Professor Roos is recognised as a world leader in the area of business management and strategy, and in 2011 was the 20th Adelaide Thinker in Residence focusing on manufacturing policy and strategy, and business enterprise innovation.

Following the public presentation, Entrepreneurs’ Organisation members and ECIC students/alumni are invited to attend a special networking event with Professor Roos.

Public Lecture

 Networking Event (EO members and ECIC students/alumni only)

South Australia’s premier student business planning competition is now open. Got a business idea? Enter the 2012 ZEN Entrepreneurs’ Challenge for your chance to win your share of $50,000 in cash and prizes.

At 20-200 times the maximum speed available in other communities, the Gig opens the door to unimagined ways to learn, play and conduct business. So Chattanooga is launching a series of competitions in the Gig Tank – part incubator, part think tank – through the summer of 2012 for students and entrepreneurs to launch future uses of this amazing speed.

The effort is underwritten by local and national corporations, foundations and organizations. Sponsorship opportunities remain for corporate, venture capital and foundation sponsors, especially prizes for seven application sectors chosen for the competition:

• Advanced Manufacturing – Rapid design-to-manufacture, cut-to-measure fashion, parallel CAD,
  3D printing, robotics
• Cloud Computing – Artificial Intelligence, internet security, business continuity & recovery, data
  mining/analysis, real-time language translation, smart transportation
• Digital Media – Streaming and portable media, crowdsourced gaming, IPTV, virtual events, multilanguage
  digital media distribution (movies, games)
• Education – Global educational access, participatory and distance learning, interactive multimedia,
  3-D technical training, learning assessment & personalized education
• Energy – Automation to improve reliability, asset management tools, new consumer products,
  renewable energy grid integration, vehicle-to-grid support, self-healing distribution automation
• Healthcare – Electronic medical/health records, distance team robotic surgery, vital sign
  monitoring, accelerated global clinical trials, medical image archiving/retrieval, nanobots and
  biological sensors
• Public Safety & Emergency Response  – ‘big data’ challenges, disaster prediction, simulation &
  response management

At stake in these competitions is up to $300,000 in cash prizes and seed capital named the Gig Prizes. The largest award will bring $100,000 to the entrepreneurial team with the most viable business plan built during a 14-week business accelerator in the Gig Tank.

Ten startup teams will be offered $15,000 seed investments along with mentoring and business plan help to prototype their businesses. They will develop and test applications on the gigabit fibre with thousands of  fibre-wired EPB residential, business, and industrial customers.

A $50,000 cash prize will also go to the winning student idea launched in the Gig Tank. Students will pitch their ideas to entrepreneurs, angels and VCs as they build their first prototypes along with launching businesses.

The internet will also host the first Geek Hunt for the world’s smartest geeks to bring their big ideas to the Gig Tank summer programs. Geek Hunt will fire up the tech community with $1,000 cash bounties to lucky students who use Facebook and Twitter to tag the geeks with bold ideas that are ultimately chosen to participate in Gig Tank.

Deadline: 1 March 2012

See Gig Tank  for details.

On announcing the funding Innovation Minister, Senator Kim Carr, said: “We need more Australian inventions making it out of the laboratory and into the marketplace”. The University of Adelaide’s ZEN eChallenge fosters entrepreneurial activity and the commercialisation of Australian innovation, and is a great way to kick-start the entrepreneurial journey.

We would like to congratulate LEAPIN on this wonderful achievement and wish them continued growth and success.

Further reading
Aussie inventions get $10m in funding  – Sydney Morning Herald
$10m invention grants – InDaily
Healthy inventions win commercialisation support – Press Release, Senator The Hon Kim Carr

I’d be interested in your feedback on whether and how our students may gain from such an initiative. As blog comments seem to be problematic perhaps drop me an email at allan.oconnor@adelaide.edu.au

I look forward to hearing from you.

Interested? Contact: 

Dr. Jegathisvaran Balakrishnan | Chief Executive Officer

email: jega.balakrishnan@esmart21.com.au

Dear ECIC and eChallenge alumni and friends,

The ECIC’s Director, Professor Noel Lindsay and ECIC’s Alumni President, Mr Simon Williams are delighted to invite you to the ECIC and Alumni End of Year Event on Thursday 1 December 2011.

This year’s Cocktail Event will include Guest Speakers;

• Mr Richard Turner, CEO of ZEN Home Energy Systems – ‘The Challenges of rapid growth and success. Where to now?’

• Professor Peter Dowd, Executive Dean, Faculty of ECMS – ‘How Innovative Engineers have built and contributed to both our environment and society’

If you’re not an ECIC or eChallenge alumni but are interested in studying with the ECIC, come along and have a chat. We hope you can come and help us celebrate another great year for the ECIC!

Event Details

Date: Thursday 1 December 2011
Time: 5.30pm – 7.30pm
Venue: The Atrium, Innova21, The University of Adelaide, North Terrace, Adelaide
RSVP: Online – places are limited – BOOK NOW!

Since winning the University of Adelaide’s Entrepreneurs’ Challenge (now the ZEN eChallenge) in 2010, South Australian Biofuels have been busy finalising a working prototype, demonstrating their product at field days, working on a large farm trial and negotiating with farmers to test their biofuel unit on three beta sites. They’ve also found time to represent the University of Adelaide at the 2011 John Heine Entrepreneurial Challenge in December this year.

South Australian Biofuels, comprised of Morgan Hunter (director) and Byron Patterson (marketing manager), entered into last year’s eChallenge. They not only won First Prize, but their portable biodiesel unit, Bio-Ultra, took out a whole slew of other prizes, including the People’s Choice Award and the Best Technology Commercialisation Prize. Since participating in the eChallenge, South Australian Biofuels have expanded their team with the inclusion of Paul Field (co-director) and their former eChallenge mentor, Glen Wheatley (business director).

Bio-Ultra converts plant seed oil, like mustard or canola, into biofuel, and is a cost-effective and renewable way to produce fuel with minimal carbon impact. The unit drew a lot of interest at the Yorke Peninsula Field Days at Paskeville on 27-29 September, with South Australian Biofuels winning the Best New Australian Built Equipment Prize. South Australian Biofuels also came to the attention of The Advertiser and FIVEaa, who were keen to get the scoop on this innovative new South Australian company. You can read The Advertiser’s article on Adelaide Now.

Interest from the research sector is also growing; South Australian Biofuels have recently been invited to present at the Crop Science Society of SA  monthly meeting at the University of Adelaide’s Roseworthy Campus.

We wish South Australian Biofuels the best of luck with their large-scale farm trials and the John Heine Entrepreneurial Challenge. It will be a busy future for South Australian Biofuels, but it will also be a bright one.