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MateriaPOD won Not for Profit & Community Solution of the Year, received a Merit in Start-Up Solution of the Year, and was named recipient of the Inspiration Award - a prestigious honour awarded by the lead judges panel and iAwards Chief Judge Collins Rex.
The device was developed by Dr Emily Zhen, an anaesthetist at Fiona Stanley Hospital, clinical lecturer at the University of Western Australia and founder of Materia Health.
MateriaPOD is a smart, portable, reusable device for precise organ and tissue preservation - moving beyond the limitations of traditional ice-based methods to optimise preservation conditions, reduce cellular injury, improve patient outcomes, and extend tissue viability. By combining reusable hardware with cell-specific software, MateriaPOD simultaneously reduces medical waste, lowers carbon footprint, and improves global healthcare resource efficiency.
“MateriaPOD is, in the most literal sense, a technology that saves lives. This is a remarkable result for a Perth-founded innovation reshaping how organs and tissue are preserved for transplant - a process and global industry that have not been fundamentally disrupted since the 1950s.”
DataDriven's Craig Baty, which sponsored this category, presents the Not for Profit and Community Solution of the Year to Dr Emily Zhen for MateriaPOD by Materia Health at the 2026 iAwards.
Team WA's successes didn't stop there. Curtin Institute for Data Science and BHP Western Australia Iron Ore were stunned to be awarded the Chief Judge's Innovation Award by iAwards Chief Judge Collins Rex.
The Chief Judge's Innovation Award recipient is selected from across all 90+ iAwards finalists for an innovation that uses exceptional technology to make a real difference in our world.
Curtin Institute for Data Science and BHP were able to participate in the iAwards after receiving a Merit in the 35th INCITE Awards' Industrial Technology category in July.
The team's tech innovation is an industrial analytics application that automates detection of drill rig GPS calibration drift. Deployed in real mining operations, it reduces quality assurance time from hours to minutes, increases analysis coverage from 2% sampling to over 80%, and was cited by the Chief Judge for the unique STEM and cross-disciplinary skillsets the solution deploys, including drawing on Western Australia's strong radioastronomy expertise.
“We were completely stunned to have won in this category. Thank you to iAwards Chief Judge Collins Rex for selecting us and the judges in the Industrial Technology category for putting us forward and then all of their words of encouragement afterwards!”
Paul Hancock, Professor Melanie Johnston-Hollitt and Arun Veluchamy with iAwards Chief Judge Collins Rex after being named
Chief Judge's Innovation Award Recipients.
The Not for Profit & Community Solution of the Year category was a clean sweep for Team WA. SmartWheel, an AI-guidance system for powered wheelchairs developed by Curtin University student Shanelle Tennekoon received a Merit in the same category, recognised for outstanding innovation in automating tasks including doorway navigation and hazard detection for those who use wheelchairs.
The night was capped by additional merits awarded to CorePlan in Business and Industry Solution of the Year, and Curtin University's Argus Sentinel in Student Tech Solution of the Year.
WAITTA congratulates of all of Team WA who participated in the 2026 national iAwards: Esther Oh and Agili8; David Cavanagh and Medical AI; Himanshu Patidar + Paul Koh and Rio Tinto; Jason Hall and Fiona Stanley Hospital; Michael Challenor and Innovate Medtech; Ashley Challenor + Graham Challenor and Heat Trap Solutions Pty Ltd; Sean Thorpe and ThorAi Group; William Temby and AngelPhish; Pattricia Ruth Das and AI Safety Guard; and Hola Health.
“It didn’t mean a win for these folks this time, but being national finalists, their spirit and how they represented Western Australia beautifully are things to be super proud of.”
Six Western Australian tech innovations picked up wins or merits across 10 iAwards categories. Winners and merit recipients are now eligible to participate in the 2026 Asia-Pacific ICT Alliance (APICTA) Awards, scheduled for the second week of December in Jakarta, Indonesia.
To receive a merit, a participant must score within 5% of the winning solution.
Automated Drill Rig GPS Drift Detection Tool - Curtin Institute for Data Science and BHP
This innovation is an industrial analytics application that automates detection of drill rig GPS calibration drift. Deployed in real mining operations, it reduces QA/QC time from hours to minutes, increases analysis coverage from 2% sampling to over 80%, enabling proactive maintenance, delivering measurable productivity, safety and cost benefits.
MateriaPOD - Materia Health
Materia Health’s MateriaPOD is a smart, portable, reusable device for precise organ and tissue preservation. Moving beyond ice-based methods, it optimises conditions to reduce cellular injury, improve outcomes, and extend viability. Combining reusable hardware with cell-specific software, it reduces medical waste, lowers carbon footprint, and improves global healthcare resource efficiency.
MateriaPOD - Materia Health
Materia Health’s MateriaPOD is a smart, portable, reusable device for precise organ and tissue preservation. Moving beyond ice-based methods, it optimises conditions to reduce cellular injury, improve outcomes, and extend viability. Combining reusable hardware with cell-specific software, it reduces medical waste, lowers carbon footprint, and improves global healthcare resource efficiency.
SmartWheel - Shanelle Tennekoon, Curtin University
SmartWheel is a lightweight AI-powered guidance system for powered wheelchairs, restoring independence of users with disabilities causing mobility impairments. By automating high-precision tasks like doorway traversal and hazard detection on low-cost edge devices, SmartWheel enables safer, independent navigation, reducing caregiver dependency, and improving quality of life for people with disabilities.
MateriaPOD - Materia Health
Materia Health’s MateriaPOD is a smart, portable, reusable device for precise organ and tissue preservation. Moving beyond ice-based methods, it optimises conditions to reduce cellular injury, improve outcomes, and extend viability. Combining reusable hardware with cell-specific software, it reduces medical waste, lowers carbon footprint, and improves global healthcare resource efficiency.
CorePlan
CorePlan is a drilling operations platform that connects planning, scheduling and field execution in one system. By replacing spreadsheet chaos with live operational control, it frees geologists and drilling teams to focus on discovery, improve productivity and run better drilling programs with faster decisions and fewer delays.
Argus Sentinel - Om Prashanth, Japtoz Singh Puri, Osayed Abdullah Khan, Elena Jane Odtojan, Chonlada Srimungkhun and Virginia Frilly, Curtin University
An AI-based Android anti-malware system that performs real-time behavioural monitoring and APK analysis using lightweight on-device telemetry and cloud-hosted machine learning models. Unlike traditional tools, it detects zero-day and obfuscated threats with scalable, low-overhead and adaptive security.
WAITTA Vice President Jess Etheridge, INCITE Awards Chief Judge Celia Jordaan, WAITTA Board Director and incoming INCITE Awards Co-Chair Deepti Shukla, and resources industry leader Rajesh Taneja travelled to Sydney to participate in the 2026 iAwards as volunteer judges and to support Team WA.
“Every one of these WA tech innovations represent years of work; it’s a privilege to watch how homegrown talent get the national recognition it deserves.”
WA's iAwards winners and merit recipients now qualify to represent Australia at the Asia-Pacific ICT Alliance (APICTA) Awards, to be held in Jakarta in December 2026.
"In 2025, Western Australia's Norwood Systems won gold at the 2025 APICTA Awards. We're determined to see WA continue its success in this international platform and will be supporting WA participants ahead of December's APICTAs - the final stop on this year-long journey that began at INCITE. We wish all those representing Australia the very best of luck!"
Pre-register now for the 2027 INCITE Awards - Western Australia's premier technology awards program and the state's exclusive pathway to showcase your innovation on the national stage at the prestigious iAwards, as well as compete among the region's brightest at the international Asia-Pacific Awards.
INCITE Awards
INCITE Awards
INCITE Awards
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