DuPont Innovation Awards
The 2010 - 2011 Dupont Australasian Innovation Awards were held in Melbourne last Friday (the 13th - quite appropriate timing really for the coming together of some of the most innovative and transformational ideas and organisations across New Zealand and Australia with a black tie event). We were back again as a finalist this time with Encircle Compression Therapy developed by Locus Research and The Merino Company (TMC) which the judging panel had selected as one of the top three medical innovations.
In the tradition of DuPont innovation, the DuPont Australia and New Zealand Innovation Awards recognise the commercialisation of outstanding science and technology. It’s a truly fantastic initiative run every two years celebrating the advancements made within the following five areas:
The awards programme also recognises outstanding achievements made by students with the CSIRO Young Innovator Award, and Chair of the Board & Chief Executive Officer of Dupont Ellen J. Kullman awards the overall top prize (known as the CEO Award).
In 2004 the Circadian Sleep System, a product we developed for leading bedding manufacturer
Design Mobel, had been selected as a finalist so we were familiar with the programme. Unfortunately Encircle, a new therapy that we developed to help in safely preventing and treating chronic venous disorders, was pipped at the post by
SIM, a remote incontinence monitoring system by Simavita which won the Medical and Healthcare Innovation Category.
Key highlights for me from the awards included BlueGen, a remarkable electricity generator developed by Ceramic Fuel Cells which is set to transform the domestic natural energy generation sector, and well as two great little innovations which solve everyday problems; the Connex light fitting by 300K Enterprises, and the FLAT hydraulic leveling and stabilisation technology by Flat.BlueGen, the ultimate winner of the Dupont CEO award for 2010/2011, is an Australian designed mini power station for homes and small commercial buildings. About the size of a dishwasher, BlueGen uses ceramic fuel cells to convert natural gas into electricity and heat for hot water. The product has achieved the world’s highest electrical efficiency in small scale electricity generation, delivering very large carbon savings and lower energy costs.
Connex is a quick disconnect - reconnect light fitting that allows the safe replacement of pole mounted lights in the field, eliminating the risk of electric shock without the need to turn the power off. You would have never guessed but changing a pole mounted light bulb (i.e. most of the urban and commercial light bulbs are pole mounted) takes a lot of effort and paperwork due to health and safety and legislation (so it does take ten men to change a light bulb after all!). Connex allows light fittings to be replaced in a matter of minutes thereby reducing maintenance cost without any risk of electric shock.
And then Flat, the people’s choice award, is a hydraulic levelling and stabilisation technology that smoothly and efficiently allows table legs to adjust to the surface it is placed on, locking the legs and keeping the table levelled and steady. How many times have you been at a cafe or restaurant and the table you are sitting at ‘rocks’ and you have had to put a coaster or chuck of some sort under one of the table legs to stop the rocking? Well, this situation became too much for the developer of Flat, Tony Pike, and he set about solving the problem for good. Several years later we can all be impressed by his work and say that the coasters have been saved for good – no more rocky tables! Thanks Tony.
Other notable innovations included the Brandon MacDonald’s work on fabricating low cost solar cells using nanocrystal inks at the University of Melbourne, and Audra Lukman work producing metallic nanoparticles using plant seed exudates from the University of Sydney.
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