Dow centre SISCA competition

Winner: TeeZee  ($10,000)

Connor Prince, Joe Cabonce, Tom Thorne, Brendan Garvey and Julian Cao

The TeeZee Pyramid Accordion Shelter is a sustainable, quickly-deployable shelter developed as part of the School of Civil Engineering Icarus Program by a team of undergraduate civil engineering students. The structure was initially designed to be a light-weight, sustainable alternative to regular tent shelters for music festival goers, though over time, has expanded into a multitude of categories due to a versatile design. The TeeZee utilises origami engineering technology to achieve maximum structural rigidity whilst minimising the materials used in its construction. The design is constructed from corflute plastic, a light weight and highly recyclable material which combines strength and environmentally friendly components into a neat package.

For more information: www.increasedesigns.com

Second Prize:  HOME3, Modular Panelled Construction ($2,500)

David Nelson

Safety, resilience and dignity are all associated with quality housing which 1.2 billion people live without (Woetzel et. al. 2014). However the HOME3 now enables those benefits to be associated with ergonomic design, sustainability and affordability. This is achieved with a patent ending mass produced panelling system which is flat packed for efficient transportation and can be completely assembled by unskilled labour without specialist equipment on site. These identical one by one meter panels are bolted together to form walls, floors and roofs.

Due to the modular design of this structure it can be built room by room with the structural requirements of each room costing from $2300 to $5000 (see appendix for detailed price estimates). This cost can be spread out over multiple instalments of $50 by buying one panel at a time until a complete structure can be constructed. This will enable even the most impoverished to be able to afford high quality housing making the housing ladder truly inclusive. The HOME3 can also be completely self-sufficient by storing rain water and capturing electricity. The water system costs $2000 and includes a 2x2x2m tank and pump. The electrical system costs $8500 and includes solar panels and a Tesla Power Wall. Both systems can be modularly expanded.

For more information: www.cubitcommunity.com

Runner Up: The Green Building Network

Nathan Coyne

In Australia at current there is enough technology to create more sustainable buildings, yet there has not been a vendor that successfully establishes the value proposition for companies. The idea presented is to create a green service business and then facilitate the uptake of our services through; networking, social media and creating a sustainable community. The dream goal is to catalyse the construction of a ‘green building’, one which is healthier for people, and uses less fossil fuel to run. This will be achieved through the development of a plant rental service, which will be used as a launch-pad for funding, supply chain security, and building a community of sustainably minded people as a customer acquisition channel.

The main challenge is in market execution, as the technology is pre-existing, so the idea is to use networking and social media to help create a community, and in-turn sell sustainable living to SMEs such as cafes.

First Prize (12,500) and Dow Centre Business Proposition Grant ($12,500)

David Nelson, Andrew Sun, Natasha Natamihardja and Gabrielle Hodge
HOME3, Modular Panelled Construction.

Incremental innovation doesn't exist. Innovation must result in a ten times improvement in value to a global problem.

The HOME3 achieves true innovation in the area of the global housing crisis in three important metrics. Compared to the average Australian house the HOME3 is eleven times cheaper to build, it is nine times faster to build and absorbs 30 tonnes of CO2 compared to the average house that releases 40 tonnes of CO2. This will provide affordable housing for the 1.2 billion who don’t have it and it will help offset the 30% of global CO2 emissions that the building sector is responsible for. The design that achieves this incredible leap in value can be seen at www.cubitcommunity.com

SISCA Early Concept Grants ($2,500 each awarded)

Innovo - Nikodem Rybak, Parsa Kourosh and Joshua Riddell
Agriculture of Things, Using real-time agricultural data processing for smarter and sustainable farm management

Agriculture of Things is a solution that uses smart sensors and deep learning analysis methods to enhance farming performance. The system consists of an integrated set of hardware and software which provides intelligent farming management. The main hardware is a customised UAV with autonomous flight and NIR/visible spectrum video capture abilities. Various ground sensors in the field supplement this data. A communication system linking data sources allows deep learning data analysis to provide accurate insights.

The whole system aims to improve Cultivation Management and Anomaly Detection (CMAD) to capture growing issues (e.g. misuse of water or fertiliser) and detect anomalies (e.g. illness) in order to assess the overall health of the crops beyond human judgement. This reduces the use of consumables and increases the farm output by improving plant health.

Movus – Cameron Forsyth, John Scott, Brad Parsons, John Gardner and Andy Hill
TinyGen

MOVUS is developing FitMachine - a FitBit™ for industrial machines. FitMachine is an innovative sensor solution for monitoring equipment health of industrial rotating machinery, in the same way that a "FitBit" helps individuals to monitor their personal fitness. The current FitMachine system utilises a battery-powered sensor along with a cellular internet connected gateway. The combination of battery-powered sensor and mains-powered gateway is wasteful for many reasons.

With the help of the Dow Center we will commercialise an innovative energy harvesting add-on to the FitMachine called TinyGen. This small wind turbine will generate enough power to incorporate 3G connectivity into FitMachine, eliminating the need for our gateway, as well as battery replacement and other associated costs. TinyGen would be the first of its kind in the world.

Craig Minns
Solar Broadband

Use of solar photovoltaic modules to receive broadband data transmissions enhances the benefit/cost of providing power and communications in remote areas and crowded cities. The rollout can be self-funding over time, using the money saved on electricity bills. SISCA funding will be used for product development.

David Nelson, William Wu and Shaluta Kudaudage
Power3

The POWER3 will empower the 1.2 billion people who live without electrical grid connectivity. The POWER3 comprises of battery modules, solar panels and a power cube (containing the inverter and BMS). Any number of these modules can be connected together to obtain an electrical system perfectly suited to your needs.

The POWER3 has an initial cost of $200 which is eight times less than the nearest competitor. Furthermore, it costs 35% less per kilowatt hour than the Tesla Power Wall.

Hao Lu
Hao Cellulose

Supercapacitors (SCs) are an excellent energy storage system with high power density and long cycle life. In this project, we choose cellulose, the main content of biomass, as the precursor to produce cellulose-derived carbon electrodes of excellent performance for SCs, which is environmentally friendly and can be definitely applied worldwide.

Saphira Rekker, Margarita Navarro, Carley Fuller and Felip Saraiva
Life Sorted

Life.Sorted is a playful app that links sustainable supply chains to sustainable living through an attractive and organized food storage and dispensing system. It will streamline sustainable sourcing, storage and easy preparation of foods with automated ordering/deliveries, healthy recipe suggestions, generated grocery lists, financial budgeting, and tracking of consumption impact.

Yousef Al-Qaryouti, Clara Bertault, Hunter Jordan and Ting-Uei Lee
The Deployable Shelter

The proposed project aims to develop cheap, lightweight and easy to pack emergency shelter that provides more comfort for the victims of disasters. This shelter will be rapidly deployable and easy to assemble without instructions, skills or tools needed using rotational press-fit joints to create a flat-packable two-layer geometry.

Main Competition

First Prize: The SISCA $12,500 Cash Prize and Dow Centre Business Proposition Grant of $12,500

Yousef Al-Qaryouti
The Deployable House – Executive Summary

Recently, prefabricated and modular homes are gaining renewed interest due to worldwide focus on sustainability. According to a new report issued by Global Industry Analysis Inc. (GIA), 2015, global shipments of prefabricated homes are projected to reach 1.1 million units by 2020, driven by renewed interest in prefabricated and modular housing. Over the years, prefabricated homes have evolved in terms of design flexibility and quality. Today, prefabricated houses are one of the most sought after forms of affordable housing, with cost savings realized through the streamlined production process rather than government subsides.

According to UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), 2016, an unprecedented 65.6 million people around the world have been forced from home. Based on UN Habitat statistics, more than 23 million people were made homeless by natural disasters in the past ten years. Moreover, an estimated 100 million people worldwide are homeless. About 1-in-4 people live in conditions that harm their health, safety, prosperity and opportunities. It estimates also that by 2030 about 40 percent of the of the world’s population will need access to housing. This translates into a demand for 4,000 new affordable homes every hour. UNHCR annual budget rose to more than US$ 1 billion in the early 1990s and reached a new annual high of US$ 7.7 billion in 2017 to support those people with homes and services. Based on an article published in International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction (September 2017), the cost of providing one temporary house for people who are suffering natural disasters is around 70,000 USD.

Australian researchers have identified prefabricated modular construction as an effective method for low-cost and rapid post-disaster reconstruction. However, manufacture of prefabricated systems requires specialist expertise and facilities, so reconstruction investment is diverted out of the local economy to the detriment of long-term recovery. There is a need for an innovative prefabricated modular house that can be rapid and easy to construct and provide suffering people with affordable safe housing in short-time.

I have developed an innovative prefabricated house design that retains the streamlined construction of prefabricated systems and could additionally be fabricated without the need of specialist expertise or facilities. Such system would enable the establishment of a distributed on-site manufacturing network to service rapid infrastructure demands after extreme events. This innovation will be beneficial for re-housing for Australia following natural disasters such as bushfires, floods or Cyclones. In addition, it can be extended globally.

Runners Up:

Daniel Hubbard & David Nelson (Early Concept Grant of $2,500)
Powercube

The global energy crisis is leaving 1.2 billion people without electricity and is the leading cause of manmade climate change. Photovoltaic solar panels are currently the cheapest form of electrical energy generation and its decentralised nature makes it ideal to service the many remote communities without power. The Achilles heel of solar power is energy storage for electrical use at night. Li-ion battery technology is leading the pack of decentralised energy storage solutions. The price of Li-ion batteries has dropped 80% in the last decade, a trend that is likely to continue. What is needed is an integrated solar power and li-ion battery system that can be decentralised to reach remote communities at a price point they can afford.

The POWERCUBE is the desperately needed solution designed for those who don’t have access to electricity as well as the rest of us who use electricity generated from polluting and unsustainable sources. It consists of three basic components shown in figure 1: the solar panel that generates the electricity ($60), the battery module that stores the energy ($20) and the outlets which appliances plug into ($20).

The POWERCUBE has three main differentiating factors: Cost, Safety and Modularity.

• Cost: The initial system costs $100, orders of magnitudes less than any other competing product. At this price, it is affordable even to those I surveyed in Indian slum communities. Also, the POWERCUBE’s cost per kilowatt hour is 15% cheaper than the Tesla Powerwall.
• Safety: The electrical system is 12V making the POWERCUBE safe. The unique electrical clip connection makes installation intuitive and makes incorrect wiring impossible. Broken components can easily be replaced. Numerous independent safety measures ensure the batteries do not exceed their operational parameters.
• Modularity: The POWERCUBE system can be modularly expanded to any capacity meaning that it is flexible to meet the dynamically changing needs of the end user.

A working prototype has been developed (video demonstration https://goo.gl/soUnYo) and we have obtained a customer who wants to install it as the electrical system for the HOMECUBE house he is currently constructing (see 2016 Finalists). Many industry contacts with both suppliers and distributors have been developed. For example, Pollinate Energy who currently sell solar lights in slum communities has expressed interest in this product. With SISCA funding we will be able to develop a commercial product and bring it to mass production.

Nathaniel Deering  (Early Concept Grant of $2,500)
A Low Cost Environmental Monitoring Sensor System – Executive Summary

The monitoring of water quality is essential for catchment evaluation and management, which is often perceived to be the water colour and algae bloom state in river/lake systems. This is often governed by high flow/flood events. Current monitoring stations for major events are expensive and sparse with events being beyond detection of the standard monitoring equipment within the stations. To address the issue of expensive equipment and detection limits, a different approach is required.

The low cost sensors are constructed from readily available retail electrical components. The construction of the sensors is simple and able to be further simplified with mass manufacturing through investment. Despite the probes being low cost, the challenge lies within the probe calibration. This requires an in depth knowledge of factors involved in providing reliable data accuracy.

The current iteration of sensors are capable of measuring key environmental parameters such as: 

• Turbidity
• Temperature & conductivity (salinity)
• Pressure (depth)
• pH

When implementing the sensors, additional data collection techniques and lab analysis can provide all parameters required for water quality. These addition techniques include the use of USGS single stage samplers, time-lapse imagery, and bathymetry.

In the current state, the sensors are ready for market and have already been implemented in catchment monitoring projects. The sensors were presented and received feedback at the annual Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography conference 2017 in Honolulu, where interest was shown and feedback provided for improvement and implementation.

Water quality is critical for the management of water supply and agricultural runoff, water infrastructure and downstream tourism. This creates a large demand for water quality data, which is currently provided at fixed locations by government organisations. The opportunity available is to enter the market at a greatly reduced cost (1-3 orders of magnitude), with current monitoring station costing in the range of $200,000 each as opposed

Early Concept Grant Applications

Six Early Concept Grants of $2,500 were awarded:

Sasikrishna Reddy K., John Malise Pathi, Abinav Kumar and Sangameshwaran
Organic Waste Compacting Bin
A complete and efficient system for disposing of organic waste in waste capsules.

UQ Folded Structure Group – Quan Shi, Weiqi Cui and Ya Ou
Origami Aircraft Fuselage
A new generation of light-weight structures using origami sandwich panels, with possible applications in the aircraft and construction industry.

Abe Max Solutions – Abe Green & Max Bankowski
PODS in the Park
Low cost short-term accommodation for the homeless, providing safe and transportable housing using a flat pack capsule design

Duy Huu Nguyen and Son-Duy Tran
Sustainable Concrete Road Pavement Design
An innovative concrete pavement structure is proposed, using recycled materials, with improvements in drainage capacity and noise reduction.

Hemit – Emily Critchley, Emi Ariga, Huong Do, Samuel Williams and Tobias Jukes
The D-Tector
A diagnostic tool that correlates UV exposure to vitamin D levels, empowering physicians and the elderly to make healthcare decisions.

Advanced Agriculture – Rynhardt Grove
Modularised Greenhouses for Sustainable Agriculture
A modularised hydroponic system aimed at aiding water and food scarcity concerns in rural and developing areas.

The 2018 SISCA competition invited students to submit innovative ideas with a tangible engineering focus that address global sustainability issues through the production and use of energy and materials.

This required students to prepare a comprehensive proposal and pitch their ideas to a panel of judges and fellow students. The SISCA competition is an opportunity for students who want to make a positive impact on sustainability to collaborate with their peers across disciplines, apply the knowledge and skills gained from their study at UQ, and win some amazing cash prizes to help turn their bright ideas in to reality.

Congratulations to all Finalists and Winners of the 2018 SISCA competition!

Startup-ready idea proposals

First-place and $25,000 prize: NPK - Ashley Baxter and Ashley Chiam

A medium-scale composting system that is low-cost, low-energy yet capable of producing commercial-grade organic fertiliser. This is achieved through innovative, first-principals design that removes the complex and expensive automation seen in current alternatives in favour of a dynamic, mechanical system. In order to ensure the quality of the fertiliser output, sensors for temperature, humidity, pH and nutrient values will be integrated into the system and streamed to an analysis backend for insights on the sensitive biological processes.

Runner-up and $10,000 prize: H2Ope Greywater Filtration Systems - Tony Jojo, Mahealani Delaney, Ruhma Shahzad, Alexander Moore, Vanessa Poh, Emma Dahan, and Edward Southall

A modular greywater treatment system which will allow households to effectively utilise their water consumption, increase their sustainability around the house and also make an economic saving whilst doing this. To resolve the current sustainability problems surrounding water shortage, the proposed solution is the encouragement and facilitation of a circular economy. To do this, H2ope aim to launch an educational campaign along with a product that is significantly more affordable and practical than existing alternatives and provides portability, modularity and domestic usage.

Second runner-up and $2,500 prize: Affordable Biogas Plant System - Quan Shi

A new generation of biogas plant system has been proposed to help local families solve their renewable energy supply issues. The advanced modular foldable structures have a modern metal appearance and most efficient folding fabrication methods. The use of digital-fabrication method saves material usage, eases the transportation and ensures a 50 years of service life.

Early-stage idea proposals

The Powersphere, $5,000 prize - Hayden Baks, Qiushi Huang, and Alex Riley

An omnidirectional wind turbine capable of capturing wind from all directions causing the turbine to spin on a single axis, which can convert kinetic energy from wind to electrical energy. The Powersphere provides a means for those living in high-rise dwellings to reduce their living costs by utilising their nations feed in tariff rebates. The compact, low cost nature of the Powersphere provides a viable solution to regions in the world without access to reliable electricity sources.

Phytoplankton Carbon Sink, $5,000 prize - Riannah Burns and Benjamin Coughlin

A method to replicate the biological pump outside of the ocean (in tanks) in a more efficient and controlled environment, in which 100% of the CO2 is sequestrated. Earning revenue through carbon offset markets which trade certified emission reduction credits. Phytoplankton sequestration is relatively inexpensive compared to other industrial approaches, and can theoretically sequester for less than €5/ton CO2, creating a substantial return. Plankton carbon sinks will become a better substitute for carbon offsets. A full-scale plankton restoration plant could regenerate approximately 3-5 billion tons of C02 sequestration, this would be worth €50-100 billion in carbon offset value. One of the proposed tanks aims to store 1-3 billion tons of C02 sequestration, which is an equivalent of €10-50 billion in carbon offset value.

Sustainable Sand Alternative for Concrete, $2,500 prize - Giulio Deane-Caleffi

The global demand for sand is rising at an unsustainable pace, causing environmental, social and economic issues. Sand is a unique resource as it is difficult to regulate the supply. The ease of access to the resource leads to black markets developing when restrictions are imposed that drop supply below demand. As such, the only way to reduce the global consumption of sand is to reduce the demand for it. It is proposed to take Iron Ore Tailings (IOT) from iron mining companies which normally get treated as waste and disposed of in unsustainable ways, to use as a sustainable alternative for sand as a fine aggregate in concrete. Research has shown that IOT can be used as a sustainable and comparatively higher quality replacement to sand as a fine aggregate in concrete. This idea seeks to operate a system which obtains, stores, and sells the IOT on to concrete companies as a sand alternative.

Ref-tech Self-Powered Fire Detectors, $2,500 prize - Anders Horgen Aaseboe, Raia Alballa, Peiquan Li, Xia Shi, Xueyan Chen, and Yiqun Xu

A fire detecting unit that can communicate wirelessly with other fire detecting units in a grid of fire detecting units that work as a local area network to distribute information on fire events. This information will include the location of the fire and alert surrounding households to decrease response and evacuation time. The fire detecting units can be assembled locally (for example, in a village or camp), arranged by the NGOs, such that the NGOs can offer the livelihood to the camp, and ensure that maintenance can be offered quickly. RefTech will provide components and instructions on how to install and assemble.

Bon Courage, $2,500 prize - Javier Rangel, Rosario Perez, Camilo Montoya, Nicholas Kang, Yepeng Ding, and Ju Yao

A rainwater collection and treatment system to satisfy the water demands of the inhabitants of refugee camps by treating rainwater to a standard acceptable for use as potable water. This design has several key features and benefits over the existing treatment system: a parabolic form of the collection system provides a large collection area and allows for efficient capture; the produced potable water will be more pure than the water sourced from natural springs in the camp; the systems that collects and treats the rainwater will be a single unit, meaning complexity and capital costs are low; minimal skill or labour is required to operate and maintain the system; and the unit could be built form low-cost, readily available materials. The main points of difference from the current technology are the difference in water source, difference in collection method, and difference in water treatment and management.

‘Rapid’ solution for insect free living, $2,500 prize - Octovian Cletus Lawrence Vijayakumar, Yiquan Deng, Jagrat Shah, Abishek Waghmare, and Yilun Weng

A method to help customers to get rid of insect-borne diseases through the use of sustainable power. This design uses infrared light and water lilies or taro attract insect; a solar panel and battery powered electric grid to kill insects; and a liquid container to collect insect bodies which can subsequently be used as feed for livestock or fertilizers. The most significant difference between ‘Rapid’ and currently commercial insect control facilities is that natural plants are utilized to attract insects instead of artificial pheromones, which makes this solution more eco-friendly. At he same time, those plants also can be utilized as food source for locals. Meanwhile, it avoids the dangerous of using propane generating carbon dioxide to attract insects which may contribute to carbon footprint and has a risk of fire.

A special thanks to the judges of the 2018 SISCA competition, Professor Mohan Krishnamoorthy (Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Research Partnerships, UQ), Dr James Wiltshire (R&D Technology Leader A&NZ, Dow Chemical Company), Mr Bernie Woodcroft (Director, ilab, UQ) and Mr Cameron Turner (BEL Faculty Entrepreneur in Residence, Startup Academy, UQ), pictured with Professor Chris Greig (Director) and Briony Beaumont (Centre Manager) of the the UQ Dow Centre for Sustainable Engineering Innovation.