Datascan is a second generation Irish family business that specialises in document and information processing. In this piece, Orla Cafferty, Director at Datascan, explains how her parents founded the family business and how Datascan is handling the current global Covid-19 crisis. How did Datascan first begin? My parents, Padraic and Patricia, started a security service...Continue Reading
Professor Deirdre Butler of DCU’s Institute of Education is an internationally recognised leader in the creative use of digital technologies to enhance student learning and prepare children for the challenges that face the world now and in the future. With support from Microsoft, Professor Butler led an innovative Student Teacher Digital Skills Project in 2019,...Continue Reading
Rachel O’Connor is Head of Sales with Colourtrend, one of Ireland’s leading decorative paint brands. In this interview, she explains how the company has grown since her grandfather first established General Paints in 1953 in an old Famine workhouse building in Celbridge and how the company has benefited from its engagement with DCU’s Centre for...Continue Reading
20-year old UStart participant James Gallagher from Ratoath in County Meath is a 3rd year Computer Applications student at DCU and the founder of social enterprise GiveBack.ie together with his girlfriend Victoria Ryan-Nesbitt. GiveBack.ie is an online platform that enables Irish consumers to help some of the most vulnerable people in society by simply shopping...Continue Reading
Patrick Buckley is Managing Director of family business EPS Group, a leading provider of water and wastewater treatment and pumping solutions. In this interview, he describes how the company grew from modest beginnings in Kanturk, Co. Cork in 1968 to expand internationally and how the company has benefited from engaging with DCU’s Centre for Family...Continue Reading
Sheelagh Brady is a former Garda who left the force in 2012 to work with the UN as a Senior Security Analyst in Abuja, Nigeria. There she advised organisations such as Unicef, the World Health Organisation and the World Food Programme on the security environment, threats and managing risk when implementing their programmes on the...Continue Reading
DCU’s UStart was Ireland’s first student start-up accelerator programme. It enables students to discover and develop their entrepreneurial flair. It empowers them to become trail-blazing social and business entrepreneurs, by helping to bring their innovative ideas to market. Our programme provides training, seed funding and access to mentors and sector specialists. This approach has already...Continue Reading
CitySwifter is a transport technology platform that enables commuters and event attenders to crowd-source transport. It was set up in 2016 by three friends from Longford – Brian O’Rourke, Alan Farley and Seán Byrne. Brian O’Rourke explains how the UStart student accelerator helped: “We already had the broad concept and our core team in place...Continue Reading
