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The Australian National University not only provides well-trained graduates for local business, it contributes to the local economy through innovation, cooperation and partnerships.
ANU continues to attract some of the best students and staff from Australia and around the world. A culture of discovery and inquiry informs all aspects of research and education, including the University’s connections with the world’s top institutions.
That culture of discovery provides a raft of opportunities for engagement with the business community.
Staff and students are given an opportunity to turn innovative ideas into business opportunities through the Innovation ANU program, which began in 2008.
The inaugural program ran over five months and culminated in an awards ceremony that saw over $50,000 in prizes awarded to the best of the business proposals. Participants established business groups, pitched ideas and learned more about being an entrepreneur through useful seminars.
The program was the brainchild of a group of five PhD students from the ANU College of Engineering and Computer Science and was developed with the ANU Office of Commercialisation.
PhD student at ANU Lachlan Blackhall, one of the originators, said the program had demonstrated the innovative business ideas of staff and students at the University.
“We had more than 100 people attend the seminars and 20 teams formally registered their ideas. The program was a huge success – there were all sorts of great ideas from every area of the University.”
Business proposals developed as part of Innovation ANU included a new method for finding gold using earthquakes, a way to enhance the safe and effective use of inhalers for asthmatics and a program to promote appreciation of the musical harp.
At a gala presentation ceremony late last year there were three ideas that really grabbed the judges’ attention.
One of the major awards went to Dr Steven Weiss, a PhD student from The John Curtin School of Medical Research at ANU. Dr Weiss is developing a new use for a known drug that could prevent the abnormal heart rhythms that arise from heart attacks, and reduce the amount of cellular damage caused.
The drug could potentially be offered to both acute patients who are in the throes of a heart attack or undergoing heart surgery and chronic patients who are at risk of heart arrhythmia or who have survived a heart attack.
Weiss says if the treatment is successful in clinical trials, it could help millions of people and generate billions of dollars.
Another award winner was One Corp – a business formed by Vicky Chen, Jonathan Oh, Xiao Jing Yeoh and Katy Zhu, all colleagues at Fenner Hall. One Corp impressed the judges with a plan to revolutionise the way commercial transaction receipts are managed, meaning that the days of the paper docket might be numbered.
The online service would make record keeping and tax return filing as simple as clicking a mouse, by allowing users to collate and manage all their receipts electronically. Users would register their bank cards so that each transaction could be traced back to the individual.
The team are now finalising patent details for their concept and holding exploratory meetings with financial institutions. They say that winning an Innovation ANU award was a motivator.
“It’s a big boost to our confidence,” Vicky Chen said. “We’ve spoken to one or two friends about it, and they’ve had various opinions. The fact that the judges are professionals means we’ve now got more confidence in ourselves.”
Judges also liked the plans put forward by International Business student Mark Krivo and recent ANU graduate Dr Sabrina Caldwell. The pair had an idea to develop an online photo storage website which would also offer new ways of assessing the reliability of photos, the preservation of images and channels for low-cost, high-quality easily accessible photo printing.
Dr Caldwell said the experience of the Innovation ANU program has been a great help.
“The program was extremely valuable. It was a great way to move from the theoretical idea of what should be done to a course of action creating something commercially viable. After the program Mark and I both moved on to the Pyksis Commercialisation Program. That’s a credit to Innovation ANU too; they had a next step, a place for us to go. It wasn’t ‘off you go little ducklings and fly!’”
ANU Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Lawrence Cram, one of the panel of four judges, said he was delighted with the participation level and creativity of the entrants.
“The quality of the proposals was outstanding. Amongst those are some which will no doubt blossom into successful and innovative businesses. This program is a great example of how the University engages with its staff and students, as well as the business world and the Canberra community,” he said.
W: Office of Commercialisation
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