Last night Wiley’s Brett Wiskar was on hand to be a judge at the University of Southern Queensland in Toowoomba for the Pitch Club Challenge. USQ created the Pitch Club as a specialised community within their research culture. A safe environment for researchers, looking to secure funding or research partners, to develop the invaluable skill of presenting a concise pitch that justifies the cost and illustrates the possible impact of their research, in plain English.
Wiley partnered with USQ in 2015 to create the annual ‘Wiley Better Future Award’ as part of the Pitch Club Challenge. This annual award recognises those whose area of research is judged to have the most significant commercial impact on our future. The judging panel base their decision entirely on the information as presented by the researchers during the USQ Pitch Club Challenge event. It therefore not only recognises the importance of the research topic, but also the researchers ability to communicate the value of that research.
This year the judges chose a winner and a highly commended, as the standard of the pitching was at such a high level. Research student Ali A Mohammed won the Wiley Better Future Award for his pitch on research proving the structural integrity of a a novel self-locking jacket for structural repairs. From the academic team, Ali Mirazaghorbanali received a highly commended for his pitch on enhancing safety in the mining industry.
As the winner of the Wiley Better Future Award, Ali A Mohammed has the opportunity to work with Wiley’s innovation and technical teams. Wiley will work with Ali A Mohammed to help explore potential areas for further innovation within his research area across two formal workshops.
We congratulate both winners and look forward to working with Ali A Mohammed on his idea.
