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22
November 2004
National
University Of Singapore Team Amongst World’s Best At Prestigious
International Innovation Competition Held In Texas, U.S.A.
Team beats others from world-renowned universities to clinch
second spot in one of three categories at 2004 International Idea to
Product (I2P™) Competition.
Represented by Mr. Steven Zhou ZhiYing, a graduate student from
the National University of Singapore’s Electrical & Computer
Engineering department, NUS swept aside stiff competition to come in
second in the competition’s Info Tech & Engineering category.
The University of Texas at Austin came in first in this category.
This is yet another major milestone for NUS and comes fresh after
the university’s recent ranking of 18th in the World University
Rankings of 200 best universities (Times Higher Education Supplement
2004).
Held from 12 to 13 November 2004, this by-invitation competition
attracted a total of 15 teams from all over the globe and was
jointly organised by the University of Texas at Austin and its
Technology Entrepreneurship Society. Other world-class universities
that participated included Imperial College London, Stanford
University, Purdue University, Trinity College Dublin, Georgia
Institute of Technology, University of Southern California, Texas A
& M University and the University of Texas at Austin.
The winning invention submitted by the NUS team was developed by
Steven, together with Dr. Adrian David Cheok, Principal
Investigator, and Director of NUS’ Mixed Reality Lab. The funding
came from the Defence Science & Technology Agency (DSTA) for
mixed reality research, a new area that has not been developed for
commercial purposes yet. Here, computer graphics are superimposed on
the ‘real world’ seamlessly, overlaying an animated version of a
story on top of a child’s ‘magic story cube’ while the child unfolds
his physical traditional cube which acts as a ‘tangible user
interface’. The child is thus able to see and interact with 3D
virtual reality fantasies appearing on screen in response to his
manipulations of the physical cube with an intuitiveness and ease of
use that has not been witnessed by the industry before. The Mixed
Reality Lab has taken three years and some $200,000 to develop and
test this technology and NUS has filed three patents with
international options on the technology, which will serve as an
effective barrier to potential entrants into the market. The
University owns the Intellectual Property of other constituent basic
mixed reality technologies as well.
Where current commercial products offering 3D contents are
passive, requiring children to interact using a keyboard and a
mouse, this technology added a virtual reality twist to the
traditional storytelling ‘Magic Story Cube’ where a story unfolds as
a child unfolds a specially designed cube. Using just a web-camera,
personal computer and a specially designed cube, a child will be
able to see and interact with 3D virtual reality stories in a
convenient and intuitive manner. The high level of physical
interactivity increases the child’s interest in learning and helps
develop a longer concentration span.
With school-going children in Singapore estimated at 480,000,
this technology holds great promise as an effective learning tool in
the form of stories, vocabulary builders, board games, books and
toys. The Singapore Science Centre has expressed a strong interest
in collaboratively designing educational mixed reality applications
for school children.
Started in 2003, the 2004 International Idea to Product (I2P™)
Competition is designed primarily for entrepreneurial teams that
have identified technology products and developed business models so
as to advance their ideas along the commercialization path. Teams
were required to come up with an idea and identify a corresponding
market opportunity. Team submissions were subsequently evaluated
based on their product’s technology, its innovativeness and its
ability to meet market needs.
NUS’ Industry & Technology Relations Office (INTRO) funded
the team's participation in the competition, as part of its drive to
bring ideas to commercialization. INTRO identifies NUS intellectual
property that can be commercialized and actively moves to seek
licensee companies that will translate ideas like Steven’s into
marketable products. Steven has licensed the technology from INTRO
and co-founded MXR Cubes Pte Ltd to commercialize this technology.
The formation of this company was also facilitated by NUS Venture
Support (NVS), which recently awarded MXR Cubes Pte Ltd a sum of
S$40,000 under its Student Enterprise Programme (SEP). Launched to
nurture Singapore’s future entrepreneurs, the programme relieves the
initial financial hurdles as well as provides an environment that is
conducive to business development. In addition, NUS students can
take advantage of the availability of expert advice on campus when
starting their business ventures. Both INTRO and NVS are units of
the NUS Enterprise Cluster.
Prof. Jacob Phang, Chief Executive Officer of NUS Enterprise,
said: "Steven's achievement is an excellent example of
commercializing a technology that was developed at one of NUS’ top
research laboratories into a novel product which is able to compete
at an international level. I am pleased that NUS Enterprise has been
proactive in facilitating the formation of MXR Cubes Pte Ltd with
seed capital and a technology licence. We hope that MXR Cubes will
grow dramatically in the NUS Venture Support ecosystem.
Looking forward to life as a budding entrepreneur, Mr. Steven
Zhou said: "This win is a very good starting point for MXR Cubes Pte
Ltd. The competition has given me a great opportunity to compete and
network with the crème de la crème from top universities around the
world. Additionally, I have found several potential partners who
will help my company in the form of providing content, refining the
technology and business development."
NUS Enterprise
In support of the National University of
Singapore’s drive towards becoming a leading entrepreneurial
university, the NUS Enterprise Cluster was set up to inject an
enterprise dimension to NUS teaching and research involving NUS
students, staff and alumni. NUS Enterprise is also the University’s
Free Enterprise Zone where innovation and creativity are freed from
traditional rules, allowing greater flexibility and faster response.
NUS Enterprise aims to provide entrepreneurship education and
nurture talents with a global mindset; identify, protect and
commercialize intellectual property; nurture NUS spin-offs and
start-ups; foster industrial collaboration; and facilitate the
dissemination of NUS knowledge to the external community.
Units of the NUS Enterprise Cluster are the NUS Overseas
Colleges, NUS Entrepreneurship Centre, NUS Industry & Technology
Relations Office, NUS Venture Support, NUS Consulting, NUS Extension
and NUS Publishing. Please refer to http://www.enterprise.nus.edu.sg
for more details.
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