Yvonne Nolan received a PhD in electronic/biomedical engineering from University College Dublin in 2005. From 2001-2005 she conducted her PhD research, involving control and communication technologies for physical disabled people, in the National Rehabilitation Hospital, Dun Laoghaire.

Yvonne also holds a Bachelor of Electronic Engineering (first class honours) degree from UCD. She was awarded a scholarship from the Irish Research Council in Science and was a finalist in the Embark IEI Research Achievement Awards in 2003.