NSSN announces winners of inaugural Grand Challenges Fund
The successful recipients of the inaugural NSW Smart Sensing Network Grand Challenges Fund were announced today.
Three projects will share in more than $200,000 under the first round of the NSSN Grand Challenges Fund.
NSSN COO Mr Nicholas Haskins said the NSSN Grand Challenges Fund was established to support innovative research collaborations addressing the NSSN’s Grand Challenges in water, ageing, bushfires and COVID-19.
“The successful proposals stood out for their authentic partnership with industry or government, a genuine collaboration between universities and their focus on real-world impact,” said Mr Haskins. “These values align perfectly with the remit of the NSSN.”
Multidisciplinary teams from across the NSSN will work with industry and government partners from InteliCare, 3 Aim Solutions and the NSW Department of Industry, Environment, and Planning (DPIE) to deliver impactful solutions to the NSSN Grand Challenges in Water and Ageing.
Working with the NSW Department of Industry, Environment, and Planning (DPIE), researchers from Macquarie University and the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) will explore sensing methods to address contemporary problems associated with water quality in natural waterways.
NSSN AgTech Theme Leader Dr Tomonori Hu said during the droughts of 2019-2020, Australia saw mass fish deaths due to a rapid drop in dissolved oxygen and dangerous algal blooms due to abnormal temperatures.
“Water quality measurements are extremely important in monitoring the health of ecosystems to allow action to be taken before these events happen,” Dr Hu said.
“The project will use a laser beam pulse to probe the water, capture the necessary fingerprint information, and capture the reflected signal for analysis.
“The technology reveals the full river-health picture and will aid the understanding and modelling of what causes catastrophic events that result in mass wildlife death.
“The method being non-contact is highly important as it avoids sensor fouling issues over time that the traditional submerged sensors struggle with.”
Working with 3 Aim Solutions, researchers from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and Western Sydney University aim to overcome issues that negatively impact the adoption rates of wearable devices for healthy ageing.
NSSN MedTech Theme Leader Ms Jane Evans said the aim is to reduce the size of the present wearable product for patient comfort, with the potential to improve health outcomes and provide focussed disease management and reduce the cost of production.
“The technology could potentially reduce the time spent in an intensive care ward and decrease the cost burden on public and private health sectors,” Ms Evans said.
“Researchers will further develop non-invasive, low-powered and low-cost morphic sensors to measure cardiac health,blood pressure and lung function simultaneously.”
The third project brings together researchers from the University of Sydney and Macquarie University with InteliCare to develop IoT-based machine learning algorithms to provide a personalised detection and health monitoring system to improve the quality of in-home ageing.
The system uses movement to monitor patterns related to social isolation, meal preparation and night time activity while maintaining the user’s privacy.
“The personalised monitoring system could prevent a potential fall or detect early onset dementia,” Ms Evans said.
“The project will result in an improved notification system that enables caregivers and online operators to have a better understanding of when to intervene,
“It also provides comfort for the elderly to remain in their own homes knowing that they are being cared for by passive monitoring that does not need to be worn, charged or invades their privacy.”
The next round of the NSSN Grand Challenges Fund will be offered in 2022.
The NSSN Grand Challenges respond to some of the most gripping challenges of our time. Complex challenges that are critical to our environment, health, economy and society and which demand innovative solutions that will impact future generations.
The Grand Challenges have been selected for the important role smart sensing can play in responding to the issue and where technological innovation holds the promise to change the game. They have also been selected for the NSSN’s unique ability to mobilise the world-class R&D capability across our member universities in partnership with industry and government for practical, impactful outcomes.
To learn more about the NSSN Grand Challenges, please click here.
Media: Shahrzad Abbasi
M: 0466 548 145
E: Shahrzad.abbasi@nssn.org.au