I am a final year PhD Researcher in Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience, under the supervision of Dr Cian O'Donnell, in the Intelligent Systems Research Centre, Ulster University, Magee Campus.
I did my undergraduate (MA Dubl.) in Mathematics at Trinity College Dublin, then a PGCE (Mathematics) at Queen's University Belfast (QUB), and a Masters in Research (MRes) also at QUB.
I was also a visiting PhD Researcher at the University of Bristol, in the Neural Dynamics group in the School of Engineering Mathematics and Technology.
See here for more detail, but I am interested in (mainly recurrent) neural networks from a complex systems, neuroscience, and machine learning perspective.
I am also interested in the mathematical modelling of the dynamics of synapses, neurons, and networks in their development, maturation, and computation.
Papers:
- J McAllister, CJ Houghton, J Wade, C O'Donnell, "Non-random brain wiring enables efficient and robust neural network function under high sparsity", 2026, bioRxiv, https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.03.30.715411
- L Discepolo, J McAllister, R Russell, S Apilado, G Margetts-Smith, D Franchini, SG Grant, C O'Donnell, MC Ashby, P Anastasiades "Region- and layer-specific glutamatergic synapse development in the nascent cortical hierarchy", 2026, bioRxiv, https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.02.17.706315 (under journal review)
- J McAllister, J Wade, CJ Houghton, C O'Donnell, "Topological and simplicial features of reservoir computing networks", 2024, UKCI, https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-78857-4_5
- I Cantley, J McAllister "Insights from a multilevel analysis of high-stakes examination results in mathematics", 2021, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11199-021-01234-5
Other work:
- project – Exact Dynamics of Linear Recurrent Neural Networks in Cognitive Tasks - Work in progress.
- poster – "Exact Dynamics of Linear Recurrent Neural Networks in Cognitive Tasks", AREADNE June 2026, Milos, Greece
- project – Heterosynaptic plasticity as a mechanism for statistical generalisation of Hebbian learning.
- poster – "Sparsity and efficiency in connectome-based echo state networks", UKNC July 2025, Imperial College London
- poster – "Structure-function relationships in connectome echo state networks", CoSyNe, Mar 2025
- poster – "Random and biological network connectivity for reservoir computing", UKNC July 2024
- poster - "Heterosynaptic plasticity rules induce small-world network topologies", ICMNS June 2024
I am in the O'Donnell group computational neuroscience research group, split between the ISRC, Ulster University, and University of Bristol. This group is also linked with the Houghton group at the University of Bristol.
