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Offshore Renewable Energy Research Group
Dr. Jimmy Murphy
CURRENT ACTIVITIES
Jimmy participates in a large number of EU funded projects and currently is co-ordinator of FP7 LEANWIND, H2020 MaRINET2, H2020 MARINERG-i and H2020 TAOIDE which are all related to advancing the offshore renewable energy (ORE) sector.
Jimmy is the lead of the Lir National Ocean Test Facility (Lir NOTF) and the ORE Technology group within UCC MaREI which consists of over 40 staff and post graduate students.
Finally he is a senior lecturer for Harbour and Coastal Engineering and Offshore Renewable Energy in the School of Engineering, UCC. Jimmy also supervises PhD and Masters students and has a number of publications in the areas of coastal engineering and offshore renewable energy.
BACKGROUND
PhD in Coastal/Geotechnical Engineering (1994).
Jimmy has worked in UCC since 1993 primarily on research and commercial projects related to coastal engineering and offshore renewable energy. Much of his work has concentrated on the understanding of ocean processes and the behaviour of marine structures and has involved a combination of field monitoring, numerical modelling and physical modelling.
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Dr. Fiona Devoy McAuliffe
OVERVIEW
A graduate of University College Cork (UCC), Fiona is an administrative project manager and a researcher on a number of EU projects. She is a part of the Device Design, Testing & Evaluation; Modelling A graduate of University College Cork (UCC), Fiona is an administrative project manager and researcher on a number of EU projects. Her primary area of expertise is modelling and analysing the logistics (installation, O&M and decommissioning) and costs of offshore wind farms.
CURRENT ACTIVITIES
The EC H2020-funded MARINERG-i project. MARINERG-i will produce a scientific and business plan for an integrated European Research Infrastructure, designed to facilitate the future growth and development of the Offshore Renewable Energy sector. This plan will ensure that the MARINERG-i Research Infrastructure model attains the criteria necessary for being successful in an application to European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) roadmap in 2020. See www.marinerg-i.eu for further information. Fiona is the administrative project manager.
The EC FP7-funded LEANWIND (Logistic Efficiencies And Naval architecture for Wind Installations with Novel Developments) project. LEANWIND aims to identify cost reductions across the offshore wind farm lifecycle and supply chain through the application of lean principles and the development of state of the art technologies and tools. See www.leanwind.eu for further information. Fiona is the administrative project manager and a researcher in LEANWIND. She is specifically involved in operations and maintenance strategy optimisation; developing a tool in MATLAB to model the logistics and costs of decommissioning activities; and the financial assessment of offshore wind farm project scenarios.
The H2020-funded OPERA project. OPERA will collect, analyse and share open-sea operating data and experience to validate and de-risk several industrial innovations for wave energy, opening the way to long term cost-reduction. See www.opera-h2020.eu/ for further information. Fiona is specifically involved in resource assessment and weather window analysis; developing an O&M logging framework; and contributing to the assessment and development of recommendations for offshore logistics and procedures.
BACKGROUND
Fiona is based in UCC, where she began working as a Research Assistant in August 2012 on the EC FP7-funded MARINA platform project. MARINA sought to establish criteria for the evaluation of multi-purpose platforms for marine renewable energy, and produce a set of design and optimisation tools that were used to evaluate a number of platform concepts. Fiona’s main research area was the financial assessment of platforms combining wind and wave energy devices, particularly focusing on determining scenarios and assessing the costs of operation and maintenance activities. She was also involved in proposal preparation for the FP7 LEANWIND project, which began in December 2013.
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Dr. Frances Judge
OVERVIEW
Frances is a Senior Postdoctoral Researcher in the Offshore Renewable Energy Group in MaREI, the SFI Centre for Energy, Climate and Marine and a Lecturer in Environmental Engineering at University College Cork
CURRENT ACTIVITIES
Frances is currently working on the Horizon 2020 MaRINET2 project. She is particularly involved in the round-robin testing aspect of the project, which aims to understand the practical issues encountered when a standard testing methodology is applied to different facilities
BACKGROUND
Frances holds a Degree in Civil Engineering from UCC, an MSc in Meteorology from UCD, and a PhD in numerical modelling from the University of Edinburgh. She is also a Chartered Engineer and spent a number of years working in engineering consultancy.
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Dr. Michael O'Shea
OVERVIEW
Michael O’Shea is a lecturer in Structural Engineering at University College Cork and a Researcher at the Science Foundation Ireland MaREI Centre. He has published over 15 articles in international peer-reviewed journals and was recently awarded the EU Atlantic Strategy Award for his research on Offshore Renewable Energy.
CURRENT ACTIVITIES
Michael is a Principal Investigator on several research projects including the 15 million Horizon Europefunded WEDUSEA project focussed on full-scale wave energy device deployment and GSI funded GEOBim project focussed on BIM integrated structural health monitoring of historic infrastructure. He has recently registered two inventions relating to subsea superconductor test rig design emanating from the joint MaREI/industry Supernode project. Dr O’Shea is currently supervising PhD students in Seabed Dynamics, Coastal Engineering, Structural health monitoring and Subsea superconduct. He previously managed the H2020 Marinet2 project, the SFI/Industry funded SuperNode project. the SEAI funded OARPS project and the GSI funded GEOBIM project.
BACKGROUND
A graduate of UCC’s Civil and Environmental Engineering degree (2005), he has over 15 years’ experience in coastal, civil and offshore engineering. During his career, Michael has led a range of projects including wave, tidal and floating wind energy device testing, coastal sediment transport assessments and hydraulic modelling. He has published peer reviewed research on wave modelling, coastal processes, wave signal analysis and sediment transport. He is a committee member in the National Standards Authority of Ireland on Wave Energy and Building Information Modelling. He is a reviewer for Journal of Coastal Research and Journal of Marine Science and Engineering.
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Dr. Milad Zabihi
OVERVIEW
Milad is a research support officer and lead test engineer at Lir National Ocean Test Facility, MaREI, University College Cork.
CURRENT ACTIVITIES
He is currently designing, conducting and analyzing experimental tests on different types of marine renewable energy devices including wind, wave and tidal converters to improve the technology readiness level of these novel ideas.
BACKGROUND
Milad obtained his PhD in ocean and marine structures in 2019 from the Iranian National Institute for Oceanography and Atmospheric Science. During his PhD, he worked on harnessing the wave energy using Oscillating Water Column device both numerically and experimentally.
His background is in civil engineering, and he has extensive experience in designing different engineering structures including coastal and offshore structures. He worked for 6 years in Iranian marine and civil engineering consultant companies prior to joining MaREI in 2021.
He got his B.Sc and M.Sc in 2010 and 2013, from Noshirvani university of technology, and Iran University of Science and Technology, respectively.
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Dr. Ross O'Connell
OVERVIEW
Ross joined MaREI as an intern on the EirWind project in 2019. He then went on to lead the GIS work package for the Selkie project before managing the Wet-Storage project from start through to completion. Now funded by the SEAI, Ross is managing the IDEA-IRL project whilst also working on an extension of the Selkie GIS-TE tool which he developed here at MaREI.
CURRENT ACTIVITIES
IDEA-IRL is a three-year collaborative project between University College Cork, Gavin and Doherty Geosolutions and Wind Energy Ireland. Through building upon key background knowledge and leveraging the international FOWA (Floating Offshore Wind Array) research effort under the framework of IEA Task 49, this project aims to accelerate the sustainable development of FOWAs both domestically and internationally.
The extension of the Selkie GIS-TE tool involves incorporating offshore wind as a third technology type, adding to wave and tidal energy technology. This tool allows for user interactive site selection and project feasibility analysis of offshore renewable energy projects in Irish and western UK waters and has recently been nominated for Innovation / Research Project of the year at the 2025 Esri Customer Success awards.
BACKGROUND
Ross is a Post-Doctoral Researcher at MaREI’s Beaufort Building in Cork. He has a PhD in Engineering from University College Cork, an MSc in Geoinformatics from the University of Copenhagen, a Higher Diploma in Geography from University College Cork and a BSc in Project Management from Munster Technological University. He has also taken credited courses in coastal and marine management at the University Centre of the Westfjords in Iceland as part of a Nordic exchange scholarship.
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Kevin Leyne
OVERVIEW
Kevin is a project engineer and manager working in MaREI, UCC and Lir, in the area of marine and renewable energies.
CURRENT ACTIVITIES
Kevin is managing the H2020 funded TAOIDE project, which aims to increase the performance and reliability of ocean energy devices through development of the electrical systems. Kevin is also involved in the Lir National Ocean Test Facility and coordinating many parts of the SFI funded Open Ocean Emulator for Grid Integrated next generation Marine Renewable Energy Systems which will improve the infrastructure in the NOTF.
BACKGROUND
Kevin received his MSc in Sustainable Engineering for Offshore Renewable Energy from the university of Strathclyde in 2012. He joined UCC’s HMRC in 2014 and was the project manager on the Sea Station project as part of the Galway Bay SmartBay test site. Kevin was also heavily involved with the MaRINET2 proposal; this is the H2020 funded project which opens up and links key national and regional Marine research infrastructures to all European researchers from both academia and industry as well as ensuring their optimal use and joint development.
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Dr. Mahdi Ebrahimi Salari
OVERVIEW
Mahdi is a Postdoctoral researcher at MaREI Centre, University College Cork. His research is mainly focused on offshore wind energy systems.
CURRENT ACTIVITIES
Research activities are numerical modelling of wind energy systems, grid integration of renewable energy devices and hardware-in-the-loop testing of renewable energy generators.
BACKGROUND
Mahdi obtained his PhD from the University of Limerick in “Direct interconnection technique applied to marine renewable generators, specifically airborne wind energy”. Mahdi’s PhD project was supported by the European Commission under the H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie action: ITN AWESCO. After finishing his PhD project in 2018, he continued to work at the University of Limerick as a Postdoctoral researcher. Since February 2021, Mahdi has started a postdoctoral position at MaREI Centre, University College Cork.
During his postdoctoral studies at the University of Limerick, he lectured Modern electrical Power Systems in 2020 and co-lectured Electrical Power Systems course in 2019 and 2018. He was also teaching at the Khorasan Scientific and Industrial College of Applied Science and Technology University, Mashhad, Iran, between Sep.2008 and Sep 2014.
He received his M.Sc. in electrical power engineering from Islamic Azad University (IAU), Najaf Abad branch (University of Najafabad), in 2009, and the B.Sc. degree from Islamic Azad University, Bojnord branch, Iran, in 2007. During his M.Sc. studies at IAU, Mahdi worked on a research project for designing linear permanent magnet generators (LPMG) for marine wave energy conversion in the seas of Iran.
His research interests are in renewable energy, electrical power system dynamics, power electronics and electrical machines design.
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Dr. Mahdiyeh Farajvand
OVERVIEW
Mahdiyeh is currently a Senior Postdoctoral Researcher at the MaREI Centre, University College Cork, where she is involved in experimental campaigns and industry collaborations in offshore wind and ocean energy projects.
CURRENT ACTIVITIES
Mahdiyeh is currently working on the AtlanticFloat project, funded by SEAI, where she analyses experimental data from offshore wind energy devices to support design and validation efforts. She is also involved in an SEAI/SLA project, carrying out numerical simulation analyses of marine renewable devices as part of Ireland’s Ocean Energy programme in partnership with UCC.
BACKGROUND
Mahdiyeh Farajvand received her B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering (2016) and M.Sc. in Mechatronics Engineering (2019) from the University of Tabriz, Iran, where her research focused on wave energy systems. She completed her Ph.D. at Centre for Ocean Energy Research (COER) in Electronic Engineering (2024) at Maynooth University, Ireland, with expertise in hydrodynamic modelling and uncertainty quantification of wave energy devices.
She also worked as an R&D Engineer at Foolad Gharb Company, Tabriz, Iran (2019–2020), where she led product development projects and contributed to two patent submissions.
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William Flynn
OVERVIEW
Will is a research support officer (RSO) at the Science Foundation Ireland MaREI Centre. He is an applied physicist with over twenty years of experience in data acquisition, signal processing and measurement system development, having worked on a wide and diverse range of projects in industry, consultancy and academia.
CURRENT ACTIVITIES
Will is involved in the data acquisition system development as part of the WEDUSEA wave energy project. He is also engaged in research and field studies related to infrastructure and environmental monitoring.
BACKGROUND
After graduating in Applied Physics from Glasgow (Caledonian) University and then post-graduate studies at the University of Cambridge, Will has worked on a wide range of projects in multiple disciplines from atmospheric and planetary sciences to geophysics. For the past twelve years, Will has worked as an instrument scientist and consultant in applied seismology, with a focus on key areas such as acoustic emission monitoring laboratory studies on rock deformation, subsurface imaging and seismic monitoring of larger structures and at different scales in the field. Will has attended and presented at several international conferences and contributed to several key peer-reviewed publications on both field and laboratory-based studies related to geological nuclear waste disposal.
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Ayşe Nur Karayel
OVERVIEW
Ayşe is working on and assisting with various coastal engineering and marine renewable energy projects. Her work involves a combination of numerical modelling of offshore renewable energy technologies, physical model testing, field surveys and the associated data analysis. She is spending her time working on the DOORS: Developing Optimal and Open Research Support for the Black Sea project.
BACKGROUND
- B.Sc. in Civil Engineering (2015-2018)
- MSc in Civil Engineering (2020- 2023)
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Dr. Gerry Sutton
OVERVIEW
Gerry is a Senior Research Fellow and Project Manager at MaREI where he is the main contact point for the Coastal Dynamics & Marine Systems Modelling group. His research interests concern the development of marine renewables, and the sustainable management of living and non-living resources with particular reference to Irish and EU near-shore shelf environments and processes.
CURRENT ACTIVITIES
- Coordination and Development of Marine Energy Testing Infrastructure (H2020)
- Co-developed and currently manages the 2m€ marinerg-i Horizon 2020 project which is developing the integrated infrastructure to accelerate research & deployment of offshore renewable energy on an EU wide basis via the ESFRI roadmap.
- Co-author and contributor to the associated H2020 project Marinet2 H2020 mainly in the area of e-infrastructure development and data management.
- Mineral Resource Planning (H2020)
- Task leader in Minatura H2020 testing methodology for mineral deposits of public importance
- Monitoring & Impact of Underwater Noise
- Led Irish demonstration project for UW noise mapping-Strive 2014.
- Developing Jonas project under NE Atlantic Interreg Programme. (Pending)
- Buoypower (NIAP). R&D work to harness wave energy for increasing the power autonomy of smart-buoys and navigation marks.
BACKGROUND
Gerry has a BSc. in Marine Biology from Bangor, Wales; 10 years professional experience offshore in the Hydrographic Industry. His MSc (Res) focussed on marine aggregate resources and GIS (2004). Prior to MaREI Gerry was Dept. Director at the Coastal and Marine Research Centre, UCC, where he contributed to the centre’s administration whilst undertaking a variety of research and consultancy contracts. These included leading technical work packages in EU 7th Framework Projects (MESMA, GeoSeas, Coralfish). Gerry Chaired the ICES WGEXT (2004-2006), and contributes to the EU TSG Noise.
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Nathan Kirwan
BACKGROUND
Nathan’s background is in the construction of high-performance fibre glass ribs with Excalibur, a shipbuilder previously based in Carrigaline. Following on from that he studied Marine Engineering in the National Maritime College of Ireland (NMCI) during which he gained engine room experience on diesel electric cruise ships. Nathan returned from sea to source a land based job and recently graduated from NMCI with a degree in Supply Chain and Transport Management.
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Emma Knowles
OVERVIEW
Emma is a graduate of UCC who has worked on a number of EC-funded initiatives in both research and administrative roles.
CURRENT ACTIVITIES
Emma is currently working as project administrator of the EC H2020-funded Marinet2 project. Marinet2 has a consortium of 39 partners bringing together 57 offshore renewable energy testing facilities in a network and offering access to these facilities at no cost to research groups and companies. The Marinet2 network also conducts coordinated research, adopts common testing standards and provides networking opportunities in order to advance the pace of development of the industry. Marinet2 is a €10.5 million project and is the second iteration of the successful EU funded MaRINET Infrastructures Network, which was also coordinated and managed at MaREI with Emma as project administrator.
BACKGROUND
Emma is a graduate of University College Cork, with a BSc in Environmental Plant Biotechnology. Emma has worked at MaREI since 2011, having previously worked as a researcher in the School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences (BEES), UCC.
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Fiacha McCrudden
OVERVIEW
Fiacha joined MaREI as an intern through a master’s program at Ecole Centrale Nantes. He was taken on as a member of the wet storage program to carry out the numerical modelling of floating offshore wind turbines and their mooring systems for wet storage.
CURRENT ACTIVITIES
Numerical modelling and design of mooring systems for the wet storage of floating offshore wind turbines
BACKGROUND
Fiacha has a bachelor’s in physics with energy and environment from TU Dublin. After completing his undergraduate degree, he worked as a Field Service Engineer for Nikon Precision Ireland for two years. He then decided to pursue a master’s in marine technology and hydrodynamics for ocean engineering at Ecole Centrale Nantes.
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Mohammad Motallebi
OVERVIEW
I am Mohammad Motallebi (born 1994, Tehran, Iran), a researcher and engineer specializing in offshore renewable energy, marine structures, and hydrodynamics. With expertise in both academia and industry, my work bridges advanced numerical modeling, experimental validation, and large-scale infrastructure design. My research focuses on offshore wind energy systems, particularly floating platforms and dynamic submarine cables, aiming to enhance their reliability, efficiency, and contribution to sustainable energy development.
CURRENT ACTIVITIES
I am currently a PhD candidate at University College Cork (UCC), working within the MaREI Centre on the FlowDyn Project (2024–2027), supervised by Dr. Jimmy Murphy and funded by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI). The project investigates the hydrodynamic behavior and reliability of dynamic umbilical submarine cables for floating offshore wind power systems.
My work involves:
- Conducting wave basin experiments, including instrumentation, scaling, and error benchmarking.
- Developing comprehensive benchmarks and analysis tools for cable performance.
- Advancing high-fidelity simulations (BEM, CFD, and coupled models) to ensure strong alignment between numerical and experimental results.
This research contributes to improving the design, monitoring, and operational resilience of next-generation floating offshore wind farms.
BACKGROUND
I hold an M.Sc. in Coastal, Ports, and Marine Structures Engineering from Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic University), where I graduated with high distinction. My master’s research focused on the hydrodynamic performance of floating wind turbine platforms, employing advanced numerical methods such as Boundary Element Method (BEM) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). This work contributed to a deeper understanding of fluid–structure interactions in offshore renewable energy systems.
Parallel to my academic journey, I gained significant industry experience as a project engineer, contributing to the design and construction of major energy and industrial complexes, jetties, harbor facilities, and large-scale infrastructure projects. These experiences equipped me with strong interdisciplinary skills, the ability to work across research and applied engineering, and the capability to tackle complex technical challenges in both academic and industrial environments.
With a strong foundation in fluid mechanics, structural engineering, and marine renewable energy, I am committed to driving innovation in offshore wind technologies and supporting the global transition toward sustainable energy.
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Artem Egorov
OVERVIEW
Artem is a Mechanical&Control engineer and researcher at MaREI Centre, University College Cork. His research focuses primarily on robotic solutions that help test and improve offshore wind energy systems.
CURRENT ACTIVITIES
Current research focuses on emulating forces and torques on floating wind turbines.
BACKGROUND
Artem received his MSc degree from ITMO University in 2023 with a thesis titled “DEVELOPMENT OF METHODS FOR PLANNING THE MOVEMENTS OF A WALKING ROBOT WITH OPTIMAL CONTROL”. The project was supported by a commercial company with the aim of improving the use of walking robots in everyday life.
During his B.Sc. and M.Sc. studies, Artem was a researcher at the Biomechatronics and Energy-Efficient Robotics Laboratory, where he participated in grants for the development of parallel manipulators, a passive exoskeleton, a motor reducer design, and an optimal controller for a walking robot.
Artem led student robotics club and supervised student teams at robotics competitions. During his M.Sc. studies, he taught a course on adaptive control of electric motors.
After graduating from university, he worked for a commercial company developing autonomous solutions for a factory inspection.
Artem's main interests are control theory, differential geometry in robotics, rigid body dynamics, and nonlinear optimization.
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Felix Butschek
OVERVIEW
Felix is a GIS technician on the iCRAG funded WindEaZ project on Developing Offshore Wind Energy Seabed Zonation tools, collaborating with Eirwind. Felix has joined the marine geology research group at the beginning of 2020 after completing his Erasmus Mundus Joint Master’s degree in Marine Spatial Planning at Universidade dos Açores, Università Iuav di Venezia and Universidad de Sevilla in autumn 2019. His Master’s thesis addressed the role of marine protected areas in the resilience and recovery of tropical coral ecosystems following the 2016 pan-global bleaching event across shallow to upper-mesophotic depths. To study this, Felix investigated atoll and fringing reefs in Pohnpei, Micronesia. Previously, Felix had been awarded the 2016 European Rolex Scholarship for aspiring marine scientists and SCUBA divers, and a BSc (Hons) from the Scottish Association for Marine Science. For his BSc project, Felix studied the last glacial maximum and post-glacial quaternary history of a strait in western Svalbard, the Norwegian Arctic.
Felix’s research interests include sedimentology, paleoceanography, and paleoecology to understand climate change, the conservation of marine ecosystems threatened by global warming as well as blue solutions to halt anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions.
CURRENT ACTIVITIES
As more and more activities move offshore, the use, exploitation, and conservation of marine resources become an increasingly important challenge. Targets to decarbonize our economy, protect marine biodiversity and establish long term food-security can only be met through a sustainable blue economy.
In developing seabed zonation tools for offshore wind developments and marine spatial planning, Felix tries to optimize the allocation of space at sea by maximizing renewable energy generation while minimizing costs to the industry and environment as well as conflicts with existing maritime activities.
This research project integrates concepts of marine spatial planning and multi-criteria decision aid in a GIS model to assess where offshore wind projects are best placed to become strategic pillars of the Irish renewable energy strategy. Marine geological, biological, physical, engineering, and cultural data are weighted based on an analytical hierarchy process and Monte Carlo simulations are used to understand model variability and identify areas of seabed most likely to be suitable for offshore wind development.
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