IndustrialAUTOMATA

About

Industrial Automata is an independent technical advisory and research practice in Ireland, founded by Dylan Foley.

Dylan Foley

I work where technology meets the problems people actually have. My background runs across information technology, archaeology and artificial intelligence. That's an unusual combination, and it shapes how I approach systems: as something to investigate carefully before deciding what to change.

I studied archaeology and information technology as a single combined degree, so I never learned them as separate subjects. I've spent the twenty-five years since fusing them. Even then I was drawn to machine intelligence. I took artificial intelligence as an elective in 2002, and it earned me the only A of my academic career.

I went on to spend around fifteen years in archaeological fieldwork, including running my own consultancy, Archaeological Investigations. (The initials AI were entirely deliberate, long before AI meant what it does now.) Field archaeology teaches you to read a messy, incomplete record and reach a conclusion you can defend. It's the same discipline I bring to investigating technical problems.

  • MSc in Artificial Intelligence and Big Data, Atlantic Technological University, Letterkenny, 2024
  • BA (Combined Honours) in Archaeology and Information Technology, University of Galway, 2002
  • Around fifteen years of archaeological fieldwork, including running the consultancy Archaeological Investigations
  • Published research: IEEE Irish Signals and Systems Conference, 2025 (details)

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-1230-4477

How we work

"We" on this site means a team of one human and several AI collaborators. I lead the investigation, make the judgement calls and take responsibility for the advice. AI helpers research, draft, build and check alongside me. It's a working model we think will become normal, and the principles page explains why.

In practice, that means a small practice can take on careful, well-documented work that would once have needed a larger team, without hiding who is accountable for it.

Work in the open

Most of what I build is public, so you can judge the work directly rather than take my word for it. My GitHub is the closest thing to a portfolio:

Get in touch