iAwards 2016 recognise best of NSW innovation

Home-grown innovators for the digital economy were recognised with the announcement recently of the 2016 iAwards NSW state winners by the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA).

The 2016 iAwards had over 600 entries, nearly double from 2015, and half of which were from ‘non-ICT’ companies.

“The calibre of entrants for this year’s awards has been astounding,” said Rob Fitzpatrick, CEO, AIIA. “It’s rare to see a student innovation compete with a government or a large corporate innovation, and this is what makes the iAwards particularly exciting. All innovators are potential winners — regardless of origin, size, scale, industry or social focus.”

The iAwards is a chance for students, researchers, governments, SMEs and large businesses to showcase their innovative ideas and projects, and be recognised and rewarded for having the potential to have a positive impact or already having a positive impact on the community — at home, in the office and on a global scale.

Entrants competed in five base award categories as well as student and cross categories. Winners and merit recipients will go on to represent their state and compete at the National iAwards in Melbourne, with the national winners announced on 1 September 2016.

The NSW 2016 state iAwards winners are:

• Business Services: Symbio Networks – TollShield
• Community Services: Access Macquarie Limited – HSCStudyLab
• Consumer: CHOICE – CluckAR App
• Industrial & Primary Services: Switch Automation.com – Switch Smart Hub
• Public Sector & Government: OneGov, Department of Finance Services and Innovation – OneGov Digital Gateway (also winners of the NSW iAward for Public Sector and Government Innovation)

Three winners were announced for the Student category including:

• North Sydney Girls High School – Can Your Money [Junior Students]
• Mosman High School – Hi-Viz Bike [Senior Students]
• Academy of Information Technology – AITendance [Undergraduate Tertiary Student]

Winners of the Cross Categories include:

• cohortIQ – Patient Centric Cohort Analysis [Big Data Innovation of the Year]
• Escrow.com – Escrow.com [Export of the Year]
• Symbio Networks – TollShield [Infrastructure & Platform Innovations of the Year]
• mme moe Pty Ltd – mme moe [Mobility Innovation of the Year]
• OneGov, Department of Finance, Services and Innovation – OneGov Digital Gateway [Research & Development Project of the Year]
• Insolitus Pty Ltd trading as Open Orbit – Open Orbit, where clever meets simple [Startup of the Year]

Image credit: ©Sergey Nivens/Dollar Photo Club