Main Research Area
My research is on the testing and verification of security protocols. As part of my PhD project I am testing an implementation of a hybrid quantum authentication protocol [1] on quantum hardware, and modifying it to handle noisy QPUs. I am also working on formally verifying this protocol and its variants, using state-of-the-art tools like ProVerif and EasyCrypt.
Education
I received my BSc in Applied Mathematics(1st class honours) from Maynooth University in 2023. I was awarded a 4-year fully-funded PhD scholarship under Research Ireland's Centre for Research Training in Foundations of Data Science programme at the Hamilton Institute (Maynooth University). My project is being conducted under the supervision of Prof. David Malone and Dr. Wu Hao.Teaching Experience
I have tutored in the following modules at Maynooth University, for which the module descriptors are available here:- MT101SC (Differential Calculus)
- MT102SC (Integral Calculus)
- MT113SC (Linear Algebra 1)
- MT311S (Elementary Number Theory)
- MT322S (Operations Research)
- MT312S (Cryptography)
- MT303S (Intro to Complex Analysis)
- MT412C (Graph Theory)
- MT432C (Analysis 1)
Internships/Placements
- International Placement at INRIA Nancy, France (2026) - A two month placement working with ProVerif to verify proposed fixes to industry-scale protocols.
- Industry Placement via CRT Enterprise Alliance 2024- A 12 week placement at Renaissance Reinsurance, analysing claims data and optimising claims workflow.
- Maynooth University Hamilton Institute Internship 2023- A 6 week internship analysing and classifying Leaving Certificate Higher Level mathematics questions according to frameworks designed to model levels of creative/imitative reasoning.
- Maynooth University Maths Department Internship 2022- A 6 week internship (extended to 12 weeks), implementing a quantum authentication protocol on quantum hardware via Microsoft's Azure Quantum cloud platform.
Projects/Publications
In-Progress
- An analysis of the creative reasoning required to answer Higher Level Leaving Certificate mathematics questions over the past 100 years
- Experimental Evaluation of the Hidden Matching Quantum Retrieval Game for Cryptographic Authentication
Academic Interests
Areas of interest include formal methods, quantum computing, security protocols, provable security, privacy, cryptography, mathematics education, and ethics/impact of data science.