William Wright

William Wright is a Senior Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering and Director of the Ultrasonics Research Group at the School of Engineering, University College Cork (UCC). He holds a BEng (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering (1991) and a PhD in Air-Coupled Ultrasonic Testing (1996) from the University of Warwick, UK. His career includes roles as a Research Associate/Fellow at Warwick (1991–1997) before joining UCC in 1997.

Education:

• BEng (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering, University of Warwick (1991)
• PhD in Air-Coupled Ultrasonic Testing of Materials, University of Warwick (1996)

Research Interests:

Focuses on capacitive ultrasonic transducers, non-contact ultrasound applications, ultrasonic flow measurement, and communication systems. His work includes developing air-coupled transducers for industrial and biomedical uses, such as swallowable sensors and wireless data transmission. He also investigates ultrasonic tomography for temperature and flow field imaging in gases.

Grants:

• €169,745 from Science Foundation Ireland for ultrasonic secure wireless communication (2011–2016)
• €153,878 from the EU for nanotechnology-related research (2004–2005)
• Multiple grants from the Irish Research Council for projects on transducer design and flow measurement

Labs/Teams:

Leads the Ultrasonics Research Group (http://ultrasonics.ucc.ie/), which develops advanced ultrasonic technologies for industrial, medical, and energy applications. Collaborates on wave energy converter monitoring and biomedical sensor integration.

Teaching:

Responsible for modules in Thermodynamics, Applied Thermodynamics, Non-Destructive Testing, and CAD/CAM. Supervised over 10 postgraduate students, including Sean McSweeney (PhD on capacitive transducers) and Salem Brini (MEngSc on flow measurement).