Dr Irene Murtagh is a Lecturer and Principal Investigator 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).

Dr Murtagh’s primary research interests are centred around computational linguistics and natural language processing, incorporating both traditional and neural approaches. In particular sign language modelling and processing, sign language machine translation (recognition and synthesis), sign language computational annotation and linking the divide between the sign language lexicon interface and a sign language avatar. Her research lies at the juncture between artificial intelligence and cognitive technology with an approach of FATE (Fairness, Accountability, Transparency and Ethics) at its core. Dr Murtagh  is a co-founder and current member of the Irish Deaf Research Network. She worked as a PI on the multi award winning EU SignON project (2021-2024), which aimed to bridge the communication gap between Deaf, hard-of-hearing and hearing people through the 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 is also currently a PI on a new Accelerating Research to Commercialisation project (ISL Translate) as part of the recently launched Research Ireland ARC Hub at TU Dublin (2025-2027). 

Dr Murtagh is interested in NLP projects relating to Sign Language (SL) using traditional and neural approaches, SL Machine Translation, SL Recognition, SL Processing, SL Synthesis, SL Annotation.

Natural Language Processing, Computational Linguistics, Sign Language Machine Translation, Sign Language Recognition, Sign Language Processing, Sign Language Synthesis, Sign Language Annotation, Deep Learning, Computer Vision.