IES Seminar Series - Duncan Sutherland "The Flow & Ebb of a PhD"

1st Presentation: New Starts

Title: Introductory Presentations 

Gabriel Scarlett

Supervisor - Dr Ignazio Maria Viola

Area of Study:

Unsteady Fluid Dynamics in Marine Energy Applications

 

Imanol Martinez Perez

Supervisor - Dr Venki Venugopal

Area of Study:

The fatigue of mooring chains - Prediction and measurement of residual stresses in mooring chains and their effect on fatigue life

 

Encarnacion Medina-Lopez

Supervisor - Dr Tom Bruce

Area of Study:

Thermodynamic processes involved in wave energy extraction

 

Obinna Chikwado Unigwe

Supervisor - Dr Aristides Kiprakis

Area of Study:

Optimal Co-ordination of Demand, Resource and Network Management within the Smart Grid

 

Dahunsi John Okekunle

Supervisor - Dr Aristides Kiprakis

Area of Study:

Enhancing the performance of smart grids using Model-Predictive Control

 

Second Presentation: Duncan Sutherland

Title: The Ebb and Flow of a PhD

Abstract:

“To achieve great things two things are needed: A plan and not quite enough time.” So spoke one of my great heroes Leonard Bernstein.  Though he was not at the ReDAPT kick-off meeting, my PhD supervisor or even my music tutor I’ve found these words to be some of the best to hear in my life.

Dreams and ambitions are great things which I’ve been chasing during the five years I’ve been at The University of Edinburgh.  As I’ve very recently submitted my thesis I thought this seminar I would get introspective and talk about the challenges both intellectual and personal I’ve faced over the last few years.  There have been many good times but also some difficult ones and I’m sure there will be others who will have been through similar things and others that may well find them in due course.

So far I’ve got a Daily Mash article, a picture from back to the future and 2 quotes from the Shawshank redemption for you.  I have stories from Orkney to Taiwan which I’ll be sharing and I hope to have a crack at the 3 minute thesis presentation.  So do join for a fun seminar.

Bio:

Duncan studied Mechanical Engineering with Aeronautics at the University of Strathclyde before coming to the University of Edinburgh in 2011 to start his PhD.  His PhD work formed part of the Reliable Data Acquisition Platform for Tidal (ReDAPT) project, a multi-million pound multi-partner ETI funded collaboration between industry and academia.  His PhD work focused on mid-depth arrays of single beam Doppler velocity profilers to characterise tidal sites, particularly in terms of turbulent metrics. 

He has also worked on a knowledge exchange project with sensor manufacturer Nortek UK.  Having recently submitted his PhD Duncan now works on a SuperGen funded Momentum Reversal Lift Turbine array project, a collaboration with the University of Exeter.  Outside of work Duncan is a serious musician having written for choir and short films as well as his band. When not injured he is a keen cricketer and footballer.

For contact details and further information please use links below:

• Duncan Sutherland
• Prof Robin Wallace
• Gabriel Scarlett
• Imanol Martinez Perez
• Encarnacion Medina-Lopez
• Obinna Chikwado Unigwe
• Dahunsi John Okekunle