Marine science postgraduate student Wednesday Davis is passionate about environmental sustainability and conservation. Having worked with sea turtles at Kelly Tarlton’s Sea Life Aquarium, Wednesday has seen the effects of plastic pollution in our oceans. This has brought about a desire to reduce people’s daily use of plastic, starting with her own.

The Kiwi Innovation Network (KiwiNet) is a consortium of 18 of New Zealand’s public research organisations working together to transform research discoveries with commercial promise into new products and services. KiwiNet doesn’t carry out research commercialisation itself; instead it acts as a channel for collaboration amongst those who do. KiwiNet aims to increase the scale and impact of science and technology based innovation, maximising economic benefits to New Zealand.

Surgical Design Studios (SDS) has developed a range of medical devices that reduce the time it takes until patients can use their guts again following bowel surgery from five months to two weeks. The technology developed is truly revolutionary and has attracted $4.3 million through early stage capital raising. SDS raised the money through its first angel fundraising round led by Icehouse Ventures fund Tuhua II. The company will use the funds raised to bring its devices to market, with plans to launch in New Zealand later this year, and then overseas once it gains regulatory clearances.

Shwoop is an experiential marketing startup initiated by Business, Music and Engineering students at the University of Auckland. Their latest initiative is a portable ultrasonic installation that was used to transform stairs in the Sir Owen G Glenn building into musical stairs. The installation was created using equipment in the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship’s Unleash Space. The Centre commissioned creation of the stairs to be used to raise awareness of the existence of the University’s innovation hub so that other students might be inspired to visit Unleash Space and use the equipment for their own inventions.

Charlotte Hoonhout graduated from the University of Auckland last year with a Bachelor of Commerce majoring in Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Congruently with her studies she was also pursuing her career as a Para-Equestrian and later joined a team of students who helped set up the Unleash Space, the University’s very own state of the art innovation hub and makerspace.

A new technology allows the hearing-impaired to watch a movie at whatever cinema they like, and never miss a line of dialogue. It was developed by researchers at the Auckland Bioengineering Institute with the concept honed during their participation in the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship’s Velocity programme. The device, called the Vivify headset, uses augmented reality to project subtitles below the cinema screen. A commercial trial of the headset is currently being run through Event cinemas in Newmarket, Auckland.

A virtual reality game that could save lives during an earthquake has emerged from the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship’s Velocity programme. The result of a collaboration between experts in education, computer science and engineering, the game simulates what might happen in an ordinary school classroom during and after an earthquake.

Fady Mishriki has received a 2019 Kea World Class New Zealand Award, New Zealand’s most prestigious celebration of individual achievement. The annual awards recognise inspirational, world-leading Kiwis and friends who are making outstanding contributions to New Zealand’s economic, social and cultural development.

Unleash Space is home to the University of Auckland’s state-of-the-art create and maker space. Managed by the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, it’s a place where all students and staff can create what they can imagine, design for today and prototype for tomorrow. Ensuring that the space is running smoothly and to its full capabilities is Unleash Space Technician Sean Kelly. Sean is passionate about cultivating a new technological culture at the University and is enabling and bringing together the future entrepreneurs and makers of New Zealand.