Monday, August 30, 2010

SIMS Upgrade to Digital






UWS’s Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometer (SIMS) is the only instrument of its kind on the east coast of Australia, and we are excited to see that the university’s substantial investment in upgrading this cutting edge equipment is progressing as planned.

SIMS bombards a beam of ions at test materials which in turn dislodge other (secondary) ions from the material’s surface. These secondary ions provide a very accurate reading of chemical composition at and near the surface of the test material. SIMS has been used for research applications as diverse as studying toxic trace elements contained in coal and ash samples from power stations to understanding photo-catalytic semiconductor materials capable of solar-powered production of hydrogen fuels from seawater.

The SIMS is now in what looks like thousands of parts while it undergoes a major digital upgrade to make it a core component of the University’s National Environment and Energy Research Facilities.

The SIMS manufacturer, Cameca, has sent their guys from France to transform the analogue SIMS into its Digital future. ReMarthias, the fair-haired guy, is the engineer undertaking the upgrade works and sorting out the new electronics whereas Pierre, the dark-haired guy, is here specifically to dismantle and clean and reassemble the primary ion column.

The UWS SIMS operator, or the red-haired guy (!) David is seen looking useful with a screw driver.

We will keep you posted on progress as the renewal comes together over the next month or so.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

TechVouchers


Image: Mass Spectrometry equipment available at UWS.


In terms of fostering local innovation, the New South Wales (NSW) government’s TechVouchers scheme goes a long way in assisting business to be able to access high tech public sector research equipment. The University of Western Sydney has an ever expanding resource base of high tech research equipment and local SME’s will be able to benefit hugely from this scheme. With the significant growth that the Greater Western Sydney region is experiencing, we hope that a parallel increase in innovative capacity may also be experienced with the aid of some of our world class research equipment.

Companies or research partners interested in taking advantage of the TechVouchers scheme to support access to UWS scientific equipment can find more information at the NSW government's website.


Sunday, August 15, 2010

IP Evaluation Panel

IP Panel student representative Patrick O’Doherty (right) explains some of his panel comments to a patent attorney and UWS Innovation & Consulting in more detail.
Pictured: Robert Burnside (UWS I&C), William Hird (Patent Attorney, Davies Collison Cave), Patrick O-Doherty (PhD Student)



The University of Western Sydney's (UWS) growing innovation capability was on show again at this year’s second Intellectual Property (IP) Evaluation Panel, which took place in July at Frogmore House, Werrington North Campus.

The UWS IP Evaluation Panel assists staff and students with progression of intellectual property which may require protection and/or investment. UWS staff and students have the opportunity through UWS Innovation & Consulting to present their innovations to the panel for assessment of patentability and commercial potential.
Patrick O’Doherty, a UWS PhD student in the School of Biomedical Science, sat on this recent panel as a non-voting member, and was a very active contributor to the discussions. Patrick joined an eminent panel of UWS academics, industry experts and a patent attorney, who were able to provide advice on the cutting edge research, the IP potential and interest levels from the pharmaceutical industry.

During the day, Dr. Antonio Lauto from the School of Biomedical Sciences presented his idea for a novel medical device to the panel and Dr Adriyan Milev and Dr Kamali Kannangara presented their research on a new carbon nanotube production technique. Both of these inventions received support for initial IP investment from UWS.

Presentations by Adj. A/ Prof. Minh Nguyen re-affirmed Innovation & Consulting’s decision to invest in his potentially ground breaking juice and dairy concentration technology, with the panel providing valuable input on its current status and potential.

The latest panel stimulated very robust discussion of the exciting technologies. Our thanks to the dynamic panel members of the day; William Hird (Patent Attorney, Davies Collison Cave), Assoc.Prof. Terry Sloan (CoB), Patrick O’Doherty (HDR Student, Biomed), Dr. Gary Dennis (CHS), Gar Jones (Director, ORS), Dr. Phil Kearney (Merck Sharp & Dohme (Australia) Pty. Limited), Assoc.Prof. Hart Cohen (CoA), Dr Cathy Foley (CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering), Dr Fiona Cameron (UWS I&C, Chair). This blog will keep you up to date with progress of the inventions as they move along the exciting path to commercialisation.


The remaining IP Evaluation Panel dates for 2010 are:

»» Friday, 8 October 2010

»» Friday, 5 November 2010