Honouring innovation at Macquarie University

The M-CAS team of (from left) Jennifer Bainbridge, Andrew Burrell and Sharon Kerr with their coveted Innovation in Teaching award.

What do a customised online system designed to meet the needs of students with a disability; a geological testing system that will aid in mineral exploration; and a fast, cost effective method of transmitting X-ray images have in common?

These innovations – and the Macquarie University researchers behind them - were winners of 2005 Innovation Awards, presented at a special awards night at the University on November 9.

Professor Di Yerbury, Vice-Chancellor of Macquarie University noted that the awards, now in their second year, were designed to recognise and reward the people who have made Macquarie “Australia’s Innovative University”.

“Innovation is about pushing boundaries, looking for better ways of doing things, and developing enterprising mindsets,” Professor Yerbury said.

The winners and their innovations

This year’s entries, which cover seven categories, came from all parts of the University ranging from physics and biotechnology to special education, museum studies, electronics, computing and physical geography.

The Invention Disclosure award was won by Dr Amit Kapur and Professor Mark Baker for their work on the purification of antibodies (IgY) from chicken eggs.

The Innovation in Research award went to Professor Suzanne O’Reilly and her team from GEMOC, for their work on TerraneChron, a unique methodology for analysing the geological evolution of the Earth’s crust which has applications for the mining exploration industry.

Sharon Kerr and her colleagues in Macquarie Customised Accessibility Services picked up the Innovation in Teaching and Learning award for their unique service which caters for students with disabilities. Students using the service are provided with materials and support from various universities nationwide.

For their collaboration on mixer based, vector corrected, vector signal/network analyser offering 300 kHz bandwidth and traceable phase response, the University’s Peter Blockley and Anthony Parker together with Jonathan Scott and Daniel Gunyan of Agilent Technologies, (formerly Hewlett Packard) received the Innovative Partnership award.

The Commercial Innovation award went to Image Connections Australasia, a teleradiology solutions company for computerised radiology devised by Macquarie’s Dr Ray Hayek and Dr Peter Bull. The company incorporates software and computer radiography technology to facilitate the electronic transfer of X-ray images resulting in a faster and more reliable service for health practitioners and their patients.

The award for Postgraduate Innovation went to Macquarie University’s Megan Vazey, Dr Debbie Richards and EMC Corporation’s Stephen Wright for their work on a collaborative classification software solution. The invention allows knowledge workers in any domain to collaboratively refine and expand a topic using a novel expert systems approach.

Finally, the Innovators’ Hall of Fame award went to Emeritus Professor Di Yerbury AO, the visionary and dynamic driving force behind Macquarie University, for her commitment to enterprise and innovation, internationalisation, interdisciplinary community outreach and scholarly endeavour.

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