Case studies

A team of researchers from UniSA are looking at how we can make a submarine and it's interior bigger. Submariners live and work within submarines for months on end, operating under extreme mental load within high-stakes settings. In addition to this isolation and intensity, crew members must endure a lack of sunlight, a lack of sleep, and distinct lack of space. Find out how we can make the interior feel bigger.

The University of South Australia’s (UniSA) new Precision Engineering Centre is at the cutting-edge of defence manufacturing, quite literally. The new centre, located at UniSA’s Future Industries Institute, is the culmination of a decade-long collaboration between the SA Node of the Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF-SA), which operates within UniSA, and the Research Engineering (RE) at Defence Science and Technology Group (DSTG).

With the AUKUS Alliance delivering US Virginia Class and SSN-AUKUS Class submarines over the 2030s and 2040s, the need to extend the life of Australia’s Collins-class is becoming increasingly critical. Researchers from UniSA have created laser cladding technology that mitigates vessel corrosion and will deliver Life of Type Extension (LOTE) to Australia’s maritime industry.

Australia faces the ever-increasing challenge of maintaining its maritime domain awareness in the Indo-Pacific region. Monitoring and safeguarding the region – which is home to extensive maritime borders, grey-zone operations, and trillion-dollar trade routes – requires significant resources and strategic coordination. UniSA has worked with Acacia Systems and Arkwright Technologies to develop a highly sensitive hydrophone that captures the slightest of sounds underwater.

While 99% of attempted cyberattacks are thwarted, the 1% that manage to slip through the net are wreaking not only economic damage, but significant reputational, legal, and personal harm to corporations and civilians. With the cybercrime ‘bill’ now estimated to be at AUD $12 trillion a year, cybersecurity experts are calling for a new, more transparent, and collective approach to address cyberattacks.

UniSA and partner Draganfly Inc have developed world-first technology that remotely detects the key symptoms of COVID-19 – breathing and heart rates, temperature, and blood oxygen levels.

A UniSA team led by Professor Javaan Chahl collaborated with Draganfly, the world’s oldest commercial drone manufacturer, to develop technology that combines engineering, drones, cameras, and artificial intelligence to monitor people’s vital health signs remotely. Within months, the technology had moved from drones to security cameras and kiosks, scanning vital health signs in 15 seconds.  

Software developed by UniSA and industry partners TTG and Modaxo uses information about a train, its route, and schedule to calculate efficient driving strategies and advise drivers when to accelerate and brake to ensure they arrive on time with minimum energy use.

The software, trademarked as Energymiser, is now on trains across the UK, Belgium, France, Spain, Germany, China, India, Australia, New Zealand, and Africa, saving rail companies up to 20 per cent of their energy costs. 

Equine gastric disease affects millions of horses worldwide, especially in the racing and endurance riding sectors. The current standard treatment for gastric disease and associated ulcers is a daily oral paste, but for some ulcers oral treatment can be ineffective, and many horses don’t accept the paste willingly.  
 
An eight-year joint project between UniSA and animal health industry partner Luoda Pharma has produced a long-acting gastric ulcer medicine, injected weekly, that heals ulcers in horses much faster than current treatments. 

In partnership with medical device company, Ferronova, researchers from UniSA’s Future Industries Institute (FII), Dr Aidan Cousins and Professor Benjamin Thierry, have developed a biodiagnostic system to refine cancer detection. The system consists of a magnetic probe and injectable magnetic nanoscale tracers, able to detect the spread of cancer less invasively, more quickly, and more accurately than existing methods. It delivers an accurate and affordable system for the staging of deep or complex cancers, such as head and neck, gastrointestinal and oesophageal cancers.

Through collaborative research, UniSA has partnered with Adelaide-based company SMR Automotive, in a partnership that has delivered the world’s first shatterproof plastic car mirror. By combining materials already available to the car industry, the new design capitalised on existing availability, while also simplifying assembly. 
 
Weighing 50 per cent less than a conventional glass mirror, the plastic mirror has reduced fuel consumption and emissions. Its durability has also increased safety and reliability for the automotive industry, with a significant drop in mirror failure.

Minerals processing machinery is expensive and endures extreme levels of erosion, corrosion, and wear and tear induced by repetitive impact. Shutdowns for repairs and maintenance of equipment can cost more than $100,000 for every hour of downtime.

Australian surface engineering company, LaserBond, and UniSA’s specialist Coatings Research Group at the Future Industries Institute, are developing some of the world’s most resilient minerals processing equipment through the use of composite coatings and laser cladding. 

Despite safe and effective vaccines being available for a wide range of infectious diseases, prevention and treatment of more complex conditions, including allergy and cancer, remain elusive. Furthermore, vaccines are complex to manufacture, making them difficult to produce to a scale, quality and cost that supports widespread global access. An ongoing collaboration between South Australian biotech company Sementis Ltd and UniSA’s Experimental Therapeutics Laboratory has developed a vaccine delivery platform that can potentially produce easy-to-manufacture vaccines for multiple acute and chronic disease conditions.

To meet the Australian film and television industries need for fresh and highly skilled visual effects talent, UniSA and Rising Sun Pictures partnered up to deliver tailored VFX postgraduate programs, student placements and mentorship opportunities.  

RSP saw the opportunity to not only nurture creativity and develop workforce-ready artists, but also invest back into their state of origin. Since this partnerships inception in 2015, approximately 30 UniSA alumni are currently employed at RSP and over 120 graduates working in industry. 

UniSA has partnered with Helping Hand to address widespread apathy and improve mental health in aged care using virtual reality (VR) technology. Apathy in aged care homes hastens cognitive decline and can affect up to 84 per cent of older populations.  

The innovative tool enables seniors to relive happy memories from their past through a 360-degree experience. Residents with the highest levels of apathy showed the most improvement suggesting using VR may help improve the lives of older adults in residential aged care. 

With the AUKUS Alliance delivering US Virginia Class and SSN-AUKUS Class submarines over the 2030s and 2040s, the need to extend the life of Australia’s Collins-class is becoming increasingly critical. Researchers from UniSA have created laser cladding technology that mitigates vessel corrosion and will deliver Life of Type Extension (LOTE) to Australia’s maritime industry.