The latest Sensing Industry Connect event at the University of Sydney’s Sydney Knowledge Hub featured an interesting innovation – an electroencephalogram (EEG) headband – which is tipped to enhance brain health through improved deep sleep.

The quarterly NSW Smart Sensing Network (NSSN) industry engagement event offers a chance for entrepreneurs, manufacturers, and researchers to connect and share opportunities about smart sensing. 

Sydney Knowledge Hub Director, Rupal Ismin, highlighted the challenge of accessing university resources from an external perspective and her mission to bridge the gap between academia and industry.

Sydney Knowledge Hub Director Rupal Ismin

“You might have seen this statistic that companies get $4.50 in return for every dollar invested in collaborative university research,” she said.

“There's a strong return on investment that you can get from working with universities. And not just because of the infrastructure and the money that's really in it to support these collaborations, but what might not be that obvious to an outsider is how hungry our researchers are to work with external partners.”

Ms Ismin outlined various ways businesses can engage with the University of Sydney, from using core research facilities such as electron microscopes, nanofabrication facilities and additive manufacturing facilities, to student programs like internships, capstone projects, and industry partnerships.

“There are 34 companies that are working at the Sydney Knowledge Hub, they all pay to be here,” she said.

“There are a handful of sensing companies, we have biotech companies, we have a couple of non-profits, so a range of organisations. But they all are working with our researchers, and intellectual property is a core component.”

NSW Smart Sensing Network Co-Director and Pro-Vice Chancellor (Research) at University of Sydney, Professor Ben Eggleton, said the NSSN is a trusted broker and activator of research partnerships across universities, government and industry.

“We've spent a lot of time thinking about that language, this notion of activating, actuating research,” Prof Eggleton said.

“It's not just that we are brokering research, not that we are just here bringing people together and having conversations and getting people to talk, but we're involved in the shaping, the actuation, the activating of those research projects.”

Sydney Knowledge Fund member, and Co-Founder and CEO of Affectable Sleep, Pete Field, described his company’s work in enhancing sleep quality through real-time brain activity monitoring.

Affectable Sleep Co-Founder and CEO Pete Field

“What's important during sleep isn't the time that you're asleep, it's what your brain is doing during that time. What most of us call ‘deep sleep’ is also known as slow wave or delta sleep.

And during this time, the neurons in your brain, they quiet down for like a quarter of a second, and then they fire sequentially. And that synchronous firing of neurons is called a slow wave.”

Their EEG headband uses auditory stimulation to boost slow-wave (deep) sleep, which supports brain health, memory, and immune function.

“It’s a little hack where we interrupt your brain and just give enough thought to say, “do I have to wake, or should I keep this person asleep”? And if we do that just right at the right time with the right volume, your brain's response is “this is vital to my health, I need to do this”, and it increases that synchronous firing of neurons without changing the amount of time that you sleep.”

He said scientific studies have found targeted auditory stimulation has a positive impact on sleep and brain activity, but also cognitive function, cardiovascular response, and immune function.

It also has promising applications for conditions like Alzheimer’s and depression, he said.

The company is based in Sydney, benefiting from local neurotech expertise, but has faced challenges with hardware development, and frustrations with delayed grant processes.

Some of the attendees at the *Sensing Industry Connect* event at the University of Sydney’s Sydney Knowledge Hub.

The next Sensing Industry Connect will be held at Macquarie University on Monday, 12 May.

Innovative headband which can transform sleep features at NSSN Sensing Industry Connect