Dr. Martin O’Halloran

Dr Martin O’Halloran is a European Research Council (ERC) and Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Investigator at the National University of Ireland Galway. Reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of his research, he holds a joint affiliation with the College of Engineering and Informatics; and the College of Medicine, Nursing & Health Sciences, and leads the Translational Medical Device Laboratory in the Lambe Institute.

Dr O’Halloran has received over 30 national and international research awards and was recently awarded SFI’s Early-Stage Researcher of the Year, Engineers Ireland Chartered Engineer of the Year, and the European Research Council’s Starting Investigator Grant. He was a co-proposer of a European COST Action (entitled “MiMED”) and is now leading a network of over 180 medical device researchers from 24 countries, focused on the clinical evaluation and commercialisation of novel medical devices in Europe.

Over the last 6 years, Dr O’Halloran has personally secured €5.6 million in direct research funding and has published more than 40 papers in peer-reviewed journals and a similar number of international conference papers. Dr O’Halloran has been an invited chair and invited speaker at several major electromagnetics and translational medicine conferences/seminars. He is currently non-executive director of the BioInnovate programme and co-lead of the Health Innovation Hub Ireland at NUI Galway.

Dr. Emily Porter

Dr Emily Porter is an EU Marie-Curie Research Fellow in the Translational Medical Device Lab at the National University of Ireland, Galway. She studied at McGill University, Canada, where she received her M.Eng. in 2010 and her Ph.D. in Applied Electromagnetics in 2015. Her current research is focused on novel medical applications of electromagnetics, with projects including bladder monitoring and stroke detection using electrical impedance tomography, microwave radar for breast cancer diagnosis and treatment, anatomically and electrically realistic phantoms, and standardized dielectric measurements of biological tissues.

Dr. Porter is the recipient of several prestigious national and international awards, including the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society Doctoral Research Award, the Irish Research Council (IRC) “New Foundations” Grant, the Royal Irish Academy (RIA) Charlemont Grant, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Postdoctoral Fellowship, Le Fonds de recherche du Québec – Nature et technologies (FRQNT) Fellowship (Research Fund of Quebec: Nature and Technologies), and the D.W. Ambridge Prize, awarded by McGill University for the most outstanding graduating doctoral student in Natural Sciences or Engineering.

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Marggie Jones

Marggie’s background includes a B.Sc. in Experimental Physics (UCD, 1988) and a research M.Sc on using neural networks to ‘learn’ hand-eye co-ordination (Trinity College, Dublin, 1993).

She has worked inter alia for the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority on the Joint European Torus nuclear fusion project, as a programmer with Irish Life Assurance, as a research assistant on human-computer interaction (Trinity), as a lecturer teaching computer programming and systems analysis and developing an AI based corporate failure prediction tool (the then Dept. Of Accountancy and Finance, NUI Galway), on the classification and monitoring of breast cancer (as a volunteer in Electrical and Electronic engineering, NUI Galway), and on an inner ear project using semantic web technologies (the Health Care and Life Sciences unit of the Insight Centre for Data Analytics, NUI Galway).

Her current interests are dielectric metrology and electrical impedance tomography.

Atif Shahzad

Atif Shahzad is a senior postdoctoral researcher and team lead ablation technologies at Translational Medical Device Lab, National University of Ireland, Galway. He received BSc (honors) in computer engineering from COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Pakistan, and MSc in electronics engineering from University of Leeds, United Kingdom. He is associated with NUI Galway since 2011, starting PhD in microwave imaging for medical applications. His research is focused on thermal ablation and sensing technologies, medical signal and image processing, applied electromagnetic, computational modelling, and dielectric spectroscopy.

He worked as a lecturer at COMSTATS Institute of Informational Technology from 2006 to 2011, where he taught undergraduate courses to electronic and computer engineering students and supervised final year projects. He has also worked as research staff in Computer Vision research group at COMSATS, where he developed real-time video processing techniques for vehicle recognition in forensic applications.

He has received several national and international awards from Irish Research Council, Science Foundation Ireland, NUI Galway, and Ministry of Science and Technology Pakistan. He is also member of COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) Action MiMED and COST Action EMF-MED.

Adnan Elahi

Adnan Elahi is a postdoctoral researcher at Translational Medical Device Lab, NUI Galway. He holds M.Sc. in Embedded Digital Systems (Distinction) from University of Sussex, United Kingdom and BS in Computer Engineering (First Class) from COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT), Lahore, Pakistan. His PhD research was focused on investigation and development of novel signal processing algorithms to improve microwave imaging of the breast. His current research interests include the development of novel electromagnetic medical imaging and therapeutic devices.

He has previously worked as a visiting postgraduate research at the University of Calgary, Canada; as a Research Associate at Computer Vision Research Group (COMVIS), Lahore, Pakistan and as a lecturer (2007-2012) at CIIT Lahore, Pakistan.

He has received 13 national and international awards including IRC “New Foundations” Grant; SFI PhD Fellowship; and several EU COST Action grants for Short-term Scientific Missions and attending training schools. He is an active member of MiMed and EMF-MED EU Cost Actions.

Dr. Brian McGinley

Dr. Brian Mc Ginley received a B.Eng. and Ph.D. from the National University of Ireland (NUI) Galway in 2003 and 2009 respectively. His Ph.D. research investigated spiking neural networks for breast cancer classification applications. Since 2009, he has worked as a Post-Doctoral Researcher and Adjunct Lecturer in NUI Galway with the Biomedical Electronics research cluster. His current research interests include biomedical imaging, machine learning, computational neurobiology, machine vision and digital signal processing applications for mobile digital healthcare. He has a wide experience of developing novel medical device technologies and has collaborated with multiple international clinical and industrial partners through European, SFI and Enterprise Ireland funded clinical research projects.

Dr. Mc Ginley has received several prestigious national and international awards from the Irish Research Council (at postgraduate and postdoctoral level), the Cleveland Clinic and NUI Galway’s University Scholar and Hardiman Research Scholarship awards for outstanding undergraduate academic results. He is also member of the MiMED and EMF-MED COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) Actions.

Dr. Adam Santorelli

Dr. Adam Santorelli is an IRC Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellow in the Translational Medical Device Lab at the National University of Ireland, Galway. He studied at McGill University, Montreal, Canada, where he received his B. Eng, M. Eng, and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in 2010, 2012, and 2017, respectively. His research is focused on the development of novel low-cost medical devices with the primary goal of increasing the accessibility of technology to improve both the diagnosis and treatment of diseases.

Dr. Santorelli is the recipient of several prestigious national and international awards, including the IEEE SAS Best Student Paper, the Irish Canadian University Foundation (ICUF) James Flaherty Scholarship, and Le Fonds de recherche du Québec – Nature et technologies (FRQNT) Fellowship (the Research Fund of Quebec: Nature and Technologies doctoral research scholarship). He has published over 50 peer-reviewed journal and international conference papers, has been a reviewer for several IEEE journals (TBME, TIM, TMTT, TMI), and has been a member of the IEEE since 2011.

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Dr. Giuseppe Ruvio

Dr. Giuseppe Ruvio recently joined the Translational Medical Device Lab after research fellowships with the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) and the Trinity College University of Dublin. In the last seven years, his research activity has been focused on breast cancer microwave imaging spanning from antenna design to tissue-mimicking material engineering and accurate dielectric properties measurement of biological tissues. He completed a Specialist Master of Management in Clinical Engineering in 2017 from the University of Trieste, Italy, and a PhD on Microwave Engineering in 2009 from the Dublin Institute of Technology. His work has been carried out both in academic and industry-based frameworks thanks to the Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation Funding schemes. Dr. Ruvio is currently working as the lead electronic engineer on a commercialisation project on microwave ablation treatments.

Dr. Ruvio was awarded the Best Presentation Prize conferred by Bell Labs Ireland at the CTVR Plenary Conference 2012; the Hothouse Commercialisation Prize in 2009, the CST University Publication Award in 2008 and the Best paper prize at the Loughborough Antennas and Propagation Conference in 2006. He has authored more than 20 international journal publications.

Dr. Ruvio sits in the Management Committee of three Actions of the European Cooperation in Science and Technology Programme, COST. He was also appointed Communications Officer of the COST action “MiMed” on “Accelerating Technological, Clinical and Commercialisation Progress in the Area of Medical Microwave Imaging”. Dr. Ruvio was elevated to the IEEE Senior membership in 2015.

Dr. Nigel Phelan

Nigel graduated from Medicine in Trinity College Dublin in 2009. He completed Basic Surgical training and became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 2012. He was awarded a Masters of Surgery from the Royal College of Surgeons in 2014, his dissertation focused on the accuracy of Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Orthopaedics. He subsequently worked as an Orthopaedic Registrar in Dublin. He enjoys teaching and has undertaken roles as a clinical tutor in Orthopaedics at Cappagh Hospital and as an Anatomy Demonstrator in Trinity College Dublin. He is passionate about the application of technology in healthcare and has published peer reviewed research on internet search patterns and social media in relation to surgery.

Dr. Jimmy Eaton-Evans

Dr. Jimmy Eaton-Evans is a mechanical design engineer with over 14 years of experience working in the field of medical device R&D. After receiving his PhD from the University of Limerick in 2006, he completed postdoctoral research at the University of Oxford that focused on early stage medical device development. His industry experience includes working within both large multinational and small start-ups to bring new medical device solutions to market. He has published 21 peer review journal articles and is the named inventor on five patent filings.

In 2015 he completed the Bioinnovate Fellowship programme at NUIG in collaboration with the Mayo Clinic (MN, USA), which was focused on identifying new opportunities of innovation in gastroenterology. This provided the basis for him to secure funding of €500k from Enterprise Ireland to commercialise a new, endoscopically delivered microwave ablation technology. He is currently leading the mechanical development of this device, on the journey to clinical use.

Sean Cummins

Sean Cummins is a graduate of the BSc. in Product Design and Technology from the University of Limerick. He has worked for over four years with Cook Medical in Limerick as a Research and Development Engineer. During his time in Cook Medical, Sean predominantly worked on Peripheral Intervention related R&D projects. He has extensive design experience in both medical devices and automation. Focusing on usability and design for manufacture, Sean used human factors and ergonomics to develop a concept for a class III stent delivery system.

The design has successfully made it to market and Sean is a named inventor on over 13 patent filings. Sean’s design philosophy is not only to meet the expectations of the clinicians but to exceed them. He strongly believes that in order for a product to be successful, it must meet the needs of the patient, user and the market. Sean uses a practical approach to design through creating physical prototypes and user testing as well as analytical thinking with effective problem solving.

Stephen Cox

Stephen is a Software Developer, leader of international engineering teams and builder of enterprise products for the past 12 years. He has expertise in creating e-commerce platforms for Fortune 500 companies in the Travel industry at Datalex.

He designed, built and delivered an international trade and supply chain management cloud-based product at Tradestream based in South Africa. He was also manager and director of the Tradestream Ireland office. He has experience working with startups consulting as VP of Engineering with CipherApps in the Wayra Ireland Accelerator to deliver an early stage beta for a realtime encryption service for data protection in the cloud. More recently, he scaled big data analytics teams working as Head of Engineering at Boxever to deliver enterprise SaaS predictive analytics to some of the biggest airlines and online travel agents across the globe.