Paul Liston

Paul Liston is a Lecturer in the Department of Accounting and Business Computing at the Faculty of Business and Hospitality, Technological University of the Shannon. His research focuses on simulation-based decision support systems, with particular emphasis on healthcare logistics, manufacturing SMEs, and robotics collaboration. He has contributed to understanding humanitarian decision-making in crisis scenarios, optimizing contact center operations, and evaluating the impact of incubators on SME ecosystems.

Research Interests: Liston’s work integrates operations research, discrete event simulation, and reinforcement learning to address complex systems. Key areas include:

• Healthcare system optimization (e.g., emergency department congestion)
• Manufacturing SME digitalization strategies
• Multi-robot systems collaboration
• Humanitarian logistics and disaster response modeling
• Virtual organization operational design

Publications Trends: Recent work emphasizes scalable reinforcement learning frameworks for autonomous systems, decision support tools in healthcare and contact centers, and analysis of Ireland’s innovation ecosystems. His 2024 paper on CESDQL demonstrates advancements in multi-robot coordination under sparse reward conditions, while 2023 studies highlight contact center simulation and incubator impact assessment.

Advising & Grants: Accepting PhD students in areas like Humanitarian Operations Theory (as per TUS RISE scholarships). Active in collaborative research projects involving multi-country networks and industry partnerships.

Labs/Teams: Engaged in interdisciplinary teams focusing on simulation-driven solutions for complex systems, with contributions to cloud computing simulation tools and lean manufacturing methodologies.