Pushing boundaries:
A researcher’s perspective - Sinéad

Almost halfway through her PhD, Sinead reflects on her progress, key learnings, and a few unexpected surprises along the way. With a strong focus on foundational training — through both TU Delft and the FRONTIErS program—she’s been building expertise in statistics, coding, and data analysis to support cutting-edge research in offshore wind foundation design.

You’re almost halfway through the program. How do you feel about your progress so far?

I feel like progress has been slow to date. There has been a lot of literature and industry standards to read up on, as well as best practices and novel ideas to study. In terms of training, I have spent a lot of time completing necessary credits for TU Delft and upskilling in the areas of statistics, python coding, R studio and data analysis. Credits are split into three categories and include research methods, discipline related training and transferable skills. Some of these have been completed through FRONTIErS organised training and some I have completed online with TU Delft. I am hoping that these skills will greatly increase productivity and streamline processes in the second half of the PhD program so that time can be “made up” and work of a high standard can be completed on time.

Has the project met your expectations? If so, how? If not, what has surprised you the most?

Yes, I think that the program has met my expectations to date. I am very grateful for the various training and travel that has been completed to date. It has been great to have interesting conversations with fellow PhD students and supervisors both in academia and in industry to see where my work may be applicable. Attending ISC7 Conference in Barcelona in June 2024 was a highlight and it really opened my eyes to a wide range of research that is ongoing in Geotechnical Engineering. I found the experience intriguing, and I learned a lot from attending and meeting researchers from all over the world! I think the biggest surprise is how solo the work can feel at times and the need to ask for help. Having always worked as part of a team or been part of a cultural environment where help is offered regularly, the cultural and workplace changes took some getting used to. This reiterated the importance of taking responsibility for my work to date, reflecting on what was working well and what was not, and creating the environment needed to advance. One example of this was setting up a bi-weekly teams chat with my fellow FRONTIErS PhDs, as well as a weekly PhD and PostDoc lunch in NGI so different problems or ideas can be discussed with other researchers. This has proved very successful for collaboration and idea generation, and I hope it continues for the duration of the project. It has also increased the feeling of working within a team, which is something I very much enjoy.

Looking back at the past year, what stands out as the project’s most significant achievement or milestone? Were there any unexpected successes or breakthroughs?

Looking back at the last year, the project’s most significant achievement to date was submitting the first conference paper to ISFOG conference which will be held in Nantes in June 2025. As publications are an important part of the PhD work, the conference paper felt like the first baby step towards contributing to advancing knowledge in this area of research. It is hoped that further work will advance into the first journal publication in late 2025-early 2026.

As we progress through 2025, what are you most looking forward to in terms of the project’s next steps? Any major developments or goals on the horizon?

I am looking forward to applying the knowledge I have learned in the areas of Bayesian statistics, data analysis and good coding practices into my project and processing large amounts of data using these news skills. This will lead to a method of quantifying uncertainty in the design of foundations of offshore wind turbines and in future, help with calculating uncertainty for more efficient foundation designs. The aim is to carry out this work in 2025 and publish it as a journal paper in 2026, which is very exciting!

What do you see as the biggest challenge for the project in 2025? How do you plan to navigate these challenges? Are there any opportunities that excite you as well?

I think the biggest challenge in 2025 will be communication with my supervisors and other PhD fellows. The area I am looking at in statistics is slowly making its way into engineering research and therefore is new to the whole research team (it has been around in the statistics sphere for a good few years). Therefore, it will be important to understand the opportunities is provides, as well as understand its limitations and keep people informed of this so that expectations can be managed. As time is ticking, some of the PhD Fellows may be more inclined to work on their own as we all have different ways of working. However, I believe that if we are in regular contact with each other and are informed on what others are doing, whether experimental or computational work, there could be great opportunities for collaboration and scientific breakthroughs! Therefore, I think attending the bi-weekly meeting and keeping people “in the loop” will be of great importance. The potential of collaborating with PhD fellows who have more experimental (laboratory based) projects is an area that excites me. I think there could be real potential for confirming computational findings through experimental results and this will benefit multiple FRONTIErS projects, as well as the engineering community and future offshore wind farm development!