The winners of the 2025 TECS competition were announced at a ceremony in the Luna Theatre in the University of Limerick’s newly opened Student Centre on Wednesday 10 December 2025
Technologists, engineers, creators and scientists from second-level education across the country entered projects to show off their STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Maths) skills in November of 2025.
Arjun Gambhir of Marian College Dublin scooped First Prize for his AI-powered traffic-light system that predicts and manages traffic in real time. He received prize money of €2,000 with his school receiving a further €1,000.
TECS First Prize winner Arjun Gambhir celebrates winning TECS at the University of Limerick ceremony.
5 further awards were also presented during the ceremony. Flourish Olushola collected overall Second Prize of €1,000 for an automated system that helps new growers take care of plants with built-in sensing and control. Coláiste Nano Nagle in Limerick received €500.
Matei Ventuneac received the 6th Year Runner-Up prize for his music-powered language-learning app using real songs and instant lyric translation. Luke Blackwell secured 5th Year Runner-Up with a machine-learning system that identifies unsafe wheelchair surfaces through vibration data. Isabelle Davis was awarded the TY Runner-Up prize for her custom 3D-printed “gearbag essentials” box designed for girls in sport.
A Social Impact award was presented to Aadila Aliu Iyamah of St. Patrick’s College Mayo for her flex-sensor glove and speech system enabling non-verbal people to communicate through gestures.
There was also a Best Team award for Miles Bueno & Sarah Hurley of Coláiste Chiaráin in Croom who designed an app that predicts weather-related power outages with location-based alerts.
TECS is a competition organised by the Immersive Software Engineering programme at the University of Limerick in conjunction with the Patch summer programme for aspiring builders, inventors and leaders. Contestants were tasked with submitting four progress reports on their projects over the month of November. Progress over the four weeks was the main criteria for judging.
The event was hosted by David Neville who graduated from UL in 2012 and is now CEO of Nurture, an E-learning provider that aims to use AI to strengthen the link between teachers and students.
Organisers and winners of TECS 2025
The Immersive Software Engineering (ISE) programme at the University of Limerick is an integrated Bachelors/Masters programme from which students graduate with an MSc in Software Engineering in only four years. The programme has received investment from major tech companies including John Collison, founder of Stripe. A key differentiator between ISE and other software engineering degrees is the innovative approach to student work experience that is used.
Patch is a free summer programme for talented young people who want to work on impactful projects and creative business ideas. Patchers spend seven weeks working on a chosen project, getting to know a group of like-minded peers, and learning from brilliant mentors.
