Eight original and creative local inventions will vie for the top prize at the 2015 Western Australian Innovator of the Year awards.

Commerce Minister Michael Mischin said the finalists included a real-time integrated anti-fuel theft system for petrol stations, a diagnostic test for diabetic kidney disease, and a system for the safe loading and unloading of shipping containers.

Mr Mischin said while the transition from an innovative idea to commercial outcome could be challenging, the innovator program provided finalists with skills and opportunities to support them during this process.

“The program gives finalists unrivalled opportunities to access industry expertise in business and media skills training and one-on-one mentoring sessions,” he said.

“This assists them to build and promote their innovation and guides them on the path to commercialisation.

“Local, national and global interest in the finalists and winners has provided access to opportunities often not available before their involvement in this prestigious program, and really puts Western Australia on the map as a generator of world-class innovation.”

Resonance Health Ltd, last year’s overall winner for their HepaFat-Scan technology, secured an agreement with Emory University in the US to perform a validation study at the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta hospital.  The study, which started in May, will be undertaken in a paediatric patient population with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, with results expected within 12 to 18 months.

Mitsubishi Corporation Emerging Innovation Category

Bombora Wave Power Pty Ltd (Bentley): Bombora Wave Energy Converter – a breakthrough system that efficiently converts ocean wave energy into renewable energy

Curtin University of Technology (Bentley): Logging while drilling for mineral exploration – two tools developed to enable drillers to collect information about physical properties of rocks near the drill-hole, including natural radioactivity, magnetic susceptibility and electrical resistance

Newton Laboratories Pty Ltd (Perth): Vibration sensor for oversized rock detection – a vibration-sensor device to be mounted on mining trucks to measure and process signals from various vibrations which will alert operators to stockpile oversize rocks and prevent crusher downtime and lost production

Proteomics International Pty Ltd (Nedlands): PromarkerD – developed a diagnostic test for diabetic kidney disease.

Mitsubishi Corporation Growth Category

Optika Solutions Pty Ltd (West Perth): Akumen – a cloud-based decision support environment and analytics framework that enables the integration of real-time, time series, transactional data and historical information to make future-based decisions.

Scancam Industries Pty Ltd (Perth): SCANCAM – smart fuel security: a real-time integrated system incorporating high resolution video and still cameras, facial and number plate recognition and police database reporting to prevent fuel theft.

Tilt Trays Enterprises Pty Ltd (High Wycombe): Container loading and offloading system – a system designed for the safe loading and unloading of shipping (sea) containers from tilt tray trucks.

Trackem Pty Ltd (Perth): Trackem – an asset tracking and management software system, using a unique combination of barcode, global positioning system and radio frequency identification technologies to track and manage the location of assets, equipment and construction materials.