The start of something extraordinary

The Power of InnovationAndy Shenk - CEO

UniServices – Who are we?

• UniServices is the most well respected and largest commercialisation company of its kind in Australasia– Best Commercialisation of Intellectual

Property in International Business, International Business Awards 2013

– Prime Minister’s Science Prize, 2013– Business Excellence Award, Vero 2010

• “UniServices is an exemplar of how research organisations and businesses partner together to achieve mutual benefit”. (MBIE)– The UniServices Investment Committee process has been

recognised as the best practice model nationally

Invention v Innovation

• We hear a lot about innovation these days, but it is not always clear what we mean by it and why it matters. As Kiwis, we all know the iconic story of the lone inventor in a shed creating something new but innovation is much more than that.

• Innovation is the implementation of a new idea, or a new way of doing things, that delivers economic or social benefits to individuals, companies, communities or to society as a whole.

Innovation at the University of Auckland

• At your University, we produce more than 50% of the patents produced by universities in New Zealand

• In fact, we produce more than 35% of the patents produced by all of the universities and research organisations – including the CRI’s – in the whole country

• While we are New Zealand’s largest university, and might be expected to be the leader in research, our academics, technologists and students far outperform the rest of the country

• Today it is my pleasure to tell about just a few of them

World-class Research to Innovation

• The idea

• The problem with the status quo

• An innovative solution

Laboratory of Animate Technologies

• The idea – combining the art of computer animation with the sciences of computation, neurophysiology and bioengineering to create a new way to interact with computers (and improve our understanding of ourselves at the same time)

• The problem with the status quo – humans interact with computers but computers don’t interact with us

• An innovative solution – more life-like, expressive “avatars” for human-machine communication

Inductive Power Transfer

• The idea – transferring electric power across a gap, without wires or connectors

• The problem with the status quo – the phenomenon has been known for more than a century but no one could make it work in the “real world”

• An innovative solution – safe, efficient electrodes and control systems that allow power transfer across 100’s of mm that even work on the move

PowerbyProxi

• The idea – use inductive power transfer to revolutionise the world of low-power devices

• The problem with the status quo – electronic devices appear everywhere in our lives these days and, sadly, they all have their own, special chargers

• An innovative solution – one idea would be to make a single cord that connects to everything, but a better idea is to get rid of the cords altogether

Depression and anxiety in NZ youth• The idea – create a more effective way to help

adolescents manage mild to moderate anxiety and depression

• The problem with the status quo - Three quarters of adolescent sufferers (12-19yo) will not see a mental health professional and so they do not receive treatment

• An innovative solution – an online gaming solution as effective as face-to-face counselling for mild to moderate anxiety and depression

SPARX• The idea - A self-help computer-based E-therapy

programme– SPARX talks to adolescents in a language and genre they

understand and works equally well across ethnic groups and with male and female teenagers. 

• An innovative solution - uses gaming and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) – to teach users five behaviours known to be especially important

in protecting against depression – problem-solving, being active, positive cognition, social skills

and relaxation.

Merry, S.N., Stasiak, K., Shepherd, M., Frampton, C., Fleming, T. & Lucassen, M.F.G.(2012). A randomised controlled non-inferiority trial of the effectiveness of SPARX, acomputerised self-help intervention for adolescents seeking help for depression. BritishMedical Journal, 344(7857), 16.

World-class Research to Innovation

• The idea – starts with outstanding research

• The problem with the status quo – builds on that research and a desire to make the world a better place

• An innovative solution – combines the imagination and creativity of many people, including a few of our own at UniServices, to turn the desire to make a difference into a reality

Thank you

• Any questions?