of LCA to energy generation and industrial sites. The main objective of all his research is the identification of environmental best practice.
Dr. John Gallagher is the Hydro-BPT Research Officer in the School of Environment, Natural Resources & Geography at Bangor University. He was previously a PhD researcher in Trinity College Dublin and a civil engineering graduate from Trinity College Dublin, Queen's University, Belfast and GMIT, Galway. John has also worked for various consultancies and local authorities and has been involved in an extensive range of engineering projects; from road construction to landfill design and leachate management, design of civic amenity sites and design, build and operate (DBO) contracts for water supply network upgrades.
Dr. Sopan Patil is a lecturer in catchment modelling in the School of Environment, Natural Resources & Geography at Bangor University. His research interests are along two broad themes: (1) understanding how climate and land-use change affects the hydrological behaviour of landscapes across multiple observation scales, and (2) quantifying the resilience of linked ecosystem services to hydrological changes in a region. His role on the Hydro-BPT project will be to assess the impacts of climate change on water levels in reservoirs using cathment models he has developed and how this will impact energy recovery in water infrastructure.