INNOVATIONACT WINNERS ANNOUNCED

InnovationACT has awarded more than over $50,000 in prizes to winners in their third annual Business Planning Competition.

InnovationACT is a business planning and commercialisation competition run by the ANU and the University of Canberra. It was originally conceived by a group of PhD students as a way to enable the flow of information and resources between academia and industry.

Nine winners were selected from 20 student teams from the ANU and UC:

  • Adriano di Pietro and Iain Kendal of Fin Technology – $20,000 for their business concept of robotic manufacture of composite materials;
  • Liesa Lacey and Natalya Tacheci from the Harp Centre Australia – $10,000 for their business and education structure around the promotion and teaching of harp music;
  • Felix Schill of Serafina – $10,000 to help develop his miniature robotic submarine technology into a business;
  • Andrew Dever and Jared Lee –$8,000 shared to further develop their brainstorming software business, BStorm; and 
  • Marie-Louise Symons and Hector Salazar – $8,000 for their organic waste recycling concept, EquiSS.

The success of this program continues to grow in reputation. In the words of one of the judges, Geoff Garrett, former CEO of the CSIRO, "the quality of the ideas and the students involved in this competition is a true indication of the quality of innovation coming out of the ACT".

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