Transcript

These days most universities actively help their researchers develop their ideas into products for market.  It’s called the commercial exploitation of research.  One such support is the Impact Acceleration Account (IAA)  at Surrey University’s Advanced Technology Institute, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), which aims to accelerate the process of research exploitation in order to enhance the impact of past, present and future EPSRC funded projects.

In this podcast Dr Radu Sporea visits a showcase event to talk to some of the researchers taking part.

The projects he hears about include

Pervasive Intelligence Ltd‘s intelligent sofware that enables museums and art galleries to put together an app to augment their exhibitions at a fraction of the cost of most packages of this type.  The museum visitor has the app on their smartphone, they point it at an exhibit and can get a wide range of different types of information about the artefact. But more than that, the museum can track the visitor’s journey through the exhibition and gain valuable visitor statistics which enable them to enhance/streamline the experience.

Tom Mee from the Chemical Engineering Department describes his project that helps the NHS with demand planning – it could revolutionise cancer treatment in the UK.

Plastipack swimming pool covers that heat the water in the pool AND inhibit algae growth- other covers do one or the other.  This is a major advance.

Photo by Kev Shine

Tags: Commercial exploitation of research, Engineering and Physical Sciences Reasearch Council (EPSRC), research, Surrey Advanced Institute of Technology