On Friday 24 July, the 29th Lateral INCITE Awards – the State’s longest running and premiere ICT awards program – presented 15 Western Australian based organisations with a winning title or merit acknowledgement for their technology and innovations via a Virtual Presentation ceremony. 

Celia Jordaan, Chief Judge for the Lateral INCITE Awards, commented that the entries for this year’s Awards were once again of a high calibre and continued to impress the judging panel with their ability to provide solutions to contemporary or future challenges we face as a society.

“We have been highly impressed with the level of creativity, market understanding and forecasting that have gone into the innovation entered in this year’s INCITE Awards, making them all viable products and services for our global community,” said Celia. 

“For example, winners in both the smarter communities and social impact categories, InteliCare, have used AI technology to support our seniors and people with disabilities to live safely and confidently in their homes.”

Other first of its kind innovations include the creation of 20,000 kilometres of Fixed Wireless network coverage for WA remote communities and agricultural businesses, by Node 1 Internet, winning them the Innovating Government award. 

TOKN Technology has also taken first prize for the Transformative Business category, for its Digital Transformation without Disruption technology that allows mobile apps to easily connect data across all devices. 

Celia Jordaan also commented that it is encouraging to see many student entries – both in the undergraduate and postgraduate level – advancing the medical and education sectors. 

“Big congratulations go towards Edith Cowan and Curtin Universities for continuing to encourage and invest in innovation in our younger generation, evident through award winning entries such as 3D Reconstruction of Abnormal Viscera and creating a virtual reality training device for learning the art of welding,” said Celia. 

“With so many high level entries from our students, we at the INCITE Awards, feel confident and excited about the strong, continued future of innovation in Western Australia. Go WA!” 

Sue Findlay, Chair of the Lateral INCITE Awards Committee, commented that despite the challenging times that WA and the world has faced due to a global pandemic, the Awards committee forged ahead and delivered a virtual format for its 2020 program. 

“Since 1991, the INCITE Awards have, without fail, provided pathways for WA innovators with access to local, national and international audiences and this year we were even more determined to provide this support” said Sue. 

“As the world relies on digital solutions more and more, our innovators have also shown us how their technology can help to overcome many barriers, even those brought upon a global pandemic.”

This is evident with Smarter Communities merit winner, Markr, who uses AR to create virtual marker signs, viewable on mobile devices, that don’t need sanitising or cleaning. In addition, Startup of the Year merit recipient, The Uno Group, uses AI technology to bring receipt data to life, which they offered freely to the FMCG sector to help with ordering and logistics during early panic buying periods. 

“Now more than ever, it is important that we continue to build up our local digital and innovation ecosystem, as they will play an ever increasingly important role in supporting the way we do things, the way we work and live,” explained Sue. 

The INCITE Awards will now continue to work with the winners and merit recipients to further showcase their innovation on the world stage, via affiliations with the AIIA and Asia Pacific ICT Alliance. 

29th Lateral INCITE Award Winners 

More information at http://inciteawards.org.au/ 

Peter Fillery Undergraduate Tertiary Student Project of the Year

• Winner: Dior Etherton, Curtin University – for 3D Reconstruction of Abnormal Viscera, improving the way in which a patient is managing the ongoing symptoms of situs ambiguus.
• Merit: Christopher Jackson and Taran Twomey, Curtin University – for EXP Medical Imaging Tablet Application, a tablet application allowing the exposure of x-ray patients through simulation, allowing students to practice without including harmful radiation on a subject.

Research and Innovation – Postgraduate Student Project of the Year

• Winner: Luke Spartalis, Edith Cowan University – Luke Spartalis from Edith Cowan University for Educational and Virtual Reality Welding, a virtual reality training device that provides a learning environment for people to acquire the safety knowledge, skills and understanding of the physical task of welding metal.
  

Research and Innovation – Industry Project of the Year

• Winner: TerraVision – for CASA (Comms Availability Spatial Analysis), helping mobile network operators and consumers alike better understand the performance metrics of any mobile network or communications infrastructure platform.

Transformative Business Solution

• Winner: TOKN Technology – for their Digital Transformation without Disruption to get powerful mobile apps, connecting your data, across all devices.

Smarter Communities

• Winner: InteliCare Holdings Limited – for their InteliCare Smart Home monitoring that uses AI to support seniors and people with disabilities to live safely and confidently in their homes.
• Merit: Markr – for their Markr Systems, allowing publication of virtual information anywhere in the world with markr through a content management system with information, links and images.

Social Impact

• Winner: InteliCare Holdings Limited – for their InteliCare Ageing In Place AI Platform, a mobile app providing family members and carers a non-invasive, real time view of their loved ones’ behaviours and real-time alerts if behaviours change.
• Merit: ConsMin & Innovation Centre and Curtin University – for Quoll Quoll! to detect and monitor the endangered Northern Quoll and a range of other species.
• Merit: PetRescue – for their Australian first pioneering national pet adoption platform with a mission to help save the lives of rescue unnoticed pets by connecting rescue organisations with adopters.

Innovating Government 

• Winner: Node1 Internet – for creating 20,000 kilometres of Fixed Wireless network coverage for remote communities and agricultural businesses in Western Australia.
• Merit: Modis – for their One Force Locate technology, providing near real-time visibility of police officers’ locations across the world’s largest policing jurisdiction.
• Merit: Kinetic IT – for their PROTECT+ next phase of cyber security innovation to deliver contemporary security technologies, human intelligence and integrated support models for full spectrum protection.

Startup of the Year

• Winner: SpaceDraft – for their cloud based web application designed to help anyone create & share a common ‘mind’s eye’ understanding of how any space (virtual or physical) can change over time.
• Merit: The Uno Group – for combining the best of human and artificial intelligence, to bring consumer trends in the form of receipt data to life and translating raw data into actionable insights for businesses.