About

Dr. Ramesh Raghavendra

SEAM Centre Director | Founder of 3DWIT

Dr Ramesh Raghavendra, SEAM Centre Director & Founder of 3DWIT, holds a Ph.D from University of Twente, The Netherlands. His research background is in the areas of functional ceramics, glass and glass-ceramics, sintering of powder materials and more recently his research interests are directed towards Metal Additive Manufacturing.  He has been a Principal Investigator on numerous AM related industrial projects including two large Enterprise Ireland Innovation Partnership projects to the valve of €1.1m and €400,000 with MNC, SME and LEO companies based in Ireland. Ramesh is also currently co-ordinating €2m prestigious Disruptive Technology Innovation fund project pertaining to ‘Enhanced Biocompatibility of AM manufactured Bio-Medical implants for improved clinical outcomes’. Furthermore, he has also successfully Coordinated an EU funded FP7-SME project. Ramesh is also funded investigator in SFI Advanced Manufacturing Centre (I-Form).

In his present role as SEAM Director, Ramesh is responsible for overall operational aspects and is instrumental in relaunching the centre in 2009.  Within ten years of launching of SEAM, Ramesh has established collaborations with over 235 Irish based industries and successfully managed to deliver over 3000 directly funded Industrial projects. For the contribution to Industrial services, Ramesh & SEAM has received several awards including prestigious KTI Award (2015), Irish Manufacturing Research Award (2020), Irish Laboratory Award (2020), etc.  He has authored/co-authored in more than 80 refereed journal publications and has two patents to his credit.

Mr. Eoghan O’Donoghue

Gateway Operations Manager

Eoghan joined SEAM in 2009 as a Development Engineer. Prior to that, he had been working overseas in a variety of areas of computer modelling, FEA analysis, product development, design, component engineering, failure analysis and project management.

His area of speciality is in Computer-Aided Engineering and Finite Element Analysis. He holds a Research Masters and a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering from the Cork Institute of Technology. He has worked on cooperative research projects with Analogue devices Limerick and the National Microelectronic Research Centre in Cork in the field of Microelectronics. During his career, he has worked for companies such as Eaton Aerospace, Jakaar industries and IGG Component Technology. He has published the following research papers: – “Copper/Tin Intermetallics and Lead (Pb) Free Components”, “Analytical and FEA Analysis of a Silicon Micro-machined Capacitive Pressure Sensor.”, “Development of Behavioural Models of Packaged Microsystems Sensor Elements”.

Mr. Patrick Donnellan

FEA and CFD Technology Leader

Patrick is a chartered engineer and a member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. He graduated with a BEng in Civil Engineering from NUI Galway, and an MSc in Computer Modelling and Finite Elements in Engineering Mechanics from Swansea University.

Prior to joining SEAM Patrick worked as a consulting engineer primarily within the oil and gas industry. His main responsibility was to design and analyse piping, pressurised components, and vessels used in subsea, offshore, and onshore environments. His experience is in design as well as in the analysis of assets in service and has involved the application of Finite Element Analysis simulation to problems relating to stress analysis, buckling, vibration, fatigue and fracture mechanics.

Patrick joined SEAM in 2016 and has been focusing on providing solutions to clients across a wide variety of industries, primarily through the use of engineering analysis involving FEA and CFD. These include medical device, heavy and precision engineering, civil engineering, and HVAC.

Dr. Colin Reidy

Snr Business Development Engineer

Dr Colin Reidy holds a PhD from the University of Limerick, Ireland. He has recently joined the SEAM Research Centre as a Biomaterials Engineer. Colin’s PhD focused on developing novel, bioactive, all-ceramic filler materials, based on reinforced hydroxyapatite (HA) which can be tailored to a range of complex shapes for use in load-bearing skeletal applications.

Prior to this Colin completed an MSc. in Biomedical Engineering jointly taught by the University of Limerick, Trinity College, Dublin and University College Dublin, with Medical Science input from the RCSI. Colin has a broad understanding of advanced principles in medical device technology and a range of skills including; spectroscopy, mechanical testing, polymer analysis, microscopy & a variety of software packages.

At SEAM Colin works on a variety of projects for industrial clients. This includes the identification of failure processes in polymeric medical devices, through the use of microscopy and thermal analysis techniques to identify compositional and/or process variations in the materials. Colin also investigates the surface morphology of various biomedical materials using white light interferometry and/or microscopy techniques.

Robert Poole

Business Development Engineer

Robert joined SEAM in 2023 as a Business Development Engineer. He holds a B.Eng (Hons) in Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering from Waterford Institute of Technology.

Robert joined SEAM with 12 years’ experience from working in industry. Prior to joining SEAM, Robert worked in multinational manufacturers in Ireland. Most recently, as a Senior Process Engineer in West Pharmaceutical Services, managing the installation, commissioning and validation of high speed inspection systems for pharmaceutical packaging. Prior to that, as a Senior Technical Engineer on process development and automation of combined CNC micro-machining and metrology systems for Alcon in Cork. In Bausch and Lomb, he worked as a Process Development Engineer on novel thermal curing of polymers for the contact lens industry. In this time he managed capital projects up to €2.5m. He worked closely with Enterprise Irelands Innovative Partnership funding, to complete demanding novel projects in industry, by utilising the skillsets and knowledge of research institutes like SEAM.

Mr. Tommy Kelly

Operations Engineer

Tommy joined SEAM in June 2013 as a Research Engineer. Tommy holds a level 9 Post Grad Cert in Advanced Materials Characterisation and a B.Eng (Hons) in Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering from Waterford Institute of Technology.

Tommy’s primary role at SEAM is failure analysis projects utilising micro-sectioning and various analytical techniques including SEM, White Light Interferometry, Tensile Testing and Micro Hardness Testing. Tommy is also involved in the thermal analysis of polymeric materials and Rheology. Prior to this, Tommy was involved in CNC sheet metal fabrication (Kel-Tech Engineering Waterford) & CNC manufacturing of automotive components (Honeywell Turbo Technologies Waterford).

Dr. Sara Karam

Business Development Engineer | Metrology

Sara holds a BEng in Mechanical Engineering from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, and a PhD which focused on advanced sensor monitoring of manufacturing processes from the University of Naples Federico II, Italy.

Prior to SEAM, as a post-doctorate fellow at the University of Naples Federico II, she worked on two EU FP7 Projects focusing on advanced sensor monitoring of manufacturing processes for process optimisation. She joined SEAM in 2016 as an NDT Engineer. Her work focused on utilising non-destructive techniques, basically X-Ray Micro-Computed Tomography, to analyse product components. Her work also includes failure analysis, macro and microscopic measurements, and mechanical evaluation of components.

She recently completed an Innovation Partnership Project with Viecura Medical Ltd. on the development of innovative hip protector technology for the elderly population. Currently, she is working with the FEA team in SEAM on providing solutions primarily through the use of engineering analysis involving FEA and CFD.

Ms. Agnieszka Furman

XMT Technology Leader

Agnieszka joined SEAM as an NDT engineer in January 2017.

Her work focuses on utilizing X-Ray Micro Computed Tomography (XMT) to analyse and visualise 3D components and materials.

Agnieszka holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) in Manufacturing Engineering from Waterford Institute of Technology and a Masters Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Rzeszow University of Technology, Poland.

Ms. Guru Vidhya

Material/Failure Analysis Engineer

Guru joined SEAM in 2018 as a Material/Failure Analysis Engineer. She holds a master’s degree in Polymer Science from Anna University and a bachelor’s in Polymer Technology from Kamaraj College of Engineering and Technology in India.

Prior to SEAM, she worked as a Research Associate for a recruiting company in India. Her work in SEAM mainly focuses on Direct Funded Industrial projects. She has completed over 360 industrial projects. Her work encompasses analysing medical devices, medicines, material identification, failure analysis, contamination analysis, thermal analysis of polymers and mechanical testing.

Mr. Arun Antony

Senior Development Engineer

Arun Antony is a Development Engineer in the South Eastern Applied Materials (SEAM) research centre and a Member of the Institute of Engineers Ireland (MIEI). He holds a master’s degree in Aeronautical Engineering and a bachelor’s degree in Aircraft and Rocket Construction and Design.

In SEAM, Arun primarily works on CFD and FEA engineering projects. His work focuses on designing, developing, and optimising new and existing products, prototype development, material analysis and identification, and process optimisations. He assists SEAM Director and Technology Leaders in Additive Manufacturing, X-Ray Micro Tomography and Failure Analysis and helps promote the centre’s business activities. He successfully led two Innovation Partnership Programmes and completed several direct funded projects.

Before joining SEAM, Arun worked as an independent consulting engineer providing design solutions and technical services to his clients in the Aerospace sector.

Mr. Eamonn Shields

Research Engineer

Eamonn joined SEAM in 2020 as a research engineer. Eamonn holds a B.Eng (Hons) in Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering from Waterford Institute of Technology.

Eamonn’s main role at SEAM is failure analysis projects utilising micro-sectioning and various analytical techniques including SEM, Micro Hardness Testing, Tensile Testing and White Light Interferometry.

Dr. Gayathri Selvakumar

Materials Scientist

Gayathri Selvakumar joined SEAM in September 2021 as a Materials Scientist. She holds a Ph.D from SASTRA University, India. Her research background involves the study of Mechanical and Tribological properties of Diamond -like carbon thin film coatings.

Her work in SEAM mainly focuses on Direct Funded Industrial projects. Her work encompasses analysing material identification, failure analysis, contamination analysis, thermal analysis of polymers

Dr. Raja Das

Materials Scientist & Scientific Coordinator

Raja joined SEAM in November 2021 as a Materials Scientist. He holds a PhD in Chemical Sciences from CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory, India. He has 12 years of Research experience in Materials Science. His research background is in the area of design, synthesis and applications of functional nanomaterials for thermoelectric, spintronic and biomedical applications, including magnetic hyperthermia therapy and drug delivery.

Prior to SEAM, Raja worked as a group leader at Nanomaterials for Electronics and Renewable Energy Laboratory, Phenikaa University, Hanoi, Vietnam from 2019 to 2021. He was a postdoctoral fellow at University of South Florida, USA and National Institute for Materials Science, Japan from 2014 to 2018.

At SEAM, Raja work on Projects relating to Failure Analysis & Materials Characterization.

Dr. Rokas Sakalys

Additive Manufacturing Research Engineer

Rokas holds a PhD degree in Mechanical Engineering from Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania. His research work focused on a study of the influence of high-frequency excitation on the quality of microstructures replicated by thermal imprint technologies. Before joining SEAM Rokas was working as a postdoctoral researcher in microfabrication and micro assembly at Dublin City University. At SEAM Rokas is a member of additive manufacturing group and his research is focused on printed electronics, he is also working on I-Form project, where his role is embedding and integrating sensor in metal PBF components.

Mr.Bruno Zluhan

Additive Manufacturing Research Engineer

Bruno holds a Bachelor of Engineering from UNISOCIESC in Brazil and more than 10 years working with industry and applied research to industry. Nowadays he is finishing his master’s work at UNICAMP in Brazil researching mechanical properties of lattice structures to better bone ingrowth. His research during the bachelor’s work was focused on the analysis of the microstructure and anisotropy of mechanical properties of maraging 300 processed with laser-based powder bed fusion. Before joining SEAM, Bruno has worked managing the engineering team in a medical device company in Brazil and with laser-based powder bed fusion validation to the medical industry. He also worked as a technology specialist at SENAI (Brazil) doing applied research to the industry.

At SEAM Bruno works on additive manufacturing group, helping with research to the medical industry and supporting the application of additive manufacturing solutions into companies that are seeking improvements to their products.

Mr. Austen Ahern

Marketing and Communications

Austen is a hands on commercial and marketing professional with over 20 years’ experience across global innovative organizations as well as small medium Start-ups. Austen has held the roles of Digital marketing Director, Head of Marketing , Change Management lead , Sales and Marketing Director with P&L responsibilities across EMEA and NA. His experience includes the role of Director on a Go-to-Market project where he managed the successful sales and marketing launch of a new and innovative product.

He also works as a fractional CMO with a number of organizations where he shares his knowledge and experience to help them navigate the ever changing world of digital and digital marketing.

Ms. Anne Hallinan

Administrator

Anne joined as SEAM’s Administrator in May 2022.

Prior to SEAM, Anne worked in University College Dublin (UCD) as School Manager in the UCD School of Music and previously as Senior Administrator in the UCD Centre for Food Safety.

Anne brings twenty plus years of senior executive administration in the public, university, NGO and private sectors.

Anne has a background in drama facilitation and holds a Masters in Dramatherapy.

Mr. Prathviraj Upadhyaya

Postgraduate Research Scholar

Prathviraj Upadhyaya joined SEAM in October 2019 as a PhD research scholar. His research topic focuses on the development of the structure-property relationship of additive manufactured magnesium-based alloys. This research aims to develop processing parameters to successfully additive manufacture dense magnesium alloy parts and create a detailed structure-property relationship of these parts for medical implant applications. His research is funded by Stryker and aims towards the development of additive manufactured bioresorbable magnesium implants.

He holds a Bachelors of Engineering degree (BE) in Mechanical Engineering from Visveswaraya Technological University, Karnataka, India and a Master of Science degree (MSc) in Advanced Engineering Materials from the University of Limerick, Limerick with first-class honours. In his masters, he worked on the development of bio-based lignin carbon nanofibers as high-performance anode material for Li-ion batteries.

Lola Givet

Postgraduate Research Scholar

Lola joined SEAM in June 2021 after completing a Bachelor of Engineering Honours in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering in Waterford Institute of Technology. Her Bachelor research was developed with SEAM and focused on the design and experimental characterisation of titanium lattice structures.

At SEAM, Lola is part of the Additive Manufacturing group. Her work mainly focuses on design for 3D printing and research projects involving the additive manufacturing of titanium and magnesium materials.

Mr. Carlos Pando