Environment & Engineering

Invention wins international award

Published Sep 13, 2018

AccuMM, a land surveying and civil engineering technology developed by Victoria University of Wellington academics, has won the Semi-Grand Prize at the Toronto International Invention Innovation Competition. 

The technology behind AccuMM was created by Professor Winston Seah and Master’s student Jonathan Olds from the School of Engineering and Computer Science. Viclink, the University’s commercialisation arm, is helping to commercialise the technology to create the AccuMM product. 

AccuMM allows land surveyors and civil engineers to continuously monitor their field sites remotely and track long term land movement. It aims to be safer, more affordable, and more responsive than current technologies, and aims to help with long term monitoring tasks that traditionally required manual, in-person, surveying techniques. 

“AccuMM is a great example of a School of Engineering and Computer Science innovation that results in real world impact. Winston and the team understood the market problem and have got their technology in to the hands of real users. The fact that a customer understands the disruptive nature of AccuMM is a testament to the quality of our science and the willingness our researchers to build commercial skillsets,” says Ashwath Sundaresan, Commercialisation Manager for the project at Viclink. 

AccuMM received the Semi-Grand Prize (second place) from a pool of over four hundred entries. They also received the Euroinvent Medal awarded by the Romanian Inventors Forum. 

"Winning this award was an honour,” Professor Seah says. “Besides getting recognition from an international panel of judges, we also got valuable feedback from industry contacts who are keen to explore other applications of our technology.”