Innovation at Surrey recognised

The University of Surrey and Surrey Research Park’s central role in innovation in Guildford was once again recognised at this year’s Guildford Innovation Awards.

The annual awards celebrate inspirational innovation across a broad spectrum of sectors in the local area – building upon the theme of supporting Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) subjects.

University of Surrey winners in the awards included:

• Dr Kamalan Jeevaratnam and Dr Vadim Alexeenko winning the ‘Innovation in Healthcare’ award for their research project ‘Computational approaches for risk predictions of cardiac rhythm abnormalities in the equine athlete.’ This pioneering project involves the use of a range of computational algorithms for the analysis of electrocardiograms taken from horses. This state of the art technique could be integrated in digital ECG recording devices in veterinary practice and has the potential to cross over into human health for the detection of rhythm abnormalities in at-risk human patients.
• Dr Saber Fallah and his team scooping the ‘Emerging Technologies Tomorrow’s World’ award for their work on autonomous vehicles.  The team partnered with Technics Group and others to develop a novel and unique algorithm to locate autonomous vehicles in all weather conditions using ground penetrating radar. The algorithm can be used in variety of applications including connected autonomous cars, agricultural autonomous vehicles, military autonomous vehicles, and planetary autonomous rovers.
• Dr Sharmini Paramasivam winning the ‘Most Outstanding Innovation’ award for her novel ‘Animal Neighbours Project’ which uses research and awareness to stop conflict between animals and humans living in close proximity to each other. As well as examining the interactions between humans and animals, this innovative project also provides vital insight into zoonotic diseases, a major worldwide threat to human health at ecotourism sites.
• Setsquared, an enterprise partnership between the universities of Surrey, Bath, Bristol, Exeter and Southampton which supports technology-based businesses throughout their lifecycle, was also successful on the night. From the Setsquared stable, the company Alcis based at the Surrey Research Park won the ‘Innovation in the Voluntary and Charity sector’ award. Alcis provide innovative and world class Geographic Information Services that enable better understanding, decisions and outcomes for aid agencies operating in the most challenging environments leading to a vastly improved quality of life for the world’s most vulnerable.

Professor David Sampson, Vice-Provost, Research and Innovation at the University of Surrey, said:

“I was delighted to see Surrey successes from all points of our innovation ecosystem – undergraduates, postgraduates, academics, alumni and Surrey Research Park members. It is a testament to the richness of our ecosystem, and our appetite for making a difference and participating in the Guildford innovation economy. Congratulations to the Borough Council for a fantastic event – very Guildford!”

Chris Burchell, Local Economy Manager at Guildford Borough Council says: “The Innovation Awards celebrate the best and brightest that our borough has to offer. Congratulations to this year’s winners and all who entered. I look forward to following the inspirational future developments in all of these fields and the positive impact they’ll have in our borough and beyond.”