Three collaborative US-Ireland projects have been approved for funding by National Science Foundation (NSF), Dept. for Employment and Learning (DEL) and Science Foundation Ireland (SFI). These projects span the priority research areas of Energy/Sustainability; Nanotechnology; Telecommunications and Sensor Technology.
The project ‘Collaborative Research: Green Foundations for Green Energy’ aims to reduce the economic and environmental cost of harnessing offshore wind energy, which is a key challenge to increasing the availability of renewable energy. It involves Professor Robert Gilbert, University of Texas at Austin, Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Department; Dr Aaron Bradshaw, University of Rhode Island, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering; Dr Vinayagamoothy Sivakumar , Queen’s University Belfast, School of Planning, Architecture and Civil Engineering and Dr Kenneth Gavin, University College Dublin ,School of Civil, Structural & Environmental Engineering.
The project ‘Femtojoule-per-bit Communications with Nanopillar Lasers on Si’ aims to determine the feasibility of demonstrating electrically-driven photonic crystal lasers (PCLs) using III-V nanopillars (NP) grown on Silicon. It involves Dr Guillaume Huyet, Cork Institute of Technology/ Tyndall National Institute, Dr Paul Dawson Queen’s University Belfast and Prof. Diana Huffaker, University of California.
The project ‘Multi channel Disposable Sensors for Animal Health Disease Diagnostics’ aims to develop microfluidic, electronic biosensors for Bovine Respiratory Disease (BRD). BRD is a leading natural cause of death in cattle and has substantial economic impact on the US and Irish food industries. BRD is typically diagnosed via ELISA, which can be expensive and slow to provide definitive results. There are at present no commercially-available field-based electronic tests for animal diseases. The development of an inexpensive, rapid, and field-deployable sensor for animal disease would have strong economic impact on biosecurity, agriculture, and food science industries. The project involves Dr Alan O’Riordan, Cork Institute of Technology/ Tyndall National Institute, Dr Mark Mooney Queen’s University Belfast and Prof. Eric Vogel, Georgia Institute of Technology.
These projects bring to 12 the number of successful US-Ireland R&D Partnership projects.
