Today, The Duke of York visited Woodside, Australia’s largest independent oil and gas company with a global portfolio, recognised as a world-class explorer, developer, producer and supplier of energy. HRH was taken on a tour of Woodside’s new main office overlooking Swan River, before attending a briefing on the company and having a tour of the Robotics Lab.
Later on The Duke visited the University of Western Australia to discuss its investment in science and engineering.
During the visit, HRH was briefed on two of the University’s key projects: UWA’s Ezone Student Hub and the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project.
Ezone is an $80 million interactive space for collaboration between students, industry, alumni and staff that will prepare students for the engineering workforce of the future.
After unveiling a plaque for the Ezone student Hub, The Duke of York said “We cannot forget that it is engineers who make the difference between where we are today and where we can be tomorrow.
“They are the actual builders, the problem solvers of what is to come. It’s only through investment in these sorts of facilities that the next generation is going to be able to learn the sorts of skills they are going to need.
“I see this as a really encouraging sign not only in the faith of history but in the faith of engineering and science.”
One of the largest scientific endeavours in history, the SKA project involves building the world’s biggest radio telescope in Western Australia and southern Africa, to expand understanding of the Universe and drive technological change.
The Federal Government has already invested more than $400 million in the project with a further $93.7 million earmarked under the National Innovation and Science Agenda for the SKA.
Later that day, The Duke visited Murdoch University to understand how the innovative application of technology is enhancing teaching, learning and research.
During the visit, HRH met with University leaders, students, staff and researchers, and got the opportunity to try teaching in Murdoch’s virtual classroom, the SimLab. The Duke also encountered two species of endangered black cockatoos, courtesy of Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Conservation Centre, and learnt how Murdoch researchers are using satellite and GPS trackers to study them. Finally, HRH met researchers from Murdoch’s Harry Butler Institute who demonstrated how they are training AI to identify invasive species of animals and plants.
After the tour of Murdoch University, The Duke held [email protected] Australia On Tour Perth at the University. 16 Entrepreneurs pitched their ideas to the Audience, with eight winners selected by a judging panel of business and community leaders. These Entrepreneurs will attend Boot Camp followed by [email protected] Australia 2.0 in Brisbane next week. The winner of [email protected] Australia will be invited to [email protected] Global on 12th December 2018.
Speaking at the event, The Duke of York said “It is an enormous pleasure to be here to hold our first On Tour Australia event in Perth in Western Australia.
“[email protected] is about the audience, not about the entrepreneurs. You may find that a strange comment for an entrepreneurial platform, but if the audience don’t get involved and behind what these entrepreneurs are doing we’re not going to have the effect we might have.
“You have no idea how incredibly important the connections you make for these businesses can be. If we all work together we will be able to make a material difference.
“I am not looking for an individual winner, I am looking for the businesses with the greatest growth potential.”
The eight winners were:
• OncoRes Medical is developing a high-resultion imaging tool to allow surgeons to accurately remove tumours, reducing the need for additional surgery, which currently occurs in 30% of cases
• Maker Kids Club helps Year 6 students (11 year olds) to launch micro-businesses so they have the best chance of gaining full time employment and can manage money as adults.
• Biotome is developing a bloody test for the early diagnosis of stomach cancer
• Arility has created an Augmented Reality platform for community safety education providers to reach school students in an engaging and measurable way
• Chironix is developing a technology to enable human-robot collaboration
• Geo Risk Systems is developing a patent-pending software which will allow its clients to visualise, monitor and manage risk on a large scale and in real time
• Kiwa Techwear has developed “Safety Soc”, a high-tech wearable device designed to assist in home care for the elderly, using motion information and a fall-detection algorithm.
• TeleMed has developed a telehealth innovation to provide nuclear medicine and paramedic services to regional and remote communities across Western Australia.
The other entrepreneurs were:
• Accelerating Australia has developed a cross-sector ecosystem support model to boost biomedical innovation and entrepreneurship through resource-sharing and training of future leaders.
• Axonium empowers people through consent and reward for the use of their health data through a blockchain data exchange, while offering benefits to R&D and data custodians.
• BuildSort uses blockchain-based collaboration and big data to improve the efficiency of the supply chain for the construction industry, leading to cost reductions of up to 45%.
• Flaktest Gaming localises the global eSports phenomenon and leverages the passions of young gamers towards their personal and academic goals.
• Geo Risk Systems is developing a patent-pending software which will allow its clients to visualise, monitor and manage risk on a large scale and in real time.
• Mud & Musk has developed a platform that allows customers to create high quality custom-made facemasks using a selection of premium ingredients.
• People Science is an online recruitment, talent mobility and management platform that matches people based on their values, motivators, personality, and cognitive and emotional abilities.
• Telethon Kids Institute is a not-for-profit child health research institute that has developed “Momentum Empowering Impact”, a platform providing an easy and intuitive way to track research as it progresses along a pathway towards an intended impact.
• TOKN has developed a cost effective platform technology that empowers all industries to substantially improve productivity by better connecting organisations’ systems data.
