BioSolid Mechanics

Using state-of-the-art computational and experimental techniques, Dr. Conway explores medical device performance and provides insight into clinical adverse events following treatment. Her work is at the intersection of regulatory, academic and industrial interests, focusing on research at the interface of engineering and medicine.

Dr. Conway seeks to understand role of disease structure in relation to atherosclerosis and valvular calcification. These conditions are often treated with structural implants, such as stents or prosthetic valves, and these interventions can benefit greatly from mechanics-based engineering insights. Using finite element simulations, she works to predict patient response to structural implants, paying particular attention to disease representation and the role of calcification in device failure. By designing sophisticated bench-top mechanical test-rigs, she determines structural implant performance, validates computational predictions, and further advances our understanding of device performance with more realistic physiological boundary condition assessment for engineering analyses.

Dr. Patrick McGarry is a lecturer in Biomedical Engineering and the Program Director for the Undergraduate Degree in Biomedical Engineering at NUI Galway. Dr. McGarry’s research group has developed an internationally leading reputation in the field of Biomechanics, and in particular computational cell mechanics. Dr McGarry has to date supervised 11 PhD students to completion. He was the primary supervisor of six simultaneous successful PhD completions in October 2012. This achievement is an official record for NUIG. All six students completed in exactly four years (October 2008-October 2012), graduating in March 2013. His PhD students have been awarded numerous international honours and awards (ASME, Engineers Ireland, World Congress of Biomechanics). Dr. McGarry is PI on three major Science Foundation Ireland research grants for Cell Contractility Modelling. His research group has published over 53 papers in leading journals in the field, and presented over 70 research papers at leading international conferences in the field. Dr. McGarry has developed strong collaborations with leading international research groups, including: University of Cambridge; University of California, Santa Barbara; Georgia Institute of Technology; and Rice University.

Dr. Will Ronan is a Lecturer in Biomedical Engineering. He completed his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at NUI Galway (graduating in 2013 and funded by the Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology Embark Scholarship) on the mechanics of cells. This research primarily focused on development and implementation of constitutive material models and adhesion models using the finite element method. During this time, he spent one year as a visiting scholar in the University of California, Santa Barbara. In 2013, he was awarded a Science Foundation Ireland Short-Term Travel Fellowship which he used to visit the University of Cambridge. This research collaboration expanded on his previous doctoral work to examine the kinetics and mechanics of cell adhesion. In 2014, he began a post-doctoral research project at the Cambridge Centre for Micromechanics on the tensile ductility and toughness of lattice materials & polymer foams. He returned to NUI Galway in 2016, originally as a faculty member in Mechanical Engineering, before moving to his current role in Biomedical Engineering.