A LOOK BACK AT THE SOUTH WEST INNOVATION EXPO

The South West of England shared its intellectual wealth and technological advances at Sandy Park on 14th October. Thinkers, engineers, students, designers from Devon and Cornwall were present. What a variety of innovative projects and ideas were on offer! Aquatic drones, a device to generate long-lasting energy from earth vibrations or a machine that can propel a train using magnetic fields, agriculture of the future, paper microscopes for researchers and explorers, a galactic VR tour of unknown planets, and many more. VISTA (Laura Dixon, Project Manager, Dr Jonathan Bird and Florence Menu) was present and was able to present its work to an eager audience.

REAV (UVS) Uncrewed Surface Vehicles -16 HydroSurv – University of Plymouth partner

Vibration Energy Harvesting Sensors and Electrified Rail Track Energy Harvesting Wireless Sensors – Encortec Ltd – University of Exeter partner

Immersive dome – University of Plymouth Digital Fabrication and Immersive Media Labs

Jon and Laura presenting the eye-tracking study and the text analysis tool

Perhaps the biggest draw for our visitors was the South West Coast Path app, which we were able to introduce as an application to use on site; several people scanned the QR code and downloaded the app. The Google glasses presentation and on-screen demonstrations of the fidgety dots and lines of the eye-tracking experience also caught people’s eye, as did the flashy graphics of the visitor intelligence dashboard. After the morning’s opening speeches and presentations, the stands started to fill up and we took the opportunity to meet the other exhibitors. An efficient networking day! By exchanging with, for the most part, our colleagues from the Universities of Exeter and Plymouth, we were able to find connections between the reflections leading to common projects and interests.

Links that may interest you:
SW Innovation Expo (@SWinnovationexp) / Twitter
Programme
Image gallery