Dublin City University has been shortlisted in the Most Innovative Transformation category at the Digital Transformation & AI Awards 2025, entering the final evaluation stage last year for a campus navigation initiative that applied interactive 3D digital modelling to the everyday challenge of how students, staff, and visitors find their way around a large and growing university campus.

The university's entry was built around Campus Explorer, an online interactive 3D model of DCU's campuses powered by Bentley Systems' OpenCitiesPlanner. The platform allows users to search for specific locations — classrooms, student facilities, and key campus landmarks — within a virtual environment that translates physical campus geography into an accessible, searchable digital interface.

The Most Innovative Transformation category rewards organisations that demonstrate the most compelling application of innovation within a digital transformation project over the preceding 18 months, with judges evaluating entries on the strength of the innovative concept, the quality of its implementation, the challenges navigated along the way, and the measurable impact delivered as a result.

DCU's submission set out how Campus Explorer moved from concept to functional platform, detailing the technology decisions, implementation milestones, and practical outcomes that defined the project's development. By deploying enterprise-grade urban planning technology in a higher education context, the university demonstrated a willingness to look beyond conventional campus mapping tools and apply a more sophisticated spatial intelligence framework to student and visitor experience.

The judges assessed entries on the clarity of their innovation rationale and the evidence of real-world impact. DCU's shortlisting reflects the panel's view that Campus Explorer represented a genuinely inventive response to a familiar institutional challenge, producing a solution that enhanced campus engagement and navigation in a demonstrable and scalable way.

The Digital Transformation & AI Awards recognises organisations driving meaningful digital change across Irish enterprise and public life. DCU's inclusion on the shortlist places it among the cohort the judging panel identified as setting a credible standard for innovation-led transformation in the Irish education sector.

For more information on finalists, past winners, and judging insights, visit the official Digital Transformation & AI Awards website.