Hamilton Viorel Niculescu-PhD Student and Lecturer, Dublin City University

    • Hamilton Viorel Niculescu-PhD Student and Lecturer, Dublin City University's presentations

    PhD Student and Lecturer at Dublin City University. My research analyses the impact and engagement of people with renewable technologies. I previously wrote three papers on technology, society and environment, adoption and diffusion of innovations. I am lecturing on Physical Computing, Video Production, Sound Production, and Digital Media Skills in DCU.

    Additional info can be found on https://www.linkedin.com/in/hamiltonniculescu/

     

    Presentation title

    Sustainable automated enclosures, green food production, and people’s behaviour change

     

    Brief synopsis of talk

    The aim of my research is to analyse and inform about the impact, engagement, and people’s behaviour change in relation to renewable technologies. A number of enclosures will be built, and provided with electricity from renewable sources (wind turbines, solar panels). This will be used  by some additional familiar technologies (humidity and temperature sensors, motors, fans, etc.) in order to ensure optimal conditions for growing different vegetables inside the enclosure. By using a custom developed mobile phone application, the users can monitor the conditions, and take necessary actions in order to control the functionality of the enclosure. These activities will be recorded and analysed, and together with semi-structured interviews and questionnaires will provide insights into people’s reasons for adoption or rejection of innovations which are based on renewable energy sources.

    My presentation will provide an introduction of the design for this project, along with details about progress to date, including an already existing polytunnel which I built and automated, and details of the mobile phone app and its functionality. Videos and documentation of such are already available online.

    My research aims at improving the knowledge about the impact on people, and their engagement with renewable energy sources. The analysis is based on Irish population living in urban areas, in the context of the Paris Agreement seeking a 16 per cent reliance on RES in the case of Ireland. While according to some recent reports, Ireland is likely to miss these targets, it is nevertheless very important to raise awareness about renewable energy sources, and learn about reasons for people rejection or acceptance barriers.