Tony O'Donovan

I have had a keen interest in computers and technology from a very early age. For this reason, I chose to pursue a degree in Computer Science upon completion of my second level education. The degree course was at University College Cork (UCC) between 1994 and 1998 and covered a wide range of subjects in both computer software and hardware giving me an excellent background in all areas.

Having obtained my degree I worked for Client Solutions Ltd., a software development company based in Cork, Ireland. I spent six years with this company, holding a variety of positions including Programmer, Network and System Administrator and Technical Support Manager.

While the work I was doing was challenging and varied, I was not completely satisfied, as the technologies involved were all well established and mainstream, eg database and web servers. I sought to work with new technologies and in the area of research, rather than development. It soon became evident to me that a PhD would be a prerequisite of achieving my goal in becoming a researcher, be it in industry or academia. With this in mind, I started to work towards a PhD, beginning with my return to UCC in 2004 to study for an MSc in Applied Science (Software Development for Computer Networks), from which I have just graduated with a grade of First Class.

I am currently working on the GINSENG project, "Performance Control in Wireless Sensor Networks".

Wireless sensor networks are collections of autonomous devices (nodes) with computational, sensing and wireless communication capabilities. Research into these networks has been growing steadily in the past few years given the wide range of applications that can benefit from such a technology. The applications include defence, environmental, agricultural, medical and security.

My research will focus on the use of wireless sensor networks in the area of medical informatics. Most Wireless Sensor Network research involves networks of hundreds or thousands of nodes and the difficulties entailed with networks of this scale. My study on the other hand, will be concerned with the issue of coordinating a small number of sensors to detect medical emergencies in a low latency manner, possibly coupled with actuators to mitigate the effects of the emergency condition. My main challenge will be achieving close to 100% reliable communication and ensuring the system is robust enough for use as a medical device.