ATU DAI Showcase

Sarah Stone McDevitt is Senior Director of Partner Strategy at HubSpot and author of The Round Table: How Relational Intelligence Will Become Your Human Advantage in the AI Age. Her work focuses on what it takes for people and organisations to thrive as AI transforms how we work, learn and collaborate.

Drawing on her experience leading strategy and transformation in a global technology company, Sarah explores the opportunity beyond AI adoption: how we develop the human capabilities needed to put AI to work effectively. She is particularly interested in relational intelligence—the trust, judgment, curiosity and human connection that become more, not less, important as AI becomes embedded in our organisations.

Dr. Muslim Jameel Syed is Associate Director of the JANUS Research Centre and a Lecturer at Atlantic Technological University (ATU), Ireland. His research lies at the intersection of Responsible Artificial Intelligence, AI governance, and technology law, with a focus on enabling small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to adopt ethical, trustworthy, and compliant AI solutions.
Dr. Syed is actively involved in EU- and Ireland-funded research initiatives exceeding €25 million, serving as Principal Investigator and Co-Investigator on projects that advance digital innovation and responsible AI adoption across industry. His work addresses the regulatory, societal, and technical challenges of emerging technologies, particularly in relation to frameworks such as the EU AI Act and GDPR.
Alongside his academic work, he actively collaborates with industry on AI-enabled innovation and product development. He has served as an expert witness in U.S. intellectual property litigation involving AI and digital twin technologies, and has advised the Cyprus Ministry of Finance on evaluating AI-driven startups and innovation incentives. He currently supervises research fellow, postdoctoral researchers and PhD candidates working on sustainable and trustworthy AI applications.

John is CEO of Health Care Informed (HCI), and MAPS Digital Solutions, with over 30 years’ experience in healthcare quality, patient safety, governance, regulation and digital transformation.
Prior to establishing HCI, John was Director of Research and Development with the Irish Health Services Accreditation Board (IHSAB), a precursor to HIQA, where he had overall responsibility for the development and international accreditation of Ireland’s National Acute, Palliative, and Residential Care Accreditation Standards. He previously served as the first Director of the Irish Society for Quality and Safety in Healthcare, where he initiated the inaugural National Patient Perception of Care Survey. Earlier in his career, as Quality Coordinator at University Hospital Galway, he led the achievement of Ireland’s first ISO 9000 certification for acute healthcare.
John Sweeney is an International Society for Quality in Healthcare (ISQua) Expert and former ISQua Board member, an honorary lecturer with the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), and has represented Ireland on the EU ExPeRT Project and served on the Advisory Committee of the European Forum for Quality in Healthcare. His international work has included supporting healthcare regulators and external evaluation bodies in Europe, Australia, South America and the Middle East.
Today, his work increasingly focuses on bringing together deep healthcare governance expertise with digital transformation and AI to improve how organisations manage quality, patient safety and regulatory compliance.

Cathriona MacCarthy is the North West Regional Enterprise Plan Programme Manager, supporting the strategic economic development of Donegal, Leitrim and Sligo. With over 20 years’ experience in local government, she works across government, enterprise agencies, industry, education and regional stakeholders to drive collaboration and advance the North West’s economic priorities.

Her work focuses on strengthening regional competitiveness through innovation, digital transformation, skills, infrastructure and sustainable economic development. With AI increasingly reshaping how businesses compete, innovate and grow, Cathriona is particularly interested in how the North West can harness AI to build on its existing strengths, address regional challenges and position itself for the next phase of economic development.

Michelle McKinney is a Training Specialist and Instructional Designer at Grow Remote. Prior to this, Michelle worked in the pharmaceutical industry, working first as an analytical chemist before pivoting her career a decade ago to focus on training and instructional design. She is interested in how AI can support the creation of learning experiences that translate to real-world behaviour change

Dr Mick McCann, Senior Lecturer for Research Development in the Faculty of Engineering & Computing, Academic Director of the JANUS Research Centre for AI, HPC and Emerging Technologies at ATU. He is a PI in the newly formed national Rinn AI: Centre for Research and Innovation in Data Science and AI. He has secured over €8 million in competitive research and innovation funding as part of large-scale collaborative programmes with a combined value in excess of €45 million. His work spans AI infrastructure, data-driven healthcare and regional digital innovation.
Dr McCann is the ATU lead on the ONEHEALTH project (€9.85 m), which is establishing a cross-border AI ecosystem for health, agri-food and environmental innovation. He also serves as ATU co-lead on iMPROVE (€10 m), advancing pharmacogenomics and person-centred medication review to optimise prescribing and reduce adverse drug events across Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland, and on PEACETIME (€9.84 m), a digital health programme addressing obesity and diabetes through AI-enabled community interventions.
He is additionally ATU Lead PI for the Data2Sustain European Digital Innovation Hub, supporting SME digital transformation, and Lead PI for the THRIVE Postgraduate Research Training Programme, developing advanced talent in AI and data science. Through these initiatives, Dr McCann is strengthening ATU’s leadership in national and cross-border research and ensuring that AI, HPC and digital innovation deliver lasting societal and economic impact across the region.

Barry Dooney is a Research Office Transformation Lead at Atlantic Technological University, where he identifies, prioritises and pilots use cases that would benefit from AI augmentation. The approach favours quick wins: small, controlled pilots in practical settings where staff learn by doing, each building momentum and adding to a portfolio that can be considered for full implementation, with the lessons captured in a continuously updated playbook.
Before ATU, Barry spent more than 20 years in corporate finance and strategy, including 13+ years with Thomson Reuters in Switzerland. There he supported approximately $4 billion in M&A transactions and built and managed the company’s first global startup incubator and emerging technology fund, a precursor to Thomson Reuters Ventures, which today manages $250 million across two funds.
Barry is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration from the University of Liverpool. In 2023, he repatriated to Galway from Switzerland with his wife and two kids.

Julie Dowling is CEO of the AIM Centre and founder of Fudge & Gandol, an AI-powered storytelling and education platform for children .
At AIM, Julie developed the concepts for the National AI Studio and its industry accelerator programmes, designed to help businesses understand, test and adopt artificial intelligence. Her work focuses on connecting companies with technical expertise, research partners and practical opportunities to apply AI within their operations.Julie ha
Alongside her work with industry, Julie is building Fudge & Gandol to explore how children can use AI creatively and responsibly while retaining ownership of their ideas and imagination.
Julie brings a practical perspective to the global AI conversation, focusing on what rapid advances in AI mean for businesses, entrepreneurs, education and the future of work.

David Bermingham is Director of AI at AIM Centre, where he leads Ireland’s National AI Studio, an initiative focused on accelerating the practical adoption of artificial intelligence across manufacturing and industry. With extensive experience in AI, digital transformation and industrial automation, David works with businesses to turn emerging technologies into practical, scalable solutions that improve productivity, sustainability and competitiveness. He leads the Studio’s industry collaboration and AI Acceleration programmes, helping SMEs build capability and realise measurable value from data and AI.

Emanuel Covasa, Founder & CEO of NeuroBridge AI Labs, is a cybersecurity student, founder and student advocate based in County Leitrim. Romanian born and more than twenty years in Ireland, he came to technology by an unusual route: a decade in hospitality, including the Merrion Hotel in Dublin and Kilronan Castle, before returning to full time study at ATU Sligo.
He is dyslexic and has ADHD, and treats both as the reason his work looks the way it does rather than as something to work around. He works as a systems architect rather than a programmer, directing AI to build against a design he specifies, with a second auditing the first.
That method has produced a wide body of work: NeuroBridgeEDU, which makes university lectures accessible without a recording ever leaving the campus; the PromptSage framework for controlling AI behaviour; sustainability tools for Good Energies Alliance Ireland and CyberSage, the AI Pen-testing Framework;
He is a Student Senator at ATU Sligo, an EU GREEN Ambassador, and was named his union’s Advocate of the Year. In September he begins Enterprise Ireland’s New Frontiers Phase 2 programme.
He writes at emmi.zone, and lives in Leitrim with his wife and their two children

Ali Usama is a researcher and Digital Social Innovator with a background in computer science, digital health, and applied research. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Computing, where his research explores implicit and explicit infant-feeding biases among healthcare professionals and how these may influence healthcare practice and decision-making. Part of this work has been published in the Journal of Health Psychology.
Alongside his PhD, Ali works on the STRIDE project as a Digital Social Innovator, collaborating with community and voluntary organisations to identify challenges and co-design practical digital solutions. His work involves engaging directly with organisations through workshops and design-thinking approaches, understanding their needs, and translating these into accessible and sustainable solutions.
His interests include digital transformation, artificial intelligence, digital health, accessibility, user-centred design, and social innovation. He is particularly interested in how emerging technologies can be applied responsibly to solve real-world problems, rather than introducing technology simply for its own sake.
Through his research and professional work, Ali aims to bridge the gap between academic research, technology, and community practice, creating solutions that are evidence-based, ethical, inclusive, and capable of delivering meaningful impact for individuals, organisations, and communities.

Dr Valerie McTaggart is a Senior Lecturer and Researcher at Atlantic Technological University (ATU) Sligo, with extensive expertise in digital transformation, artificial intelligence, digital business strategy, and organisational change. She holds a PhD from Dublin City University and has established herself as a leading voice in the areas of technology-enabled innovation, digital leadership, and the impact of emerging technologies on organisations and society.
Prior to joining academia full-time, Dr McTaggart spent more than twenty years in the financial services sector in Ireland and the United Kingdom, where she held a range of people management and project leadership roles. This combination of industry experience and academic research provides her with a unique perspective on the challenges and opportunities organisations face in navigating digital transformation.
Her research focuses on helping organisations adapt to technological change, with particular interests in artificial intelligence, digital business ecosystems, remote and hybrid working, and the human factors that influence successful transformation initiatives. Dr McTaggart has published and presented her research nationally and internationally, contributing to both academic knowledge and professional practice.
In addition to her teaching and research activities, Dr McTaggart contributes to a range of European initiatives. She serves as an evaluation expert for the European Commission and actively participates in international research networks exploring the intersection of digital technologies, innovation, civic engagement, and societal change.

Jostein Robstad is an industrial designer and Lead Technical Officer at the ATU MakerSpace in Sligo. A graduate of Creative Design and Innovation at IT Sligo, now ATU Sligo, he has more than 11 years of professional experience in industrial and product design.
His experience covers the complete product development process, from early concepts and CAD through prototyping, design for manufacture and production. He has worked extensively with 3D printing, digital fabrication, injection moulding, manufacturers and suppliers to bring physical products to market. At the MakerSpace, Jostein supports students, researchers and staff in turning ideas into practical prototypes. He is particularly interested in making prototyping and emerging technologies more accessible across disciplines and creating opportunities for students to learn through experimentation and hands-on making.