High-risk industrial sectors, notably the chemical industry, frequently experience severe safety incidents during production. Traditional risk management approaches, heavily reliant on manual efforts, often suffer from inadequate supervision, incomplete coverage, and suboptimal control. Addressing these challenges, the tech provider offers an advanced solution combining artificial intelligence technologies such as computer vision, the Internet of Things (IoT), and big data analytics. By utilizing existing enterprise cameras and sophisticated algorithmic servers, it establishes a video-based intelligent analysis platform for hidden risk management. This platform enhances overall safety through comprehensive risk perception, proactive hazard identification, predictive warnings, and visual decision-making aids, aiming for widespread and intelligent safety management across high-risk industrial environments.

In the development of communication networks, various challenges emerge in achieving wireless signal coverage in certain areas, while the cost of deploying traditional wired Ethernet remains prohibitive in specific locations. Industries accustomed to slower wired communications now seek high-speed alternatives to facilitate IoT integration and enhance operational efficiency, yet they are hesitant to undertake extensive rewiring efforts. Building networks across diverse settings, including buildings, condominiums, and factories, often encounters significant cost hurdles. This is primarily due to the need for multiple Wi-Fi repeaters to cover areas with poor signal reach, as well as the requirement for numerous network switches and construction work involving cable installation under floors and above ceilings. A solution lies in technology that facilitates data communication over existing wires within facilities, such as flat cables, twisted pair wires, coaxial cables, and power lines. The effective communication speed varies from several Mbps to several tens of Mbps, depending on the type of cable and the wiring environment. Moreover, this technology seamlessly integrates with Wi-Fi, Ethernet, and other existing infrastructures, providing a cost-effective approach to network construction. By leveraging these technologies, it becomes feasible to establish society's network infrastructure at a reduced cost, particularly in challenging environments such as concrete structures, underground areas, tunnels, and spaces with metal walls.

Reducing heat transfer across surfaces within built environments and transportation units is critical for optimising energy efficiency in thermal comfort systems and mitigating associated costs and carbon emissions. Implementing measures to minimise heat transfer help maintain liveable thermal conditions and promote environmental sustainability. Some of the efficient methods for reducing heat transfer from the surrounding environment include reflecting solar radiation and providing thermal insulation to minimise heat conduction through surfaces. The technology offered here is a nano-engineered aerogel paint designed to reduce heat transfer across surfaces in the built environment. Unlike traditional solar reflectance paint that merely reflects sunlight, this paint actively minimises solar heat absorption, reducing the reliance on cooling and air conditioning systems and resulting in significant energy savings. Additionally, the paint provides excellent weather resistance and reduces maintenance costs by shielding against ultraviolet (UV) and infrared (IR) emissions, moisture, algae, and fungal growth. Its superior coverage capabilities of up to 3 square meter per liter per coat further contribute to cost savings and ensure long-lasting protection for various surfaces. With a proven track record in increasing energy efficiency for containerised offices and refrigeration trucks, the technology owner is now seeking to expand into other applications through on-site testbedding and performance trials. These include warehouses and building rooftop insulation, enhancing data center energy efficiency, and numerous other potential applications.

Bioprocessing technologies used in scaling manufacturing production typically uses scale-up and scale-out approaches through microcarrier-based stirred tank bioreactors, wave bags or cell stackers and multi-layered flasks. However, during the research and development process of cell and gene therapies, there is a significant technical gap between basic research methods and these manufacturing process development, which causes problems such as increase in time and cost of the development process. Cell and Gene Therapy manufacturing is an emerging area in the biopharmaceutical industry that must overcome high barriers of resource, capacity, and cost constraints. Therefore, it is extremely important to consistently consider and design a culture process from R&D to commercialization as a closed system with a certain size of scale-up and automation.  This technology introduces a robust and economically viable culture process in a closed culture system which comprises of an automated cell culture medium change device that can be installed in commercial CO2 incubators, where the device is coupled with a patented microwell bag and V-shaped adhesion cell culture bag, capable of both spheroid culture (3D) and adhesion culture (2D). This novel technology has established a culture method that meets the requirements of clinical use by improving sterility, reproducibility, and operability, and produces a large number of uniform-sized clusters. The technology owner is seeking partnerships and collaborations with institutions, hospitals, biotechnology and biopharmaceutical firms. 

The technology comprises fluorogenic dyes based on Water Soluble Conjugated Oligoelectrolytes (COEs), a class of organic molecules designed for improved detection of extracellular vesicles (EVs) and lipid nanoparticles. EVs are naturally occurring lipid nanoparticles released by cells and crucial in cell-to-cell communication. Once thought as a way for cells to clear trash, EVs are of increasing interest in medical research. However, traditional methods for EV detection can be plagued by background noise and difficulty in specifically targeting EVs. COEs offer a solution by functioning as biocompatible and water-soluble probes that specifically bind to EVs. This enables sensitive and accurate detection of EVs using techniques like flow cytometry. The dyes are not just cosmetic improvements—they are fundamentally new intelligent materials. Their novel design permits them to span the full depth of the lipid bilayer, a feat that no other dye has achieved. In comparison to classic dyes used in life science, this dye does not give fasle positives. They are intelligent molecules that only light up when the dye finds an exosome. This novel technology has immense utility in bioimaging applications, thanks to their tunable optical properties and affinity for lipid bilayers in the academic as well as industry settings where exosome detection is involved. 

Only 20% of actual coffee is extracted from beans to produce coffee in its beverage form, leaving the remaining 80% (six million tons annually) deemed as spent coffee grounds (SCG) to be disposed or used in landfills or as non-food product components to make fertilisers, furniture, deodorisers or skin care products. A technology was created to counteract SCG wastage and valorise it for human consumption. This particular invention comprises of methodologies to create two types of ingredients using leftover SCG - oil-grind and water-grind processed SCG. A simple, reproducible method of conching is employed to convert leftover SCG into smooth pastes, where specific conching parameters help refine the SCG to an acceptable particle size, eliminating grittiness in numerous valorised products similar to SCG. The product utilises common ingredients like oil and water to conche SCG with improved taste and textural properties. The shelf stability and nutritional composition (including caffeine) of the ingredients were also validated to ensure the food possessed good sensorial properties and are scale up ready. This technology increases SCG’s potential use as a versatile ingredient in different food applications. The technology provider is seeking off-takers from food manufacturers, food services industry, companies interested to valorise side streams to turn SCG into edible compounds.

Aquaculture is one of the most important sources of protein and nutrition for the rising global population. Water quality related issues and diseases caused by viruses and bacteria are the biggest challenges that the aquaculture industry faces today. Pathogen infestation can cause serious diseases and loss of fishes, shrimps, and mollusks. This impacts the overall yield, resulting in huge economic losses. Current pathogen detection methods are slow, imprecise and do not identify unknown pathogens. These methods neither diagnose mystery ailments nor provide any visibility into the very foundation of health in any aquatic environment: the marine microbiome. Effective management of waterborne diseases and water quality requires a holistic understanding of the microbial consortia in the aquatic setting. This technology provides next-generation metagenomic insights in the microbiome and further data-driven solutions provided with the company’s proprietary AI algorithms. The technology provider is seeking partnerships with aquaculture players who are interested in applying microbiome analytics to their current applications for decreasing operating expenses and increasing yield.

Facial recognition systems or tools identifying and measuring facial features in a video image have gained traction in recent years for applications such as smart surveillance. Such systems which may either be cloud or edge-based, often require real-time computations done in order to meet operational requirements. Edge-computing while providing benefits such as lower latencies and data privacy, are challenged by computational constraints of edge devices. Addressing this challenge, a Singapore company has developed a Neuromorphic AI-based solution that enables facial recognition by combining pre-processed real-time video data with recognition capabilities. The low-power edge AI solution allows computing to be carried out at the camera location with adaptive learning capabilities. Neuromorphic computing, which mimics the neural structure of the human brain, represents a novel approach in artificial intelligence and offers significant benefits for facial recognition technologies, including lower power consumption, faster processing speeds, and improved learning capabilities. The tech owner is seeking partners such as camera system manufacturers and system integrators to co-develop or testbed the technology for video surveillance applications.

The increasing emphasis on fire safety regulations and standards, along with the growing awareness of the potential hazards posed by fires, has driven the demand for flame-retardant coatings. These coatings play important roles in fire protection by effectively slowing down the spreading of fires, thereby preventing catastrophic accidents, safeguarding assets, and saving lives. Industry segments such as electronics, automotive, aerospace, construction, and household, which extensively utilise materials prone to fire hazards, require effective fire protection solutions. As the demand for flame retardant coatings continues to rise across various sectors, the market is experiencing significant growth. According to MarketsandMarkets, the global flame retardants market is expected to be worth USD 9.5 billion by 2028, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.2%. Particularly, the Asia Pacific region is the fastest-growing market.   Traditional flame retardants, especially those containing brominate or chlorine, have been associated with their impacts on the environment and human health. Consequently, the demand for environmentally friendly coating solutions, such as nanocomposites and natural bio-based retardants, is growing at a rapid pace. However, the performance, efficiency, environmental impact, and cost-effectiveness of these alternative materials are still hot topics of ongoing research. This tech need calls for non-toxic and innovative flame-retardant coatings capable of addressing the above challenges. Such coating solutions should be available for test-bedding, licensing, and co-development with industrial partners, paving the way for safer and more sustainable fire protection methods.

In Southeast Asia, the growing focus on sustainable construction practices calls for increased demand on energy conservation and efficiency improvement solutions. As a technology and innovation hub, Singapore takes the lead by setting the “80-80-80 in 2030” targets that relates to raising the sustainability standards of existing buildings and requiring new buildings to meet the super low energy (SLE) standard. There are generally two main approaches to achieving the above targets, 1) by adopting active energy efficiency improvement solutions - solutions that are using or producing energy, e.g., chiller plant optimisation systems, energy recovery/storage systems, etc, and 2) by employing passive energy efficiency improvements, e.g., adding insulation or non-energy consuming means to reduce the thermal transmittance of the building structure. One of the notable solutions of passive energy efficiency improvements is the use of reflective cool paint on the exterior structures of the building, which has an estimated global market size of close to USD700m in 2023 and is projected to reach about USD900m by 2029, according to a recent study by 24ChemicalResearch. Reflective cool paint refers to paint/coating materials that achieves cooling effect by reflecting more sunlight and absorb less heat as compared to conventional paint/coating materials. It contains reflective pigments and additives that reflect a significant portion of the sun's rays in specific wavelengths back into the atmosphere. In tropical climate, some of the key challenges for reflective cool paint include the need to adhere to diverse building surface substrates that can vary substantially, inclement weather, damaging UV rays and water permeation. All these environmental stresses lead to cracking and delamination, contributing to performance degradation of the reflective cool paint. This Tech Need calls for reflective cool paint solutions that may address partial or most of the challenges mentioned above, and that is available for test-bedding or co-development collaborations to further adapt the reflective cool paint for tropical climate applications.

As one approaches their senior years, their bodies become less efficient at absorbing and using protein. This essential nutrient, plays a crucial role in maintaining muscle mass, bone health, and overall immune function. Seniors need approximately 1.1g/kg of protein of their body weight daily. Seniors who are suffering from chronic illnesses tend to eat smaller meal portions which means that their three meals will need to be fortified with protein to meet their daily requirement of an average of 70g of protein for a 65kg person. The company is searching for partners in the protein industry to support their product development efforts for ready to eat meals for the elderly. They have an established regular customer base and will be growing their operations regionally this year. The company is interested in potential collaboration with groups looking to commercialise relevant technologies and/or ingredient companies to co-develop products.