TAIPEI, Taiwan — The R&D 100 Awards has announced its 2019 winners. The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) won two awards with its RAIBA – Reconfigurable and Regulatable Battery Array System and the bionic knobby magnetic beads manufacturing technology iKNOBEADS.
Both technologies are the first in the world and are expected to present actual solutions for the society and industries while bringing in new business opportunities for green energy and precision medicine. This year marks the 12th consecutive year that ITRI has won the R&D 100 Awards. Other 2019 R&D 100 Awards winners include the MIT Lincoln Laboratory, NASA, and Argonne National Laboratory.
ITRI President Edwin Liu expressed that ITRI is proud that it has won the R&D 100 Awards for 12 consecutive years. Since 2008, the Institute has won 41 awards with 40 technologies, over 90% of which have been transferred to companies, helping them transform and upgrade. He stressed that ITRI’s RAIBA is developed to enable circular economy and green energy applications while iKNOBEADS offers a breakthrough solution to activate and expand T cells for immunotherapy. These two award-winning technologies have revealed ITRI’s efforts in solving the major challenges facing human beings and industries.
RAIBA is a world-leading technology using AI to control electric discharge load of battery modules and integrate the storage system of new and old modules. This allows different battery modules to complement each other in the most efficient way, reduce energy waste, and extend system cycle life. For example, a set of heterogeneous 25-battery module, with a capacity ranging from 20 to 30 Ah, can supply energy for an average small family for one day. RAIBA can reduce system-level decay by 64% and extend system cycle life by 223%.
Furthermore, it can increase battery system stability and reduce around the cost by 45%. Currently the technology is adopted by Chroma ATE, Fortune Electric, and businesses that transform gas stations into recharging stations. The objective is to facilitate the sustainable development of energy storage infrastructure and electric vehicles, and create new business opportunities for renewable energy.
To tackle the global threat of cancer, ITRI developed the world’s only bionic knobby magnetic beads manufacturing technology iKNOBEADS. The unique knobby magnetic beads can strengthen and reactivate T-cells to fight cancer cells, as proven in tests done at National Taiwan University Hospital. GMP-grade iKNOBEADS are expected to launch in 2020 and will play a crucial role in cancer treatments.
