Prof. Kamran Eshraghian,
Executive Director,
Innovation Labs Pty Ltd.

Prof. Kamran Eshraghian
Dr-Ing e.h., PhD., MEngSc., BTech., FIEAust., CPEng

Dr Eshraghian is the founder and President of Eshraghian Laboratories Pty Ltd (ELabs), a virtual platform for cutting-edge research into nano-based and micro-based technologies. Dr Eshraghian is best known in the international arena as the “father” of CMOS VLSI Design. He has held faculty positions in Electronic Engineering and Computer Science in Australia, United States and Europe.

Dr Eshraghian, a distinguished world expert in the field of Very Large Scale Integrated (VLSI) systems and circuits, has held over 40 patents and co-authored 5 textbooks. His achievements include pioneering research work in VLSI technology encapsulated in the standard text Principles of CMOS VLSI Design: A Systems Perspective, used in over 800 universities throughout the world. More ...

Dr. Doug McGhie,
Director,
Innovation Labs Pty Ltd.

Dr Doug McGhie
BSc Agric (Hons), MBA, PhD, MIMC

Dr Doug McGhie has 15 years experience consulting to business and universities for research and commercialisation programs. Previously he was Kimberley Regional Manager for the Department of Agriculture and served as the Australian Institute of Management’s Principal Consultant for 2 years. He had 20 years of Government experience with the Department of Agriculture.

With over 35 years experience in government and the private sector he has a track record of satisfying government requirements for grant funding and has won over $40 million dollars of government investment into Western Australia. He is well placed to lead large scale community consultation and market assessment programs, and to facilitate excellent government relations. i-labs benefits from his accredited skills in Business Planning, Enterprise Improvement Program, and Human Resources Planning. More ...

John Tolhurst,
Director,
Innovation Labs Pty Ltd.

John Tolhurst
MBA, BSc, BA, CMC, MIMC

John Tolhurst is a Certified Management Consultant (CMC) of the Institute of Management Consultants, who has practiced continuously since 1992. He has considerable experience in business planning, business systems or market research, business systems analysis and creation of strategic business models. Mr Tolhurst has worked consistently and extensively in the technology and business development field since 1999. More ...

Laird Varzaly,
Associate,
Innovation Labs Pty Ltd.

Laird Varzaly
MBA, MEngSc, BEngSc

Mr Varzaly has 25 years experience in the areas of high technology research and development, manufacturing, international technology transfer, software development, marketing and telecommunications.

He has been consulting to both government and industry primarily in the areas of electronic commerce, strategic planning, industry development and change management. More recently he has been involved in business development in the telecommunications industry, specifically relating to Interactive Voice Recognition (IVR) systems for both carriers and service providers.

Paul Burn,
Consultant,
Innovation Labs Pty Ltd.

Paul Burn

For over twenty years Paul has worked with global technology companies introducing products into the European markets.

Among his many successes include the introduction of a full custom VLSI design software suite for Integrated Silicon Design Pty Ltd (ISD) to Universities and medium sized companies throughout Europe. Supporting activities and follow-on promotions for the software products were seminars and tutorials. Another high profile technology was Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Systems where Paul was responsible for creating commercial relationships with Pepperl & Fuchs in Germany and Hughes Microelectronics in the UK, who awarded a small Australian start-up a multimillion dollar contract, at a time when they were laying off thousands of Engineers worldwide. Besides numerous sales of RFID equipment to companies in the UK, Switzerland, Italy, Israel and South Africa, he was responsible for establishing a commercial link with British Airways leading to a development and installation contract for a baggage handling system at their New World Cargo Centre, Heathrow. There were also broad sales of RFID technology and products to various companies in the UK, Switzerland, Italy, Israel, and South Africa.

Paul is conveniently based near Heathrow Airport, England and frequently travels throughout Europe. He is an expert in delivering a dedicated personal approach essential in forming close working relationships establishing technology partners.

Prof. Derek Abbott,
Consultant,
Innovation Labs Pty Ltd.

Prof. Derek Abbott
PhD, BSc(Hon), FIEEE

Professor Derek Abbott worked for 9 years at the GEC Hirst Research Centre, London, on infrared and visible image sensors. He has worked with both novel and standard technologies including nMOS, CMOS, CCD, SOS, GaAs and vacuum microelectronics.

He has been with the University of Adelaide since 1987 and is an Associate Professor within the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.

He has been consulting to both government and industry primarily in the areas of electronic commerce, strategic planning, industry development and change management. More recently he has been involved in business development in the telecommunications industry, specifically relating to Interactive Voice Recognition (IVR) systems for both carriers and service providers.

Dr. Shahraam Afshar,
Consultant,
Innovation Labs Pty Ltd.

Dr. Shahraam Afshar
PhD, BSc(Hon), FIEEE

Shahraam Afshar, University of Adelaide Centre of Expertise in Photonics Shahraam Afshar received his PhD in physics, laser and nonlinear optics, from the University of Adelaide. From 1998 to 2001, he held a lecturer position at The University of Adelaide. In 2001, he joined the fiber optics group at The University of Ottawa as a post doc, where he worked on fiber-optic, distributed strain and temperature sensors based on Brillouin scattering. In 2003, he received the NCIT fellowship from National Capital Institute of Telecommunication, Canada to work on Brillouin scattering in photonic crystal fibers. In 2005, he joined Prof. Tanya Monro to establish The Centre of Expertise in Photonics (CoEP) at the University of Adelaide. Since then, he has had significant roles in establishing the research directions of CoEP, setting up the CoEP labs, supervising honours and PhD students and initiating and developing different projects. His current research within the Centre of Expertise in Photonics focuses on nonlinear optical phenomena in microstructured fibers, bandgap fibers, chem/biosensing using optical fibers, and TeraHertz waveguides

In 2009 Shahraam Afshar discovered that light within optical fibers can be squeezed into much tighter spaces than was previously believed possible. Now tools can now be developed for a range of new instruments to measure water purity, corrosion, health conditions and other technologies.