Two Trinity inventions feature in TIME Magazine’s Best Inventions of 2025 list

Posted on: 22 October 2025

Professor Conor McGinn and his team at spinout robotics firm Akara featured thanks to their AI sensor, which combines thermal sensing technology and AI to automatically detect key events inside operating rooms.

The sensor started out as an internal tool used to verify that Akara’s robots could clean rooms faster and reduce room turnover times, but became a stand-alone product last year.

This success represents the second time the team’s work has featured in the prestigious list, after “social” robot Stevie – designed to support patients in nursing homes – starred in the 2019 rendition.

Prof. McGinn said: “We’re delighted for our work to be recognized by TIME magazine and honoured to appear alongside so many incredible companies and inventions. Reaching this milestone wouldn’t have been possible without the efforts of an exceptional team and our partners, who are all deeply committed to Akara’s mission of developing tools that support nurses and empower hospitals to operate more efficiently.” 

“Although Akara has since spun out, Trinity has remained a vital partner through its internship programmes and ongoing collaboration. Many of the formative skills that continue to shape our work today, from user-centred, need-finding methods, to the deep technical expertise behind our products, trace back to the research foundations established in Trinity’s School of Engineering.”

Also spotlighted this year is a technology developed by Professor Anthony Robinson and colleagues, which became the key element on which spinout Nexalus was founded. Nexalus sealed-server liquid cooling technology integrates with excessive-heat-producing electronics in data centre servers, to cool, capture and reuse this thermal energy, while also increasing efficiency and reducing costs.

Specifically, Nexalus Liquid Cooling helps data centre operators tackle the perennial problem of keeping cool, while reducing energy consumption, facilitating heat recovery, and doing so in a smaller data centre footprint.

Prof. Robinson said: “The recognition by TIME is a testament to the innovative spirit fostered at Trinity and the power of collaboration between academia and industry.”

“Nexalus started from fundamental research and has grown into technology that can make data centres more efficient, sustainable, and capable of meeting future computing demands.”

Vincent Coole, Director of KnEx (Knowledge Exchange) at Trinity, said: “We are delighted to see both Akara and Nexalus achieve this incredible recognition, and we wish them well in their quest to commercialise these outstanding products. This success will help drive our more recently formed and emerging Trinity spinouts to strive for and obtain global reach.”

You can read the full Time Magazine list of 300 Best Inventions of 2025 on the TIME website.

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