First published 22 November 2024
An innovative Scoliosis management and treatment system has won the 2024 QUT Excolo! pitching competition at last night’s Grand Final.
Presented and led by Associate Professor Paige Little, from the School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering, the team showcased their suite of inventions, myScoliosis and myScoliDoc, which have been developed from over 20 years of spine research at QUT.
The team will now receive $100,000 in funding from the university’s Industry Engagement Fund (IEF) which will accelerate the project’s next stage of development.
Accepting the winner’s trophy, Associate Professor Little paid tribute to her team, clinical partners and the families who will benefit from this technology.
“I’m delighted that we have won QUT Excolo! tonight,” said Associate Professor Little. “The award provides funds, exposure and momentum which will propel us through the next phases of regulatory and commercial development, and ultimately make these tools widely available to clinicians and patients, who will benefit so richly from their application.”
QUT Excolo! is a pitching competition coordinated by QUT’s Office of Industry Engagement which sees QUT researchers undergo a coaching program and pitch their commercially viable idea, product or service to an expert panel of investors, inventors and commercialisation specialists. With the focus on problems, solutions and pathways to implementation, the competition highlights the impact that QUT research has when translated to real world outcomes.
Six teams presented their pitch on Thursday night at QUT’s Room Three Sixty, showcasing a wide variety of research expertise and translation. The other teams and results were:
- Theatre in the Sky (Runner Up): a novel digital platform for Australian performing arts;
- Auslan Assist (People’s Choice Award): an automated system that generates real-time public service announcements in Auslan using machine learning technologies and a digital avatar, being co-designed with the Australian deaf community;
- Defence Peptides: development of peptides (mini-proteins) to fight against drug resistance in cancer therapy;
- Agro-Eco Pack: converting agricultural waste into a true bio-based, compostable single-use plastic; and
- Geosample Drones: an automated soil sampling system using drones, allowing farmers and agronomists to efficiently collect and analyse soil samples, covering large and complex terrains in a fraction of the time.
QUT’s Director, Industry Engagement (Health and Social Impact), Kate Taylor, who hosted the event and chaired the judging panel, remarked on the diversity, breadth and depth of the projects pitched in the Final.
“Over the 3 years that QUT Excolo! has been running, we have seen an increased sophistication in the quality of the projects being pitched, and in the pitches themselves, highlighting the compelling need for these inventions,” said Ms Taylor. “The judges had a tough job, to choose between technologies and sectors spanning health care, performing arts, the deaf community and more.”
Pictured above: QUT Excolo! Champion team (left to right): Dr Christy Grobbler (coach), Assoc Prof Paige Little, Dr Sinduja Suresh, Ms Addison Suhr, Mrs Maree Izatt, (Dr Nathasha Naranpanawa, absent)
