Multi-disciplinary Team

We have a multi-disciplinary team with broad technical, industrial, management and marketing expertise. Team members have been chosen for their ability to work on a wide range of technologies and sectors. Our team comprises award winning scientists and engineers supported with experienced marketing professionals.

This mix of skills enables TfI to offer a uniquely creative approach to technology development based on client's existing IP or new requirements. In particular the mix of business and technical experience enables novel and innovative solutions to be generated, quickly analysed, critiqued and developed from the aspects of technical, intellectual property and market merits.

Dr. Paul McEvoy - CTO

Paul holds a 1st Class honours BSc in Applied Physics from Dublin City University and a PhD in Optoelectronics from Trinity College Dublin (TCD). His field of study was the design and commercialisation of semiconductor laser devices.

As part of the research and innovation centre in TCD, he spent four years researching, designing and commercialising novel laser devices for use in data storage and telecommunication applications. He spent some time after completion of his PhD working with TCD to commercialise his work and this was subsequently spun-out into a new company. He is the primary inventor on patents in DVD laser and communication laser design,

He subsequently spent 6 years in technology development at The Technology Partnership in Cambridge, a consultancy based technology and product development company. As a consultant physicist he was responsible for initial feasibility studies and development of a variety of customer projects. As a technical consultant his principal role was to discuss the customer's project needs and map those onto a technical development project which could deliver upon them. Projects range from advanced printing technologies, to medical devices, to MEMS and scientific based products. He returned to Ireland in 2005 to set up TfI.

Within TfI Paul has been responsible for the technical and IP evaluation of all new technologies. He has also been responsible for determining the project plans required to deliver on early stage proof of concept developments. He has filed numerous patents in areas as diverse as wave energy, telecommunications encoding, e-beam sterilisation and fluidic resistance brakes. One of his core projects for the past 4 years has been the development of the WaveProtector technology, taking it from early stage concept, through proof of concept development, customer co-developments and on to customer prototype delivery.

Paul is a member of the IOP and is a member of their professional standards committee. He is also a member of ASTP.

Dan Richardson - COO

Dan is a Chartered Engineer with a First class honours degree in Electronic Engineering from Bristol University, and an MBA from London Business School.

He is a former naval engineer officer with extensive experience in the sale and delivery of R&D projects within the defence, space and aerospace sectors, working for DERA (now QinetiQ) and INSYS (now Lockheed Martin). He has worked as a Project Manager, Sales and Marketing Manager, Consultant and Business Unit Manager. In his last appointment he led a team of 50 research scientists and engineers conducting multi-disciplinary applied research across many areas including novel material development, software and electronic systems. He came to Ireland in 2005 to set up TfI.

Within TfI Dan has been responsible for the lead sales activities and the market evaluation on new technologies, as well as bring his engineering background and experience to bear. He has spent the past few years building close relationships with customer and lead developers in the key markets of interest, including cleantech and renewable energy. He leads the consulting and services side of the business, ensuring the delivery of high quality technical, IP and market based projects for customers. Dan also oversees the customer delivery projects, managing the close interaction between TfI and its co-development partners on a wide range of projects.

Dan is a member of the IET and is on the committee of the Irish branch. He is also a member of Engineers Ireland, UNICO and LES.

Dr. Bríanne Mulvihill - Technology Development Engineer

Bríanne holds a first class honours degree in Civil Engineering from Trinity College, Dublin with a speciality in geotechnical engineering. Following her primary degree, she completed a PhD in the area of bioengineering with particular focus on bone mechanics and medical devices. Her core competencies and skills include 3D CAD, finite element modelling, computer programming, statistics, and the use of micro-computed tomography and scanning electron microscopy machines.

Bríanne works on a wide range of technologies. The main focus of her work involves the testing of new technologies using a combination of empirical calculations and mechanical testing. She has taken over the CAD modelling for the mooring applications and the FEA and multi-physics modelling on Comsol . She provides the engineering models and physical analysis work to enable early stage understanding of new technologies. From this understanding, technologies are evaluated and developed further to determine key strengths and weaknesses. Suitable technologies are then taken further with new proof of concept prototypes being designed to confirm the technology benefits to the customers.

Like other members of the team, Bríanne is involved with delivering customer consultancy projects, currently working on a renewable energy analysis of technologies in the Solar PV area. Bríanne is a member of Engineers Ireland.

Brianne is also dedicated athlete and successfully completed the 2011 Wales Ironman Event-

3.8K Swim, 180K Cycle, and 42K Run.

Donnacha Gallagher - Technology Development Engineer

Donnacha is a Mechanical Engineer with over 16 years of experience across a diverse range of industries and technologies including biomedical engineering, renewable energy and equipment design (pharmaceutical, food processing, and electronics).

He has a BEng (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering, an MSc in Renewable Energy Systems, and a research based MEngSc (Biomedical). As an expert user of CAD / CAM systems for producing complex components and systems, he has significant experience in assessing the feasibility and manufacturability of mechanical technologies. He leads our prototype development CAD design work, creating prototypes which are designed to prove the de-risking of a technology for a customers application. He is the main contact for our component suppliers, responsible for sourcing and locating suitable components which allow our prototypes can be built. He manages the CAD systems within TfI and ensures version control and customer CAD file sharing works smoothly.

His biomedical experience includes clinical gait analysis and materials for artificial hip joints. His renewable energy experience includes assessing an advanced materials based technology deployed on new wave energy converters. He leads the Mathlab and Simulink simulation work on the customer WEC devices, determining the performance of their devices with the TfI technologies attached and helping to optimise the TfI components to maximise benefits to the customers.