February 2026 - CRT-AI

Wonderful to be back on-site with Cadence Design Systems Cork for a rich industry & academic engagement, focused on our postgraduate community and their research journeys.

The visit centred on a lively PG poster session and a series of talks by our postgraduate students, who shared their work on topics spanning computing, AI, and digital systems and engaged in great technical discussions with the Cadence team. Great job Omayma EL HAJI Vanita K. Nana Mohammad Moghimi Khanh-Tung Tran Daniella Traynor

It was fantastic to see the quality of the posters and the confidence with which students presented and fielded questions.

Thank you to our colleagues at Cadence Cork, Madhur Sharma, Ursula McCarthy, Davide Nolè, and Emma Pratt, for hosting us onsite, and to the staff and leads at Cadence for taking the time to speak with our PG students about their projects and career aspirations and continuing to grow these valuable links with University College Cork and Maynooth University.

A special thanks to our three CRT in AI PhD Researchers, presenters, Nicola Rossberg, Akasha Shafiq (both nominated by Sunday Independent’s 30 Under 30 women in Irish Tech, 2024) and Samaksh Chandra, whose talks gave a deeper insight into their research, methods, and future directions, and really highlighted the talent within our postgraduate cohort.

Finally, this visit reflects our ongoing commitment to building structured research training and meaningful industry partnerships in AI and computer science. We were also delighted to have the UCC ACM Student Chapter Committee members join us in appreciation of Cadence’s continued sponsorship of the Irish Collegiate Programming Contest IRLCPC, where Cadence has played a key role as main sponsor over several years, and also Dr. Andrea Visentin for his leadership in supporting these opportunities for our PG researchers and in strengthening collaborations between UCC and Cadence.

The CRT in AI Defence in Action: Viva Practicum was held or CRT in AI PhD Candidate in their final year, Kislay Raj, who used their time wisely to prep in advance of their impending Viva date. Huge thanks to our actors, Dr Eric Ferreira dos Santos, Dr. Cian Hughes, and PhD Candidate Mohsin Jabbar, who set the bar high for a rigorous mock defence. It was great to have Praveen Acharya, Vivek Bulani and Hoang Le Lai present to witness and support with additional questions. This was our fifth time running this event to support PhD students and help reduce anxieties about the unexpected aspects of the viva process.

Lessons learned: start preparing early and avoid leaving your practice to the last minute. Rehearse your presentation multiple times, take feedback seriously, and actively integrate it into your narrative. Ensure your visuals are clear, concise, and appropriately labelled so they support rather than distract from your message. Be ready to articulate the limitations of your work and to outline realistic future directions and planned follow-on studies.

Huge thanks to Vicky Flanagan, who led the charge and arranged the logistics, and to the PhD students who attended the Cohort dinner.

Machine Learning Training Week 2026 concluded with an amazing lineup of presentations from our CRT in AI PhD students.

This one-week bespoke training offering was spearheaded by Professor Tiziana Margaria, Co-director of the CRT in AI at the University of Limerick, and is running into its sixth consecutive year, with great support from its HOD Patrick Healy, Computer Science and Information Systems.

Our PhD researchers were immersed in a full week of ML training covering areas including human activity recognition for edge AI systems, generative models for underwater plastic detection, comparative ML and DL for energy predictions in residential buildings, introductions to physics-informed ML and variational methods, and the next frontier in AI agents for autonomous test design. The researchers were also exposed to a fully supported, lab-based, hands-on experience.

One of the highlights of the week was the Frontiers of Technology Panel moderated by Prof Margaria with panellists including Lars Kotthoff James O’Donnell Christina Morin Nora O’ Murchú

Thanks to all involved, especially Jane Kierse who so kindly managed the logistics. Here’s to another great opportunity for AI training and the continuity of our commitment to PhD education. A great start to 2026!