Welcome to this special episode of @AuManufacturing Conversations with Brent Balinski, one which we're running as part of our quest to identify Australia’s 50 Most Innovative Manufacturers.
The 50 Most Innovative is an annual campaign by @AuManufacturing. This time around it has been made possible through the generous support of MYOB, CSIRO, and the NSW government’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Facility.
Episode guide
0:51 – What Scimita does.
3:18 – A background in chemical engineering, energy systems engineering, elite cycling and elsewhere, plus what brought him to Australia from Iran.
5:55 – Why he quit academia.
8:35 – Cracking the innovation code, beginning with a process engineering approach.
9:40 – Even really smart people can be sucked into a black hole, where there is too wide a range of options.
11:00 – Matching TRL with CRL and why that matters.
12:02 – The golden rule.
13:30 - Identifying risks early on and turning them into timelines.
14:20 – Some other readiness levels that get considered.
16:30 – A personal view of innovation.
18:20 – Successfully refocussing their business model after a downturn, leading to a contract with the Trailblazer for Recycling and Clean Energy (TRaCE)
20:00 – What is the issue we need to address to improve research commercialisation in Australia? It’s “a mismatch problem wrapped in complexity.”
23:02 – Why they do business out of the inner west suburb of St Peters. It comes down to travel and modularity.
24:08 – A project involving a monitoring device for bedbugs, which required them to breed and observe the “most important stakeholder” for the product onsite.
27:02 – Safety cannot be compromised in commercialisation projects.
28:24 – The rise of the circular economy in Australia and what needs to change (Scimita co-founder Professor Ali Abbas is Australia’s first Chief Circular Engineer, among other roles.)
29:50 - The circular economy is a very old concept, though current opportunities are immense.
30:34 – Circularity doesn’t actually guarantee sustainability.
31:35 – A look back at Nomvar’s PhD work on a tiny carbon capture device, which might have a business case one day, but “not on this planet, probably.”
34:00 – The many challenges involved in his doctoral work, not all of them technical, and the spinoff benefits of solving these.
35:20 – Some thoughts on risk appetite when it comes to investment and high-tech manufacturing in this nation.
36:20 – What the US gets right in encouraging high-tech businesses and what we lack.
37:50 – Scimita’s plans to help the innovation ecosystem here.
39:05 “This is a golden time for Australia… This is the fifth industrial revolution… It’s not going to come around again.”
40:05 – Government initiatives need to consult more closely with industry to understand innovation.
40:45 – “I think we as a nation need to have a very open, thoughtful discussion about what manufacturing means to Australia, given that our labour costs are high. And we want [them] to be high, because that’s part of the prosperity conversation. But it also means we have to be a lot smarter about what we are manufacturing and how we are marketing that.”
Relevant links
Scimita's website
Sydney metal powder technology company announces $15 million Series A
Kinaltek licenses catalyst technology to India
Welcome to this special episode of @AuManufacturing Conversations with Brent Balinski, one which we're running as part of our quest to identify Australia’s 50 Most Innovative Manufacturers.
The 50 Most Innovative is an annual campaign by @AuManufacturing. This time around it has been made possible through the generous support of MYOB, CSIRO, and the NSW government’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Facility.
Episode guide
0:51 – What Scimita does.
3:18 – A background in chemical engineering, energy systems engineering, elite cycling and elsewhere, plus what brought him to Australia from Iran.
5:55 – Why he quit academia.
8:35 – Cracking the innovation code, beginning with a process engineering approach.
9:40 – Even really smart people can be sucked into a black hole, where there is too wide a range of options.
11:00 – Matching TRL with CRL and why that matters.
12:02 – The golden rule.
13:30 - Identifying risks early on and turning them into timelines.
14:20 – Some other readiness levels that get considered.
16:30 – A personal view of innovation.
18:20 – Successfully refocussing their business model after a downturn, leading to a contract with the Trailblazer for Recycling and Clean Energy (TRaCE)
20:00 – What is the issue we need to address to improve research commercialisation in Australia? It’s “a mismatch problem wrapped in complexity.”
23:02 – Why they do business out of the inner west suburb of St Peters. It comes down to travel and modularity.
24:08 – A project involving a monitoring device for bedbugs, which required them to breed and observe the “most important stakeholder” for the product onsite.
27:02 – Safety cannot be compromised in commercialisation projects.
28:24 – The rise of the circular economy in Australia and what needs to change (Scimita co-founder Professor Ali Abbas is Australia’s first Chief Circular Engineer, among other roles.)
29:50 - The circular economy is a very old concept, though current opportunities are immense.
30:34 – Circularity doesn’t actually guarantee sustainability.
31:35 – A look back at Nomvar’s PhD work on a tiny carbon capture device, which might have a business case one day, but “not on this planet, probably.”
34:00 – The many challenges involved in his doctoral work, not all of them technical, and the spinoff benefits of solving these.
35:20 – Some thoughts on risk appetite when it comes to investment and high-tech manufacturing in this nation.
36:20 – What the US gets right in encouraging high-tech businesses and what we lack.
37:50 – Scimita’s plans to help the innovation ecosystem here.
39:05 “This is a golden time for Australia… This is the fifth industrial revolution… It’s not going to come around again.”
40:05 – Government initiatives need to consult more closely with industry to understand innovation.
40:45 – “I think we as a nation need to have a very open, thoughtful discussion about what manufacturing means to Australia, given that our labour costs are high. And we want [them] to be high, because that’s part of the prosperity conversation. But it also means we have to be a lot smarter about what we are manufacturing and how we are marketing that.”
Relevant links
Scimita's website
Sydney metal powder technology company announces $15 million Series A
Kinaltek licenses catalyst technology to India