IP Evaluation Panel

Image: (Left to right) Gal Winter and Dr Chris Curtin (standing), Dr Christian Kroos and Prof Oscar Hauptman (seated)











The University of Western Sydney's (UWS) growing innovation capability was showcased at the first of this year’s Intellectual Property (IP) Evaluation Panels, which took place on May 3rd at the historic Female Orphan School, Parramatta South Campus.

During the day, UWS PhD student Scott Willis presented his idea for nanoscale continuous flow separation devices and Gal Winter, a student of UWS co-supervised by Dr Chris Curtain at the Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI) presented her idea of a high throughput system for detecting odours in fermented foodstuffs. Both of these inventions stimulated very robust discussion from the panel.

Gal is seen here on the left, along with Dr Chris Curtin from AWRI along with other UWS participants Dr Christian Kroos (MARCS) seated left and Prof Oscar Hauptman (Centre for Innovation Studies UWS) seated right.

A presentation from Dr Anton Bogdanovych from the School of Mathematics & Computing on his recently reported invention (http://uwsinnovation.blogspot.com/2011/04/artificial-intelligence-takes-virtual.html) described his exciting, ground breaking artificial intelligence technology, with the panel providing valuable input on its current status and potential.

The panel itself consisted of a number of prominent people from within the IT and science innovation industries, as well as some of UWS’s prominent and up-and-coming academic minds. Mr Matthew Lang, a partner of Deloitte Consulting and Dr Stephan Wellink provided valuable external views to the discussion. With combined expertise in management consulting and scientific technology, they were able to provide valuable insight into the commercialisation potential of a new invention from Assoc/Prof Andrew Shalliker from our School of Natural Sciences that should revolutionise the efficiency of current separation technologies.

Ekta Nankani, a UWS PhD student in the School of Mathematics & Computing, sat on this recent panel as the non-voting student member, and was an active contributor to the discussions.

The latest panel stimulated very robust discussion of the exciting technologies. Our thanks to the dynamic panel members of the day; Dr Siew-Lee Hew (Patent Attorney, FB Rice), Prof Oscar Hauptman (CoB), Ekta Nankani (HDR Student, Maths & Computing), Dr. Antonio Lauto (CHS), Gar Jones (Director, ORS), Matthew Lang (Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu), Dr Christian Kroos (CoA-MARCS), Stephan Wellink (Stephan Wellink & Associates Pty Ltd), and Dr Fiona Cameron (UWS I&C, Chair).

Other IP Evaluation Panel dates for 2011 are:

»» Tuesday, 5 July 2011

»» Friday, 9 September 2011

»»Friday, 11 November 2011

Please contact us on ip@uws.edu.au if you have an interest in research or commercialisation of university IP.

Artificial intelligence takes a virtual leap

Image: Virtual agents interacting in the virtual world of Uruk








On February 16, NBC (A US television network) aired an episode of “Final Jeopardy” featuring Watson, an IBM supercomputer. Watson took on two human champions and the machine recorded a resounding victory over its human competitors. Watson’s performance has caused scientists, academics and businesspeople to ponder what future applications and business solutions could be addressed by such artificial intelligence (AI). Because of the difficulty and lack of success so far in building physical robots, there has been a tendency towards computer simulation where virtual agents in a virtual reality world attempt to achieve intelligent behaviour.

Important research in this field is happening in 3D virtual worlds such as Second Life, where they are becoming a new popular medium for a vast variety of so-called “serious games” applications. These games tackle problems like education, commerce, tourism etc. Significant advances are being made and some people are now wondering if the rise of AI platforms like Watson and those incorporated into programs like Second Life will mean the end of the live business agent model in the contact centre and customer care industry.

UWS research being conducted by Anton Bogdanovich is at the forefront of this field, and it is hoped that his research into the ability of a virtual agent to better interact in a dynamic virtual world will lead to better and more life-like AI. Anton’s work on the virtual city called Uruk recently placed 3rd at the 2011 Federal Virtual Worlds Challenge held by the US Army Research Laboratory – Simulation & Training Technology Centre, and we congratulate him on this great success.

UWS has filed a provisional patent based on Anton’s research and we encourage companies interested in co-development or commercial applications to contact Dr. Stephan Golla on 9685 9853 or email him at s.golla@uws.edu.au