ITRI President Edwin Liu stated that the “R&D 100 Awards” is an important index for all of the technology R&D organizations in the United States and works hand-in-hand with well-known institutions such as the MIT Lincoln Laboratory, NASA, and the Argonne National Laboratory. ITRI was the recipient of two awards this time: iKNOBEADS bionic knobby magnetic beads manufacturing technology in the field of biomedicine and the RAIBA reconfigurable and regulatable battery array system, which makes use of software integration technology. Both prize recipients provide solutions for problems experienced in industry and by humans.

This year there were five prize-winning achievements, with ITRI producing the world’s first “RAIBA reconfigurable and regulatable battery array system.” This large voltage dynamic instant switching system controls the discharge load of battery modules through artificial intelligence and can be utilized in chip control and software management as well as for integrating new and old battery modules in energy storage systems.

Furthermore, they can be combined in a manner which is similar to energy building blocks in order to address the battery survival problems which will arise due to increasing numbers of electrical cars in the future while also creating resources for sustainable reuse and renewable energy opportunities. ITRI’s technology is currently being used in cooperation with companies such as Chroma ATE Inc. and Fortune Electric Co. Ltd. to transform gasoline stations into electrical charging stations.

Precision Medicine is the key to disease prediction as well as diagnosis and treatment, and human T cells are a kind of lymphocyte that fights cancer. “iKNOBEADS bionic knobby magnetic beads manufacturing technology,” which was created for the first time by ITRI, can effectively activate immune T-cells to stimulate the body’s own cells to reactivate and become more powerful in combating cancer. Moreover, using National Taiwan University Hospital’s synchronous test verification technology, ITRI are expected to launch a clinical GMP grade product for cancer treatment by 2020 which will bring about new business opportunities for precision medicine.

(TR/ Phil Sweeney)