Junkosha has revealed the shortlist of five entries going through to the final stage of its inaugural ‘Technology Innovator of the Year Award.’ Each shortlisted candidate will present their entry to the judging committee throughout February, with the winner to be announced in a ceremony in March 2022. 

Junkosha’s mission over the last 12 months has been to find an individual or team working within industry or academic research that deserves recognition for their innovative work on products used in the delivery of interventional medical procedures or microwave and mmWave technologies. Adjudicated by a panel of highly respected judges chosen for their industry credentials, the winning entrant will be awarded a sum of $25,000 to invest in their worthwhile project. 

Joe Rowan, chairperson for this award and Junkosha’s president and CEO of U.S. and Europe, explained, “The judges and I have been truly delighted by the high caliber of candidates who have entered our first Technology Innovator of the Year Awards. Some very hard decisions were made in coming up with the shortlist, but we believe that each of the five remaining entries have an equal opportunity to prevail. I would ultimately like to wish the candidates luck through the next phase and also take this opportunity to thank everyone who entered.”

The shortlisted candidates include:

Interventional Medical Procedures

Chris Hancock – CTO and Founder, Creo Medical Group, U.K.

Creo Medical is a mission driven, medical device company applying Advanced Energy to the emerging field of surgical endoscopy. The company’s product is the first Advanced Energy multimodality instrument designed for flexible endoscopy using combined bipolar RF and microwave energy for advanced endoscopic procedures. Creo Medical are transforming the treatment pathways by moving the point of treatments for a range of cancers from a hospital operating theatre to an endoscopy suite. 

Elad Einav – CEO and Co-Founder, Medibrane LTD, Israel

Medibrane is a contract manufacturer of polymeric covers for medical stent devices. The company provides a variety of covering materials and technologies such as: Silicone, Polyurethane, ePTFE and Dacron polymeric covers, implemented using dipping, spraying or lamination technologies. Their product features unique suture-less lamination technologies, allowing for optimal adhesion without the need for costly, time-consuming sutures.

Microwave and mmWave Technologies

Otava Inc, U.S. 

Otava, Inc is a fabless start-up based in Moorestown, New Jersey, developing key 5G technologies in the mmWave sector. As subject matter experts in phased array systems and electronic designs, Otava is focused on the end-to-end development of exceptional technologies used by advanced 5G Commercial and Department of Defense applications. The company’s mmWave integrated circuit is a 24-40GHz beamforming chip which is optimised to meet the accelerated performance demands of high-bandwidth 5G communications systems that are changing the way people live, work and stay connected to one another.

Stepan Lucyszyn, Imperial College London, U.K.

Over the past six years, Stepan and his academic research team have been designing, simulating, manufacturing, testing and analysing novel 3D-printed microwave and mmWave materials, components and subsystems.  Waveguide systems are used extensively in today’s space communication infrastructure demands but at a small fraction of the weight, development time and cost.

Umut Bulus, Antenom Antenna Technologies, Turkey

Antenom provides cutting-edge and innovative solutions around antenna design and RF systems. The company has created a new concept with block-based antenna and microwave component design methodologies which currently works up to 6 GHz. It provides pedagogical application, with use in antenna and microwave training in university level electronics engineering laboratory lectures as it enables easy testing for antenna and microwave engineers.