Pint of Science Event: Atoms to Galaxies & Planet Earth

May 19, 2021 8:30 pm

Ned Dwyer studies how Ireland´s climate has changed over the last century by looking at temperature, rainfall, river flow records, etc. Ned also looks at our current climate monitoring systems on land in the atmosphere and in the ocean to see if they are robust enough for us to collect the information we need in order to help plan better for addressing future climate change impacts.

Caoimhe Rooney uses mathematical modelling techniques to study clouds on planets outside of our solar system to try to understand how they formed, what they’re made of and if they could harbour life.

Dr Margaret Fournet is co-ordinating AIT’s new flagship EU-China Horizon 2020 project spearheading the clean-up of the global plastic waste burden. Dr. Fournet is leading a team of 15 partners spanning 9 different countries on the “BioInnovation of a Circular Economy for Plastics” (BioICEP), which is dedicated to the bioconversion of waste plastics into sustainable plastics for the future.

Jeremiah Scully explains how Artificial Intelligence can be use to solve Global Problems – such as the cause and effect the Sun will have on our Earth’s future. AI, through the power of compute, can now help solve some of those problems. AI has made significant advancements in autonomous driving, robotics, voice recognition such as Alexa, and the recent landing of the Perseverance rover on Mars. AI technology is now an everyday enabler in how we run our daily lives, the speed of how we can solve problems and make decisions. Jeremiah’s talk explores the influence of AI in our daily lives and how we can harness this technology for solar monitoring.

Speakers on the night

Ned Dwyer (UCC)
Caoimhe Rooney (NASA)
Dr Margaret Brennan Fournet (AIT)
Jeramiah Scully (AIT)