For a few weeks in March 2021, Chris Chua checked his emails in anticipation. The Co-founder of Operva AI had recently submitted a project proposal in response to a problem statement put out by China Construction and was eagerly awaiting their response.
Meisterform is not your average wheel manufacturing firm. As the first company in Singapore to design, produce and retail extreme performance automotive forged wheels, it broke away from the manufacturing-to-scale traditions of the industry to deliver quick turnarounds and accelerated response times.
When Xander Sim, the inventor of Quiz biochip-based PCR, co-founded Cell ID in 2014, he had one goal in mind – to combine engineering and biological sciences to deliver fast, accurate, affordable and mass-deployable diagnostic solutions for home and near-patient use.
As the medtech firm’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Sim oversaw the R&D for several products. This included Cell ID’s flagship biochip-based PCR test kit for HIV viral load, malaria parasitaemia, nucleic acid test (NAT) for COVID-19 extracted ribonucleic acid (RNA) and one-step (OS) COVID-19 saliva tests.
Extending shelf life with food science and technology
Scaling up food solutions for growth
With expert advice from IPI Innovation Advisor Dr Ong Mei Horng, HarriAnns Nonya Table found innovative ways to enhance its heritage food product portfolio and strengthen its market position during the challenging pandemic period.
Generating value through innovation
Amid one of the worst downturns in aviation history, IPI Innovation Advisor Derek Sharples helped CW Aero Services to implement new business strategies, restructure internal processes and emerge stronger.
As borders closed to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus in 2020, the aviation industry saw one of its worst years yet. Global passenger traffic plunged by 66 percent and demand for air cargo slumped, with airlines from the Asia-Pacific region harder hit compared with their Western counterparts.
David Tan and his team mulled over their revenue for the first quarter of 2020, the lowest in their more than 45 years of business, through a virtual meeting at the start of Singapore’s circuit breaker in April. It seemed like there was no end in sight for the raging COVID-19 pandemic in both local and overseas markets as food operations slowed down tremendously, recalled Par International Holdings’ CEO.
GIIAVA’s partnership with NUS, sparked off by IPI, aims to repurpose low-grade vegetable oil for higher value-added uses, which increases revenue yet benefits the environment.
Dr Yashodhan Bhawe stood in front of several large tanks, looking puzzled. He was expecting a straightforward scale-up for a new vegetable oil upgrading process, but things turned awry when “big masses of blobs” were produced instead.
When a Singapore company that distributes smart waste bins met a Finnish firm that produces wall robots that clean building exteriors at a technology matching event co-organised by IPI and the Helsinki Business Hub, the two were drawn to each other. Their focus on smart products meant they could collaborate on research and innovation.
If you were to consume a conventional Vitamin C pill, it would disintegrate as soon as it is swallowed, releasing all the Vitamin C at once. In contrast, a controlled-release pill would gradually release the same content, providing sustained absorption throughout the day. Now picture this pill, a hundred times larger in size, treating the environment. This is what Hydroemission, a Singapore-based materials science company, is developing and manufacturing.