Media Release
October 21 2003
UniSA wins gold for excellence in engineering and commercialisation
The University of South Australia has won the Electronics Industry Association’s Gold Cup for excellence in taking its turbo coding technology for satellite modems through innovative product development and manufacturing processes to successful commercialisation in national and global markets.
This is the first time that the EIA Cup, awarded for excellence in engineering and commercialisation of a product or service within or for the electronics industry in South Australia, has been won by a group other than a "traditional" industry, according to Mr Jeff Kasparian, Business Manager at UniSA’s Institute for Telecommunications Research.
"Together with UniSA’s commercialisation incubator, ITEK, the ITR has the resources to combine new research in turbo-like codes with extremely cost efficient implementation, backed up by a good engineering team. This has resulted in the performance of our satellite modem being significantly better than the competition, enabling us to successfully compete on the global market," Kasparian said.
The University’s spin-off company Iterative Connections has teamed with a Silicon Valley communications company in California to develop and market the Premier 5 modem, which uses turbo coding technology developed by ITR’s Dr Adrian Barbulescu. Under the joint venture agreement, Ultimate Datum is taking the satellite modem to a global market estimated to be worth more than US$100 million annually.
Premier 5 is expected to reap millions of dollars in global sales over the next three years. It’s an enviable position for any newly established company to be in, according to Dr Barbulescu, who is also Ultimate Datum’s Chief Technical Officer.
"With next generation benchmark coding capacity and reliability, our technologically advanced modem offers bandwidth and power savings of up to 50 per cent to satellite communication providers, making it the best performer on the international market today," Dr Barbulescu said.
Executive Director of the EIA, Mr Jason Kuchel, said that the judges were impressed by the methodical approach taken by UniSA to commercialise its world-leading satellite technology. "The EIA is pleased to see good South Australian research being exported globally."
Media contact
Geraldine Hinter (08) 8302 0963 or 0417 861832