Over 88 undergraduate students at RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences have taken part in the 2026 Student Innovation Challenge, developing innovative solutions to pressing healthcare challenges through creativity, entrepreneurship and collaborative problem-solving.

The Student Innovation Challenge forms part of the RCSI Research Summer School, providing undergraduate RCSI students with the opportunity to get hands on with projects in research and innovation.

Led by Dr Aoife Gallagher, Head of Innovation at RCSI and Dr Shona Pfeiffer, Lecturer in the Department of Physiology and Medical Physics, the Student Innovation Challenge encourages students to apply their academic knowledge to real world healthcare problems. Working alongside RCSI Challenge Leaders, participants develop their analytical thinking and innovation capabilities while developing an understanding of how innovations progress from concept to implementation.

Over the course of four weeks, students worked in teams to address one of two healthcare challenges. The programme culminates at the Student Innovation Challenge pitch event, where the selected finalists present their ideas to a judging panel of venture capitalists and industry experts.

This year’s challenge leaders, Dr Conor McCandless and Dr Richard Farnan, invited students to explore questions in the key research areas of neurology and opthamology. The challenge titles were:

• Dr Conor McCandless: Neurology – symptom tracking for TBI patients
• Dr Richard Farnan: Ophthalmology – delivery system for eyedrops

At the pitch event yesterday, team TBInsight, led by Dr Conor McCandless, was announced as the winner of the Student Innovation Challenge 2026 after impressing the judging panel with their proposal. They designed a low patient burden bedside device to help patients track symptoms after traumatic brain injury.

Commenting on the ideas pitched by this year’s cohort, Dr Gallagher said: "The Student Innovation Challenge continues to demonstrate the creativity, curiosity and problem-solving ability of our students. The ideas pitched today have real potential to improve patient care and health outcomes, and it has been inspiring to see the ambition and entrepreneurial mindset all our participants brought to the programme. Congratulations to everyone who took part.”