UWS IP Evaluation Panel September 2012

 

Some of the most innovative minds at University of Western Sydney (UWS) were seen at this year’s second IP Evaluation Panel, which was held on the 7^th September with great success. These talented researchers, both staff and students, were able to present their ideas to a well rounded panel of experts in the hopes of securing protection and/or funding for their research. This panel assesses the commercial potential of ground-breaking research coming out of the University, with the aim of assisting any exciting research to progress from “idea” to “reality”.

 

This panel saw a range of presentations from the School of Science and Health covering topics as diverse as chromatography, nerve repair and regeneration and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). The panel were also treated to a presentation by Richard Meagher from the School of Social Sciences and Psychology; an emerging area of commercial interest and a key center of research here at UWS.

 

We were fortunate to again have the expertise of UWS academics and industry to evaluate our research potential. This latest panel stimulated very robust discussion of the exciting technologies and ideas. The  diverse backgrounds of the panelists allowed for comprehensive understanding, analysis and recommendations. Our thanks to the dynamic panel members of the day Richard Gerstenberg (ManSysCo), Daniel McKinley (Philips Ormon Fitzpatrick), Anthony Ujhazy (UW Consulting), Prof Andre Van Schaik (UWS MARCS Institute), Prof Roger Dean (UWS MARCS Institute), Prof Clive Smallman (UWS School of Business), Gar Jones (UWS Research Services), Peter Malecki (UWS Commercial Lawyer), Prof Deborah Sweeney (Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research) and Dr Kathryn Sunn (UWSI Chair).

 

This blog will keep you up to date with progress of the inventions as they continue along the exciting path to commercialisation. If you are interested in licensing or development opportunities with these or other UWS inventions please refer to our web site: UWS Innovation  or contact us on ip@uws.edu.au.

 

Our next IP Evaluation Panel will be held on Friday 16^th of November 2012.

UWS Student wins NASSCOM Innovation Award at cebit

Avtar Gil (third right), Sachin Pilot (centre), NASSCOM President, Som Mittal (left), NSW MP, Parliamentary Secretary to the Deputy Premier and for Asia-Pacific Trade, Peter Toole (2nd left), NSW Minister for Finance and Services, Greg Pearce (2nd right), and Anu Agrawal (right) with Winners of the 2012 NASSCOM Innovation Student Awards

UWS nominated three teams from the UWS School for Computing, Engineering and Mathematics for the 2012 NASSCOM Innovation Award. Jarred Mack and Jonathan Weightman participated with their real time 3D application “LiquidWeb Experiment” and Walied Askarzai pitched his idea of “Artificial Management”.

The third project presented by Dr Avtar Gil, a medical practitioner for more than 25 years and PhD student at UWS, won the award with his innovative program called STEP ON IT. This mobile application is an eHealth solution that provides real time feedback on key health measurements.

The inaugural NASSCOM Innovation Student Awards were presented by The Hon. Sachin Pilot, Minister of State in the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India, The Hon Greg Pearce, Minister of Finance, NSW and Mr Paul Toole, MP and Parliamentary Secretary to the Deputy Premier and for Asia-Pacific Trade.

The Awards were judged by an independent judging panel, with students presenting their concepts to leaders in the corporate sector. Mr. Anu Agrawal, Chairman of NASSCOM Australia said, “We are privileged to recognise the high level of innovation from students of Australia’s universities. The content and quality of the presentations to our judges was excellent and demonstrated many fine examples of originality.”

Students were supported by their supervisors and UWS Innovation. The Innovation team provided pitching guidance, rehearsals and advice on how to structure their application. The outcome reflects UWS’s strong market and community orientation. Through our activities, UWS Innovation is building a reputation for supporting delivery of pioneering research which results in practical, commercially accessible products and processes. To find out more click on the link to UWS Innovation  or send us an email to ip@uws.edu.au

UWS IP Evaluation Panel May 2012

The University of Western Sydney's (UWS) growing innovation capability was on show again at this year’s first Intellectual Property (IP) Evaluation Panel, which took place 18 May 2012 at the Female Orphan School, Parramatta Campus.

The UWS IP Evaluation Panel assists staff and students with their research, which may require protection and/or investment. UWS staff and students have the opportunity through UWS Innovation to present their innovations to the panel for assessment of patentability and commercial potential.

UWS Innovation was delighted to welcome Professor Jan Reid, the Vice Chancellor as an observer as well as our eminent IP panel comprised of UWS academics, industry experts and a patent attorney.  The broad expertise across the panel provides thorough analysis, commentary and recommendations to the presenters. Taylor McDonald from the School of Business was the student representative.  She sat on the panel as a non-voting member.

During the day,   Dr Anton Bogdanovych and Dr Chris Stanton from the School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics presented their real time controlled robot to the panel, Professor Andrew Shalliker and Michelle Camenzuli from the School of Science and Health presented their research where they have developed a single step reaction chromatography column and Mark Trudgett from the School of Science and Health presented a prototype instrument/detector for use in the field of chromatography.

Students from the School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics Jonathan Weightman and Jarred Mack, presented their LiquidWeb Experiment.  This was invaluable to the group as it was great preparation before their presentation at Australia’s CeBIT 2012 expo.

The panel was excited by the technologies presented which was strongly indicated by the great level of healthy discussion throughout the day. Our thanks to the dynamic panel members; Dr Siew-Lee Hew (Patent Attorney, FB Rice), Paul Levins (Intellectual Ventures), Derek Robinson (Agritechnology), Gar Jones (Director, Office of Research Services), Dr Ranjith Liyana-Pathirana (School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics), Prof Clive Smallman (School of Business), Taylor McDonald (non-voting Student Representative) and Dr Fiona Cameron (UWS Innovation, Chair).

This blog will keep you up to date with progress of the inventions as they move along the exciting path to commercialisation. If you are interested in licensing or development opportunities with these or other UWS inventions please refer to our web site: UWS Innovation and/or contact us on ip@uws.edu.au.

Landmark copyright case - iiNet

The iiNet case is finally over with the High Court upholding the Full Federal Court decision that iiNet is not liable for the copyright infringing actions of its customers.

Background:
The film studios and the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) claimed that iiNet was in breach of section 86 of the Copyright Act by authorising their users of their internet services to communicate infringing material to the public online.  Apparently authorisation was said to occur when iiNet failed to suspend or terminate its customers' accounts, which would block their access to its services, upon notice by the AFACT of copyright infringing conduct.

iiNet responded that it could not be inferred that it was authorising the actions of its customers, by acting to suspend following receipt of the AFACT notices. The trial and Federal Court judgments were conflicting so AFACT and the film studios appealed to the High Court for resolution...

Most people think Intellectual Property is only Patents.  IP is patents, trade marks, copyright, know-how...   Copyright is important and valuable across all disciplines.

Feel free to contact UWS Innovation with any questions your might have.You can also email us: ip@usw.edu.au

UWS Sculpture Award 2012

Last Friday, the UWS Vice Chancellor Prof. Janice Reid opened the biannual University of Western Sydney Sculpture awards and announced the winner, Louisa Dawson for her scupture New Arrivals. The VC phoned Ms Dawson in London during the opening ceremony to tell her the exciting news.
The sculpture awards have become a real  cultural event in the Campbelltown region. More can be found at http://virtualtours.uws.edu.au/sculptureaward/sculptureaward2012#audio. Excerpt below:
 The campus landscape - open space, rolling hills, lakes and vegetation - is an ideal setting to display large outdoor sculptures. The UWS Sculpture Award showcases major works by significant Australian artists, some of whom have created sculptures especially for the University's Campbelltown Campus.
The UWS Sculpture Award and Exhibition aims to establish closer links between the University and artists, and engage with the community by providing a valuable educational and cultural resource, as well as enhancing the campus environment for teaching and learning.

If you are interested with engaging with UWS for Innovations and access to leading researchers please contact as at UWS Innovation ip@uws.edu.au .

StartupHouse: Aussie Entrepreneur in Silicon Valley

While passing through San Francisco on the return trip from the AUTM conference in March, Fiona Cameron, Associate Director Innovation at UWS, had the pleasure of meeting Elias Bizannes at the still- in-development StartupHouse buildings.

Over coffee at a local cafe Elias shared his story with me and his enthusiasm to make a difference in the world through entrepreneurial ventures. Elias is a Sydney boy and has already enjoyed silicon valley success with the StartupBus program. Elias is working tirelessly to set up the bare bones of StartupHouse in San Francisco, and it should be launching soon as the lean mean location to catapult tomorrow’s entrepreneurs into “overnight success” or at least provide guidance to head in the right direction.

Elias’s enthusiasm is catching and he kindly agreed to the short video attached. If you tossing around whether or not to start out with your big idea, have a look at the video and it should excite you to get out and do it! Follow the link to NSW Government and you might even be eligible for some support. http://www.business.nsw.gov.au/assistance-and-support/grants/business/startuphouse

UWS Innovation is keen to support innovation and
entrepreneurship at UWS ip@uws.edu.au.

Knotty Problems

Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Associate Professor Andrew Francis from the School of Computing and Mathematics is using mathematical modelling to explore biological systems. This research is funded by the Australian Research Council.

‘Mathematics has made numerous significant contributions to our understanding of the evolution of biological systems,’ says Associate Professor Francis. ‘Both algebra and biology have developed at an unprecedented pace over the last 30 years. The structural approach at the core of algebra has long found applications in sciences such as physics and analytical chemistry but only in a limited way, so far, in biology. I will be modelling DNA cutting and rejoining as operations in an algebraic setting. The goal is to enable scientists to address certain specific biological problems in new ways, provide new tools and ways of thinking for biologists, and bring new problems in algebra to the mathematical community. In turn, this could lead to a better understanding of such problems as cross-species infections, and the development and proliferation of antibiotic resistant bacteria.’

The research will use algebraic methods such as knot theory and group theory to develop models of evolution in bacteria, the dominant form of life on our planet. These models will allow scientists to understand the evolutionary processes giving rise to the richly diverse genetic structures we observe today. Such processes cannot be studied directly in the laboratory because the time scales are too long. Mathematical methods using the latest genetic data provide a way to address these questions. Developing accurate models that explain the present diversity may also help to predict the consequences of specific genetic changes in bacteria, and has the potential to affect the way we do both algebra and biology.
This research will demonstrate new ways in which computational and mathematical power can be applied to novel questions in living systems. Algebraic methods can give biologists novel ways to deal with large amounts of data in the study of evolution due to genetic mutations.
http://www.uws.edu.au/computing_mathematics

if you are interested in engaging with UWS researchers, licensing opportunities www.uws.edu.au/innovate  and UWS Innovation contact us on ip@uws.edu.au.