Techies showcase inventions

From an automated, wireless medication dispenser to anti-roll technology for SUVs and internet messaging applications, eight university technology projects in search of commercial investors and partners will debut at this year's Informatics Technology Showcase.

The third annual Dublin event, which will be held next Wednesday, is produced by Enterprise Ireland and aims to bring people from the venture capital, business and informatics research communities together to form partnerships and commercialise technologies which begin life as third-level research.

"Industry does not always think of connecting with academia in looking for new products and individual technologies," says Gearóid Mooney, director of informatics research and commercialisation at Enterprise Ireland.

On the other side, academia does not always think about moving research and development into the commercial sector, he says.

The goal of the event is to form fruitful partnerships that maintain a national focus on expanding research and development and the commercialisation of research, an area where the State is playing catch-up to European norms.

Showcase attendees will include representatives from most of the venture capital firms in Dublin, business angels, serial entrepreneurs, and some small and large companies.

Other academics likely to be presenting projects in future years will also attend in order to get a feel for the event.

The eight academic researchers demonstrating technologies next week have been working with Enterprise Ireland for some time to prepare their work for a possible move into industry.

"We've worked with all the presenters for two to three years, advising them and providing them with funding. We've worked to make sure that commercialisation stays on the agenda," says Mooney.

Funding comes through the Enterprise Ireland commercialisation fund, launched in March 2003. To date, about 450 projects have been funded at a cost of about €75 million across the three focus areas of life sciences, industrial technologies and informatics.

So far, more than a dozen technologies have been licensed, with seven deals on track for 2007, says Mooney. Some 160 informatics projects have been funded, of which eight will be demonstrated by researchers on Wednesday.

The participating researchers say that the event gives them a valuable opportunity to get their technologies in front of an audience which may help them take it further.

Seán Lyons, a researcher at Waterford Institute of Technology, will be speaking about his internet messaging services technology, called Zimbie (www.zimbie.com).

Zimbie allows individuals or organisations to instantly communicate information to others who subscribe to the service and are online at that moment.

"Where our service stands on its own is when time is of the essence, when something is about to perish - hotel rooms, tickets, a share price. You could put out offers to people interested in that information," he says.

Zimbie could also be used in a social networking context - by bloggers to alert subscribers to a new post, for example. All or any sub-group of subscribers could form an instant chatroom for a discussion.

"We're in the process of a beta launch, so [ the showcase] is a major promotional event for it," says Lyons.

"We're also looking for partners. We're hoping to get as much exposure as possible and look for commercial and financial support."

Elderly parents got NUI Galway's Dr Michael Schukat thinking about ways of managing home medications easily and reliably. "For example, 60 per cent of people over 50 take blood pressure management medication, but a third of users would be non-compliant", failing to take tablets when required, Schukat says.

His answer is Digispenser, a wireless, automated pill dispensing tray which can be prepared by a pharmacist and then remotely monitored from the pharmacist's PC, or by a carer, to ensure that tablets are taken on schedule.

"The next step is, I think, you could introduce medication management as a service for the elderly," he says.

Acknowledging that he is more an engineer than a salesman, Schukat says that, at the showcase, he'll be "looking for both advice and support for roll-out from investors or stakeholders".

"I'm open to a range of people who could help commercialise this and enable it to benefit people," he says.

The Informatics Technology Showcase takes place on Wednesday, October 3rd, at the Radisson SAS Hotel, Golden Lane, Dublin 8. The event is free for its target audience but requires advance registration.