Two UCD students share with Mony Aramalla their journey through innovation and the support they’ve received in developing their groundbreaking projects.
The tech landscape in Ireland is still in its developing stage. With a growth in infrastructure, enthusiasm and interest in technology and its applications, more youth are pursuing STEM fields. This exponential growth is seeing an increase in startups, research collaborations, and projects that focus on solving technological problems, with some being led by young entrepreneurs taking ambition to another level. As innovation continues to thrive, Ireland is steadily positioning itself as a hub for technological advancement and creative problem-solving on a global scale. There are many Irish organisations and programs assisting this growth, supporting youth in their aspirations.
TechLabs is a consumer focused technology, electronics and lifestyle expo held in Dublin, drawing inspiration from events like CES in Las Vegas but scaled for the Irish market. It’s designed to showcase innovations across a broad spectrum—from mobility and health to tech and gaming, smart home, connectivity and immersive entertainment. This year, the TechLabs Expo was held on Saturday, 18 October in the RDS, Dublin where the Expo had over 10000 visitors and hosted both local and global tech brands and innovations.
TechLabs hosted five main thematic zones showcasing various innovations grouped together. Urban Mobility displayed a wide range of electric vehicle innovation, smart transport, drones and e-bikes. The Health and Fitness section hosted wearables, smart health gear and wellness tech. Home cinema, sound systems, cameras and displays took the spotlight in the Audiovisual Lab. Developments in smartphones, IoT (Internet of Things), 5G and smart home devices was a main attraction. Last but not the least, all high performance PCs, gaming hardware, VR/AR attracted many enthusiasts.
Along with these groundbreaking displays, this year’s event featured a panel discussion where two UCD students spoke to visitors about their academic experience and what drove them to technology and innovative fields.
Mike Chen and Joe Biju are third-year Engineering students who are deeply involved in innovative ventures. On speaking to visitors, Joe said, “It wasn’t as formal and that was nice because kids were actually asking us questions, and most of the families there were interested in tech.” Joe, who also runs UCD ElecSoc’s MakerLabs where students from all disciplines can drop by to learn some tech, explained how joining communities, participating in hackathons, creates a “snowball effect.”
Mike and Joe, alongside their studies and extracurricular activities, are running a start-up. ScopeLab, an idea that was born from the Patch Accelerator Program during the summer. Patch is a selective 7-week Summer Youth Accelerator Program that allows young people to work on impactful projects together. During their time there, Mike and Joe, along with two other teammates, recognised a problem in debugging electronics. Joe calls it a “messy” process and that “when something doesn’t work, you’re disassembling, and it’s a lot of extra steps that waste valuable time for engineers.”
Mike adds, “You have CoPilot to help you debug program software, but there’s nothing like it to debug hardware.” The ScopeLab team realised there’s nothing to provide suggestions on how to debug such a complicated system. Their solution involves a breadboard that detects information from the hardware, which can be read by a laptop through regular status updates from their custom built software.The team see a future where AI can escape the confines of a textbox and instead give it the freedom to interact and interpret physical hardware, making it a game changer for the electronics industry as a whole.
To Mike and Joe, this project would not have been possible without the Patch program. While their university studies gave them the theoretical background, Patch helped challenge existing established norms about careers and possibilities, and allowed them to pursue innovation. As Joe stated, “There are no actual rules in this world.” With the support of communities, mentors, and resources, the program gave them the confidence to follow through with a meaningful project. Similarly, Mike felt that Patch raised academic standards for him and provided a broader perspective on what’s achievable. The program helped transform their mindsets and come up with concepts with real world potential, much like ScopeLab’s solution.
Mike and Joe’s journeys show that ambition knows no boundaries when creativity is fueled by community support and encouragement. Their story calls for a broader movement among Ireland’s youth, one that takes curiosity, collaboration, and courage to redefine what’s possible through technology. As more young innovators take initiative, supported by programs like Patch and events like TechLabs, Ireland’s growing tech scene is being shaped not just by large companies, but by students and dreamers turning ideas into impact. The future of Irish innovation, it seems, is already in capable hands.