Leading Edge Advances in Innovation and Technology Showcased at TCD
Posted on: 16 October 2009
Trinity Research & Innovation showcased a selection of the latest exciting advances in innovation and technology by TCD researchers at an event in the O’Reilly Institute on Thursday, October 15th last. The industrial technologies in energy, devices, materials and processes highlight TCD’s academic and applied research that offer significant commercial, economic and societal value. The event showcased technologies that have reached the commercialisation stage and offer industry collaboration and investment opportunities.
The team at Trinity Research & Innovation: (L-R): Peter Ollwell, Audrey Crosbie, John Whelan, Emily Vereker, James Callaghan, Graham McMullin, Margaret Woods and Gordon Elliott.
Examples of the inventions that were showcased are:
The Eternal Candle – A renewable solar heat storage technology for providing light in the developing world
Two billion people worldwide live without electricity and burn fuel for illumination. As developing countries progress they are in a position to select better, more efficient and renewable lighting technologies. Solid-state lighting such as white light-emitting diode (WLED) technologies provides significantly better illumination than fossil fuels. Replacing fuel with WLEDs would dramatically reduce operating costs and carcinogenic/ green house gas emissions while increasing the quality of illumination. TCD researchers have invented an off-grid WLED lantern which can be powered by the sun. During the cooler night-time temperatures in dry desert-type climates such as sub-Saharan Africa and large regions of India, China and central Asia, the Eternal Candle converts the stored heat into electricity which drives the WLED. It is a lamp that requires no batteries and no running costs.
Researchers – Dr Anthony Robinson, Wayne O’Connell, Dragan Nikolic -Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering
3D imaging of skin and measurement of skin damage
This imaging device which can be used in cosmetic medicine provides a 3D computer generated image of a patient’s skin with accompanying data analysis. These images are analysed using specialized software to accurately measure a range of parameters such as skin roughness, wrinkle depth and length and size and depth of abrasions prior to any potential surgery. This capability provides practitioners with an effective benchmarking tool where data can be compared before and after treatments and their efficacy demonstrated to clients. In addition, the device can also map the amount of melanin and haemoglobin in the skin which could be used to quantify skin damage or used to monitor other skin conditions such as acne or rosacea. The invention is differentiated from other systems on the market in that it provides 3D images with exceptional data analysis and is portable and easy to use. The inventors expect to capitalise on the growing investment in digital imaging technology as a tool for patient care monitoring and in the diagnosis of skin conditions. The researchers have recently spun out a company Miravex, and are currently looking for investment to support the business.
Researchers – Dr. Roman Kantor, Dr. Guido Mariotto, Prof. Igor V. Shvets, School of Physics
Low Temperature Radiator with High Heat Transfer
Traditional radiators typically require hot water at 70 – 85°C in order to generate sufficient heat. Geothermal heat pumps, which are heating systems that use the earth as a heat source, generate much lower temperatures (between 45°C and 55°C). As a consequence they require hugely oversized radiators, fan based convectors, underfloor heating or complete re-insulation of a house in order to make them a viable option for home heating. Researchers at TCD have developed a new radiator system that has a high heat output for a relatively low temperature input (~55°C). The design utilises heat pipes and fins to improve its efficiency over standard radiators while still maintaining a compact size. This new technology enables a central heating radiator system using low temperature water (from a boiler or from a geothermal heat pump) which reduces energy consumption. It is expected that existing radiators in buildings could be replaced with these novel innovative heat pipe radiators.
Researchers – Tony Robinson, Hussam Jouhara, Wayne O’Connell – Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering
Commenting on the significance of the research currently emerging from the University, Trinity’s Associate Director of Research & Innovation, Dr James Callaghan stated: “There has been a large investment in research and development over the past few years and we are now seeing a growing stream of commercial projects coming out the other end of the pipeline. This event is an excellent means of showcasing the latest university technology to our industry partners and is evidence of the burgeoning innovation ecosystem in Dublin, the heart of which is centred at Trinity College.”
Research & Innovation Manager Enterprise Ireland, Martin Lyes added: “Enterprise Ireland is working in partnership with Trinity Research & Innovation to bring the commercial outputs of research conducted in Trinity College Dublin to the marketplace. We want to increase the number of successful and innovative spin-out companies emerging from publicly-funded research and I am delighted to see there are 15 new technologies with such potential at this showcase.”
Leading Edge Advances in Innovation and Technology Showcased at TCD
Posted on: 07 October 2011
Trinity Research & Innovation showcased a selection of the latest exciting advances in innovation and technology by TCD researchers at an event held in Trinity’s Science Gallery on Thursday, October 6th last. Trinity researchers included 35 innovative ideas, technologies, products and processes at different stages in the commercial pipeline, derived from a wide range of disciplines across College.
With Trinity’s record of over 18 spin-out companies in the last 3 years, the showcase was a must-see for business partners, investors and entrepreneurs alike. This year’s projects promise real commercial opportunities, demonstrating the benefits of research to the economy and the community.
Examples of the inventions to be showcased are:
Biomarker peptides ( Ursula Bond)
Cancer is the leading cause of death worldwide accounting for approximately 7 million deaths annually. In women, breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer mortality, accounting for 16% of cancer deaths. While new forms of treatment have increased survival rates, there is an ongoing need for improvements in early cancer diagnosis. The holy grail of cancer research is to discover the differences between cancer cells and normal cells. One such difference lies in the proteins that are produced in cancer cells. Researchers at Trinity College have developed ways to identify novel proteins for specific cancers that can be used for diagnosing cancer and possibly finding new treatments. A select pool of proteins from cancer cells can be isolated and used as ‘bait’ to fish for small molecules that recognise the proteins unique to the cancer cells. The novel ‘Recogniser’ molecules identified by this approach represent a unique barcode of the cancer cell.
Sanasense ( Sonja Hermann, Richard Reilly, Dermot Power)
Bed sores (or pressure ulcers) are the result of pressure-induced disruption of blood flow. This is a major problem for bedding and seating designers, particularly in the healthcare and transport sectors. Researchers at the Trinity Centre for BioEngineering have developed a method to pin-point where, on the surface, blood flow is impeded. This method could be used as part of a continuous and possibly remote monitoring system which would contribute to making decisions in terms of reactive interventions such as smart mattresses and seating, ultimately reducing or eliminating the occurrence of pressure ulcers as well as improving user comfort.
Aspiration Efficiency Reducer (Aonghus McNabola, Laurence Gill)
Clean Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) is a requirement in all buildings, cleanrooms, hospitals, vehicles and public transport systems. In buildings, purification of outdoor polluted air takes place in the Air Handling Unit (AHU) using filters. A new device, developed in TCD’s School of Engineering, will reduce the amount of pollution entering the ventilation system of any building or vehicle, improving occupant environmental health, reducing energy consumption and increasing the life of existing filters.
Impartio: (Hitesh Tewari)
Impartio is a Trinity College Dublin based security solutions start-up with a keen focus on Cloud Security and Mobile Application Development. The founding members have between them a wealth of cryptographic and mobile communications research & development expertise, which they have used to build a number of innovative mobile and security solutions. One of their flagship products is CipherDocs, which is a secure Cloud Storage Solution and is currently targeted at Google Docs. Documents in the cloud are often only protected by a single password which is usually easy to crack. Passwords have long been the Achilles heel of computer security. Any 6 character password can be hacked in less than 1 and a half minutes by a standard PC. Cipherdocs ensures that each packet of data sent to the cloud (often containing only a single keystroke sending one character to the cloud) is encrypted. This means that not even the cloud service provider can ever decode the information it is storing. In addition, Impartio has a number of other patent-pending technologies in development
About Trinity Research & Innovation
Trinity Research & Innovation is the first point of contact for companies seeking to find opportunities to collaborate with leading research groups in Trinity College Dublin. Trinity Research & Innovation promotes and manages the interaction between TCD researchers, funding agencies and industry. It is also responsible for managing TCD’s Intellectual Property, Technology Transfer and Innovation, Commercialisation and Entrepreneurship.