Prof Marian Wiercigroch

Founder and Chief Technology Officer

m.wiercigroch@ivdynamics.com 

Professor Marian Wiercigroch educated in Poland, UK and US holds a prestigious Sixth Century Chair at the University of Aberdeen. He is a founding director of the internationally renowned Centre for Applied Dynamics Research at the University of Aberdeen. His area of research is theoretical and experimental nonlinear dynamics, which he applies to various engineering problems such as Oil & Gas drilling, rotor systems, underwater acoustics, fatigue and vibration isolation and renewable energy harvesting.

Professor Wiercigroch has extensive track record of innovation in drilling technology and he is the author of over 350 journal and conference papers and 9 international patents. He has been the principal investigator of many fundamental and applied projects in different areas of engineering In Oil & Gas area, his projects have been aimed to reduce the over cost of drilling by developing new and novel drilling technologies. In this field, he has collaborated with a number of companies including BG Group, BP, Halliburton, MacScott, MagComp, NOV, Prospect, RotoJar, QinetiQ, Shell, Varel and Welltec.

Academic Appointment:

Sixth Century Chair in Applied Dynamics
Founder and director of Centre for Applied Dynamic Research (CADR)
University of Aberdeen (link to personal page)

m.wiercigroch@abdn.ac.uk

Dr Patrick O’Brien

Chairman and Commercial Director
p.obrien@ivdynamics.com

Dr Patrick O’Brien was educated in Ireland and has played a leading role in the international oil and gas industry for over 35 years. He is an internationally recognized expert in subsea riser mechanics and during his career he has spearheaded company growth linked to ongoing successes in the commercialisation of new technology. He has operated at Managing Director, Strategic Director and Chief Executive levels and he has participated in the set up and leadership of industry bodies. He is a Chartered Engineer; a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering; a Fellow of the Energy Institute; a Fellow of the Society for Underwater Technology; and a Fellow of the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology.

Dr O’Brien started his career with Irish company MCS where he eventually became a shareholder and part of the leadership team of the company. He was appointed Managing Director of MCS in the UK in 1996. MCS was acquired by Wood in 2008, and in 2010 Dr O’Brien became worldwide Group Director of Strategic Business and Marketing for Wood Group Kenny, then the subsea division of Wood. In 2013 Dr O’Brien was appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of the Industry Technology Facilitator (ITF), where he led the launch of many technology development joint industry projects. On behalf of ITF, he led its merger with the Oil and Gas Technology Centre (OGTC) in 2018.

Dr O’Brien was a founding director of industry body Subsea UK and served on its board for a period of nearly ten years from its original formation in 2004. Dr O’Brien is an Honorary Professor of Engineering at the University of Aberdeen; he sits on the industrial advisory board of the School of Engineering and he has played a leading role in the set up and ongoing delivery of the university’s MSc in Subsea Engineering.

Dr O’Brien has a long experience in engaging with the oil and gas industry at an international level, specifically including the UK, Europe, US, Australia, Middle East and Brazil.

Academic Appointment:

Honorary Professor at School of Engineering 
University of Aberdeen (link to personal page)
patrick.o’brien@abdn.ac.uk

Dr Marcin Kapitaniak

Senior Engineer (Modelling)
m.kapitaniak@ivdynamics.com

Dr Marcin Kapitaniak was educated in Poland, Denmark, and the UK. He has more than 12 years of academic research experience in Mechanical Engineering particularly in areas such as Rock Mechanics, Finite Element Modelling, Nonlinear Dynamics, Mechanical Design, and Marine Modelling of offshore assets. He has been the Principal Investigator and Co-Investigator of numerous applied research projects within the Offshore Wind and Energy industry in collaboration with companies like Aubin Group, T-Omega Wind, Dublin Offshore, Blackfish Engineering, Welltec, Varel, Rotojar, READ Cased Hole. He is currently a Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering in the School of Engineering at the University of Aberdeen working on a combination of projects linked to nonlinear dynamics and simulation of offshore structures, particularly floating wind is a dedicated mechanical engineer with a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Aberdeen. 

Academic Appointment:

Lecturer at the School of Engineering 
University of Aberdeen 
marcin.kapitaniak@abdn.ac.uk

Andrew Downie

Chief Design Consultant

a.downie@ivdynamics.com

Andrew holds a Bsc (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering from Heriot Watt University and has over 40 years of experience in the Oil and Gas Industry. He started his career training as a Marine Engineer Technician and Draughtsman before joining Weir Pumps as a new products design engineer, where he played a lead role in the development of new products and was Engineering Manager for the Weir Group Downhole Turbine company until its sell off to Smith International in 2003. In 2003 he co-founded a new Turbine drilling Company, Turbopower Drilling. He held the position of Engineering & Materials Director of Turbopower Drilling where he assumed overall responsibility for all Engineering Design, Operations support, Material Procurement, and Quality Assurance. Turbopower was acquired by Halliburton in 2011 and Andrew joined the Halliburton Motor Technology group spending 10 years as a Chief Technical Advisor.

Current Consultancy Positions:

Head of Engineering PKT-Turbo Dubai
Chief Design Consultant iVDynamics
Andrew Holds a number of patents relating to downhole motors and Turbines.

Dr Vahid Vaziri

Senior Engineer (Experiments)
v.vaziri@ivdynamics.com

Dr Vahid Vaziri holds a BEng in Control Engineering, an MSc in Complex Systems, and a PhD in Control and Dynamics of Nonlinear Engineering Systems from prestigious institutions in Iran, France, and the UK. With over 12 years of research experience, he has published over 40 peer-reviewed journal and conference papers on various topics, such as drill-string vibrations, energy harvesting systems, and rotor dynamics. Dr Vaziri has successfully completed numerous R&D projects and collaborated with renowned companies, including BG, Varel, Welltec, Rotojar, VBPR, Read Cased Hole, and ANSA Analytics, on projects valued at £1.5 million. Currently serving as a Senior Lecturer in the School of Engineering, University of Aberdeen, he is also a Principal Investigator for several R&D projects in collaboration with industries. Dr Vaziri also serves as the programme coordinator for MSc in Advanced Mechanical Engineering and MSc in Advance Structural Engineering.

Academic Appointment:

Senior Lecturer at the School of Engineering
Member of the Centre for Applied Dynamic Research (CADR)
University of Aberdeen (link to personal page)
vahid.vaziri@abdn.ac.uk

Sief AbuQasem

Graduate Mechanical Engineer
s.ibrahim@ivdynamics.com

Sief joined the iVDynamics team during the last year of his bachelor’s year in 2019. Throughout his journey with the iVDynamics team, Sief developed a strong set of skills in various areas, including problem-solving, project management, mechanical design, and experimental testing. The exciting and innovative work environment has equipped Sief with experience with engineering software platforms such as SolidWorks and MATLAB.
Since joining the team, Sief has been actively working on multiple projects and implementing new methods to solve engineering problems in the drilling industry while adhering to health and safety protocols. Currently, Sief is working closely with the team on the development of the new Resonance Enhanced Drilling (RED) technology, he is involved in the development of the RED milling tool.