Land Forces 2024 Innovation PitchFest

 

Cutting-edge Australian companies and research centres participating at Land Forces 2022 are invited to pitch their innovative ideas and technologies to the Australian and international community at the LF2022 Innovation PitchFest.   This is a good chance to present their new products and R&D projects to an audience of potential customers, research partners and investors.

Organized by the Defence Science Institute (DSI) in partnership with AMDA limited, the Defence Innovation Partnership (DIP) in SA, Defence Innovation Network (DIN) in NSW, Defence Science Centre (DSC) in WA, and Queensland Defence Alliance (QDSA), PitchFest will take place on Thursday 6 October as part of the Exposition’s innovation program.

This event will consist of three-minute pitches aimed at demonstrating Australian innovation, research collaboration and the development strengths of the pitcher’s idea or research project.  Three-minute pitches will demonstrate:

• Uniqueness and novelty (ie your innovation).
• Application or end goal of the innovation.
• Where future collaboration may be of benefit (and with whom).

Pitches should not be simply a sales pitch and should be able to engage a general audience in a tight three-minute timeframe. PitchFest is a supportive, professional environment and the pitchers’ work should be presented openly with due consideration to protecting their IP. These pitch sessions are an opportunity to showcase an innovative idea/technology application/product in the early stage of its development (pre-commercialisation).  Pitchers are encouraged to take advantage of the fast-paced atmosphere of PitchFest, hook and engage the audience with their presentation. Presentations will be judged by an expert panel with the top three recognised with a custom trophy.   Participants will be offered training in the art of the Three Minute Pitch. This training is provided free of charge (excluding travel), with the location to be determined, may be held fully on-line or in a mixed environment.

Present at PitchFest will be the Australian Army’s Future Warfare Branch who are particularly looking for pitches that address the challenges below.  Ideas which speak to these topics will be given priority:

1. Current events are highlighting that the proliferation of multispectral sensing means that the battlespace of the future will be highly populated with sensing, making it increasingly hard to remain undetected. How does the Army of the future avoid detection across the full range of detection means.
2. Information and Influence. The Army has a particular interest in being able to disseminate information to a diverse and disparate set of audiences in support of ADF operations – our region is home to a broad range of cultural groups, separated by mountains, vegetation, water and technological divides. How can 21st Century technology and innovation be employed to increase the efficiency and efficacy of information dissemination?
3. Deployable Biometrics. The explosion of bio measuring devices presents both and opportunity and risk. How does Army leverage this opportunity and guard against the risks in the battlefield of the future?

Congratulations to the following entrants who were selected to pitch:

Organisation	Name	Topic	State/Province
Vault Cloud	Mr. Carl Jackson	The SECRET Cloud Revolution for Warfighters	Australian Capital Territory
Hiroco	Dr. Colm Flanagan	MARTAS – Optimally allocating resources to tasks in large multi-agent systems	New South Wales
Metakosmos	Mr. Kiriti Rambhatla	Unified biometrics interface for human performance in extreme conditions (land, water & space)	New South Wales
Real Response	Mr. Benjamin Krynski	Virtual Tactical Combat Care (vTC3 TM) and the Power of Biometrics	New South Wales
Virtually There	Mr. Sean Cunial	Immersive training and evaluation systems to accelerate the entry into service of STEM professionals	New South Wales
EPE	Mr. Ben Sorensen	Persistent CBRNE Threat Sensing, Identification, Localisation and Mapping	Queensland
Simulation Training Group	Mr. Daryl Batchelor	Improving the way militaries train at scale – soldier training with mobile apps	Queensland
SoftIron	Mr. Jason Van der Schyff	Australian Sovereign Tactical Edge Cloud (ASTEC) – Connecting the battle-space to the home-front	Queensland
Virtual Psychologist	Mrs. Dervla Loughnane	Wearable Tech for high performance	Queensland
ZekiTek	Mr. Rikesh Ram	Remote Autonomous Surveillance System Powered by Renewables	Queensland
Team3	Mr. Andrew Savchenko	DISA: Data Intelligence, Search & Analysis	South Australia
Biosafe Innovations & Additive Engineering	Mr. Richard Jeffery	3D Printing with antimicrobial plastics and coatings for metals	Victoria
Federation University	Dr. Gayan Kahandawa Appuhamillage	Protecting Soldiers with wheeled robots with maximum traction, perception and intelligence	Victoria
Kite Magnetics	Dr. Richard Parsons	Next Generation Electric Aircraft Propulsion by Kite Magnetics	Victoria
Lachin Poppins	Mr. Lachlan Poppins	Cheat-sheets and Swiss Army Knives Creating multi-use equipment for tomorrows ADF	Victoria
OptoTech	Mr. Mircea Petre	High Power CW and Pulsed Infrared Laser	Victoria
Dome Shelter	Mr. Paul Byrne	Improving Force Protection with Quickly Deployable DomeShelters	Western Australia
Onetide	Mr. Roy Mitchell	Mission Cloak™    IR/EM/RF Vehicle, Infrastructure and Personnel Cloaking	Western Australia
University of Western Australia (UWA)	Mr. Christopher James	Keeping our warfighters fit – a test for hidden muscle damage	Western Australia

 

Promotional video for recent Indo-Pacific Pitchfest can be viewed here- https://vimeo.com/724668186

Please direct any questions to LF2022@defencescienceinstitute.com