2018 Grant Recipients
The 2018 Dean's Innovation Grant first prize was awarded to Dr Laura Downie, Senior Lecturer from the Department of Optometry and Vision Sciences for her research on a point-of-care medical device for dry -eye diagnosis. The judging panel for the inaugural award, praised Dr Downie's compelling presentation and the ingenuity behind her vision for a device that, if translated into a new product, could have very real benefits for clinicians and patients. Dr Matias Maturana and Dr Brendon Chua were also recognised for their outstanding projects and each received grants of $30,000 while Dr Ada Cheung received an honourable mention.
Each of the finalists for the 2018 award were commended for their proposed solutions to real-world problems including:
- Dr Fiona Brownfoot – Research Fellow at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology – for a novel device that would continuously monitor fetal wellbeing in labour
- Dr William Figgett – Research Fellow at the Department of Microbiology and Immunology –for novel therapeutics for autoimmune disease
- Dr Laura Downie – Senior Lecturer from the Department of Optometry and Vision Sciences – for a point-of-care medical device for dry-eye diagnosis
- Dr Brendon Chua – Senior Research Fellow, Department of Microbiology and Immunology – for a dual functional immunostimulant that protects against influenza outbreak
- Dr Farhad Goodarzy – Senior Research Fellow, St Vincent's Hospital – for technology that translates brain signals to robotic movements
- Dr Matias Maturana – Research Fellow, St Vincent's Hospital– for a high-fidelity fully-implantable seizure prediction system
- Dr Ada Cheung – Research Fellow, Department of Medicine, Austin Health/MMS – for an Australian Gender Health Study
The 2018 Dean's Innovation Grants winning pitches can be viewed below.