Walton Institute

16/10/2026

Walton Institute’s Aileen Drohan was delighted to participate in South East Technological University's Ada Lovelace Day celebrations on Tuesday 13 October with students Ruby and Rayann; Karen Lawrence, Mohawk College, Ontario; Rupal Srivastava, Dept. of Engineering and Robert O'Connor, Dept of Computing and Mathematics.

During the event, which coincided with Maths Week, Walton Institute’s e-Textiles lab showcased electronic textiles to local secondary school students.

Ada Lovelace Day is an international celebration of the achievements of women in STEM. Ada Lovelace was a 19th-century mathematician who published what is widely considered the first algorithm intended for a computer.

01/10/2026

Walton Institute at South East Technological University was delighted to take part in the ‘Protect Your Business, Embrace the Future: Cyber Security & AI’ event, hosted by Unitec IT Solutions at the SETU Arena today.

The event brought together organisations to explore practical ways to reduce cyber risk, meet NIS2 compliance requirements, and adopt AI safely and responsibly.

Melissa Doyle, Business Development Executive with the ICS Technology Gateway, outlined the wide range of supports available to businesses through the Technology Gateway Network.

The ENTIRE EDIH Ireland team at Walton Institute was on hand to discuss the cybersecurity services available to businesses through the European Digital Innovation Hub and its partners.

Dr. Ilias cherkaoui from the Q-Fence project was also available to discuss the project and its work in strengthening cybersecurity and supporting organisations in navigating the evolving cyber threat landscape.

Thank you to Unitec IT Solutions for hosting such an informative event and to everyone who took the time to connect with the Walton team 🇮🇪 🇪🇺


Enterprise Ireland

18/09/2026

New research from Walton Institute's Komal Shoukat, Dr Frances Cleary and Ram Prasadh Narayanan, in collaboration with Prof John Wells and Dr Louise Bennett, South East Technological University, and Marco Buiatti, Università di Trento, explores a more comfortable and practical approach to EEG monitoring.

This paper published in PLOS One presents the design and validation of a modular smart headband featuring embroidered textile electrodes for wearable EEG monitoring. The study demonstrates how textile-based electrodes can be integrated into a flexible, modular headband while maintaining the ability to capture meaningful EEG signals across a range of cognitive tasks.

Participants found it significantly more comfortable, an important step toward wearable EEG monitoring that people will actually tolerate wearing for extended periods.

Read the full publication ➡️ https://waltoninstitute.ie/news-and-events/news/publication-design-and-validation-of-a-modular-smart-headband-with-embroidered-electrodes-for-comfortable-eeg-monitoring

15/09/2026

🌱 Walton Institute at South East Technological University is proud to be part of the team bringing Synergy Days 2026 to Ireland for the first time on the 20th & 21st October. Synergy Days will see researchers, innovators, policymakers, industry leaders, farmers and digital technology experts come together to explore the future of Europe’s agri-food sector.

Hosted by the SmartAgriHubs community and supported by the European Partnership Agriculture of Data (AgData), Synergy Days will provide a unique platform for collaboration, knowledge exchange and showcasing the digital technologies helping to transform agriculture and food systems.

The programme will feature inspiring keynote speakers, expert discussions, EU project showcases, interactive workshops and networking opportunities with a particular focus on turning research and innovation into real-world impact.

On 22 October, delegates also have the option to take part in a Waterford Innovation Tour, including a visit to Walton Institute to meet researchers working across agriculture, food and digital technologies.

👉 Find out more and register for Synergy Days 2026:
https://www.synergyportal.eu/synergy-days

Full story 📰 https://waltoninstitute.ie/news-and-events/news/setu-brings-major-european-digital-agriculture-conference-to-ireland-for-first-time

11/09/2026

A new publication from Walton Institute at South East Technological University's researchers - Rahul Mhapsekar, Ph.D., Dr. Ilias cherkaoui, Dr Lizy Abraham and Dr Indrakshi Dey - introduces AURORA-AI, Adaptive Utility-driven Resource Orchestration for Resilient AI.

AI is increasingly used in environments where conditions can change quickly, including healthcare, industrial automation, edge computing and autonomous systems. In these settings, relying on a single fixed resource-allocation strategy can make AI services vulnerable when workloads, data distributions or operating conditions change. AURORA-AI demonstrates a way of making AI infrastructure more adaptive by continuously balancing predictive performance with fairness, robustness, latency, computational cost and interpretability.

📄 Learn more about AURORA-AI: https://waltoninstitute.ie/news-and-events/news/publication-adaptive-utility-driven-resource-orchestration-for-resilient-ai-aurora-ai

This research was conducted as part of the ENACT Project, which supports research into trustworthy and human-centric AI, funded by the European Union Horizon Europe programme.

-AI

AURORA-AI demonstrates a way of making AI infrastructure more adaptive by continuously balancing predictive performance with fairness, robustness, latency, computational cost and interpretability

09/09/2026

Walton Institute at South East Technological University's Syeda Maryam Hussain has been featured by Silicon Republic for her work exploring sensory-friendly clothing designed to better support children with autism.

For many children with sensory sensitivities, something as simple as getting dressed can be a significant challenge. This work demonstrates how research, design and innovation can come together to develop more inclusive solutions that respond to real-world needs.

💻 Syeda is currently searching for parents or guardians of autistic children aged 4 to 13 years to take part in an anonymous survey to identify the most suitable fabrics and clothing for autistic children considering their sensory requirements ➡️ https://setu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3KvgNPPN7XW1XSu

Read the full Silicon Republic article: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/innovation/setu-expert-syeda-maryam-hussain-sensory-friendly-clothes-for-children-with-autism

02/09/2026

Delighted to share that our research has been awarded the Best Paper Award at the IEEE RTSI Conference 2026 🏆

This research was led by Surya Jayakumar, Master’s by Research student, under the supervision of Dr Indrakshi Dey, Walton Institute, South East Technological University.

“URLLC-Aware Microgrid-ICT Co-Optimisation across an Edge-Fog-Cloud Continuum” presents a framework for jointly optimising smart microgrid operations and ICT infrastructure.

The research explores how monitoring and control tasks can be intelligently distributed across Edge, Fog, and Cloud computing resources while considering communication latency, ICT energy consumption, network capacity, microgrid operating costs and Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC) requirements.

By bringing the power and ICT layers together, the framework aims to support faster, more efficient, and more resilient microgrid operation, particularly for time critical applications such as protection, inverter control and renewable energy coordination.

https://waltoninstitute.ie/news-and-events/news/publication-urllc-aware-microgrid-ict-co-optimisation-across-an-edge-fog-cloud-continuum

25/08/2026

Walton Institute at South East Technological University's Rahul Mhapsekar, Ph.D. recently completed a secondment at UBITECH as part of the EU-funded DUCA Project.

The secondment at UBITECH focused on strengthening international collaboration in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), cybersecurity, and distributed intelligent systems. Discussions centred on developing scalable and secure digital solutions capable of supporting next-generation cyber-physical systems across multiple application domains.

Read the full story below ⬇️

https://waltoninstitute.ie/news-and-events/news/walton-researcher-completes-duca-secondment-at-ubitech-greece

The secondment at UBITECH focused on strengthening international collaboration in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), cybersecurity, and distributed intelligent systems.

20/08/2026

In this video Walton Institute at South East Technological University's Rahul Mhapsekar, Ph.D. along with 4 other researchers share their experiences during their secondments at Cubit Innovation Labs as part of the DUCA Project.

Over the course of the four-week secondment, Rahul worked closely with CUBITLAB researchers to advance secure and trustworthy AI and IoT systems within the DUCA framework. The placement combined technical research with knowledge exchange between academic and industry partners, enabling the practical evaluation of secure data governance approaches for distributed intelligent systems.

Learn more about the impact of Rahul's secondment here: https://waltoninstitute.ie/news-and-events/news/dr-rahul-umesh-mhapsekar-completes-horizon-europe-duca-project-secondment-at-cubitlab-italy

| Cubit

17/08/2026

Walton Institute at South East Technological University's work with Letsbuyhealthcare is featured in Knowledge Transfer Ireland (KTI)'s Annual Knowledge Transfer Survey below.

Letsbuyhealthcare is an Irish SME focused on improving access to private healthcare through digital technology solutions. The company engaged with Walton Institute to explore how emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, and advanced cloud-based architectures, could be integrated into its platform to enhance its offering and support future growth 🙌 🇮🇪

Read the full story on page 27:https://www.knowledgetransferireland.com/Reports-Publications/Annual-Knowledge-Transfer-Survey-2025v2.pdf

For more info and watch our interview with LetsBuyHealthcare CEO David Allen CPA MBA: https://waltoninstitute.ie/industry/case-studies/letsbuyhealthcare-case-study



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