IES Seminar Series - Duncan Sutherland & New Starts

Location: 

Hudson Beare, Classroom 4

Date: 

Friday, October 30, 2015 - 13:00 to 14:00

New Starts, 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

Duncan Sutherland

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.

Further Information

The Ebb and Flow of a PhD
The Ebb and Flow of a PhD
IES Seminar Series - Supported by EngGradSoc
IES Seminar Series - Supported by EngGradSoc

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