October 9, 2017

From a bright spark to reality: UOW Pitch winners announced

UOW Pitch competition turns bright ideas into reality. 

From using virtual reality to create social change to the creation of a waterless and cost-effective urinal, University of Wollongong (UOW) staff and students are seeing their bright ideas come to fruition through the UOW Pitch competition.

UOW Pitch provides bright, energetic entrepreneurial-minded staff and students with the opportunity to turn their bright ideas into reality. This year more than $40,000 cash was awarded to a number of staff and students for their innovative ideas at a special presentation last Thursday (5 October).

The competition is designed to build on the success of iAccelerate and further promotes student and staff involvement in entrepreneurialism and the commercialisation of ideas, inventions and research outcomes at UOW.

Applicants were encouraged to submit their ideas, no matter what stage of development they were at, with the best ideas shortlisted and successful entrants invited to training conducted by an industry expert. Short listed applicants were then given the opportunity to present their pitch to a panel of UOW and industry experts.

Andrew Short, Nathan Larkin and Dr. Zengxi Pan took out first prize in the staff section with their idea for software which automatically generates robotic welding programs directly from a 3D model of a part to manufacture.

A wearable sensor and a paired mobile application for balance and fall risk assessment was the brain-child of postgraduate student Maryam Ghahramani, who claimed overall winner in the postgraduate category with her iBalance concept. Maryam also took out the Best Pitch award for her category.

A 3D scanner for education designed by a team of undergraduate students led to first prize in the undergraduate category. Ben Brown, Jason Clissold and Havelock Vaisey came up with the idea of a scanner which enables access for the entire education segment to help increase interest in STEAM areas (Science, Technology, Education, Arts, Mathematics).

A selection of encouragement awards were also given out on the night.

UOW Pitch 2017 Winners

Undergraduate:
Winner: Ben Brown, Jason Clissold and Havelock Vaisey - 3D Scanner for Education - 3D scanner for education, enabling access for the entire education segment to help increase interest in STEAM areas (Science, Technology, Education, Arts, Mathematics).
Runner Up: Thomas Opie – REAL - Utilising virtual reality (VR) as an empathic medium, changing perspectives and creating social change.
Best Pitch: Samantha Dewhurst and Elysse Turner – Here - An app for finding, saving and sharing outdoor experiences. Where will it take you?
Encouragement Award: Bilal Arshad - ALSS (Autonomous Land Supervision System) - On a mission to protect Australia, using drones to track bush and forest fires.
Encouragement Award: Vanja Nikolovski - Portable Micro River Current Turbine - A small-scale, portable renewable energy turbine that can be used in remote locations where access to running water is available.

Postgraduate:
Winner: Maryam Ghahramani – iBalance - A wearable sensor and a paired mobile application for balance and fall risk assessment.
Runner Up: Dan Yang - Protective Clothes for Teeth - An invisible but powerful protective coating of functionalized silica dioxide nano particles to prevent the formation of dental plaque.
Best Pitch: Maryam Ghahramani – iBalance - A wearable sensor and a paired mobile application for balance and fall risk assessment.
Encouragement Award: Saeid Ezani - Waterless Urinal - An eco-friendly, hygienic urinal offering significantly less cost in maintenance and water consumption.
Encouragement Award: Hafiz Ali Asadullah - Smart Cricket Bat - An affordable cricket bat with touch sensors to improve the accuracy in umpire decisions.

Staff:
Winner: Andrew Short, Nathan Larkin and Dr. Zengxi Pan - Automated Programming for Robotic Welding - Software which automatically generates robotic welding programs directly from a 3D model of a part to manufacture.
Runner Up: Colin Bleasdale - Quality control of Glasswool Insulation using Terahertz Radiation - An affordable and robust technology for the monitoring of glasswool insulation during the manufacturing process not currently available to industry.
Best Pitch: Andrea Kornhoff, Fran Walder and Oliver Batten - Playce - An app that allows international students to engage with orientation information and enables social connectedness through game design, pre and post-arrival to Australia.
Best Pitch: Tim Boniface - Enhancing play-based learning in the Early Start Discovery Space using beacon technology - An app for the Early Start Discovery Space that uses beacon technology to provide parents and carers with location based information and questioning techniques to improve the quality of interaction, play and learning between an adult and their child.