What started as a simple yet powerful idea from two PHD students has since evolved into SoNiA Green Tech – a startup revolutionising the processing method for manufacturing polymer modified bitumen (PMB). Using the company’s range of products, asphalt organisations can now create any type of PMB, at any quantity, at any time, and at any location.

“This was already an industry-engaged project when my students first started, but it evolved into the question of whether something could be done to make the processing method simpler and less energy intensive,” says Ailar. “That was the catalyst for everything.”

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When Professor Thorsten Trupke co-founded his first company, BT Imaging, in 2007, he had no idea his research would quickly become a globally used and recognised technology within the field of solar cell imaging and material quality testing. “We developed Photoluminescence Imaging, which is like an x-ray machine that tests solar cells, solar modules, and the raw materials used for solar cells,” he says.

The technology allows for samples to be placed in a machine, and within seconds, create an image of a solar cell that reveals faults or issues, that cannot be detected with any other technique. “When we first demonstrated this capability in our labs at UNSW, researchers jumped at it,” adds Thorsten. “Within a month we had people lining up every day, and we realised it could be used more broadly, which is when we started BT imaging.”

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Having grown from a small PHD project to a promising company producing some of the most efficient solar cells ever made, SunDrive is changing the use, affordability, and lifecycle of solar technology.

Founded by Vince Allen in 2015, SunDrive was born from a PhD program at The University of New South Wales, which focused on replacing silver with copper throughout the solar cell making process. “Copper is 1000 times more abundant and 100 times cheaper per kilogram, so we wanted to make ultra efficient solar cells whilst using cheap and abundant materials such as copper,” says Vince.

In 2021 the team succeeded in making the world’s most efficient commercial-size solar cell and have since grown to have a large-scale commercial pilot demonstration line in the Sydney suburb of Kurnell. “We’re now operating in a 6000 metre squared facility and are looking at the next phase of operations, which is all about commercialisation and manufacturing.”

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As the first employee of spinout AZX Biotech, Quanbin Dai has been busy developing a therapeutic solution for osteoarthritis – the world’s most common chronic joint disease. “There are a lot of people at risk of developing this disease but there’s no cure right now, it's just lifestyle management and pain relief, or total joint replacement in the worst case scenario,” says Quanbin. “It's such a complex condition with many factors to consider, but we’ve seen the seen the breakthroughs in the mRNA vaccine these last few years and things are moving fast – there’s a lot of potential and promise.”

While Quanbin and his team aren’t the only players in the space, the drive to take their work outside of the research environment was fuelled by a desire to reach those goals faster and help patients as soon as possible. “We started AZX Biotech to be more agile and intentional in what we were doing rather than just researching for scientific understanding,” he says. “We wanted to move quickly from conceptualisation to product to help those patients.”

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