Anaemia is defined by a low red blood cell count. It is the world’s second leading cause of disability, with 1.6 billion sufferers globally. Although it has multiple causes, once they are identified anaemia is often curable.

Based on proprietary technology developed at Imperial College, Toby’s start-up company Eva Diagnostics is developing two affordable handheld anaemia diagnostic devices. 

The first one is AnemiPoint, which can be used to identify the presence of anaemia in patients. The other device AnemiStat will identify different types of anaemia. 

This is a market-first development in point-of-care anaemia diagnosis that enables clinicians to provide tailored treatments for patients. Eva Diagnostics plans to focus on the global market and the $1 billion or more spend on anaemia-related costs.

The problem

Sustainable construction demands better management of social and environmental impact. To achieve this, reliable, efficient tools are needed to make sense of large volumes of data across the range of related fields.

The solution

Qflow is a cloud-based platform that enables construction projects to manage their environmental risk and stay compliant with environmental standards.

Qflow brings together machine learning and the Internet of things to capture and analyse environmental data, making it easier to identify and manage risk. This increases productivity and reduces cost while positively impacting the built environment.

The technology connects to existing, on-site systems to automate real-time data collection and analysis. This leads to better informed decisions, more accurate predictions and the ability to generate standardised reports. It reduces costs associated with delays and mitigation processes caused by unmanaged environmental risk. 

Trials have shown that Qualis Flows’ solutions can improve data capture against existing competitors by over 100%. Four pilot programmes are scheduled for spring 2019 to further validate the technology’s use in monitoring aspects such as waste, noise, air quality and vibration.

Brittany Harris brings significant experience in civil engineering as she leads a multi-skilled team of engineers, environmental professionals and software architects as Qualis Flow brings its solutions to market.

Traction

• 2018:  Funding awarded by Entrepreneur First to develop Qflow’s technology
• 2018:  Awarded support from the Geovation Advanced London Accelerator programme for startup development.
• Brittany Harris was awarded a 2018 Enterprise Fellowship to support her work in developing the technology and scale up of Qualis

Wearable technologies are making a massive impact on society, beginning to blur the boundary between human and machine. It is also an exploding commercial market set to be worth $12.6 billion by 2018.

The next generation of lightweight, high performance machines will rely on technologies that are capable of bringing the user as close to a device as possible. 

Peiman has created the first reported nano-display device that uses both optical and electronic property modulation in Phase Change Materials. Peiman’s company, Bodle Technologies, spun out of Oxford University in November 2015, to further advance this technology.

An entirely new class of ultra-thin, ultra-high resolution displays with nanosecond access speed and no power consumption in static mode is now under development by his team. 

This revolutionary display will initially target the rapidly growing microdisplay market compact, projection based displays used in emerging near-eye applications like Google Glass. The first prototypes are currently under development, with a small working device set to be ready within the next 12 months.

A large part of improving transport involves using real-time data on commuter behaviour to design transport networks that can predict, adapt, respond and prevent congestion - before it happens.

Yang has developed an intelligent camera system that gives real-time insight into traffic and commuter behaviour. By combining machine learning with the latest advances in high performance computing, the system produces a unique method of classifying and identifying images in real time.

It is the first camera that can accurately identify cyclists among other traffic, enabling transport operators to observe how cyclists use a city. This means cities can effectively target investment in cycling and create cyclist-responsive smart traffic lights and smart signage.

It also has potential applications in everything from real-time traffic counting to crowd management and security. The technology is being used right now to map how commuters move around railway stations, how buses are really used and to generate insights from the humble car park.

His company, Vivacity Labs, is now working with several major transport operators and already has over 100 cameras in use across Britain.

Chief Product Officer, Mirada Medical Ltd

Mirada Medical uses deep learning technology to develop medical imaging software that improves treatment and care for patients with cancer and other diseases. Its software automates tasks and processes in a range of clinical work, including diagnostic imaging, radiation therapy and interventional oncology, thereby helping to optimise workflows, save time and improve consistency.

The company has developed a range of accessible solutions that easily fit within existing platforms and technologies. Mirada Medical’s products have been installed in over 2,000 hospitals, imaging centres and cancer centres worldwide, supporting clinicians to make better decisions and deliver personalised care. One of its products, developed to optimise treatment for patients undergoing radiotherapy, offers significant time savings when compared to similar technologies.

As Chief Product Officer, Sarah Bond aims to strategically increase revenue and market share through the development of innovative products that will help the company to retain its competitive advantage.

Supported by the SME Leaders Programme, Sarah Bond will have access to workshops, training, mentoring and networking opportunities to help strengthen the skills needed to lead a talented, growing team. This will help her to deliver a complex and ambitious business plan for growth in the rapidly evolving market of artificial intelligence for healthcare. 

Visit Mirada's website here.

CTO, Humanising Autonomy

Humanising Autonomy develops software solutions targeting the human-centred implementation of autonomous technology in the road safety sector. The company combines expertise in artificial intelligence (AI) and behavioural psychology to better understand the range of complex human behaviours. It uses this knowledge to predict the actions of vulnerable road users such as cyclists and pedestrians, so that autonomous systems can operate with greater safety.

Estimates suggest a two second warning could help prevent up to 90% of all collisions between vehicles and hazards that may lie ahead of them. Humanising Autonomy is building a large, diverse and global data set of human behaviours that takes into account culture and context. Using novel approaches in AI, this data will be used to deliver real-time predictions for different automated driving systems to make roads safer.

In 2019, the start-up partnered with Arriva London and Transport for London to develop new software for driver-assistance systems to improve safety.

Raunaq Bose, CTO, leads the development of Humanising Autonomy’s core technologies. With support from the SME Leaders Programme, his mission is to manage R&D in a responsive way that integrates the company’s goals with the needs of external customers and investors. Structured learning through the programme will help Raunaq Bose to strengthen his leadership skills as the company looks to integrate its technology into real vehicles in urban environments and laying the foundations for deploying its software more widely.

Visit Humanising Autonomy's website here.

CEO, SurePulse Medical Limited

Technologies developed at SurePulse help advance the care of newborns by providing easier access to relevant data. This helps make better clinical decisions in time-critical situations.

Around 10% of babies need some form of stabilisation and resuscitation at birth, equating to around 500,000 babies born in Europe each year. Heart rate is the best indicator of resuscitation success but current methods for heart rate monitoring, such as stethoscopes, can lead to delays and errors. SurePulse Medical’s first product, the SurePulse VS, is a vital sign monitoring system that improves clinicians’ ability to make timely decisions about care pathways. Launched in Europe in 2019, the SurePulse VS is designed for comfort and ease-of-use with sensors embedded in a cap for the baby that provides continuous, accurate vital sign data.

Dr James Carpenter, CEO, has successfully led the company through the early development of the technology and clinical trials. Support from the SME Leaders Programme comes at a pivotal stage as SurePulse transitions from a focus on technology development to one seeking commercial sales and growth.

Dr Carpenter aims to leverage opportunities through the programme to support him with product commercialisation, to help lead a talented, self-driven team and prioritise options that match the needs of a rapidly growing business.

Visit SurePulse Medical's website here.

The problem

Drones can be used to significantly reduce time, cost and risk of structural surveying and inspection, but they generate large quantities of image-related data that can be costly and resource-intensive to process.

The solution

TRIK has developed software that makes drone use for surveying and inspection more accessible. It takes photos and videos captured by drones and automatically turns them into an interactive 3D model that acts as a twin of the real structure.

The technology opens up new possibilities for engineers to visualise sites and structures. Its interactive 3D models can be used to generate insights and also double as a database. They can be used for fast and efficient search, measurement, analysis and comment without the need to visit the actual structure.

It can make drone photography more efficient with processes for auto-tagging images and mapping changes across time. This supports surveyors, asset managers and engineers by making it easier to detect structural changes, predict failure, evaluate risk and maintain sites.

Drone-related services are projected to grow dramatically in the next five years. For example, growth for drone software in asset monitoring and inspection is predicted to reach $7.5 billion by 2022.

Led by Dr Pae Natwilai, an innovator selected for the Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe Industry list in 2018, TRIK is working with companies to scale its systems and impact the global market for drone software. It aims to achieve this by making drone survey and inspection more accessible, without the need for significant technical expertise.

Traction

• 2017: Dr Natwilai was awarded the Design in Innovation Award by Innovate UK.
• 2018: TRIK accepted into the Geovation programme to support development of the startup.
• 2018: Trik listed as one of the 10 Most Innovative Aviation and Aerospace Solution Providers by Insights Success. 

Dr Natwilai was awarded a 2018 Enterprise Fellowship to support her in bringing TRIK’s solutions to market. TRIK is also funded by Zoopla founder, Alex Chesterman, and LoveFilm founder, Simon Franks.

CEO and Co-founder, Aceleron

Lithium batteries are often discarded with up to 80% of life left. The way they are manufactured limits their capacity for being repurposed. Aceleron aims to change this by delivering services and manufacturing a range of lithium batteries that are easier to repair and recycle using non-permanent assembly methods.

Aceleron’s patented technology makes energy storage more likely by promoting re-use and re-manufacture rather than disposal, leading to reduced lifetime costs. Its circular economy solutions are designed for ease of use at home and in commercial systems. They can also be used for solar energy storage.

Batteries made by Aceleron are lightweight yet robust enough to endure harsh environments, providing an accessible source of energy wherever needed. Current products include residential energy systems for use in places such as the Caribbean that enable efficient energy storage with improved resilience to natural disasters.

Dr Amrit Chandan, CEO, oversees the company’s vision and mission He is responsible for developing strategic partnerships with investors and organisations such as the Shell Foundation. With support from the SME Leaders Programme, Dr Chandan aims to build capacity to scale an international team with commercial and technical expertise, while maintaining a company culture that has a focus on strong results and progress.

Visit Aceleron's website here.

Douglas has a 40 year business career covering almost every aspect, at every level, of healthcare technology product design and product commercialisation processes.

Having trained in Industrial Design Engineering (Edinburgh Napier University 1974), Douglas progressed from hands on designer to the management of design in the high tech arena.

Using his company Crombie Anderson as a base for innovation and incubation, he subsequently spun out three other high-tech start -up companies of which two became publicly traded business operating in medical fields.

Douglas is the prime mover in these businesses by leading both the innovation and commercialisation processes, including raising over £40million in private and institutional funding. Today he is internationally recognised for his innovation and entrepreneurial experience and is a regular keynote speaker at healthcare and business congresses around the world.

In 1990, his 5yr old son Leif suffered a spontaneous retinal detachment that went undetected until it was too late to treat. Douglas was struck by the limited capability of diagnostic tools available to clinicians and decided to address this issue. He built a dedicated research team, which led to the formation of Optos plc, a business funded by Archangel from the outset.

Optos succeeded in designing and patenting  a scanning laser ophthalmoscope: the world's first ophthalmic device  that enabled eye care practitioners to capture a digital ultra wide-field image of the retina in a single scan. The new method of examining the retina, marketed as the optomap® Retinal Exam, is now offered as the preferred standard of care by 11,500 eye-care specialists in Europe and the US. Over 70 million optomap® retinal exams have been conducted worldwide already, with a scanning range of approximately 82 per cent of the retina - a huge improvement on the 5-30% of conventional examination techniques.

Douglas was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng) in 2013.

Sir Peter Bonfield is a leading international business executive with over forty-five years experience in the fields of electronics, computers and communications. Change management in international technology companies has been at the centre of his long and illustrious career.

Since 2002 Sir Peter has been involved with a diverse portfolio of companies and is currently operating at main Board level or director of several companies in the USA, Europe and the Far East. He has served in the past as CEO of ICL and more recently of BT Group.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (1993), the Institution of Engineering and Technology, the British Computer Society, the Chartered Institute of Marketing, the Marketing Society and the Royal Society of Arts.

Sir Peter is a Liveryman of The Worshipful Company of Information Technologists, Freeman of the City of London, Honorary Citizen of Dallas, Texas and Member of The Pilgrims of Great Britain.

John is the Director of the Cambridge Engineering Design Centre following a seven-year spell with PA Consulting Group's Technology Division where he was Manager of the Advanced Process Group. He was appointed director of the Engineering Design Centre in 1997 and a University Professor in 2004.

At PA John gained wide experience of product development with a particular focus on the design of medical equipment and high-integrity systems, where clients required a risk-based systems approach to design to ensure timely delivery of safe systems. John is directly involved in the teaching of design at all levels of the undergraduate course.

His research interests are in the general area of engineering design, particularly the development of design methodologies to address specific design issues, for example, process management, change management, healthcare design and inclusive design. As well as publishing over 800 papers, he has written and edited a number of books on medical equipment design, inclusive design and process management.

John is currently leading a team with the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Royal College of Physicians and the Academy of Medical Sciences to develop a systems approach to healthcare redesign and continuous improvement. He was made Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2012.

Bill is a leading scientist worldwide in the field of Medical Materials. His major research contributions have been recognised by numerous international awards, medals and memberships.

He has been the Professor of Medical Materials at the University of Cambridge; served as Director of Cambridge Pfizer Institute for Pharmaceutical Materials Science; Cambridge Director of CMI Interdisciplinary Research Cluster in Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering and Director of University of London Interdisciplinary Research Centre (IRC) in Biomedical Materials. He has been Head of Department, Dean, and Governor at Queen Mary University of London. 

He has been the editor of the Journal of The Royal Society: Interface, the Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Medicine, the Journal of Materials Science, and of the Journal of Materials Science Letters.

Bill is Emeritus Professor of Medical Materials in the University of Cambridge. He is internationally recognised for his pioneering research contributions to biomaterials for medical devices, with awards including the Royal Academy of Engineering Prince Philip Gold Medal; the Royal Society Armourers and Brasiers Company Medal; the Kelvin Medal; the European Society for Biomaterials George Winter Award; the Japanese Society for Biomaterials Medal; the Institute of Materials Griffiths Medal and Chapman Medal; the UK Society for Biomaterials President's Prize; the Acta Metallurgica H.H. Holloman Award and the International Union for Physical Sciences and Engineering in Medicine Award of Merit. 

Professor Bonfield's exceptional interdisciplinary contribution has been recognised by his election to all three UK National Academies as a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS), a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng) and a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci).

Professor Joe McGeehan completed his PhD in 1971 and since then has been instrumental in many aspects of research and teaching in the field of Communications. He is even referred to as the 'godfather of mobile communications'.

Joe has been conducting research and development into mobile communications technologies and systems since 1973. Working with colleagues, he has pioneered many of the major developments in the field including: deterministric ray-tracing for propagation prediction and network coverage; linear modulation techniques and systems; linearised RF power amplifiers; SMART antennas; wideband CDMA for 3G; WLAN technologies and 60GHz propagation and communication systems.  

Professor McGeehan's achievements in research have been acknowledged by membership of a number of national and international committees in the field of Communications, external examiner positions and mentoring of start-up companies. 

His involvement in Communications over several decades led to being awarded in the Queens Birthday Honours 2004 a CBE for ‘services to the Communications Industry’. Joe was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 1994 and was listed in 2004 as No.6 in the world’s ‘Technology AgendaSetters’ by silicon.com (USA) (N.B., Bill Gates was placed No.2).

Billy's vision is to change the way we currently diagnose and monitor serious disease. He is the co-founder of Owlstone, which aims to become the global leader in the non-invasive detection of cancer, infectious disease and inflammatory disease. 

It is best to detect disease as early as possible: treatments are more effective, less involved and more lives can be saved. There is no better example of this than with cancer. If detected early, the chances of cancer survival can be as good at 95%. But this drops massively to about 5% at later stages. Unfortunately there are still far too many people detected at later stage. 

To address this, Owlstone Medical has developed a breathalyzer for disease. Every time you breathe out there are hundreds of chemicals on your breath. Some are telltale markers of disease, which Owlstone microchip chemical sensor technology is able to detect. Through early detection Owlstone have set a goal to have saved 100,000 lives and $1.5 billion in health care costs by 2020.

Since co-founding Owlstone, Billy has been overseeing the development and implementation of the detection technology with nanotechnology foundry partners and is heavily involved in the creation and realisation of new technologies and IP.  He is also active in business development, demonstrating how the Owlstone technology can be a paradigm shift in detection applications and deployment scenarios. 

Prior to his time at Owlstone Billy was a Research Associate in the Microsystems and Nanotech group at Cambridge University. In an academic / industry consortium he designed and developed silicon-opto hybrid devices for next generation telecoms systems.

Cliff is a physicist with interests in soft matter, liquid crystals, displays, optoelectronics and photonics. Acknowledged as an inspirational technical leader and strategist, inventor and innovator, entrepreneur and public speaker, he is an experienced and award winning Chief Technology Officer, company founder and director. Cliff is currently a Professor of Physics; EPSRC Fellow of Advanced Manufacturing at the University of Leeds.

He is experienced in raising venture capital, growing ZBD Solutions Limited from nothing to over $30M sales per annum, becoming Europe's second fastest growing technology company for 2012. 

Professor Jones is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, Chartered Physicist and Fellow of the Institute of Physics, Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, and Senior Member of the Society for Information Display.

Professor Mark Tooley is Head of the Department of Medical Physics & Bioengineering and Director of Research and Development at the Royal United Hospitals, Bath. He is a registered Consultant Clinical Scientist. He is a visiting professor at the University of Bath, and the University of the West of England. He retires from the NHS in the summer of 2017.

Mark completed his BSc in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Bath in 1979. He was sponsored by Westinghouse Brake and Signal company for the four years of the course. He then did an MSc and PhD in Medical Physics at the University of London. His MSc thesis was developing a EEG frequency analyser for anaesthesia. For his PhD research, Mark invented (with a cardiologist) an original method for rate-independent diagnosis of cardiac rhythm for implantable devices, which was patented.  He spent the rest of his career in Medical Physics and Bioengineering departments, both in hospitals and academia, working along medical colleagues. He has worked at St Bartholomew’s hospital in London, Bristol University, United Bristol healthcare NHS Trust, and the Royal United Hospital, Bath. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET, formally IEE), the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine (IPEM), and the Institute of Physics (until 2016). He is a Chartered Engineer and Chartered Scientist. Mark is on the peer-review college of EPSRC, has recently a member of the EPSRC Healthcare Technologies Strategic Advisory Team. He was recently on the Royal Society fellowship panel. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Mark has been a long standing member of the Panel for Biomedical Engineering at the Royal Academy of Engineering, is a member of one of their membership panels, a member of the Policy Committee, and on the working group for System Thinking in Healthcare.  He has mentored on the enterprise scheme. 

Mark’s research interests include:  innovations in medicine, physics applications in anaesthesia, simulation in medicine, physiological measurement, biological signal processing, measuring the depth of anaesthesia, blood pressure measurement and novel patient monitoring solutions.

Professor Roger Whatmore’s main research interests and expertise are in the field of Functional Materials, particularly ferroelectrics, multiferroics and their applications. 

After receiving a 1st class honours from Cambridge University, he carried out his PhD research at the Cavendish Laboratory, subsequently joining Plessey Research at Caswell in 1976.  In 1993 he led the team which won the Prince of Wales Award for Innovation for the development of a wearable thermal imager for firefighters and GEC recognised his contributions through the award of their Nelson Gold Medal in the same year.  The technology underpinning this formed the basis of a very successful company, Infrared Integrated Systems Ltd.

In 1994, he moved to Cranfield University, as the Royal Academy of Engineering Professor of Engineering Nanotechnology, where he established a team applying ferroelectric materials to the areas of microsystems and nanotechnology, and becoming Head of Advanced Materials.

 In January 2006, he took up the post of CEO at the Tyndall National Institute, part of University College Cork, Ireland, which is internationally respected for the high quality research in the areas of photonics, micro-nanoelectronics, electronic systems, functional materials and nanotechnology, underpinned by excellence in theoretical modelling and design. Under his direction the influence, financial status and academic status of Tyndall increased dramatically and a Science Foundation Ireland instigated international review body concluded that “Tyndall is an indispensable national resource”.

Professor Whatmore is a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (2001), the Institute of Physics, IOM3 and the Irish Academy of Engineering.  He retired as Tyndall’s CEO in 2012 and was made an Emeritus Professor of University College Cork. In 2014, he became a Senior Research Investigator in the Department of Materials, Imperial College London.