The Next Innovation

In this episode of The Next Innovation, host Jennifer Strong wraps up her coverage of SXSW as she sits down with two Irish leaders spearheading the future of Irish tech innovation. Jenny Melia is the CEO of Enterprise Ireland and Minister Robert Troy is the Minister of State at the Department of Finance. Their conversation with Jennifer examines Ireland’s growing role as a booming global tech hub, what it takes to ensure young entrepreneurs have the right resources for their businesses to flourish, and the differences between scaling a startup in the European Union versus the United States.

Episode produced by Situation Room Studios. Executive Producer is Christine Baratta, Senior Producer is Sharon Beriro.

Happy St. Patrick's Day! In this episode of The Next Innovation, host Jennifer Strong takes you to Austin, Texas, for the annual tech conference at SXSW. In this live panel discussion hosted at Ireland House, she sits down with Peri Kadaster, Chief Communications Officer of Nearform, a company that specializes in delivering tailored AI solutions for clients. The panel also features Brenda Jordan, CEO of Sobi Analytics, a company using AI to enable smarter and more efficient financial services.

The discussion examines Ireland's growing role as a global tech powerhouse, the different ways AI can strengthen business operations, and the increasingly important role of human intelligence, hand in hand with AI. Plus, the panelists take questions from audience members.

Episode produced by Situation Room Studios. Executive Producer is Christine Baratta, Senior Producer is Sharon Beriro.

In this episode of The Next Innovation, host Jennifer Strong examines what's driving the latest chip boom, including how AI advancements and national security are incentivizing domestic production of semiconductors. Don Clark, a freelance tech journalist with over two decades of experience covering the semiconductor industry for the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, breaks down how semiconductors are an essential ingredient in all forms of technology, the complex global supply chain of semiconductors, and how factories - or chip fabs, as they're known - are designed and constructed to produce chips.

The episode also features Séamus Guidera, an architect at RKD Architects, a leading Irish architecture firm helping design sustainable semiconductor facilities around the world, Tony Woods, Managing Director of Midland Steel, a steel supplier that works on chip fabs, and Dan McAlister, co-founder and CEO of EIDA Solutions, a software that assesses quality control of chip fabs.

Episode produced by Situation Room Studios. Executive Producer is Christine Baratta, Senior Producer is Sharon Beriro. Additional production support by Global Situation Room.

More than twenty years after the Moneyball phenomenon proved that numbers could win games, sports are entering a new data revolution.

In this episode of The Next Innovation, host Jennifer Strong unpacks how the latest generation of sports tech is powering performance. Martin O’Reilly, CEO and co-founder of Output Sports, shares how his company’s matchbox-sized sensors give coaches like the University of Colorado’s Steve Englehart real-time strength and performance metrics. Engineer Conor Walsh explains how his Harvard lab develops prototypes that adapt to each user, from runners to patients regaining mobility. And Nick Sprague reveals how Orreco uses biomarkers and motion capture to deliver individualized insights to NBA and Premier League players.

Orreco has been named as part of the 10 most innovative sports tech companies by Sports Business Journal.

But can too much tracking undermine the human side of the game? Journalist Zach Schonbrun raises critical questions about the double-edged sword of personalization.

Episode produced by Situation Room Studios.

In this episode of The Next Innovation, host Jennifer Strong speaks with Ethan Barajas and Jamie Palmer of Icarus Robotics, an Irish co-founded start-up, about their work developing dexterous, AI-enabled robots designed to operate alongside astronauts in space. The co-founders reflect on the experiences that led them into robotics, from an early NASA internship to time spent as a test engineer with the Mercedes Formula One team. They discuss how general-purpose robots can handle routine and hazardous tasks aboard the International Space Station, and explain how this may change the way astronauts spend their time in space. They break down the technical and operational challenges of testing robots for microgravity and explain why teleoperation is a crucial step toward fully autonomous physical AI. The conversation also explores what has surprised them most about working in the space industry, why the data they are collecting today could shape the next decade of space exploration, and how New York City’s growing international tech scene is supporting the next generation of engineering startups.