About Us

Leontina Schelling

Leontina Schelling is a Research Engineer at Research Driven Solutions, with a background in the design and assessment of large-scale infrastructure. Leontina has experience in the design of bridge structures and has worked on a variety of projects across Europe, contributing to the planning and design of large-scale bridge projects across different project phases, as well as the assessment of existing structures in accordance with Eurocode and the Swiss National Standards (SIA).

She has a particular interest in the application of probabilistic methods and machine learning techniques to bridge assessment, and is proficient in Python and MATLAB, which she uses to perform advanced analysis and develop data-driven tools to support bridge assessment and decision-making.

Margaret Cullinane

Margaret Cullinane is a Senior Engineer at Research Driven Solutions with over twenty years combined experience in industry and research. Areas of interest include offshore renewable energy, asset integrity management, flow assurance, data analysis, machine learning and structural health monitoring.

Having initially qualified as a Civil Engineer, she subsequently worked developing commercial Finite Element software for engineering analysis and completed a computer-science Masters in Interactive Multimedia. Blending engineering and technology knowledge, she creates technology solutions to solve engineering problems and has experience in a vast variety of programming languages (Python, MATLAB, Fortran, web development, VBA, etc). Her current work with RDS involves developing a web platform to improve the circularity of soldier Personal Protective Equipment as part of the EDF UTILE project. She has also developed a digital twin framework for the evaluation of Nature Based Solutions to enhance infrastructure resilience as part of the EU NBSInfra project.

Thanh Tran

Dr. Thanh Tran is a Research Engineer at Research Driven Solutions with a strong background in Structural Health Monitoring, Structural Dynamics, and Uncertainty Quantification.

She was awarded the Research Ireland-funded 24-7Mon fellowship and the TUBITAK-funded SHM2 entrepreneurship projects. The 24-7Mon project focused on developing an in-service vehicle fleet-based bridge health monitoring system. The SHM2 project aimed to develop data-driven monitoring methods using a variety of sensor technologies, including MEMS, UAV, Raspberry Pi, Camera and Smartphones, with a focus on commercial applications.

She has a particular interest in network-level infrastructure monitoring, employing advanced research methodologies and low-cost sensing technologies to enable proactive asset management towards resilient infrastructure systems.

Behnam Fereidoonnezhad

Behnam (Mohammad) Fereidoonnezhad is a Research Engineer at Research Driven Solutions, specialising in advanced finite element analysis and scientific programming in Python, MATLAB, and Fortran. During his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Galway, he conducted research on the design, manufacturing, and testing of novel composite offshore wind turbine. He has received prestigious funding from Research Ireland through the Enterprise Partnership and Employment-Based programmes.

With over six years of industrial experience, Behnam’s expertise includes advanced structural analysis and testing, composite materials, wind and tidal turbines, and manufacturing processes. He has also received the National Elite Prize, a prestigious award in his home country, and has served as a Board Member of a national energy association, as well as a Technical Expert on ISO standards.

Behnam is currently involved in the CLARION Project, which aims to optimise the material properties of soil behind quay walls through non-linear finite element analysis, Python-based automation, and surrogate model development.

Bernard Enright

Dr Bernard Enright is a consulting engineer with Research Driven Solutions, and is a lecturer in Structural Engineering at Technological University Dublin. Bernard originally qualified as a civil engineer and worked in information technology in engineering and in the financial markets for 25 years before joining TU Dublin in 2003.

His PhD research was in the area of extreme traffic loading on bridges. Dr Enright’s research interests are in the areas of probabilistic methods, simulation, load modelling, extreme value theory and structural reliability. He has published extensively in research journals, and is the joint author of a textbook on Highway Engineering.

Roisin Donnelly

Róisín Donnelly is a Senior Engineer at Research Driven Solutions with a strong background in the design and assessment of structures for both commercial and research applications. A Chartered Engineer with Engineers Ireland (CEng MIEI), Róisín has experience working with bridges at preliminary design, detailed design and construction stages, as well as the assessment of existing structures. This includes work on steel and prestressed concrete structures, moveable bridges and long-span cable-supported bridges, to Eurocode and AASHTO standards.

Róisín is proficient in advanced bridge analysis and finite element modelling, and has experience in both the probabilistic assessment of individual structures and the application of probabilistic methods in the management of transport infrastructure at a network level. Her expertise in Python and MATLAB programming allow her to streamline processes and perform complex data analysis. She has a special interest in bringing tools and novel methods developed in research into the industry context, with a focus on the monitoring and assessment of existing infrastructure.

Mr Lorcan Connolly

Mr. Lorcan Connolly is a Director at Research Driven Solutions Ltd. He is a leading expert in Structural Health Monitoring and probabilistic assessment of civil structures, having published extensively in peer reviewed journals and international conference proceedings.

Lorcan has also acted as peer reviewer on the subject of risk-based asset management.

Lorcan has acted as coordinator and WP leader on various FP7 & H2020 research projects focused on Structural Health Monitoring and Risk Assessment of infrastructure including the FP7 funded SMARTRAIL and INFRARISK projects, and the Shift2Rail / H2020 GOSAFE Rail and SAFE-10-T projects.

Lorcan is a Chartered Engineer and member of Engineers Ireland.

Prof. Alan O’Connor

Prof. Alan O’Connor is a Director of Research Driven Solutions and Professor of Structural Engineering at Trinity College Dublin. He has published extensively on the topic of optimal infrastructure lifecycle management.

His research focuses on risk and resilience analysis of critical infrastructure, asset lifecycle performance optimisation and probabilistic safety assessment. He was coordinator of the European RAIN (Risk Analysis of Infrastructure Networks) project and the CEDR project, RE-GEN – Risk Assessment of Ageing Infrastructure.

• Editor-in-Chief of ICE Journal of Infrastructure Asset Management.
• Chartered Engineer and Fellow of Engineers Ireland (Ceng FIEI).
• Chartered Engineer with Institution of Structural Engineers, London (MIStructE).
• Fellow of Trinity College Dublin (FTCD).
• Member of Joint Committee on Structural Safety (JCSS).
• Editorial Board Member Journal of Structural Safety and Journal of Reliability Engineering and System Safety

Prof. Eugene O’Brien

Prof. Eugene OBrien is a Director of Research Driven Solutions and Professor of Civil Engineering at University College Dublin. He has published extensively and has written books on Bridge Engineering and Reinforced Concrete Design.

His research focusses on bridge health monitoring, bridge traffic loading and the conflicts between biodiversity and transport infrastructure. He has led several projects at European level, including InfraRisk, Long Life Bridges and the CEDR projects, Harmony and Ecoroads.

• Editor-in-chief for Civil Engineering, of the journal, Applied Sciences.
• Winner of the 2014 Champions of European Research award for Cross-modal.
• Transportation in recognition of an outstanding lifetime contribution to research in cross-modal transport.

Dr. Emma Shiels

Dr. Emma Sheils is a Senior Engineer at Research Driven Solutions. An accomplished researcher and structural engineer, Emma’s knowledge and expertise spans across several areas of academia and industry with experience in the areas of design and maintenance of civil infrastructure. Interests are in the fields of risk management, performance optimisation, circular economy and resource efficiency within transport infrastructure.

Emma has several published conference papers and peer reviewed journal papers in the field of optimisation, maintenance and inspection planning of structures. Emma has worked extensively in the area of bridge design with experience of preliminary design, detail design and independent check of prestressed concrete bridges as well as long span extradosed and cable bridges. Emma’s work in RDS focuses on projects that use research results to solve practical problems with a focus on risk, optimisation and sustainability of transport infrastructure.

Dr. Alexandra Micu

Dr. Alexandra Micu is a Research Engineer at Research Driven Solutions Ltd, with Structures, experimental, simulation, statistical and probabilistic skills and knowledge.

She holds a PhD in Traffic Loading on Long-span Bridges from University College Dublin where she proposed a novel method to collect accurate vehicle length data in congested conditions using a video monitoring system and computer vision techniques. She used this to identify critical traffic load effects on long-span bridges, as part of a bridge safety monitoring programme.

Dr. Micu was awarded an SFI Industry Fellowship to conduct research on continuous monitoring of bridges in operational conditions in the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at UCD. She has reimagined the train as a kind of ‘stethoscope’ for engineers to estimate the health of railway infrastructure. This was one of the world’s first project in the field of sensors-driven railway infrastructure monitoring to collect information on track, bridge and vehicle condition across the entire network, which can affect a paradigm shift in the availability of data to assist with maintenance decisions.

Dr. Micu has held a Research Fellow position in the School of Civil Engineering at Trinity College Dublin where her research has focused on researching management from the perspective of flooding outcomes and decision-making in adaptation and recovery to alleviate the consequences of flooding for the AA-Floods project. Alexandra attended and presented her research at national and international conferences and has published in international peer-reviewed journals. She has won the CERI-ITRN-2018 Conference Bridge Engineering Student Competition for my paper, ‘Estimation of traffic load effects on Forth Road bridge using camera measurements’.”

Dr Caitríona de Paor

Dr. Caitríona de Paor is a Senior Engineer at Research Driven Solutions and also lectures in the School of Transport and Civil Engineering in Technological University (TU) Dublin where she combines structural engineering research and teaching. Caitríona is a Chartered Engineer (CEng) with experience in asset management, structural health monitoring, risk and resilience assessments and structural analysis in the civil/structural as well as offshore industries.

She has participated in a number of commercial and European research projects including the H2020-funded GOSAFE Rail and SAFE-10-T projects, and the CEDR-funded Dirizon project. Caitríona is currently working on the CEDR-funded ICARUS project and is also a board member of the Civil Engineering Research Assocation of Ireland (CERAI).