- Home
- About the College
- Governance
- College Committees & Steering Groups
- College Assembly
- College Council
- College Executive Management Committee
- College Academic Programmes and Curriculum Development Committee
- College Graduate Studies Committee
- College Research & Innovation Committee
- College Teaching Learning and Student Experience Committee
- College Student Recruitment and Outreach Committee
- College Sabbatical Research Leave Committee
- College of SEFS Adjunct Appointments Committee
- International Education Committee
- College Postgraduate Student Committee
- Athena SWAN Steering Group
- College Committees & Steering Groups
- Human Resources
- Annual UCC STEM Awards
- Scholarships and Prizes
- Women in STEM Panel Talks
- Inaugural Professorial Lectures
- Athena SWAN in SEFS
- Proposal Calls
- Contact Us
- Science in Society Public Lecture Series
- Governance
- News
- Staff
- Schools and Departments
- Current Students
- Undergraduate Courses
- Postgraduate Courses
- International Students
- Research and Innovation
- Employability and Careers
- Outreach and Public Engagement
- Science Week
- Transition Year Programmes
News 2025
UCC Students Harness AI and Electronics to Build a More Inclusive World
Imagine waking up unable to see colours, faces, words, or even light. Imagine a world without sound: no music, no voices, no laughter. Imagine having thoughts and feelings but no way to express them.
Now, imagine a future where technology bridges these gaps and empowers everyone.
Second-year Electrical and Electronic Engineering students at University College Cork (UCC), alongside international interns from France, took on this challenge. Under the guidance of Professor Emanuel Popovici and Dr. Robert Fourie, the team developed Quality Commpanion, an innovative assistive technology that integrates AI and electronics to support people who are visually or hearing impaired.
Their mission: to create inclusive, easy-to-use tools that can describe environments, read text aloud in public spaces, and even enable real-time communication between visually impaired and deaf individuals. The project explores whether sign language can be understood seamlessly by anyone, anywhere.
What once seemed like science fiction is now becoming reality, thanks to breakthroughs in edge computing, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence. The students successfully implemented these technologies in battery-powered devices that work offline—no internet required. Large Language Models, once confined to the cloud, now run locally on laptops, making accessibility more portable and practical than ever.
Watch the early prototype in action
This transformative project was made possible through generous philanthropic support from Qualcomm Incorporated (via a Qualcomm Faculty Award and the University Relations and the Qualcomm® Wireless Reach™ Initiative), the School of Engineering at UCC, and technologies powered by Snapdragon® [processors or platforms].
Special thanks to Dr. Robert Fourie and Dr. Colin Murphy for their invaluable insights, and to the talented student team: Marc Barret Perez, Joseph O’Donoghue, Sohaib Naser (UCC), Florian Vidal (Paris Saclay University), Matteo Doffe (ENSEA Cergy-Pontoise), Julien Balderiotti (École des Mines de Saint-Étienne), and Sofiia Sarana (MTU).
This latest achievement continues its legacy of impact as the Embedded.Systems@UCC Group celebrates 20 years of innovation in 2025 with over 50 international awards and three commendations from IEEE/IBM for projects that better humanity.
Snapdragon is a product of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries.