EmTech Singapore reveals the regional finalists for 35 Innovators under 35

Source: EmTech Singapore. Top, from left: Muller, Zhou, Tan, Chua, Sukitpaneenit. Bottom, from left: Tee, Li, Peh, Poletti and Yeung.

EmTech Singapore has announced the regional finalists from Southeast Asia and Australia/New Zealand that are now eligible for consideration for the 15th annual global 35 Innovators Under 35 (TR35) list. Eight of the ten finalists are either based in Singapore or work in Singaporean research institutes.

As a finalist, each has the opportunity to present a three-minute elevator pitch about their research to an elite audience of market leaders, researchers and investors at the second EmTech Singapore, to be held from 27 to 28 January 2015.

Selected from a pool of over 100 applicants from 16 countries, the finalists are:

Rikky Muller, Chief Executive Officer, Cortera Neurotechnologies: Muller founded Cortera Neurotechnologies to develop implantable devices that will enable prosthetics to feel and act natural, provide a cure for psychiatric disorders and that will enable completely new user-computer interfaces.

Peh Ruey Feng, Program Director of Singapore-Stanford Biodesign, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR): Peh is the Principal Investigator of Advent Access, which aims to significantly reduce the overall cost of hemodialysis at end-stage kidney failure, to preserve vascular health and to save patients from needing multiple surgeries to sustain their lives.

Zhou Lihan, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer, MiRXES: MIRXES focuses on creating accurate, affordable and non-invasive cancer detection tests. Zhou has developed an assay platform that is 100 times more sensitive than existing technologies to identify specific patterns of blood-borne microRNA that correlate with cancer at its early and asymptomatic stage.

Yeung Ying Yeung, Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore: Yeung has developed a new way to prepare drugs. Molecules have 'left-handed' and 'right-handed' versions that are mirror images of each other, and sometimes one version works very differently from the other. Yeung's method can focus on making only one of these versions, as required.  

Panu Sukitpaneenit, Membrane Scientist, Koch Membrane Systems: Sukitpaneenit's research centres on designing novel and high-separation membrane materials and technologies to harvest clean energy and water, forward osmosis desalination, and membrane-based osmotic power generation.

Chua Pei Wen Vivien, Assistant Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Co-Program Director, NUS-TUDelft Double M.Sc. Degree Program, National University of Singapore: Chua is developing a coupled ocean-hydrologic modelling tool for investigating the impacts of climate change and anthropogenic influences in coastal zones.

Li Guangda, Founder & CTO, Visenze: Li has researched how to unlock intelligence captured in rich visual content by using sophisticated visual recognition technology, and leverage it to recommend products in mobile e-commerce.

Benjamin Tee, Stanford Biodesign Global Innovation Fellow (Singapore-Stanford), Stanford University/A*STAR: Tee has developed flexible and stretchable electronic skin-like sensors that capture some of the high mechanical sensitivity and self-healing capabilities of human skin.

Shawn Tan, Research Scientist, Deputy Head, Patterning & Fabrication, Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, A*STAR: Tan's research is about how light behaves at the nanometer-scale. His research has advanced super-resolution plasmonic colour printing and he recently demonstrated the world’s smallest reproduction of a painting in full-colour.

Dario Poletti, Engineering Product Development Pillar, Singapore University of Technology and Design & SUTD-MIT International Design Centre; Poletti addresses energy-related issues at the nano scale, searching for fundamental and general design principles for the next generation of energy-efficient nano devices.