INNOVATORS: This month's new innovators have taken their inspiration from the seas, foreign shores and the local dump to turn their ideas into realities, writes DAVID LABANYI
Gourmet Marine
From the open seas
IN COMMON with many fish species, sea urchins stocks are under pressure due to overfishing. Dr Gerry Mouzakitis from University College Cork (UCC) says demand for the delicacy remains huge, particularly from Japan where it is used in sushi and the market is worth $200 million a year, or €15,000 a tonne.
Another issue is that all sea urchin harvesting must be done by divers and hand-pickers, further limiting supplies.
Despite being relatively easy to grow given the correct food and conditions, efforts at commercially farming sea urchins have been largely unsuccessful to date.
The main reason for this is the way they feed. According to Mouzakitis, sea urchins placed in a submerged perforated cage with seaweed will attach themselves to the food source, forming dense clumps.
These clumps restrict water flow and damage the health of the animals. However, Mouzakitis's firm, Gourmet Marine, has developed a system to deal with this problem.
The design is based around how the food is presented. Instead of randomly dropping food into a cage Mouzakitis's system uses a plate of seaweed covered by a perforated grate.
Sea urchins attach themselves right across this grate to feed through the perforations. The system uses two such plates in each container, one on the bottom and one on top. This design ensures a clear flow of water and a uniform, dense concentration of sea urchins. He calls the system the UrchinPlatter.
"We are stopping these clumps from happening and it means we can get animal densities at least three times more than any other system, between 50 to 90 kilos of animals per square metre," he says.
Mouzakitis came up with the idea shortly after arriving in the Aquaculture and Fisheries Development Centre in UCC about six years ago and says he always planned to commericalise it. The system is based in tanks rather than open water, meaning everything can be controlled, from feed to water quality.
Development to date has relied on "soft funding" support and engineering expertise from UCC's BioTransfer Unit and Enterprise Ireland Bio.
"Although the funding was very good, the real value and the reason this project has progressed commercially is due to their support."
Bioplastech
GET VALUE FROM WASTE
THERE IS a double benefit behind Dr Kevin O'Connor's research: it reduces the amount waste going to landfill and it produces a valuable resource. His technology can convert certain industrial wastes into a bio-degradable plastic, producing only bacterial bio-mass as a by-product. The development is the fruit of more than nine years research, says O'Connor.
His system uses bacteria to break down the waste and for every 10 tonnes of waste, the process produces four to five tonnes of biodegradable plastic. This product is equally as flexible and diverse as petrochemical-based plastics, he says. "The plastic we generate is fully bio-degradable within around two months, compared to petrochemical plastics that effectively does not degrade."
O'Connor is coy about exactly what kind of waste is used, pending the completion of outstanding patents, but says it is not petrochemical-based plastics. "We started off looking at converting non-biodegrable plastics into biodegradable plastics but the infrastructure required for the collection and sorting of that waste just isn't available," he says. His research has received support from the HEA, EPA, Enterprise Ireland and NovaUCD. Last month Bioplastech was a runner-up in the annual NovaUCD Start-up Awards.
Much of the private sector interest has come from overseas and the 38-year-old expects to sign an agreement to build a trial plant shortly.
"Waste is a key issue for modern and developing economies. The current practices; exportation, dumping landfill are unsustainable. We need innovative ideas that deal with the waste and add to value to the process are needed," he says.
Asimil 8
DIFFERENT DIMENSIONS
ACROSS THE range of computer-based learning tools available, two friends noticed there was little to assist students studying languages and in particular to allow them speak a new language. "How do you practice speaking a new language? Typically people wind up going to the Gaelteacht or heading to France. It is not very convenient and often expensive," says Paul Groarke, co-founder and chief executive of ASimil8, an e-learning venture he set up with Garrett Hussey.
By combining their experience of virtual worlds and gaming technologies with the principles of e-learning technology they have created what they describe as an "immersive learning environment".
The technology allows the student to enter a virtual world speaking French, for example, as they perform a number of social functions, such as opening a bank account or ordering foods. Their virtual world has tiered levels through which the student can climb as their language skills improve.
When in the virtual world they interact with an avatar using artificial intelligence, meaning it can respond to the students directly rather than repeat stock phases. "We have produced virtual assistants; a guy in the bank, a guy in the cafe and they are controlled by artificial intelligence so they can speak back to the student. They are not giving canned responses, they have the ability to learn," he says.
"The virtual assistants are not going to correct the students, but the student can go back and look at a script of the conversation and find out why they didn't do so well on a particular level," he says.
As former UCD graduates Gogarty and Hussey created a "spin-in" company ASimil8 when they joined NovaUCD to complete development work on their idea and start to commercialise it. Last month the company won NovaUCD's Start-up Award.
While the concept is applicable to all languages ASimil8 is concentrating on a product to compliment the secondary-school French syllabus and aim to have it available in time for the 2009 school year. The product will be web-based with users purchasing a one-year subscription.
"In terms of security, every user must have a validated credit card and e-mail address and every conversation is recorded. We are also looking at a LAN-based system for schools. "The area of immersive education is new and the virtual world is very young and we were looking at the various other opportunities," says Groarke.
Ebiotech
BREATHE EASY:
WHEN PROF Richard Costello, a consultant in respiratory medicine at Beaumont Hospital, was looking for a way to better remotely monitor the health of his asthma patients, he approached a Trinity College researcher. Engineering professor Richard Reilly started work on this issue about three years ago and established eBioTech in collaboration with Isabelle Killane, a biomedical researcher at UCD and experts in the Royal College of Surgeons.
Their solution to Costello's request is an inhaler fitted with sensors in the mouthpiece to record how and when patients use their medication, in what quantities and whether the medicine is having the desired impact. Reilly says the device gives consultants and drug companies access to detailed information about how users interact with their inhaler. They came up with the idea after observing the relatively slow assessment process for drug effectiveness. They also took on board observations from medical professionals that consultations "are just a snapshot of the patient's progress".
One patent has been filed for the development and a second is pending.The device is equally applicable for medical professionals seeking to monitor patients and for use by pharmaceutical firms running clinical trials, according to Prof Reilly.
EBioTech received support from Enterprise Ireland and NovaUCD. The company has been in talks with "a major pharmaceutical company in asthma medication" and hopes to be able to confirm a collaboration within weeks.
Killane adds that 300 million people have been diagnosed with asthma in a market worth over $15 billion in terms of medication. EBioTech is also working on new diagnostic systems for multiple sclerosis and schizophrenia.
