Presenter: Kevin McCarthy Big Idea:Aficionado

Kevin is co-founder and CEO of Aficionado – an expertise discovery and management solution for large organisations. Kevin has a PhD in Computer Science from UCD and is an expert in personalization technologies and recommender systems. Over the last 5 years, as a researcher in the CLARITY centre for sensor web technologies, Kevin has been working on various commercialisation activities with the completion of several innovation vouchers and an innovation partnership with SkillPages. In tandem, he has completed the NovaUCD Campus Company Development Programme and successfully attained both Commercial Case Feasibility Support Fund and Commercialisation Fund grants from Enterprise Ireland. The Aficionado technology is initially aimed at the research market but has applications in a number of enterprise sectors including recruitment, pharmaceutical and on-demand media.

Presenter: Ken Byrne Big Idea: Grasp

Grasp is a start-up company focused on the development of smart wearable products and systems for branded consumer markets in sports, health, medical and consumer electronics. Ken, CEO, is leading the company's vision and product development. Ken has a passion for creating value through technology and innovation, is a former partner at Accenture and has significant experience in technology development and commercialisation. He works closely with CTO Mike Walsh. Mike is leading the technology delivery of products including software development. Mike is a research fellow at the Tyndall National Institute where he has led the development of applications for wearable and location technology Grasp aim to create breakthrough movement sensing and location based products and systems that implement novel consumer applicants and deliver helpful, insightful and engaging products for global retail markets.

Presenter: Garrett Ryan Big Idea: cRDN

Garrett Ryan is a Research Fellow at the Trinity Centre for Bioengineering at Trinity College Dublin. He graduated from National University of Ireland, Galway in 2003 with a degree in Biomedical Engineering. He remained in Galway to pursue a PhD under Prof. Abhay Pandit and completed his thesis in 2008; ‘The development of a bioactive titanium scaffold for orthopaedic applications’. He worked at Crospon Ltd in Galway on development of the EndoFlip® technology before travelling to Sydney, Australia, where over a 3½ year period he held senior engineering positions at Resmed Inc, CathRx Ltd and the Waterfall Commercialisation Group Ltd. After returning to Ireland, his role at Trinity College Dublin is that of lead engineer in the development of a catheter based technology for the treatment of resistant hypertension. Garrett’s primary expertise is in the design, development and commercialisation of medical devices.

Presenter: Wayne Byrne Big Idea: OxyMem Bubble-less Aeration

Experienced senior manager and managing director, with experience in private and public sectors. Brought multiple start-ups and multi-national companies through various phases of international growth. An enthusiastic leader and team builder who is highly analytical and financially aware and has an impressive track record of developing and implementing operational and business strategies. Wastewater treatment is a remarkably energy intensive process but aerobic biological processes have been the key to Wastewater treatment for the last 100 years. They are most commonly deployed in the Activated Sludge treatment process, the most prevalent treatment technique worldwide. The AS has process dates back to 1914 and involves the treatment by micro-organisms in the presence of oxygen. This aerobic environment in the conventional AS process is achieved by the introduction of oxygen through diffused or mechanical aeration. OxyMem bubble-less aeration technology dramatically reduces the operating costs for wastewater aeration. OxyMem does not rely on a bubble to transfer oxygen which results in a minimum of a four fold saving on energy costs when compared to forced aeration. OxyMem uses gas permeable membranes, which allow oxygen to be transferred directly to the wastewater treating bacteria. OxyMem is capable of achieving up to 100% oxygen transfer efficiency, as no oxygen is lost to atmosphere.

Presenter: Xuemei Germaine Big Idea: MicroGen Biotech Ltd

MicroGen Biotech Limited is an early-stage Cleantech company with expertise having 25 years of research and application in microbial and plant mediated bioremediation technologies for cleaning up environmental pollutants. From our years of high-tech research and innovation we have developed a range of results-proven low cost, environmental friendly but highly effective sustainable bioremediation products and platform technologies. Our site-specific products and platform technologies are designed to effectively clean up the environmental contaminants, immediately help restore the damaged eco-systems, protect the health of the local communities/environment and provide economic benefits to the local community. Our ready-for-the-market product and platform technologies include site-specific microbial products, EcoPileTM technology, site specific Plant-Microbe technology and Bioremediation-Biofuel technology.

Presenter: Kevin Doherty Big Idea: Gazel

Gazel is a design focused homewares company that will sell luxury lifestyle products for the home. Innovation is core to what we do. We want to help people create and enjoy new everyday experiences. For us, luxury in the home is about rethinking a richer experience where comfort and creativity combine to give a true sense of joy. We invite a new way to look at life, where the ordinary feels extraordinary. We ‘Rethink The Everyday’. This idea is core to our product offering. From our ingeniously easy to use clothes hanger to our multi-purpose kitchen knife, innovation and design is key. This focus gives us first mover advantage with a number of products. The company, based in Dublin, will design its unique home products in-house, with manufacturing being outsourced to key partners. The company will have an international focus supplying to individual retailers, distributors and agents.

Presenter: Julia O’Rourke Big Idea: REMPAD

Julia is the lead business promoter and clinician behind the REMPAD product. REMPAD is a web-based solution designed to streamline the process of delivering group reminiscence therapy in nursing homes. As a Senior Speech and Language Therapist Julia has worked with older persons living with communication and memory difficulties for over ten years. Julia has seen first-hand the beneficial effects that reminiscence therapy has on improving health and wellbeing amongst people with dementia living in residential care. She has published her work academically from using YouTube and now REMPAD to enable effective group reminiscence therapy. Julia collaborated with CLARITY, Dublin City University to develop the REMPAD technology and is currently founding the REMPAD start up.

Presenter: Paul Leonard Big Idea: DiCAST Paul is an entrepreneurial scientist and co-inventor of DiCAST, a disruptive new antibody drug discovery platform. He lectures in Immunology at the School of Biotechnology and is a Principal Investigator at the Biomedical Diagnostic Institute, Dublin City University, Ireland. He was joint winner of the EI/SFI TIDA 2012 Tech Venture Programme, the BDI Inventor of the year 2011 and a DCU Invent Industry engagement award recipient 2011. Paul is the head of the Translational Diagnostic Group (TDG, www.dcu.ie/~leonarp) at DCU and an expert assessor for the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore and the Technology Strategy Board in the UK. He has a proven publication, patent and grant application record and has received substantial support from both Science Foundation Ireland and Enterprise Ireland for DCU’s Direct Clone Analysis and Selection Technology (DiCAST). A new spinout company, Innovamab, with a management team including John Lynch, previously CEO of Merrion Pharmaceuticals plc, and Paul Leonard is aiming to commercialise the DiCAST technology. We aim to discover, in partnership with Biopharma industry partners, new therapeutics and diagnostics to improve human healthcare.

Presenter: Edward Grant Big Idea: CipherDocs Ed is on the advisory board at CipherDocs which provides a unique proxy-based software solution that resolves the biggest issue around the use of data in the cloud today. Through the seamless encryption of user data on cloud collaboration services such as Microsoft Office 365, CipherDocs enables corporates to secure and retain complete control of all documents created, stored and shared in the cloud. Ed is the CFO and co-founder of Solgari, a SaaS vendor providing Cloud Integrated Communication Services including modules such as Cloud Contact Centre, PBX, IVR, Call Logging and Data Analytics to business customers globally. Ed spent 10 years working in corporate finance at Citigroup in Dublin, London and Paris, mainly covering the Technology, Media and Telecoms sector. Ed also did a stint in private equity and venture capital, focusing on the SaaS space.

Presenter: Ronan Clarke Big Idea: Smart Wall Paint After a background in construction when he employed fifty people, Ronan Clarke founded Smart Wall Paint in 2011. Smart Wall Paint, which turns any surface into a whiteboard, is available to buy online or through leading stationary and wall covering companies. Business customers include google, SAP, Tesco, Marks & Spencer, BT, Vodafone and Virgin as well as small businesses. Education customers include universities, colleges and schools all over the world such as the University of Tasmania, Bristol University, the Royal College of Surgeons, London School of Music, the Deaf Society and many more. In July 2013, Smart Wall Paint launched a clear version of its whiteboard paint. It also offers a wide range of whiteboard accessories. With R&D focus, the company’s product range will continue to expand. Since inception, Ronan has won several awards including the 2013 David Manley Business Category and the 2013 PwC Docklands Innovation Awards. Ronan is a native of Arklow. www.smartwallpaint.com

Presenter: John Tinsley Big Idea: Iconic Translation Machines Iconic Translation Machines offers advanced domain-adapted Machine Translation with intelligent linguistic processing as a cloud-based service for targeted high-value vertical markets within the overall translation industry. Our flagship offering, IPTranslator, provides best-in-class translation performance in the area of patents and intellectual property. The translation/localisation industry is a large and growing industry with annual revenues in excess of €20 billion and a growth rate of 7.5%. Our solutions allow Language Service Providers to meet this rising demand for translation by increasing the productivity of their translators, which, in turn, allows them to increase translation throughput. Iconic Translation Machines is a spin-out company from Dublin City University (DCU), co-founded by John Tinsley, where the core technologies were developed over the course of the last 3 years. John graduated from DCU in 2009 with a Ph.D. in Machine Translation and has since focused on commercial initiatives in the language technology sector.

Presenter: Hilary Kenna Big Idea: Vizolve Ltd

Vizolve Ltd, is a design-led technology company specialising in innovative visual search and discovery software products. Vizolve’s flagship patent-pending product called SeeSearch, is a disruptive horizontal solution that presents a radically different user-centric experience for searching and finding information. SeeSearch is a personalised visual discovery channel encompassing a consistent cross-platform user experience that has applications in the following sectors: retail, third level education, research publishing, libraries and travel discovery. SeeSearch presents hundreds of times more relevant results in a single screen display compared with the slow, linear pages of text-based lists offered by traditional search engines. SeeSearch greatly increases search productivity through an easy-to-use interface and interactive visualisation of search results. It saves time, money and the frustration of searching large volumes of information and multimedia content. SeeSearch extracts maximum value for data/content providers by making their content instantly visible and easily accessible to their customers.

Presenter: Liam Mullins Big Idea: Lumen on Demand Liam has nine years’ experience in medical device R&D, primarily with start-ups. He has worked at all stages of device development, from early stage conceptualisation, prototyping and animal studies, to clinical investigation and regulatory submission. Liam spent five years working in R&D at Veryan Medical where he focused on the design of vascular medical devices, including a peripheral stent which was recently awarded CE Mark. While at Veryan, he held responsibilities in clinical study design, design of testing programs, regulatory submissions and IP. Liam has consulted for a number of medical device companies on device design, analysis and testing, and has published peer reviewed articles on the mechanical behaviour of devices and biomaterials. Liam holds a PhD in Biomedical Engineering and a B.Eng. in Mechanical Engineering, and was a BioInnovate Fellow in 2011.

Presenter: Miguel Ponce de Leon Big Idea: Web Real Time Communications (WebRTC) Miguel Ponce de Leon is Chief Architect at the TSSG, working for the past 10 years on communications software systems and Internet technologies. In this role Miguel is responsible for technology foresight, software process & quality and oversees the execution of research and innovation projects. Miguel has lead and managed over 20 research projects, with 15 research staff and a budget of over 4 million euro in the past 6 years. Miguel has co-authored 30 research papers in the ICT themes of future networking, communication network management, smart grid and living labs. Prior to his time in the TSSG during 2002 Miguel was Chief Technical Director in a communications security start-up company called SecureLeon. Miguel previously worked for Motorola Inc. joining them in 1996. Initially based in Cork, Miguel worked on the mobile switching centre that was used worldwide in mobile analogue (AMPS) and mobile digital (CDMA) deployments. In 1999 Miguel moved to Motorola USA to work on the Aspira project, the first software system to carry out mobile VoIP calls over CDMA and GSM systems towards Netmeeting on the PC desktop.

Presenter: Mark Hughes Big Idea: Style-Eyes Style Eyes is developing the world’s first accurate clothing recognition and visual based search engine. In recent years, there has been a significant change in the way that the public is consuming goods. There has been an expansive growth in the online retail sector. Clothing retailers are searching for new techniques to help increase traffic to their collections and increase their online and high street sales. Style Eyes provides a highly novel solution that can achieve all of these goals and has been met with great enthusiasm from the wider retail community within Ireland and the UK. Style-Eyes provides image recognition technology solutions to retailers. Our multichannel technology allows retailers to provide their customers with a customised retail experience which meets the needs and expectations of the modern consumer. These expectations include finding the exact product & ‘look’ quickly and efficiently from their favourite retailer’s catalogue. Style-Eyes has been met by the fashion retail industry with great fervour since its development in 2012. Style-Eyes currently provides image recognition technology solutions to over 300 European & US retailers. With a stated aim to be leading global provider of image recognition solutions to retailers worldwide by Q4 2014, Style-Eyes maintains a strategy of scalable growth by working with key SaaS partners to continuously grow our market-share.

Presenter: Mark Bruzzi Big Idea: VETEX – Venous Thrombectomy Catheter VETEX is a medical device developed to extract thrombus from patients who present with Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT). Deep Vein Thrombosis is the formation of a blood clot which hinders the return flow of blood to the heart, causing leg pain, swelling and permanent vein damage resulting in venous insufficiency and leg ulcers. In the most critical cases, part of the clot can break away and travel to the lungs, resulting in a Pulmonary Embolism (PE), which is the third leading cause of death in cardiovascular disease. Estimates indicate that over 1.5 million people globally are hospitalised annually for DVT and PE resulting in an economic burden estimated at over $25 billion annually. The current accessible venous thrombectomy market is valued at over $200million with a predicted 4.5% CAGR. The VETEX device extracts larger volumes of thrombus significantly quicker, safer and cost effective, representing a first choice treatment option for interventional radiologists and vascular surgeons. The development of the VETEX thrombectomy catheter is lead by Mark Bruzzi (NUI Galway) and Gerry O’Sullivan (Consultant Interventional Radiologist, Galway). Mark has over 12 years experience is designing and developing medical technologies in academia and industry, and is the Director of the BioInnovate Ireland medical device innovation programme.

Presenter: Helen McBreen Big Idea: WRIRL WRIPL – it’s in your interest. Online businesses continuously try to improve user's browsing experience. Although beneficial, it is a major challenge to individually respond to each user’ interests. WRIPL solves this problem. It is a personalised recommendation platform licensed from TCD. WRIPL allows web users discover content that is highly relevant to them, across devices. The result is a seamless broexperience for users and increased user engagement for online businesses.

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A successful track record with start-up ventures led Dr. Helen McBreen to join WRIPL as CEO in July 2013. The company has received investment from NDRC and is now engaging with partners. Helen’s goal is to create a hi-impact technology company with global success. Previously, Helen was Sales Director at Celtrak Ltd where she gained extensive experience in international sales. Prior to that Helen worked as a senior programmer at Digital Fashion Ltd in Japan. Helen’s professional interests include sales, investment and web technologies. Helen holds a first class honours degree in Electronic Engineering from UCD and was awarded her PhD from The University of Edinburgh.

Presenters: Eamon Murphy & Liam Ryan Big Idea: MR Gum Technology Chewing gum is a major source of litter globally. The clean-up cost for London alone is estimated at over 10 million pounds per annum. Chewing gum has been banned in a number of public locations (Universities, Schools, Offices etc) as well as in Singapore. Eamon Murphy (picture) and Dr. Liam Ryan have developed prototypes and aim to launch a Biodegradable, non-stick chewing gum with improved functionality over products currently on the market. The solution uses technology originally developed in UCC and the Promoters’ proprietary technologies to provide a food-based non-rubber containing superior alternative to current gum products. This product uses a multi-stage development platform combining a number of novel processing techniques including High Hydrostatic Pressure and multi-layered nano-microencapsulation/nutrient delivery technology. The technology also has applications in targeted and time-controlled release of functional molecules. Eamon Murphy is an experienced food executive, most recently as Managing Director of Wexford Creamery. Dr Liam Ryan is the Co-Inventor of the original gum technology with Prof. Elke Arendt at UCC and has invented/patented a number of novel technologies in the field of natural shelf life extension and product enhancement.

Presenter: Wayne Allen Big Idea: Next Generation Embolisation Wayne has extensive experience at senior management level in the medical technology industry; he spent seven years in the US working for orthopaedic market leader Synthes Spine where, as Global Product Manager he led the research, development and commercialisation of several innovative spinal implant and instruments technologies. From 2007 to 2011, Wayne worked for Irish start-up, Vysera Biomedical, occupying the roles of Business Development Manager and General Manager where he managed the company's first commercial product through CE mark to licensing. As General Manager he held financial responsibility for a new subsidiary of the business, where he managed a team to develop a concept through feasibility to First-In-Man clinical trials. Wayne has B.Sc. in Biochemistry, an MBA and undertook the inaugural BioInnovate Ireland Fellowship in 2011.

Presenter: Deirdre Hogan Big Idea: Ata-Bot Deirdre Hogan’s research background is in natural language processing (NLP) Her current focus involves processing user-generated content from a variety of sources (such as internet forums, Twitter and Facebook) in order to uncover semantic information that can be used to target consumers with highly relevant advertising. Deirdre is a senior research fellow at the National Centre for Language technology at DCU’s School of Computing. She has led a number of research commercialisation projects and has a keen interest in applying research in natural language processing to solving real world problems. After graduating from Trinity College with a degree in computer science, linguistics and French she worked as a software engineer in industry before returning to TCD to complete a PhD in statistical NLP. She has just completed her first year in DCU’s Executive MBA program.

Presenter: Pat Hobbert Big Idea: Vasgard Varicose veins affect 23.2% of males and 30.5% of females, impacting 137 million people over the age of 15 in the US and 5 largest European markets alone. The number one controllable cause of varicose veins is prolonged exposure to high pressures in the veins due to lifestyle factors. However, it has never been possible to continuously and non-invasively measure and manage this underlying cause of varicose veins. VASGARD is a team of experts in the field of venous disease and wearable sensing technologies that has developed and tested the world’s first, patent-pending, wearable sensor and reporting software for managing the pressure in a patient’s veins. The VASGARD system, at an affordable price:

Enables individuals to continuously and non-invasively monitor the pressure in their veins

Identifies the lifestyle factors which cause harmful pressures

Makes recommendations about how to minimize this exposure through lifestyle changes, specific to the individual’s daily routine.