ACES collaboration wins Gold Award for Market Disruptor Product

An international collaboration including the ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES), has been recognised as producing one of the most technologically significant products introduced into the marketplace.

The product, artificial muscle constructed from ordinary fishing line and sewing thread, now known as ‘HeliAct Muscles’, won the Gold Award for the Market Disruptor Product at the 53^rd annual R&D 100 Awards. The project lead, Professor Ray Baughman, accepted the award in Las Vegas, US.

The awards recognise excellence across a range of industries including telecommunications, optics, high-energy physics and materials science, and winners range from established Fortune 500 companies to research institutions and government labs.

Originally published in the prestigious Science journal in 2014, the artificial muscles were the result of collaboration between six countries including ACES at the University of Wollongong, and led by University of Texas at Dallas (UTD).

ACES has a strong history of publishing high quality research in international collaboration with leading institutions. In 2013-2015, over one third of the research published by ACES was in the top 10% most cited publications in the world, and almost half of all journal articles published were a result of international collaboration.

ACES Director Professor Gordon Wallace said that the partnership with UTD is built on a long term relationship with Professor Baughman in materials science and is now expanding into the bioengineering field with other collaborators including Professor Mario
Romero-Ortega.

“The establishment of strategic research and training alliances enables ACES to deliver significant outcomes with immediate impact,” Professor Wallace said.