Celebrating our engineering heroes

Since 2003 our most creative and inspirational engineers have been honoured with The Warren Centre Innovation Awards. This continues to be one of the most important tasks of the centre – highlighting the work of true exemplars of engineering in Australia.

This year they included:

Dr Simon Poole and Dr Steven Frisken of Finisar Australia, which designs, develops and manufactures optical communications & instrumentation equipment (From left: Dr Simon Poole, Dr Steven Frisken and Professor Michael Dureau)



Professor Gernot Heiser of Open Kernel Labs, a leading computer operating systems research group (500 million mobile phones use their L4 microkernel product)

(From left: Professor Gernot Heiser and Professor Michael Dureau)

Alexander Gosling, co-founder, director and chief executive of Invetech, a company focused on product development.
(From left: Alexander Gosling and Professor Michael Dureau)

Dr Bob Johnson, who pioneered Maptek’s innovative software technology & laser imaging hardware for the mining industry, 
(From left: Dr Bob Johnson and Professor Michael Dureau)

• Neil O’Sullivan and the Management Team, for the design & commercialisation of leading edge switchgear.  Significant environmental benefits result from NOJA Power’s products which eliminate sulfur hexafluoride, a severe greenhouse gas.
(From left: Professor Michael Dureau, Neil O'Sullivan, Professor Hugh Durrant-Whyte)

A 2003 Warren Centre Innovation Hero Award winner, Professor Durrant-Whyte, presented this year's Innovation Lecture. He spoke about his work in Field Robotics and their importance to the Australian economy. Durrant-Whyte, who gave a stimulating and highly informative lecture, is Professor of Mechatronic Engineering at the University of Sydney and Director of the Australian Centre for Field Robotics (ACFR).

The fascinating work of several innovation heroes also featured in the August issue of this newsletter. Here, Dr Steve Frisken and Dr Simon Poole (Innovation Heroes 2010), Dr Tristram Carfrae (2008) and Dr Chris Nicol (2006) spoke about their most significant projects.

Nominations of worthy recipients for 2011 Innovation Heroes are welcome. Just click on the following link for the application form.  Nominations close on the 28th February 2011.