Our Professor Ron Johnston Humanitarian Innovation Awards encourage and rewards students by challenging them to engineer cutting-edge solutions that positively impact people around the world.
With growing humanitarian needs and limited funding, innovative solutions are vital to assist the most vulnerable groups in new and efficient ways.
Our annual Professor Ron Johnston Humanitarian Innovation Awards is a means of doing just that, by encouraging and rewarding university students to create cutting-edge solutions that could save lives and make a positive impact on people around the world!
Strategic Engagement and Events
Email: engineering.external@sydney.edu.au
Address: J12 - School of Computer Science Building The University of Sydney NSW 2006 Australia
Our Humanitarian Innovation Hackathon is an annual event designed for undergraduate university students to work in cross-discipline teams to create technology-driven solutions for the most pressing humanitarian challenges.
The Hackathon is a weekend-long hybrid program open to all university students in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands.
Register for the webinar on Wednesday 11 March, 12:00 pm - 1:15 pm AEDT to learn more about the 2026 Humanitarian Innovation Hackathon.
Hackathon Innovation Winner (Medal and $5,000)
Hackathon Innovation Runner Up Prize ($3,000)
Hackathon Innovation 3rd Prize ($1,000)
Special Commendation
"Team 34C – The Innovationeers"
"Team UC"
"Team 9A Nucleus"
"Team 14C The IT Crowd"
"Team 13B Pacific Green Machine"
"Solomon Says"
"Solomon Says"
"Winter is not Coming"
"Greys Humanity"
"Fortitude"
“Fran’s boys”
Our Humanitarian Innovation Pitch is an annual national prize recognising postgraduate by coursework and higher degree by research (HDR) university students for conducting research that can be applied to address pressing issues facing underserved or marginalised communities.
The Pitch is designed to raise the profile of Postgraduate and HDR student research that has made or has the potential to make contributions to addressing humanitarian or development challenges.
In particular, the Pitch seeks to encourage students to think about how governments, institutions, non-governmental organisations, and communities might apply their research.
Prizes for the 2026 Pitch are being confirmed – check back soon for more information.
Entrants must put forward a submission in which they connect their postgraduate coursework or HDR degree research to a real problem in a humanitarian or development context (post-disaster, protracted crisis, development assistance or otherwise). Basic or applied research will be considered, but there must be a connection made to practical solutions for communities.
The research must make a clear connection to one or more of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Participants should look to select a focus area which:
The judges will place emphasis on the Pitch video. The applicant may elect any form of content within the Pitch. This includes slides, animation, or other graphics. Applicants are advised to ensure that their Pitch is clear and definitive, and describes the problem and research within the nominated time limits. Videos must not exceed 5 minutes in duration.
Submissions must be concise and demonstrate the contributions of the research to both theory and practice. Evaluation critera will be the degree to which the research:
John Salvador Ricacho (University of Sydney): "Facile and Modular Nanoparticle Sensor for Community-Led Low-Cost Water Contaminants Detection"
Shehla Inam (University of Sydney): "Point-of-Care Heart Health for Refugees and Remote Communities"
Abhishek Sebastian (University of Sydney): "Resilient Agriculture Framework for Tamilnadu"
Emily Nabong (The University of Sydney): "Empowering Climate Resiliency with an Interactive Policy Tool"
Phyllis Wairimu Ngugi (Bond University): "Tackling Food Insecurity Through Traditional Preservation Methods"
Mahima Pivithuru Herath Herath Mudiyanselage (Griffith University): "Barrier-free Medical Services; Enhancing the accessibility to Primary Healthcare services in Zaatari Refugee Camp, Jordan"
Arvin Hadlos (The University of Sydney): "Analysing multi-hazard housing reconstruction strategies in the Philippines"
Sabita Adhikari (The University of Sydney): "Sanitation: Latrine front-end characteristics"
Isaac Besarra (The University of Sydney): "Flood risk for residential buildings in the Philippines"
"Bio-Engineering for River Banks"
Professor Ron Johnston, the former Executive Director of the Australian Centre for Innovation (ACIIC), has worked for more than 30 years to pioneer a better understanding of the ways that science and technology contribute to economic and social development, the characteristics of the global knowledge economy, and the processes and culture of innovation.
His special skill is based on the breadth of his knowledge across technologies and his ability to integrate them into a socioeconomic and environmental context.
These annual awards are named in honor of him, to recognise his outstanding contributions as Director of ACIIC for some 20+ years.
