{"id":32150,"date":"2026-09-08T13:57:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T05:57:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/?post_type=oasis-news&#038;p=32150"},"modified":"2026-09-08T13:57:23","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T05:57:23","slug":"curtin-phd-innovation-earns-national-technology-award","status":"publish","type":"oasis-news","link":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/oasis-news\/curtin-phd-innovation-earns-national-technology-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Curtin PhD innovation earns national technology award"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><em>Reading time: 1 minute<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A Curtin PhD student has been recognised on the national stage for developing an AI-powered wheelchair technology designed to help people navigate their surroundings more safely and independently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">PhD student <strong>Shanelle Tennekoon<\/strong> recently received a <strong>Merit Award<\/strong> in the Not-for-Profit and Community category at the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) iAwards, Australia&#8217;s longest-running and most prestigious technology innovation awards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The award recognises <strong>SmartWheel<\/strong>, the world&#8217;s first semi-autonomous hazard-perception system for wheelchairs, developed through Shanelle&#8217;s PhD research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Designed to retrofit to any wheelchair, SmartWheel uses edge-based artificial intelligence to detect hazards in real time with more than 95 per cent accuracy. The system operates without internet connectivity, cloud services or pre-mapped environments, making it suitable for use in hospitals, homes and remote communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By reaching the national stage of the iAwards, SmartWheel was assessed alongside some of Australia&#8217;s leading technology innovations and recognised for its real-world impact and potential to improve accessibility and independence for people with mobility impairments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Read more about the achievement in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.inciteawards.org.au\/latest-news\/team-wa-shines-bright-at-2026-national-iawards\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">AIIA iAwards announcement<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Curtin PhD student Shanelle Tennekoon has been recognised at Australia&#8217;s premier technology awards for developing an AI-powered wheelchair system that helps people navigate safely and independently. | Reading time: 1 min<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4481,"featured_media":32151,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"6293,5889,6326,8277,6734,4812","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_oasis-categories":0,"footnotes":""},"oasis-categories":[144,250],"class_list":["post-32150","oasis-news","type-oasis-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","oasis-categories-science-engineering","oasis-categories-student-profile"],"acf":{"post_options":{"":null,"banner":{"image":false}}},"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/grs-recognition-1588x840px-1000x500.png","author_meta":{"first_name":"Ben","last_name":"Adams","display_name":"Ben Adams"},"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-15 14:18:09","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"oasis-categories","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/oasis-news\/32150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/oasis-news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/oasis-news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/oasis-news\/32150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"oasis-categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/oasis-categories?post=32150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}