Huge Congratulations to our UCC ERBE students Suzanne O’Keeffe and Shahnewaz Siddiquee who graduated on June 20th, in the glorious sunshine of the warmest day of the year so far. Pictured with supervisors Dr Ken Bruton and Dr. Dominic O’Sullivan. 

Suzanne’s research focused ‘Development of a methodology and modelling tool to aid industrial organisations targeting carbon neutrality’ while Sid’s reserach focused on “Optimising Demand Side Response in Smart Grid Applications”. Congratulations to you both, we are so delighted for you and wish you both the very best of luck in the future.

Congratulations to our ERBE student Talie Tohidi Moghadam who has successfully defended her PhD with minor corrections at University College Cork!
Talie’s research focused on:“Energy Efficient Achievement of Indoor Air Quality and Thermal Comfort Using Mechanical Ventilation Heat Recovery and Solar-energy Pre-heating” — an experimental study conducted in the Iris Ashley Cummins and Áras na Laoi buildings at UCC.”

This work marks the first experimental evaluation and quantification of a Transpired Solar Collector combined with a Mechanical Ventilation Heat Recovery system, along with a techno-economic feasibility study of solar-assisted ventilation in Ireland. The research represents an innovative step toward sustainable ventilation design and improved indoor air quality in educational buildings.

Talie expressed her  sincere gratitude to her main supervisor, Dr. Dominic O’ Sullivan, for his unwavering support and for giving herthe opportunity to join the UCC Intelligent Efficiency Research Group. Heartfelt thanks also to her co-supervisor, Professor Brian Norton, for his mentorship, knowledge, and invaluable insights throughout her research and many thanks to Dr. Ken Bruton for his expert advice and continued support. Also to ERBE CDT in Energy Resilience and the Built Environment, the MaREI Centre, and Research Ireland for funding her PhD, and to our collaborators at Loughborough University and UCL for enriching this experience. Finally,  Talie expressed a big thank you to her internal examiner Prof. Brian Ó Gallachóir and external examiner Prof. Philip Griffiths for their thoughtful feedback and encouragement on her work.

Congratulations again Talie, we are all so proud of you! 

One of our ERBE students from Loughborough University, Gabriela Yordanova shares her thoughts on the 2 day event:

“On 4^th of April 2025, students from the Energy Resilience and the Built Environment (ERBE) CDT hosted their annual Student-Led Conference at the Fota Wildlife Education, Conservation and Research Centre in Cork, Ireland.

The event brought together PhD researchers and supervisors from Loughborough University, University College London, and MaREI, in partnership with ASHRAE Ireland. This year’s theme explored how student research contributes to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with projects addressing challenges in energy resilience, sustainable buildings, and the social aspects of the built environment.

The day featured student presentations, poster sessions, and two keynote talks. We were honoured to welcome Ambassador David Donoghue, former Irish Permanent Representative to the UN and co-facilitator of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, who offered a powerful reflection on the origins and global relevance of the SDGs. While Dr Pádraig Lyons, Head of Group at the International Energy Research Centre (IERC), gave an insightful talk on the deep decarbonisation of Ireland’s energy system.

In recognition of the outstanding research currently underway across ERBE, ASHRAE Ireland generously sponsored awards for the best posters and presentations.

We were also delighted to be joined on the day by representatives from ASHRAE and we extend  huge thanks to Edith Blennerhassett and her team for judging and sponsoring the prizes for Best Poster and Best Presentation at the conference.  

Congratulations to our Overall Student Presentation winner, Adam Duncan, University College London for his presentation entitled “Modelling of energy system adaptation under deep uncertainty”

Congratulations also to our Poster Prize winners,

• 1st – Thomas Crook, Loughborough (Heat and moisture transport through an anisotropic building material)
• 2nd – Barah Rababa, Loughborough (Evaluating the climate change resilience of Passivhaus extra-care homes in the UK)
• 3rd – Ceylin Sirin MaREI, University of Galway (Evaluating Energy Absorption Capacity in Airtight Membranes for Sustainable Construction)

The conference was preceded by a training day and social dinner on the 3^rd of April. In the first training session, students were introduced to the FAIR Principles for scientific data management and metadata creation, which they were tasked with implementing in a Lego building challenge. The second session provided an introduction to AI in research, covering a wide variety of tools useful for literature discovery, scientific writing and visual communication. We were then lucky enough to be given a guided tour of the Fota Wildlife Park highlights, before moving on to dinner at Blackrock Castle.”

Our 2024 ERBE Colloquium was held in University College London on November 13th. Very well attended by all the ERBE students from Loughborough, UCL and MaREI, it was an excellent opportunity for our students to network and present their research. Well done to all our MaREI ERBE students who presented posters on the day and a huge congratulations to Talie and Eoin, who delivered excellent speaker presentations on their research to date to the full ERBE CDT cohort and visiting guests and alumni.