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Gold Coast Health & Knowledge Precinct

Kathy Kruger

Filed Under: BUSINESS, HEALTH, INVEST, Research, TECHNOLOGY Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Precinct well-placed for Industry 4.0 future

With the Australian Government officially launching its $1.3 billion Modern Manufacturing Initiative and roadmaps for priority industries, the Precinct is well-positioned to play its role in industry transformation, particularly in the first two priority industries – Space and Medical Products, which are also key focus areas for the Queensland Government.

Using data from the first regional-level study into Industry 4.0 capability, skills and supply chains, we unpack how the Precinct can play a key role in the Gold Coast’s future in advanced manufacturing – accelerating the Australian space industry; driving new precision medicine products, procedures and rehabilitation approaches; supporting defence, and helping local manufacturers transform and digitize in marine, automotive, construction and more.

Technologies to open up Space and drive Precision Medicine

With the Australian Government officially launching its $1.3 billion Modern Manufacturing Initiative and roadmaps for priority industries, the Precinct is well-positioned to play its role in industry transformation, particularly in the first two priority industries – Space and Medical Products, which are also key focus areas for the Queensland Government.

Using data from the first regional-level study into Industry 4.0 capability, skills and supply chains, and drawing on case studies of projects already underway, we unpack how the Precinct can play a key role in the Gold Coast’s future in advanced manufacturing – accelerating the Australian space industry; driving new precision medicine products, procedures and rehabilitation approaches; supporting defence; and helping local manufacturers transform and digitize in marine, automotive, construction and more.

The first regional-level study in Australia into Industry 4.0 opportunities

Industry 4.0 describes the ongoing automation and digitisation of supply chains with reduced need for human intervention and includes technologies such as big data, robotics, computer-assisted manufacturing, cloud computing, the Internet of Things (IoT), additive manufacturing (3d printing), artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality, digital twins (virtual modelling), machine to machine communications, nanotechnology, blockchain, and sensor technologies.

Initially applied to the manufacturing sector, the core technologies have application in many other sectors of the economy and were already gathering speed, with COVID-19 fast-tracking their adoption.

Pre-covid, the GCHKP partnered with Regional Development Australia (RDA) Gold Coast, the State Government and City of Gold Coast, to commission a capability and gap analysis, with companies participating in the study in the second half of last year, and a website developed by RDA launched in December 2020 to promote the results, and profile businesses.

RDA Gold Coast Director of Regional Development Estella Rodighiero said companies have co-located in clusters, with a large cluster of Industry 4.0 knowledge centred on the GCHKP.

“We have an AI health cluster at Southport, an aerospace cluster on the northern Gold Coast, a textiles cluster at Yatala, medtech and bionics at Southport, film visual effects at Oxenford, a brewing cluster at Burleigh and additive manufacturing at Southport, just to name a few,” she says.

RDA Gold Coast Chair Nick Scott said that while the pandemic had forged new partnerships and prompted technology adoption out of necessity, as well as highlighting the need for resilient and sovereign supply chains, there was room for more collaboration, and the skills lag would need to be addressed.

“We’ll be identifying digital supply chain opportunities, helping to attract complementary supply chain businesses, encouraging collaboration and partnerships between industry and the education and training sectors, and reviewing current and future workforce skill requirements,” Mr Scott says.

Local Industry Capability Register

A local industry capability register is on the way for SE Queensland  The register will enable local suppliers to promote their actual and potential capabilities to other businesses, and to the public.

The Gold Coast study engaged peak industry bodies such as Bionics Queensland, Life Sciences Queensland, and Australian Beverages, as well as conducting an online survey and one-on-one interviews – most survey respondents were in manufacturing, with other industries including professional and scientific, and healthcare.

  • 22% of businesses/respondents were located in Southport (primarily GCHKP)
  • 13% were located in nearby Arundel, primarily in high-tech light industrial estates
  • Yatala (17%) and Ormeau (11%) represent the city’s northern advanced manufacturing cluster

    Gold Coast Industry 4.0 clusters, highlight areas of GCHKP focus and capability*

Cloud computing, automation, and advanced/computer-assisted manufacturing were the most common technologies currently being taken-up. Increased adoption of all technologies was anticipated, with nanotechnology, blockchain, digital twinning and augmented/virtual reality platforms growing from a smaller base.

Productivity and new product and market opportunities were identified as key drivers, with businesses also motivated to better manage supply chains and increase workplace safety, while the main barriers to adoption were the return on investment (ROI) timeline and availability of a  skilled workforce. Software engineering and industrial design skills were identified as specialist areas of highest demand.

The report (compiled by the Better Cities Group and Giles Consulting) also found a significant opportunity for Gold Coast businesses to establish ‘digital’ supply chains, with the city boasting a strong digital infrastructure platform, and Griffith University’s ADaPT (advanced design and prototyping technologies) capabilities a key enabler.

PWR, world-leaders in advanced cooling systems for the automotive industry, including Formula One racing, have partnered with Precinct researchers to continue to develop additive manufacturing capabilities at their northern Gold Coast facility

AI, Nanotechnology, Robotics, Industrial Design and Additive Manufacturing drive a new Space era

Dr Kelvin Ross and Dr Brent Richards, from Datarwe and the Queensland AI Hub (healthcare) have developed a Precision Medicine Data Platform.

AI is considered a key Industry 4.0 enabling technology with applications across sectors. Griffith University has been ranked 17th in the world for its AI expertise, while the Queensland AI Hub for healthcare, based out of a speciality data lab in the Precinct’s Cohort Innovation Space, is helping to rapidly cluster related SME’s.

AI and machine learning also underpin the development of remote sensors for Space, with expertise in new materials science and industrial design for advanced additive manufacturing converging in the design and prototyping of smart and robust sensor technologies, and lighter and stronger satellites and space transport systems.

Griffith University is partnering with Gilmour Space Technologies, global aerospace leader Northrup Grumman, and other companies and organisations, including the Korean Aerospace Research Institute, at the frontier of technologies for Space.

Professor Paulo de Souza

Head of Information Communication Technology, Professor Paulo de Souza, a former CSIRO Chief Research Scientist whose PhD research contributed to the design, production, deployment, and operation of sensors used by NASA aboard two Mars rovers, says the project to launch a low-earth-orbit satellite with Gold-Coast-based Gilmour Space in 2022, is “big and audacious”.

“Aerospace capability is in deep need right here in Australia, for defence, disaster management and environmental observations,” Professor de Souza says.

Gilmour Space CEO Adam Gilmour says the company is excited to partner with the university as the collaboration would build the skills required for significant expansion of its workforce.

“This project is about demonstrating to Australia that we can build and launch a significant-sized satellite with significant capability,” he says.

“It’s also about working with local partners like Griffith to educate the next generation of space engineers who take us to orbit.”

Gilmour Space – One Vision suborbital test program, far north Queensland.

Space projects include:

  • Satellite design/prototyping to reduce weight/increase strength, including testing new alloys
  • Integration of embedded smart sensors and flexible electronics in structures
  • Design of composite fuel tanks for low-cost space transport
  • Small cube-sats for collection of satellite imagery with multiple applications including bushfire detection

 

Precision Medicine driven by digital twins and technology integration

We’re a place that you come to develop cutting-edge biomedical technologies to manage health conditions. You don’t often get this really tight location and the passion to work together as a group of  very different disciplines. It is really a step-change – it’s disruption for the health industry.

Professor David Lloyd, Director, Griffith Centre for Biomedical and Rehabiliation Engineering

The Industry 4.0 technologies of digital twin modelling, new materials science, AI, robotics, additive manufacturing and more, are brought together in a range of applications to design and personalise medical and assistive devices, diagnostics, implants, surgeries, wearable technologies, and rehabilitation and sports training.

The creation of digital twins – personal neuromusculoskeletal models, or Personalised Digital Humans – underpins many new medical technology applications, enabling clinical outcomes to be optimised over the use of more generic treatment and training approaches.

The BioSpine project – which is revolutionising rehabilitation for spinal cord injury by intelligently integrating a range of new technologies and personalising the approach, is one exciting example, while the Spinal Injury Project is also utilising 3D bioprinting technologies to create a biological scaffold, or nerve bridge, to guide new neuron growth.

Dr David Bade, surgeon, Queensland Children’s Hospital (left) with Dr Martina Barzan, Research Fellow, Griffith University and A/Prof Chris Carty, Queensland Advancing Clinical Research Fellow, Griffith University

ADaPT researchers, together with surgeons at the Queensland Children’s Hospital, have just completed a medical device trial of a new personalised approach to long and complex paediatric surgeries, with 13 children undergoing successful procedures for severe hip deformities.

Engineers work with orthopaedic surgeons on precise surgery pre-planning –  generating a digital twin of each patient; producing exact anatomical bone models; selecting optimised implants; 3D printing personalised cutting guides; and digitally simulating the whole procedure.

Surgery times have been slashed almost in half, with procedures more accurate, complications reduced and patient outcomes already improved.

Other medical technology projects include:

Filed Under: STUDY Tagged With: , ,

2020’s brightest school students provide future workforce pipeline

A future talent pipeline is assured if the results of 2020 graduating students at the Precinct’s Queensland Academies Health Sciences Campus (QAHS) are anything to go by.

One of only three Queensland state schools for highly-capable students in Years 10 to 12, QAHS schools students in the prestigious International Baccalaureate Diploma Program, with the 2020 cohort achieving results well above the international average, and several students receiving top results that place them amongst a global elite.

Service and leadership key to achievement

Whilst Queensland’s first graduating class to be awarded an ATAR ranking received their scores before Christmas, the 136 high-achievers at QAHS had to wait until last month to receive their results – a wait well and truly worth it for Maggie Chi, who received a perfect score, IB45, the equivalent of an ATAR 99.95.

Joy was an obvious reaction for the international STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) student leader.

“I was overwhelmed with joy when I received my results. It was really rewarding to see all my hard work pay off,” says Maggie.

Maggie has received a Sir Samuel Griffith Award of Excellence scholarship to study at Griffith, where she’ll undertake a Bachelor of Medical Science, as well as bringing her broad passion for combining economics and science to make a difference – her research, conducted as an integral part of the IB program, examined the ecological and economic impacts of salinity on agriculture in the Murray-Darling basin.

She was an Australian team member to the Asia-Pacific Forum for Science Talented in 2019, and part of a third-placed team for the 2020 Queensland AI for Good Challenge, a global competition run by Microsoft that saw another QAHS team top the state.

Joining Maggie at Griffith in the Bachelor of Medical Science degree is fellow high-performer Angie Zhou, who earned a near-perfect IB44 after a busy year in which she represented Australia at the International Biology Olympiad and won the Griffith Health Award for excellence in the IB core.

Angie , who honed her leadership skills as Gold Coast City Council Junior Mayor in 2019 and was also part of the Australian team for the Asia-Pacific Forum for Science Talented, completed her summer research internship at the innovative Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute in Melbourne.

“I chose Griffith to study because the medical science program is really good for getting direct entry into the doctor of medicine,“ says Angie.

“The Bachelor’s degree is only 2 years, so it effectively shortens the pathway to become a doctor and I found that a really good choice for my future.”

Angie Zhou (left) and Maggie Chi

Not to be outdone was QAHS’s top student, or “Academy Optimus’, Camille Luchs, for her innovation, service and leadership-focused achievements, as well as the outstanding academic results that saw her also earn an IB45, just pipping her brother Aidan, who received an IB44.

Amongst Camille’s remarkable achievements were a Mayor’s Telstra Technology Entrepreneurial Spirt Award for her creative initiative to tackle diabetes, while she and Aidan both received the Rotary International Interact All-Rounder Award for outstanding leadership and community involvement.

The QAHS average IB score is 35, compared with the global average of 29.8.

QAHS is conducting an information session on 16 February for 2022 Year 10 enrolments – register here.

 

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New year, new appointments, projects and programs

Dr Peter Binks started out with stars in his eyes – studying the structure of galaxies to earn his PhD from the prestigious Oxford University, after completing a science degree majoring in physics (Quantum Mechanics to be precise) at the University of Tasmania. With such impressive smarts, the academic universe was open to him, but Dr Binks instead chose a corporate career that has spanned more than 30 impressive years. 

Dr Peter Binks started out with stars in his eyes – literally – studying the structure and shape of galaxies to earn his PhD from the prestigious Oxford University, after completing a science degree majoring in physics (Quantum Mechanics to be precise) at the University of Tasmania. With such impressive smarts, the academic universe was open to him, but Dr Binks instead chose a corporate career that has spanned more than three stellar decades. 

“The stars and planets are one of the most fundamental of human interests, and involve some of the most remarkable scientific concepts.  We know so little about forces and timescales bigger than we ever see on Earth,” Peter Binks reflects, with the awe and enthusiasm of someone with a lifelong commitment to inspiring interest in science (he’s served on the Advisory Boards of In2science and the Institute of Railway Technology and is a Director of Engagement Australia).

And while there’s nothing quite like the lure of space to capture imaginations, Peter’s true passion is for science that is very much down to earth.

“I loved my time as a physicist, but that wasn’t where I could contribute the most.  As my career has developed, I’ve realised my passion is for bringing science and technology to where it can help change people’s lives, or strengthen our economy, or address difficult problems like those of climate change.

I left the university world to learn more about the corporate and business sector, to gain the skills to develop and lead technology activities that will become products and processes from which we all benefit.”

Peter has joined Griffith after working with large businesses such as BHP, Telstra and McKinsey in Sydney, Melbourne, and San Francisco, before spending the last decade in the not-for-profit and startup sectors.

Across a diverse career, he has run a nanotechnology company, and a scholarship foundation, and served on the Boards of medtech and energytech firms. He’s a former CEO of the Business Higher Education Round Table (BHERT), of the General Sir John Monash Foundation, of the Garnet Passe & Rodney Williams Memorial Foundation, and of Nanotechnology Victoria, which he guided for six years.

With this expertise, Peter is enthusiastic about the opportunity for the Gold Coast Health and Knowledge Precinct to be a testbed for advanced nanomaterials and sensor technologies.

“Over the last decade, the application of nanotechnology to health diagnostics and therapeutics has moved from concept towards reality,” Peter enthuses.

The Gold Coast Health and Knowledge Precinct is well placed to become a leader in trialing and demonstrating an array of new technologies, many of which are being developed by Griffith researchers in the Queensland Micro and Nanotechnology Centre (see video below).

One of the interesting applications being developed out of the QMNC are long-lasting, flexible electronics for use in implantable devices such as deep brain stimulators and cardiac pacemakers. These could be incorporated into new generations of long-life pacemakers and inserts.”

Peter’s role at Griffith is to develop and implement a university-wide engagement strategy; positioning the University for partnerships to support its major research, education, and cultural activities. He’s arrived as research success reaches a new high, less than 12 months after Professor Mario Pinto joined Griffith from Canada, as DVC Research and Chair of the Precinct’s Strategic Advisory Group.

2020 record year for research rankings, income and commercialisation

For the first time, Griffith University was ranked in the top 250 in four major global research rankings, research income hit a record $87.4 million, including strong growth in industry-funded research.

Total commissioned commercialisation revenue for Griffith Enterprise in 2020 was $38.2M, the largest in the university’s history. 

Griffith researchers published over 100 papers covering various aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic in the fields of medicine, public health, social work, environmental sciences, ecology, tourism, management, nursing, psychology, education, suicide prevention and criminology.

The university has recently released its Research and Innovation Plan 2021-25, which targets a top 200 global ranking, and a top 100 in at least 10 academic areas.

When stars collide – start-ups, corporates, clinicians, researchers, philanthropists

Given his experience across the constellation of worlds – academic, research, corporate, start-up and not-for-profit, Peter Binks is perhaps uniquely placed to understand how sparks of imagination can fly when the sectors collide (or at least connect), and to ‘manage the magic’.

“Our challenge is to stimulate, guide, and manage growth,” he says.

Attracting new partners to the precinct will bring talent and investment, and create opportunities for the activities already here.  Not every business will succeed, and not every opportunity will work, and we need to ensure new opportunities are generated so businesses can pivot and evolve.”

One exciting way to accelerate ‘collisions’ (that hopefully don’t crash) is to bring ideas and expertise together in an intensive and structured way – enter Cohort Innovation Space’s new LuminaX Healthtech Accelerator program, launched this month and kicking off in March to give 10 start-up entrepreneurs the chance to launch or scale-up, delivered in partnership with the Queensland AI Hub and IntelliHQ, and with the involvement of 25 industry partners, including Gold Coast Health.

Associate Professor Kate Seib is one of the Institute for Glycomics researchers who share in $2.56m in NHMRC grant funding

Also kicking off are seven newly-announced National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Ideas projects worth $4.5m and led by Griffith, along with three other projects to which Griffith researchers will significantly contribute. The projects tackle a range of health conditions such as influenza, brain injury and osteoarthritis.

With new appointments, programs and research projects, 2021 is shaping as a real year of growth for the Precinct as it consolidates a reputation as a new post-pandemic horizon and haven of opportunity.