Dr. Conor McGinn

Conor McGinn is an Assistant Professor in Robotics and Design at Trinity College Dublin (TCD) where he conducts research at the frontiers of human-robot interaction, artificial intelligence and design. He is a principal investigator at the SFI ADAPT Research Centre, the SFI Centre for Research Training in Artificial Intelligence, and at the Trinity Centre for Biomedical Engineering. Conor has received prestigious honours including the Trinity Research Excellence Award (2020), Best Paper Award at the IEEE/ACM International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (2020), Provost Teaching Award (2019), and the Registrar’s Award for Civic Engagement (2018). In 2019, Conor was named by MIT Technology Review as one of the leading innovators in Europe under 35, and in 2020, JCI Ireland selected him as one of the ten outstanding young Irish persons of the year.

Conor is also a co-founder at Akara, a TCD spin-out with a mission to develop technologies to empower frontline workers in the healthcare industry. Their first product is a UV disinfection robot called Violet, which uses advanced artificial intelligence to disinfect hospitals faster and more effectively than was previously possible. Violet has been featured by leading international publications including Time magazine and IEEE Spectrum, and Forbes recently described it as “key to reopening after the pandemic