My Biography

Dr Paul O’Leary is the Head of Quality Promotion and Academic Policy Development and previously a full-time lecturer in the Department of Engineering Technology in the School of Engineering, lecturing in circuit theory, energy and communications. He served for more than 10 years as course leader on courses from Certificate to Masters level and has lectured on both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.

Dr O'Leary is a member on the WIT Academic Council and a member of the Academic Council’s subcommittees on Academic Quality, Academic Planning, Teaching & Learning and Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

He obtained a BE from UCD, an MEngSci in Digital Signal Processing also from UCD and a PhD from UCC (but based entirely as a EURATOM/Marie Curie Fellow at the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Italy) on laser diagnostics.

Before joining WIT, Dr O'Leary also worked at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, developing the solar wind direction detection system used on the RAPID Cluster and Geotail HEP-LD projects and testing on the Combined Release and Radiation Effects Satellite (CRRES) project. He also worked at the Applied Optoelectronics Centre (DIT), developing a powerline communications system and as a lecturer in the Dublin Institute of Technology.

Research

Founder (with Michael McCarthy) in 2002 of a wireless and digital systems research group (www.wit.ie/wireless)

Supervision experience

• PhD supervisory team member of 2 PhD candidates
• WIT graduates: 6 PhD and 5 Masters, supervised with Dr Paul Barry, Dr Eamon Molloy and Mr Michael McCarthy
• UCC & CNR, Italy graduates: Seven MEngSci students, with Professor Michael Sexton and Dr S.L. Prunty and three Italian Laurea projects with students from the Università degli Studi di Padova, Italy, with Professor Enrico Zilli
• International: 3 Master of Science project students in Infromation and Communication Technology from the  University of Agder (UiA), Norway with Professor Lars Line. Also, 3 German Diplom and 1 Master of Engineering project students from the Fachhochschule Hannover, Germany, with Professor Helmut Doelecke

Teaching

• Lecturer in electronic engineering subjects including Circuit Theory, Data Networks, Digital Communications, Smart Grid Technology and Renewable Energy
• Lectured and acted as Course Leader at all levels including 6/7 (DIT) and 8/9 (WIT).
• Developed and delivered 20 1-day seminars on digital communications and co-delivered 10 1-week lectures on structured cabling to employees of most of the major communication companies

Academic Quality Assurance

• WIT Head of Quality Promotion & Academic Policy Development
• External examiner: Level 6/7 (DIT), Level 9 (UCC)
• WIT Internal examiner: Level 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
• Member of the committee that drew up the semesterisation and modularisation rules for the WIT Academic Council (MAP1: 2005), which are broadly still in force today.
• Member of the Engineers Ireland working group that drew up the current accreditation criteria for engineering education leading to Chartered Engineering (CEng) status
• Engineers Ireland Accreditation panel (Rapporteur)

Professional

• Appointed by the EU-funded SPHERE team (University of Barcelona and the European University Association) to deliver QA/QE seminars in Nov. 2018 in Tbilisi Georgia and Yerevan, Armenia in Sept. 2019;

• Conference session Chair: Higher Education Advances 2020 (Valencia, Spain) (Assessment and Evaluation);

Publications

Journal

• Comparison and analysis of audible sound energy emissions during single point machining of HSTS with PVD TiCN cutter insert across full tool life, Jonathan Downey, Paul O'Leary, Ramesh Raghavendra, Journal of Wear, Volume 313, Issues 1–2, 15 May 2014, Pages 53–62
• Bench Test Results on a new Technique for Far InfraRed Polarimetry, S. Barry, C. NiesWand, S.L. Prunty, H.M. Mansfield, P.O’Leary, Review of Scientific Instruments, 68, 5, 2037-2039, 1997.
• Single Chord Far InfraRed Polarimetry Experiment on RFX, G.Gadani, P.O’Leary, A. Parini, S.L. Prunty, M.C. Sexton, E.Zilli, Review of Scientific Instruments, 4613-4619, 66 (9), September 1995.

Conference

• Development of an academic risk model to support higher education quality assurance, McDonald, T.J., O'Byrne, D., O'Leary, P., O'Riordan, C. International Conference on Higher Education Advances, 2020, 2020-June, pp. 1323–1329

• Extending communities of practice: a partnership model for sustainable schools, Moore, M., O’ Leary, P., Sinnott, D., Russell O’ Connor, J., Environment, Development and Sustainability, 2019, 21(4), pp. 1745–1762

• Progress in 3D Metal Printed Antennae – An Overview, Deepak Shamvedi, Oliver J McCarthy, Eoghan O’Donoghue, Paul O’ Leary, Ramesh Raghavendra, 2018 European Antenna & Propagation Conference (EuCAP), London, UK, April/2018

• Investigation of the Influence of Build Orientation on the Surface Roughness of the 3D Metal Printed Horn Antenna, Deepak Shamvedi, Cyril Danilenkoff, Paul O’Leary, Ramesh Raghavendra, 2018 European Antenna & Propagation Conference (EuCAP), London, UK, April/2018

• Transmission Through Single and Multiple Layers of Plant Leaves at THz Frequencies, Armita Afsharinejad, Alan Davy, Paul O'Leary, Conor Brennan, Proceedings of IEEE GLOBECOM 2017, December 4-8, Singapore

• 3D Printed Periodic Structures in a Horn Antenna for Side-lobe Reduction using DMLS, Deepak Shamvedi, Cyril Danilenkoff, Sara Karam, Paul O’Leary, Ramesh Raghavendra, (13-14th Nov 2017) 2017 IET Loughborough Antenna and Propagation Conference, Loughborough, UK

• 3D Metal Printed Monocone Antenna with an Integrated Feed, Deepak Shamvedi, Oliver J McCarthy, Eoghan O’Donoghue, Paul O’ Leary, Ramesh Raghavendra 2017 IEEE-APS Topical Conference on Antennas and Propagation in Wireless Communications, Nuremberg, Germany 8th Oct 2017

• Improved Performance of 3D Metal Printed Antenna through  Gradual Reduction in Surface Roughness, Deepak Shamvedi, Oliver J. McCarthy, Eoghan O’ Donoghue, Paul O’Leary, Ramesh Raghavendra, 2017 IEEE-APS Topical Conference on Antennas and Propagation in Wireless Communications, Verona, Italy 11th Sept 2017

• 3D Metal printed Sierpinski Gasket Antenna, Deepak Shamvedi, Oliver McCarthy, Eoghan O’ Donoghue, Paul O’ Leary, Ramesh Raghavendra, 2017 IEEE-APS Topical Conference on Antennas and Propagation in Wireless Communications, Verona, Italy (11th Sept 2017)

• Real Time Monitoring of the CNC process in a Production Environment- the Data Collection & Analysis Phase, Jonathan Downey, Krzysztof Jemielniak, Paul O'Leary, Denis O'Sullivan, 48th CIRP Conference on Manufacturing Systems - CIRP CMS 2015, Procedia CIRP 00 (2015)

• Development of a generic tool condition monitoring validation methodology, Barry Ronan, Jonathan Downey, Liam O’Shea, Paul O’Leary, Denis O’Sullivan, Ramesh Raghavendra, International Manufacturing Conference Queens University Belfast, (3rd-4th Sept 2015)

• Surface Treatment of 3D Metal Printed Microwave Components, D. Shamvedi, O. McCarthy, E. O’ Donoghue, P. O’ Leary, R. Raghavendra, Proceedings of the Research Colloquium on Communications and Radio Science for a Smarter World, 8-9th March 2017, Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, Ireland

• System for the Dielectric Evaluation of Powders and Liquids, Youssef El Gholb, Yaqiang Liu and  Paul O’Leary, EuCAP 2014 -  The 8th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation, The Hague, The Netherlands, 6-11 April 2014
• Development of a Vertical Method for Dielectric Measurement of Powders and Liquids, Youssef El Gholb, Yaqiang Liu and Paul O’Leary, Proceedings of the Colloquium on Wireless as an Enabling Technology, 30th April 2014, Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, Ireland.
• Damien Fahey, Mary Doyle-Kent, P O’ Leary, “Energy reduction model for Irish public sector waste. A case study by WIT”, GV-CONF 2014, Goce Delchev University Macedonia & THOMSON Ltd. Slovakia, April 7. - 11., 2014
• Yaqiang Liu; O'Leary, P., "Broadband wireless access in an energy efficient environment," 1st IET Colloquium on Antennas, Wireless and Electromagnetics, vol., no., pp.1,18, 29 May 2013, Loughborough, England
• Yao Liu, Michael McCarthy, P.O’Leary, A Low-Cost Direction Controller for Phased Array Antennas, WASET 2013 : World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, April 14-15, 2013 Venice, Italy
• John Flynn, Eamon Molloy, Paul O’Leary, Shadowing and averaging errors in wind autoproduction analysis, GV-CONF 2013, Goce Delchev University Macedonia & THOMSON Ltd. Slovakia, April 8. - 12., 2013
• Yaqiang Liu  and Dr. Paul. O’Leary, Design of flexible platform for various free-space, broadband dielectric analysis measurement techniques, 2011 IEEE International Workshop on Electromagnetics; pp(66-70), Taiwan, Aug 2011
• H. O’Neill, M. McCarthy and P.O’Leary, ‘High-speed FPGA fading channel simulator’, Proceedings of the Colloquium on Wireless as an Enabling Technology, 22nd April 2010, Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, Ireland.
• Yaqiang Liu, Praveen Munjampally and P.O’Leary, ‘Broadband Wireless Propagation through Various Building Materials’, Proceedings of the Colloquium on Wireless as an Enabling Technology, 22nd April 2010, Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, Ireland.
• Dennis Stolhofer, Yaqiang Liu and P.O’Leary, ‘RF Propagation Through Transparent Conductors In Energy Efficient Windows’, Proceedings of the 16th European Wireless Conference, 12-15 April 2010, Lucca, Italy.
• Outdoor-Indoor Wireless Sensor Communications in a modern Building Management System, N. Knauer, H. Dölecke , P.O’Leary, 4th Workshop on Wireless Sensor Networks, Nortel July 2nd 2008.
• Wireless Attenuation by Energy Efficient Windows in the 8-12.5 GHz region, N. Knauer, H. Dölecke , P.O’Leary, Royal Irish Academy’s One-day colloquium on Emerging Trends in Wireless Communications, 24th April 2008.
• Wind Turbine Electricity Autoproduction to reduce Carbon Footprint , P.O’Leary, 24th International Manufacturing Conference, WIT, August 29-31, 2007.
• A Large Scale, Non-Intrusive, Thin-Client, Linux based Computing Cluster, M McCarthy, K Murphy, P O’Leary & Colin Fitzpatrick, Presentation to the Irish Symposium on Scientific and Engineering Computation, UCC, May 20-21, 2005
• Una diagnostica polarimetrica FIR multicanale per l’esperimento RFX, L. Giudicotti, E. Harris, F. Milani, D. Linehan, C. O'Donnabhain, P.O’Leary, S.L. Prunty, M.C. Sexton, E. Zilli, SIF 97 – LXXXIII, Proceedings of the Italian Congress of Physics, Como, Italy, 27-31st October, 1997.
• Multi-channel Far-Infrared Polarimetric Diagnostic in RFX, L. Giudicotti, E. Harris, D. Linehan, F. Milani, C.O’Donnabhain, P. O’Leary, S.L. Prunty, M.C. Sexton, E. Zilli, Congresso Nazionale di Fisica della Materia, Chia Laguna, Cagliari, Italy, 19-23rd May, 1997
• Multi-channel Far-Infrared Polarimetric diagnostics in RFX, L. Giudicotti, E. Harris, D. Linehan, F. Milani, C. O’Donnabhain, P.O’Leary, S.L. Prunty, M.C. Sexton, E. Zilli, 8th International Symposium on Laser-aided Plasma Diagnostics, Doorwerth, The Netherlands, 22nd-26th September, 1997
• RFX Plans, F. Gnesotto and the RFX Team, RFP Workshop, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA, 14-16th October, 1996
• Status of the RFX Experiment, RFX Team, IAEA 16th International Conference on Plasma Physics and Controlled Nuclear Fusion Research, Montreal, Canada, 7-11th October 1996, Fusion Energy, Vol. 2, 711
• Recent results of RFX, A. Buffa and the RFX Team, 23rd EPS Conference on Controlled Fusion and Plasma Physics, Kiev, Ukraine, 24-28th June, 1996, Proc. Vol. II, 629-632
• Single Chord Polarimetry Pilot Project on RFX, P.O’Leary, S.L. Prunty, M.C. Sexton, E.Zilli, Poster at American Physics Society Conference on Plasma Diagnostics, Rochester, New York, May 1994

International Patent

• Protection of Electronic Data, (A low power encryption core), European Patent Office (2004), North America (2005).

Poster Presentations

• Damien Fahey and Paul O’Leary, "Methodology for establishing the potential of hydro electricity generation on Coillte property within Ireland", ICERE, International Conference on Environment and Renewable Energy, 7-8 May 2014, Paris
• Broadband Wireless Analysis for the Pharmaceutical and Food Sectors, Yaqiang Liu, WIT Research Day (Winner of top prize in Engineering Masters category), 2010
• Novel dielectric analysis of high permittivity powders and liquids, Yaqiang Liu, WIT Research Day 2011
• Development of a wind energy prediction calculator, John Flynn, WIT Research Day 2011(Top prize in Engineering Masters category)
• High Speed FPGA Fading Channel Simulator, H.O’Neill, WIT Research Day, 2010
• Evaluation of IP Over Bluetooth, P.O’Leary, Hakan Gunleifsen & Kjell Rune Oyras Wiig, Poster at IT&T Tecnet Conference, Waterford, October 2002
• Gateway security between Bluetooth and GSM/GPRS, P.O’Leary & Kjetl Wiig, Poster at IT&T Tecnet Conference, Waterford, October 2002
• Low Bit Rate Communications over ISDN & Low Voltage Network, P.O’Leary, Poster at the Irish Signals & Systems Conference, Dublin Institute of Technology, June, 1998