#blupoint

On Wednesday (21 September), Southampton University Science Park played host to the Nucleus Expo, which was officially opened by Sir Vince Cable.  In his opening talk, he discussed how to make an ecosystem that enables innovation to flourish.  Cable outlined how this required space, an IP regime to protect innovators, a proper tax system and a good link between isolated entrepreneurs, Universities and the market.  He said that these elements were coming together at the Science Park, and if we got it right for the UK as a whole, then this would position us as a world-leader in innovation. Cable congratulated Southampton Science Park in terms of the very great companies that were flourishing here.

Evidence of the Innovation Ecosystem was everywhere at this one-day event.  The expo was crammed full of start-up and growth companies, working in the MedTech field, in cyber, in defence and aerospace; and in marine.  Throughout the day, companies were giving talks about various aspects of business start-up and funding, as well as the innovations that are leading the way in their respective markets.

 Springer spent the day at the event, listening to may of the talks and interacting with many of the businesses in the Expo, receiving demos of their ground-breaking products.  

 MedTech was very well represented at the event.  We received a demo of the lifelight product by the company, XIM. Simply by looking at a computer screen, the camera on the computer was able to detect the vital signs on our face by observing tiny changes in skin colour.  By using the advanced technology behind the product, the system could tell what our pulse was, our blood pressure and many other parameters.  The product provides early warning of critical health events for older patients to nursing staff and carers. The possible uses of this technology are  very far reaching, and will ultimately result in less deaths and incidents, and enable us to cope with the increasing demand for services from the ageing population.

A talk by David Deakin of BluPoint outlined how their platform solution provides community access to digital materials on any phone connected to their solar-powered, pop-up internet.  Their product enables vital information and services to be transmitted to offline remote communities.  Deakin outlined how their services can help medical care staff in those locations to carry out health assessments, to screen for chronic diseases and to better manage their supply chains.  He talked about how this is already being used in Sierra Leone and in other African Countries.  BluPoint aims to improve the lives of 20m people in 20,000 communities by 2020 and looks well on the way to achieving this ambition.

Also displaying their latest innovations were Merck.  They showcased the work that they have been doing in the development of liquid crystals for displays.  We had the chance to pick up and bend a display, which looked like a super-thin iPhone display on a bangle – enabling you to surf the internet on your wrist! The potential uses for this technology are gigantic!

During the day, many talks were about how different companies had developed their propositions and were still driving forward their innovation.   Jim Beacher provided a very interesting discussion about how the company CoolLED had grown, including how they overcame some of their growth barriers along the way. He talked about how they realised that they had to focus on understanding their market, making tough investment decisions and ensuring that they recruit the best talent.

Dale Lane from IBM gave an excellent talk about the latest developments in the cognitive era in terms of IBM Watson.  He talked about how IBM have been working with doctors and oncologists to see how Watson’s deep thinking can be used to help in making assessments and giving diagnoses to patients.  The application of this sort of technology, which has the ability to process and make connections with vast amounts of data, will be able to assist Medcare in the future, particularly in Cancer Care.

 The close of the day saw discussion about the sorts of funding available to entrepreneurs.  Vince Cable at the start of the day had said that he felt that we have not yet got this quite right in UK.  However, the discussion at the close of the day from organisations such a Set-Squared, CrowdCube, Department for Trade and Industry and Ellipson outlined that there are many different routes for gaining funding for entrepreneurs; and that Brexit may not necessarily be the dark cloud on the horizon that many think it to be.

All in all – the Nucleus Expo was a fantastic event.  It was exciting to see the numbers of businesses there,  showing their first class innovations.  This illustrates just how successful Southampton is an innovation hub in UK.