MACSI Assembles – collaborations using mathematics and statistics

Research Week 2026

Forming successful research partnerships can involve navigating different research philosophies, different terminologies, and even different time zones. Researchers from University of Limerick’s Mathematical Applications Consortium for Science and Industry (MACSI) research centre have extensive experience of addressing these issues when collaborating with researchers from other disciplines.

In this event, our researchers including a number of ERC award holders, and their international collaborators will discuss case-studies in battery technology, psychology, imaging, metals processing and medicines from space. We will explore what makes a successful interdisciplinary collaboration from initiation to output.

This event may be recorded for future promotional use by University of Limerick.

All venues are wheelchair accessible but should you have any specific accessibility queries, please contact us at: research@ul.ie

Speakers

MACSI is the Mathematics Applications Consortium for Science and Industry. It is an internal research centre at University of Limerick where researchers develop and implement mathematical and statistical tools for real-world problems across health, science, engineering, sport, psychology and literature.

Professor James Sweeney

James is a Professor in Statistics at University of Limerick. James’ research focuses on geospatial statistical modelling of systems with significant impact on Irish society, including water resources, renewable energy and house prices. James is academic lead on a collaboration with Analog Devices, statistical methods to develop battery technology.

Dr Patrick Pratt

Patrick is Senior Principal Engineer with Analog Devices, focusing on battery state-of-charge and state-of-health algorithms for emerging chemistry. Patrick has a wealth of experience in statistical and machine learning, control, estimation and signal processing for battery and radio transceiver products, including an ongoing project with MACSI on battery technology.

Associate Professor Kevin Moroney

Kevin is an Associate Professor in Industrial and Applied Mathematics at University of Limerick. Kevin’s research focuses on applying mathematics to problems in industry, including drug dissolution/ crystallization and coffee brewing. Kevin has worked in a number of collaborations between MACSI and SSPC, Research Ireland Centre for Pharmaceuticals, and is co-PI on an academic-industry collaboration with Varda Space Industries on crystallization of pharmaceutical compounds in microgravity.

Dr Kristy Sirr

Kristy is Research Programme Manager for Targeted Projects in SSPC, Research Ireland Centre for Pharmaceuticals. Kristy manages complex multi-stakeholder projects within the SSPC programme, aligning researchers, commercial partners and funders around shared goals. Kristy works closely with MACSI researchers on academic-industry collaborations, giving a unique perspective on how mathematicians and statisticians engage with industry.

Associate Professor Romina Gaburro

Romina is an Associate Professor in Applied Mathematics at University of Limerick. Romina’s research focuses on inverse problems for partial differential equations with applications to medical imaging and geophysical exploration. She serves on the committee of the Irish Mathematical Society, where she is also Chair of the Irish Committee for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in Mathematics and is Vice-Chair of the Royal Irish Academy Physical, Chemical and Mathematical Sciences Committee.

Dr Florian Faucher

Florian is researcher at Inria Makutu in France, specialising in inverse wave problems in both terrestrial and extra-terrestrial seismology. His work focuses on the mathematical analysis of wave phenomena, the development and implementation of advanced numerical methods, and their application for large-scale imaging. In 2023, he was awarded an ERC Starting Grant to advance research in quantitative passive imaging; and he received in 2024 the Young Scientist Award from the Eurasian Association on Inverse Problems.

Professor Michael Vynnycky

Michael is a Professor in Applied Mathematics at University of Limerick and Affiliated Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. Michael’s primary research interests lie in the deterministic mathematical modelling of natural and industrial processes. Application areas have included electrochemical engineering, pharmaceuticals and materials processing; the latter in collaboration with KTH Stockholm.

Professor Björn Glaser

Björn is Professor of Experimental Kinetics in Metallurgy at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, where he leads a unit studying transformation of raw materials into useful products. Björn’s work integrates high-temperature experiments, advanced modelling, CFD and data-driven methods to analyse and optimise metallurgical processes, and supports energy efficiency, CO2 reduction and circular-economy solutions in European process industries. Björn is also an Adjunct Professor at University of Limerick.

Associate Professor Pádraig MacCarron

Pádraig is an Associate Professor in Applied Mathematics at University of Limerick. His research is highly interdisciplinary and includes recent work with colleagues in the Department of Psychology on identifying polarisation in attitude networks, with the School of Law on criminal social networks and the Health Research Institute on trust partnership networks. His current work is on identifying structural properties of social networks in order to develop realistic models of social phenomena such as how communities form and fragment in social systems.

Professor Mike Quayle

Mike is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at University of Limerick and an ERC Consolidator Grant holder. Mike’s research examines people’s attitudes, how shared attitudes bind people into groups and how people, in turn, shape clusters of attitudes. Mike works closely with both MACSI and the Centre for Social Issues Research and has a lead an interdisciplinary team of psychologists and mathematicians, both collaborating with and hiring alumni of the MACSI group.