From burns treatment to bionic hands: UOW innovations secure $1.8m backing
Medical and cybersecurity tech researchers attract commercial partners
University of Wollongong researchers have secured almost $2 million in commercialisation funding and forged partnerships with industry players ranging from medical device manufacturers to cybersecurity firms, signalling growing confidence in the region’s research capabilities.
The three projects funded through the Australian Economic Accelerator Ignite program pair UOW academics with commercial partners to develop market-ready products in healthcare technology and cybersecurity - sectors identified as growth opportunities for the Illawarra economy.
The largest investment of $500,000 supports Associate Professor Zhilian Yue’s partnership with Venus Shell Systems to develop seaweed-derived wound treatments for commercial medical use. The project also involves Distinguished Professor Gordon Wallace and 2005 Australian of the Year Professor Fiona Wood from the University of Western Australia.
The seaweed-based material is designed to actively regenerate skin tissue rather than simply protect wounds, potentially creating a new category of treatment for chronic wounds and burns. Associate Professor Yue, from the Intelligent Polymer Research Institute, said the compound mimics the body’s natural building blocks for skin repair.
Professor Gursel Alici has partnered with APC Prosthetics and Prince of Wales Hospital on a $416,655 project to commercialise AI-enhanced prosthetic devices. The collaboration brings together the Executive Dean of UOW’s Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences, prosthetist Stephan Laux and Dr Gregory Bowring alongside UOW researchers Dr Hao Zhou, Professor Son Lam Phung and Dr Emre Sariyildiz.
The team is developing control systems that use artificial intelligence to process muscle signals and adapt to individual users—addressing industry concerns that modern prosthetics often prove less reliable than older models, leading to abandonment by amputees.
In the cybersecurity sector, Dr Siqi Ma from the School of Computing and Information Technology is working with CYBERFLARE to develop security tools for AI-generated software code. The $168,000 project addresses emerging risks as businesses increasingly rely on artificial intelligence for software development.
The team, which includes Distinguished Professor Willy Susilo, Professor Casey Chow, Dr Khoa Nguyen, Dr Partha Sarathi Roy and Dr Elmin Selay, is building an Intelligent Security Assistant that embeds security requirements into code generation and recommends trusted libraries when vulnerabilities are detected.
The Australian Economic Accelerator Ignite program funds proof-of-concept testing and commercial development, positioning innovations for clinical trials, industry uptake and market entry.
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