The Tyndall Explorer 2024 brought together seven teams from university and research centres across Ireland for this deep technology pre-commercialisation programme.

The programme was led by David McGovern, Patrick Morrissey and Mehrnaz Heidari of the SFI Research Centre, Irish Photonic Integration Centre (IPIC), based at Tyndall National Institute. Explorer was first launched in 2021 and now benefits from its partners’ network of experts, mentors, and investors: IPIC-the SFI Centre for photonics, Tyndall National Institute, amsOsram, CONNECT (the SFI Centre for Future Networks and Communications), Enterprise Ireland, Atlantic Bridge, IPCEI, Nova UCD, DogPatch Labs, MIDAS and Science Foundation Ireland. 

In the final pre-commercialisation showcase at Enterprise Ireland's office in Dublin, seven competing finalists presented their applications, which spanned various innovative ideas:

1- WingBeat: Cian White, Adam Narbudowicz, Maryam NorouziCong Danh Bui

Monitor pollinating insects using radar sensor

2- EnTICe: Cian O’Mathúna, Mike HayesEoin AhernMario Costanza

EnTICe Energy harvesting WSN Testbed

3- INGeC Technologies: Shafi Khadem, Sandipan Patra

Integrated Next-Gen Converter (InGeC) Technologies

4- EmoDub: Akbar Majidi

AI Dubbing with Emotional Analysis

5- RemoTest: Kiang Wei Kho

A wearable hematology analyzer for remote patient monitoring

6- PIXSA: Hadi Badri, Samira Jastan

Pixelated meta-optics for enhanced Spectro-polarimetry analysis

7- INTERLINE-HD: Tomasz Piwonski, Abhinandan Hazarika, Zhi Li

Miniaturization of holographic display technology 

Congratulations team PIXSA, explorer 2024 winner!

PIXSA, led by Hadi Badri and Samira Jastan, CAPPA MTU offers non-invasive blood sugar monitoring by integrating an innovative optical chip into smart wearables to enable painless monitoring.

Photodetectors only measure light intensity. This chip goes beyond, decoding the light's polarisation, a crucial but difficult-to-measure property. This richer data will significantly improve the accuracy and leads to revolutionising blood sugar monitoring.

Congratulations to all participants.

Explorer will be accepting applications for its next programme in October 2024 for a January 2025 start. Teams and individuals will be able to apply at www.tyndall.ie/explorer. If you have queries regarding Explorer, please contact a member of the team by emailing explorer@tyndall.ie.