Our milestones

Originally a research group within the Department of Engineering Science, the Auckland Bioengineering Institute was established in 2001. Set up as a cross-faculty research institute, its focus is the application of the mathematical and engineering sciences to biology. Here are some of the highlights of our history.  

• One of our future strategic goals is to establish a MedTech Innovation Quarter (Medtech-IQ) in Grafton and Newmarket, to bring together medtech leaders and provide a focus for international engagement with medical technologies in New Zealand.

• We are proud to lead a $15 million international collaborative project that aims to bring our physiome modelling into healthcare, funded by MBIE (the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment).
  
  
• We founded the Te Tītoki Mataora (TTM) MedTech Research Translator - a multi-faceted initiative focused on boosting New Zealand’s deep tech sector.

• We opened our Cloud9 startup hub to nurture our fledgling spin-out companies so they can take on the world.

• We hosted the MedTech CoRE (Medical Technology Centre of Research Excellence) a community of world-leading medtech researchers, clinicians, industry partners, and innovative collaborators.
  
  
• Institute spin-out StretchSense wins the Sports & Fitness category at the WT Innovation World Cup in Munich.

• The partners of the Consortium for Medical Device Technologies were awarded funding from TEC to establish the Medical Technology Centre of Research Excellence (MedTech CoRE).  The CoRE is hosted by the University of Auckland, with nodes across partner organisations which include the universities of Canterbury, AUT, Otago and Victoria as well as Callaghan Innovation.
  
  
• The Bioinstrumentation Lab won the 2014 New Zealand Innovators Award for 'Innovation Excellence in Research' with their needle-free jet injector.
  
  
• The Institute won the Open Science award at the 2014 New Zealand Open Source Awards for contributing core technologies to the suite of software that enables the Physiome Project to explain how each and every component in the body, from the scale of molecules up to organ systems and beyond, works as part of the integrated whole.
  
  
• Simon Malpas is awarded the Pickering Medal by the Royal Society of New Zealand for his pioneering work on wireless implantable devices to monitor the functions of the human body.

• The Institute creates the start-up company, IMeasureU. This venture aims to provide turn-key, user-friendly, measurement and analysis systems that gives unparalleled information around body movement.
  
  
• StretchSense wins Emerging New Zealand Innovator and Innovation in Design and Engineering at the New Zealand Innovators Awards.
  
  
• Institute alumni and StretchSense CEO Dr Ben O'Brien wins the Prime Minister’s MacDiarmid Emerging Scientist Prize.
  
  
• IMeasureU wins the top prize in the 10th annual Spark entrepreneur competition.

• We established the Consortium for Medical Device Technologies (CMDT) to help supercharge the medical device industry in NZ.
  
  
• The start-up company StretchSense emerges from the Biomimetics Laboratory.

• Associate Professor Poul Nielsen is awarded a James Cook Research Fellowship in Engineering Sciences and Technologies.
  
  
• Telemetry Research merges with Millar Instruments, a US-based company which develops innovative catheter-based, sensing technology used in clinical diagnosis and medical research.

• Associate Professor Martyn Nash is awarded a James Cook Research Fellowship in Engineering Sciences and Technologies.
  
  
• Three ABI research programmes win a share of Government investment in the Health Research Council of New Zealand funding round.
  
  
• Professor Peter Hunter is honoured with the Royal Society of New Zealand’s highest accolade, the Rutherford Medal.

• We officially become a University Large Scale Research Institute, known as the Auckland Bioengineering Institute. We are now self-funded, so we rely on generous donors to fund our students and our world-class research.
  
  
• The creation of the Industry Advisory Board (IAB) is confirmed by Tertiary Education Commission (TEC). The new entity provides opinion and advice to the Institute on commercialisation and knowledge transfer opportunities.

• Accelerated growth of the CellML markup language and its associated tools and processes
  
  
• The institute creates the start-up company, eBonz. This venture aims to provide 3D anatomically based models of all joints in the human body.

• Professor Peter Hunter is elected to the Royal Society.
  
  
• The institute expands its commercial activities. The Telemetry Research and Paragon Voice of Market projects experience growth.
  
  
• The Institute begins open source development of the CMGui and OpenCMISS projects.

• We purchased major experimental equipment, including the microCT facility and Magnetic Resonance Imaging hardware. Today we have a full suite of high tech gear, like our High Performance Computing system, Instron Machine, 6-Axis Mill, EDM wire cutter and motion capture facility.

• We launched our first startup company - Telemetry Research, since merged with Millar Instruments, and now part of AD Instruments. We have since launched more than 20 startups based on our research. Our startups create skilled jobs and boost the NZ economy.

• Professor Andrew Pullan is awarded a James Cook Research Fellowship in Engineering Sciences and Technologies.

• The Institute is established at UniServices House, part of the city campus of the University of Auckland.

• The Bioengineering Institute is created as a cross-faculty research centre incorporating members from the Faculty of Engineering and the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences.
  
  
• We held the inaugural Cardiac Physiome meeting at the IUPS World Congress in Christchurch. The Physiome Project studies how every component in the body works as part of the integrated whole. We’ve led the world in computer modelling standards ever since.