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Irene obtained a MSc in Mechanical Engineering at the National Institute of Applied Sciences in Lyon, France. Then, she did a PhD in Computational Fluid Dynamics at the National Polytechnic Institute of Toulouse, France. The PhD work, funded by Total S.A (oil and gas company), focused on the development of a boundary-fitted method for computing turbulent incompressible two-phase flows with a Lagrangian approach. Between 2011 and 2014, she worked as a Teacher in Industrial Sciences for Engineers in secondary schools and Higher School Preparatory Classes in France. From very early on, her focus was into STEM education.
In 2014, she joined the University of Bristol (UK) as a Lecturer in Thermofluids in the department of Mechanical Engineering. She lectured in Fluid Mechanics related units and was the Unit Director in Computer based Modelling. She supervised undergraduate research projects. In 2019, she became Senior Tutor, an important departmental role, providing academic and pastoral support to undergraduate students.

Irene was an active member of the Engineering Education Research Group at the University of Bristol. Her scholarly interests include problem-based learning, development of writing and communication skills for engineering students and flipped classroom curriculum delivery models in a computing course. She presented her work at several engineering education conferences and co-authored publications. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in the UK. This is testament to her continued engagement with the profession and sustained commitment to further improve her practice. Irene also played an important role in the engineering outreach team, designing and delivering activities to students of all school ages and backgrounds, to empower them into considering engineering and STEM higher education.

Since October 2020, Irene is a Senior Lecturer (Education focused role) at UNSW – School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering.