Academic Staff

Dr Irene Murtagh is a Lecturer and Principal Investigator (Human Language Technology Research Group) at the Department of Informatics and Cyber Security, TU Dublin. Dr Murtagh holds a BSc. (Hons) in Computing (TU Dublin), an MPhil. in Speech and Language Processing (Trinity College Dublin) and a PhD in Computational Linguistics (Trinity College Dublin). She is a Funded Investigator in ADAPT, the Research Ireland Centre for AI-Driven Digital Content Technology  and is also a Principal Investigator in the Research Ireland centre for Research Training in Digitally-Enhanced Reality (D-REAL).

 

Irene’s primary research interests are centred around computational linguistics and natural language processing, incorporating traditional and neural approaches. In particular sign language modelling and processing, sign language machine translation (recognition and synthesis), sign language computational annotation and avatar technology. Her research lies within the domain of artificial intelligence and cognitive technology with the approach of FATE (Fairness, Accountability, Transparency and Ethics) at its core. Irene is a co-founder and current member of the Irish Deaf Research Network. She worked as a PI on the multi award winning SignON project (2021-2024), which aimed to bridge the communication gap between Deaf, hard of hearing and hearing people through an development of an accessible translation service. She is currently TU Dublin PI on the EU Erasmus+ project: Visual Interactive System for Teaching and Assessment of Sign Languages (VISTA SL) (2025-2028). She has also recently secured funding and is TU Dublin PI on a Research Ireland funded ARC (Accelerate Research and Commercialisation) project focused on Irish Sign Language Machine Translation (2025-2027).