Vocal Health Screen, founded by UCD PhD student Rosalyn Moran, was recently declared the overall winner of the 10th NovaUCD Campus Company Development Programme (CCDP).
Rosalyn Moran is a PhD student working with Dr Richard Reilly, Senior Lecturer and Vice Principal for Research and Innovation at the UCD School of Electrical, Electronic and Mechanical Engineering. She is currently developing a unique remote screening tool for voice diseases for use by patients of Ear Nose and Throat Clinics worldwide. It is designed to replace screening and follow up endoscopy examinations and has the potential to generate significant savings for patient and specialist alike. Detection is carried out using a two second voice sample from a telephone call with results computed automatically and sent to a password protected web page.
The unique aspect of the project has been the development of specialist speech analysis research combined with a web-based infrastructure based on the emerging telephony interface standard for voice/web communications, VoiceXML. Moran said that winning the award was recognition for the first stages of "out of the lab" development, adding that “setting up a testing facility with Beaumont has established the project's clinical relevance and potential”. Moran found the CCDP offered a realistic view of market potential and entry to markets “forcing projects to consolidate what it is they can offer in a commercial arena at the early stages of product development.”
Congratulating all the participants on the CCDP Kevin Sherry, Manager of Enterprise Ireland’s High Potential Start Ups division said, “Enterprise Ireland is delighted to continue to work closely with the team at NovaUCD in assisting individuals establish innovation-led new start up companies. These businesses, which focus on the commercialisation of technology developed within the Universities, are an essential part of realising the full potential of the substantial investment being made in research."
Dr Pat Frain, Director of NovaUCD stressed the importance of the CCDP in reflecting the growing spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship on the UCD campus. “This year a record number of CCDP projects involved new high tech ventures being established to commercialise the output of UCD research.”
In the last ten years over 115 projects and 160 individuals have completed the NovaUCD CCDP. Previous winners include AV Edge, ChangingWorlds, Optigen Technologies, ProfExcel and BiancaMed.
November 21, 2005
