Industry Partnership Award – Winners: Harry Veivers and Dr Michael Candon
Dr Michael Candon from RMIT and Harry Veivers from the University of Queensland were announced as joint winners of the Industry Partnership award at the 2020 DMTC Annual Conference.
Dr Michael Candon from RMIT (left) and Mr Harry Veivers from UQ (right) with Thales Australia Chief Technology Officer Dr John Best
The honour was shared in recognition of the pair’s efforts on two different elements of a DMTC project with Thales Australia to design and produce next-generation soldier systems for Australian defence personnel.
Both Dr Candon and Mr Veivers would have met the age qualifier for the Early Career Research Award but the judges decided to consider them in this category as an acknowledgement of the significance of their contribution to Australian industrial capability.
The project consists of a series of parallel technical investigations to take advantage of breakthroughs in lightweighting, digitisation and advanced manufacturing.
Dr Candon’s work has achieved exceptional results, using complex modelling and machine-learning techniques to generate high-fidelity modelling and improve the speed and accuracy of simulated testing procedures.
PhD candidate Harry Veivers’ work is investigating new material for lightweighting and improved thermal management of small arms systems. This work has paved the way for the production of prototypes that are significantly lighter than existing fielded equipment.
Candidate materials and modified manufacturing processes must pass rigorous testing to demonstrate that weight reductions can be achieved without compromising performance, reliability and safety.
Capability Improvement Award – Winner: Sustainment of Emergent Materials team
This collaborative team (working under the auspices of DMTC Project Team 5.77) has worked extensively on the development of laser additive deposition (LAD) technology for the past 10 years and has achieved significant outcomes for commercial and Defence customers.
Smiles all-round for members of the team awarded the DMTC Capability Improvement Award for 2020
For defence customers, innovative approaches to, and adoption of new technologies for, sustainment of fleets is crucial, especially in light of the cost pressures associated with life cycle support on military platforms. Through this project and previous enabling research, DMTC has been an integral partner in helping to generate a sovereign industrial capability in Australia in laser repair technology. RUAG Australia has shown repeatedly that repairing components, rather than replacing them, enables Defence to achieve the desired structural performance rates and fleet availability results at a fraction of the cost, and in fractions of the time.
“RUAG Australia continues to be a top performer in innovation in Australia. Working together with DMTC has directly proven that this passionate pursuit of innovation and collaborative research and development ensures solid benefits for all stakeholders,” Neil Matthews, Chief Technical Advisor & Senior Manager Additive Technologies, RUAG Australia said.
This project has not only demonstrated the successful geometrical restoration of actual aircraft components, but also the viability of LAD technology for repair of Defence-grade materials. Researchers from RUAG, Swinburne and RMIT developed and supported the establishment of state-of-the-art sustainment and repair laser cladding facility at RUAG which is now fully operational through the funding of the Defence Capability and Technology Demonstrator (CTD) Program. The work carried out by research partners, RMIT and Swinburne, ensured that the restored Defence components meet certification, operational and design requirements.
Collaboration Award – Winner: Dr Mitali Sarkar-Tyson
Dr Mitali Sarkar-Tyson from the School of Biomedical Sciences at The University of Western Australia received the coveted Collaboration Award at the 2020 DMTC Annual Conference.
Dr Sarkar-Tyson with CEO DMTC, Dr Mark Hodge, and special guest dinner speaker Adam Goodes (right)
Dr Sarkar-Tyson has shown an incredible work ethic and commitment to developing our sovereign industrial capability in the medical countermeasures domain over the last several years.
She is currently leading a DMTC project out of The University of Western Australia in collaboration with DST Group, the Peter Doherty Institute, the University of Wurzburg, the University of Exeter, DSTL and now Monash University. This project is developing novel anti-virulence compounds against a range of bio-warfare pathogens. In addition to the highly significant research she has conducted for this project, she has also contributed to 72 scientific research publications across the fields of antimicrobial resistance and molecular biology.
The DMTC Collaboration Award recognises an individual who embodies the spirit of collaboration, and Dr Sarkar-Tyson has truly embodied collaboration through bringing together a network of international researchers and coordinating a multi-disciplinary team that can respond to bio-threat pathogens and the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance.
Project Leadership Award – Winner: Professor Flavia Huygens
Professor Flavia Huygens received the Project Leadership Award at the 2020 DMTC Annual Conference.
Professor Huygens receiving the Project Leadership Award from CEO DMTC, Dr Mark Hodge (left) and special guest dinner speaker Adam Goodes (right)
Professor Huygens is Associate Director at the Institute of Health Biomedical Innovation (QIMR-Berghofer), a Professor at the School of Biomedical Sciences at Queensland University of Technology and a director of Australian med-tech start-up company, Microbio.
Professor Huygens has shown excellent project leadership over the last year in seamlessly bringing together a multidisciplinary team from academia and industry to develop a rapid diagnostic with her company Microbio, which is helping to address significant issues in the diagnosis of bio-threat pathogens.
She is the pioneer behind the technology of InfectID®, which uses novel and innovative bioinformatic tools to genetically identify blood/plasma borne bacteria. This technology has been shown to distinguish between more than 10 closely related pathogens without the generation of false positives. This type of technology is critical for the military to respond to outbreaks of infection or deliberate biological attacks.
The way Professor Huygens has managed the complexities of working across partners to meet the delivery requirements has been second to none.
More information on this project is in our 2019 Annual Report here.
