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With an impressive pitch on increasing the effectiveness of deep sea anchors, Professor Yuxia Hu from the School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering has won the 2017 Start Something @ Woodside Oceanworks Entrepreneurship Prize.

Start Something is a series of entrepreneur-led workshops designed to help UWA researchers and staff release the social and economic value of their research through enterprise. Since launching in 2015, Start Something has trained over 200 and accelerated 75 UWA researchers, engaged 64 industry experts and generated 25+ spinouts or project progressions.

Prof. Hu was joined at Start Something @ Oceanworks 2017 by a cohort of 21 fellow UWA academics undertaking research in oceans and engineering. Over 6 weeks, they worked with entrepreneurs and industry to develop their ideas, with 8 finalists, including Prof. Hu, pitching to key industry stakeholders and investors. The judging panel then selected four winners to receive funding and mentoring to take their ideas to the next level.

Affectionately known as “the anchor lady” Prof. Hu has developed a new cost effective method of driving deep sea mooring anchors into the seabed. A reusable booster is attached to the existing anchor, allowing it to be driven further into the seabed, this extra depth gives the anchor higher holding capacity, with increased platform stability. The booster is then removed and can be used for subsequent installations, with savings of up to $10,000,000 on the anchor cost.

Prof. Hu will be presented with her award at a ceremony on Tuesday 30 May at the Woodside FutureLab Oceanworks, located at the UWA Oceans Institute.

Media references

Ben Robson (Marketing Officer, Faculty of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences) (+61 8) 6488 7501