Australian Innovation Challenge 2013 winners announced

Eight of the country’s best innovators were recognised last week in the third annual The Australian Innovation Challenge. The challenge is run by The Australian in partnership with Shell Australia with support from the Department of Industry and Innovation Australia.

Dr Michelle McIntosh, of Monash University’s Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, was awarded the $25,000 overall prize, as well as the Health category - one of seven professional categories worth $5000. Dr McIntosh led a team of scientists in devising an inhalant form of a hormone that reduces haemorrhage in women after childbirth.

The current treatment method involves the injection of the hormone oxytocin, which is limited in developing countries lacking in refrigeration, needles, syringes and trained medical staff. The aerosol, dry powder form of oxytocin is thus hoped to make childbirth a safer experience for all.

Minerals and Energy

Geophysicist Dr Stephan Thiel, of the University of Adelaide’s Institute for Mineral and Energy Resources (IMER), won the Minerals and Energy category for a low-cost, low-impact approach to assessing the impacts of coal seam gas exploration and production on groundwater.

The process of fracking involves pumping water at high pressure into rocks to fracture them and release coal-seam gas, but farmers fear this will affect the aquifers overlying gas reserves. Dr Thiel and his colleagues have found a way to map the injected water through its impact on Earth’s natural electric and magnetic fields across the extraction sites.

Environment, Agriculture and Food

Nigel Preston, CSIRO’s Food Futures Flagship director, and his team have won the Environment, Agriculture and Food category for the development of the Novacq prawn feed product - an additive found to make farmed prawns grow faster and healthier, with no fish products in their diet.

Prawns were found to consume marine microbes, the smallest organisms in the marine environment. The Novacq product is made by transplanting those marine microbes into ponds covering several hectares. This takes the pressure off stocks in the wild, both of prawns and fish that are a usual source of prawn food.

Education

Malcolm Sambridge of The Australian Seismometers in Schools Network has won the Education category for an outreach program to place geoscientific equipment in high schools. The network is used to teach students about geology, physics, engineering and information technology.

With 40 seismometers deployed so far, students have been able to directly observe the passage of seismic waves from hundreds of earthquakes. The real-time information is passed on to international data centres responsible for monitoring seismic activity.

ICT

Mark Hedley and colleagues at CSIRO won the ICT category for the development of the WASP (Wireless Ad-hoc System for Positioning) - a GPS-like wireless tracking application that works underground and indoors. Fixed wireless transceivers at the site being monitored periodically transmit ‘beacon’ signals that are detected by mobile, credit card-sized transceivers carried by people, vehicles or moving machinery.

The system’s sophisticated electronics and software analyse the radio signals to infer the mobile transceiver’s position with a resolution of less than a metre. It is thus suitable for industries such as mining.

Manufacturing and Hi-Tech Design

Joe Wagner and his company were awarded in Manufacturing and Hi-Tech Design for the development of ‘earth-friendly concrete’. The concrete is based on a cement-like material made using slag, a by-product of smelting in iron and steel making, and fly ash, a waste product of coal-fired power stations, as a binder to replace Portland cement.

Wagners invested eight years into research and development at its Toowoomba laboratory to formulate its alternative binder. It is said to have been tested on key durability performance indicators and resists attack by high sulfate and chloride levels in groundwater.

Community Services

Lisa Clark of Melbourne-based charity Swags for Homeless was awarded the Community Services category. Clark and her husband developed the Backpack Bed through the charity - a product which looks like a backpack but rolls out into a waterproof, warm and dry portable bed.

The product weighs only 2.9 kg and has a 190 cm built-in mattress with silver-foil insulation backing. There are three zipped mesh windows, a hidden lockable pocket and multiple storage zones. It is not only suitable for the homeless but also for camping, children’s sleepovers and disaster response.

Backyard Innovation

Open to the public, the Backyard Innovation category carries a prize of $10,000. This year’s winner is Trevor Powell for the development of a concentrating solar thermal collector - a device about the size of an average bedroom wall which tracks the sun and focuses solar energy to reach temperatures of 35°C.

The collector has the potential to be used for electricity generation, desalination, industrial processes and more. Furthermore, the heat can be re-used over several cycles.

The winners were congratulated by Minister for Industry Ian Macfarlane, who claimed, “Many will go on to commercialisation and be among industry’s next success stories, creating economic and social benefits for Australia.”

Macfarlane said the ideas, processes and products from all finalists were an inspiration to business and industry.