Globe Forum – Innovators’ Challenge - 6 shortlisted for final
Having come through the preliminary rounds, 6 early-stage innovation companies face the final stage of the Innovators Challenge at the Dublin Globe Forum – to be the leading examples of Ireland’s best sustainable innovations. The six finalists will have 60 seconds to make their case to an onstage panel of judges and the Globe Forum audience on Wednesday 17 November at [time].
The prize for the innovator chosen by the judging panel along with the votes of the delegates at Globe Forum includes:
The six finalists are:
Power Save
The dark winter nights may have been the inspiration for Brian McDonnell of Power Save to come up with a new technology to power lights. Their research in energy usage led to the development of the High Intensity Discharge (HID) Light Manager which cuts down on carbon and costs. Key to the potential of the business is the fact that the savings do not impinge on the appliances performance and can be easily retrofitted into existing lighting control and BMS systems.
Power-Save believes that the HID Light Manager can offer savings of potentially 50% of current lighting costs and if used for street lighting in Ireland alone could give total savings in excess of €10 million annually. Based in UCD Nova, the company’s target markets include local and national authorities for street lighting as well as clubs and organisations using floodlighting.
PEL Recycling Equipment
“Baby Jaws” is a world first. This under-the-bar-counter bottle crusher was developed by PEL Recycling Equipment entrepreneurs led by Tommy Griffith. Based in Balla, Co Mayo, the product is already in production and Griffith was a finalist in the 2009 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year.
“Baby Jaws” is the same size as bar fridge and fits under the counter. The machine has a low noise level and reduces bottle volume by 5-1. Bar staff simply put empty bottles straight in to Baby Jaws. The machine starts and stops automatically and when the bin is full, it locks so that it can not be overloaded. The machine reduces empty bottle volumes – and the cost of storage and disposal, improves staff time, cuts down on noise pollution and has low energy requirement.
Griffith is after the pub market and believes “Baby Jaws” has a global market and is already making overtures in the UK.
Veutility
A campus company emerging from Clarity at UCD, Veutility targets large enterprises and SMEs with significant monthly energy bills exceeding €500, who need greater analysis of their electricity, water and gas consumption.
Developed by Dr Antonio Ruzzelli, Veutility is the first real-time, hosted community, utility, consumption solution with two unique differentiators: 1. In addition to monitoring consumption, Veutility provides a benchmark that compares companies’ consumption to others of a similar size, industry, or geography. 2. Veutility also provides autonomous appliance or device-level energy consumption fingerprinting by using a single plug-and play electricity sensor clipped at the switchboard.
In effect, this means that Veutility enables companies to drill down and understand their energy-use profile by site, building, room and even by “offending” appliance. The implications of this for energy saving and for appliance manufacturers globally are immense.
Currently being validated in one large pharmaceutical company, in one large hotel and in one restaurant, Ruzzelli expects to be on the market in 2011.
GeoGuides
Living in the “Garden County”, beautiful Wicklow, Paul Hennessy has been surrounded by tourism-related businesses and his smart innovation - GeoGuides has revolutionised the way a Smart Phone can be used to access tourism-related information.
GeoGuides’ patented and proprietary platform - Intrepid Explorer - solves the tourist industry’s greatest challenge of delivering relevant, authenticated and contextual information in a cost-effective manner to tourists using mobile phones. The GeoGuides unique technology uses the smart phone’s position and direction to create a virtual arrow which intersects with objects in a GIS database. Using the compass and GPS within smartphones, tablets and cameras, GeoGuides’ Intrepid Explorer Platform lets the tourists point their devices at objects or places in the real world in order to access information about them.
Hennessy is targeting tourism and travel organisations worldwide and with one billion travellers annually along with the rapidly increasing smartphone usage, he feels the time is right to go global.
Crème Software
Spun out of TCD, Crème, led by Debra Garretson, provides web-based software, data, training and consulting services in the area of food, chemical and cosmetic exposure assessment. Creme’s exposure assessment tool, Creme Food® offers food companies, universities, and government regulators the ability to estimate consumer exposure to nutrients, additives, preservatives, pesticides and other contaminants in food using probabilistic risk modelling using large food consumption databases.
Companies are required to optimise shelf-life, minimise spoilage and provide environmentally friendly packaging. Creme allows regulators to regulate these levels of pesticides, preservatives and contaminants in foods and examine packaging migration into food. With Creme’s innovative technology we are able to aid in a safer and more sustainable food supply.
Creme’s services are aimed at industries, universities, and government regulators on a global scale. They work with industries in pesticides, food production, food packing and retailers. They work with government food industry regulators worldwide. They also assist with research in universities and research institutions across the globe.
Zinc Software
Dublin based entrepreneur, Darren Hughes, believes his innovation has the capacity to improve the wellbeing of some 10% of the population who currently suffer from some level of anxiety disorder. His company, Zinc Software, is developing the ZeeWave, a personal health biosensor that connects via Bluetooth to a client device such netbook computer or smartphone where interactive health based computer games help the person manage aspects of their wellbeing such as anxiety levels and cognitive focus.
Using this technology, Hughes intends to tackle behavioral patterns such as smoking, drinking or binge eating, which are often used to deal with stress but can cause more severe health issues.
Demographic change of the western world change over the next 30 years will require huge increases in resources for national health systems. A refocus on lifestyle and preventative care is needed before a crisis is reached. Mobile health technology will have a large part to play in the solution.
Links:
TCD/UCD Globe Forum Challenge Video
Posted 16 November 2010
