SETU graduate presented his final year project that aims to tackle dereliction to the Dáil

SEEING how long his father had spent assessing a derelict site inspired a Carlow student to develop a system aiming to help local authorities speed up the process of identifying vacant properties for refurbishment as part of his final-year college project.

Dylan O’Donnell from Old Leighlin, who recently graduated with a Bachelor of Science in IT Management from South Eastern Technological University, saw his architect dad, Des, spend hours working on a derelict site in Galway before realising it wasn’t even suitable for renovation.

“I saw this real problem that my dad had and it tied in perfectly to my final-year project,” said Dylan. “It got me thinking there has to be a faster way of doing this.” 

Dylan presented the project, entitled ‘A Fast Track to Identify Derelict and Vacant Homes for Refurbishment’, to politicians and policymakers in the Dáil yesterday Wednesday 12 November as part of the Póstaeir san Oireachtas (Posters in Parliament, Ireland) Initiative set up by the European Union.

Dylan’s system can create 3D models in a matter of minutes, which will allow local authorities to see what buildings can be refurbished and reused and make data-driven decisions as a result to help solve the issue of vacant properties around the country.

“In Ireland we already have all the data that we need to tackle vacancy,” explains Dylan. “It’s just about combining these datasets together and mapping it out logically.” Póstaeir san Oireachtas is an EU initiative dedicated to the enhancement of undergraduate research, dissemination, communication and civic engagement across Europe.

Dylan’s project will be displayed in the Oireachtas until Friday 14 November, along with 29 other pieces of work from higher-level students around the country.

After spending the summer on a J1 in New York working at a summer camp, Dylan has recently started a job as a Junior Cloud and Security Engineer at HealthBeacon, and he continues to work on his project.

“Recently I have been doing a lot of policy research to see what kind of impact the system can have. I have been looking into derelict sites registers and the different infrastructure around the country, and I’ve got some interesting findings that I’ll be able to present at the Oireachtas,” said Dylan.

He is balancing his full-time job by doing workshops with the Innovation and Commercialisation hub at SETU and the Impact Licensing Initiative based in Brussels.

He also thanked SETU and his project supervisor, Dr Enda Dunican from the faculty of science and computing, for their guidance and support throughout the course of his degree.

“My experience at SETU has given me the confidence to enter the next chapter. I look forward to combining creativity with technology in my future roles; whether it’s housing, healthcare, or sustainability. I want to keep building solutions that make a real impact," he concluded.