University of New South Wales Archives - Page 2 of 2

A Model Of The UNSW Centre For Innovation
Source: http://www.facilities.unsw.edu.au

The University Of New South Wales (UNSW) has started to get real Entrepreneurial and Innovation momentum. There are numerous pitch competitions, entrepreneurial groups and hardware hackers such as NSW Create, it feels like an entrepreneurial spring is blooming.

New South Innovations the commercialization group for the University has put significant effort into the new ‘Crouch Centre For Innovation’, which was inaugurated by its generous benefactor Mr. Michael Crouch.

Michael is the Executive Chairman of Zip Industries the company that pioneered instant hot water heaters. The ‘Crouch Innovation Centre’ is established with a vision to make Sydney the ‘hub of innovation’ of the Asia-Pacific region.

A Word About The Benefactor

Michael Crouch is an Australian businessman. Interested in promoting Australian exports, he was also the prestigious member of the APEC Business Advisory Council from 1996 to 2007. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Australian School Of Business, and was a former member of the advisory board of the Faculty Of Commerce and Economics at UNSW. He also holds an honorary Doctorate of Business from UNSW.

Breaking ground on Crouch Innovation Centre _ Credit UNSW ASB

An avid supporter of entrepreneurship and innovation, Mr. Crouch believes that Australia can achieve greatness through innovation.

The ‘Crouch Innovation Centre’ aims to promote entrepreneurship and innovation for its students. The centre will house state of the art facilities such as: an innovation hall and multipurpose work space; and a floor dedicated to special materials for fabrication. The various types of fabrication will include 3D printers, laser cutters, electronics, machining, etc. Initially the innovation centre will be available only for students, and then it may be extended to the university faculties and researchers. The centre will take the best of the innovation schools which are already up and running in Harvard, Yale and MIT, etc; in the words of Mr. Geoffrey Garrett, the dean of the Australian School Of Business, “ inspire in students a life of innovation; to seek better ways to do things and solve problems.”

Location of the Premises

The centre is located beside the Australian School of Business building and inside the Material Science Engineering Building at the UNSW campus.

The UNSW Centre For Innovation
Source: http://www.facilities.unsw.edu.au

Final Word

The UNSW’s ‘Crouch Innovation Centre’ will help the university achieve greater milestones in the field of innovation. The centre will also be of huge assistance to the university’s various research initiatives that are happening in ASB and NSi. The construction of the centre will be complete by the commencement of the first semester of 2015, i.e. probably by April 2015.

Sunswift the University of NSW Solar Car team has unveiled their new entry for the 2013 World Solar Challenge being held in October.

Sunswift Eve Unveiling – Credit Sunswift

The new solar-powered 5th generation car, named eVe, will compete in the 3000 kilometre race from Darwin to Adelaide which runs every second year and attracts international competitors. The eVe is refreshingly car like and nothing like your typical Solar Challenge cars which look like cut down single person pizza boxes on wheels.

Nuna solar-powered car, which has travelled up to 140km/h (84mph). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The car is entered in the Cruiser Class which requires theability to carry a driver and passenger (both facing forward) and provides the ability to recharge overnight which is a pretty good use case for a Solar car in real life.

It has solar panels on its hood and roof, and a yellow-racing stripe along the side. If you could combine this sort of approach with the Transparent Solar Cells produced recently by MIT researchers this could turn into a reality.

Transparent Solar Cells PRV – Credit MIT

Luminos — Stanford’s Solar Car (Photo credit: P.S.Lu)

This goal of the Michelin Cruiser Class is not speed but practicality, with the ultimate goal of an entrant being able to meet the requirements for road registration in the country of origin.

This is fantastic news as it gives me an opportunity to post pictures of awesome cars. I love car porn and it seems to me that for a pre-production prototype the Sunswift eVe actually looks pretty good up against some of the worlds most admired cars.

Sunswift eVe Front Quarter – Credit Sunswift

Lamborghini Front Quarter -Credit Lamborghini.com

The goal was to create a more “human-friendly” car, said mechanical engineering student Sam Paterson, the project manager.

“We wanted to create the sort of car you could drive anywhere, all while keeping the design cool and producing zero emissions,” he said. “We think this car is a symbol for a new era of sustainable driving in Australia.”

The Sunswift team that designed and built the car is composed of undergraduate business and engineering students from UNSW. It’s the team’s fifth solar racer since being formed in 1996 by its original members.

Lamborghini Gallardo Rear Top - Credit Lamborghini.com

Sunswift Rear – Credit Sunswift

Lamborghini Gallardo Rear – Credit Lamborghini.com

In 2011, Sunswift’s fourth generation car set a world record, becoming the fastest solar-powered vehicle, reaching a top speed of 88 km/hour. It was the team’s second world record so its likely this one will be faster but the team have not officially released any data on speed or range.

Sunswift Eve Front Top – Credit Sunswift

The team raised more than $27,000 through a Pozible crowd funding campaign earlier this year, and say the extra money will help them compete against teams with bigger budgets from universities such as MIT and Stanford.

Lamborghini – Credit Lamborghini.com

The car will hit the road for the first in September for track testing before heading to the Northern Territory for the race.

It’s not hard to see this sort of car morphing into a working prototype, maybe the guys at Lamborghini can tap Sunswift for their technology and implement it into their prototypes.

In my opinion it has more is a great step forward to bringing solar-powered cars to reality. I know that initially this will take time but it looks like a real car and can apparently do a decent speed. Given most trips in urban areas are probably no more than 50km per day, running this with an overnight charge from a Solar Panel on your roof makes a lot of sense to me. Imagine a situation where you pay nothing to run your call.

I have already converted over to rainwater and now get $ zero bills for water, (cant tell you how good that feels), I am planning to convert to solar with a big bank of batteries sometime in the next year to get free of the grid and inevitable price rises that will continue indefinitely. To be able to covert my car to solar or electric/hybrid would get me free of the 3 major cost of living increases for the last 20 years and for the foreseeable future.

Awesome job guys, hope this turns into something much bigger for the team.