NanoTRIZ
Innovation Institute
Brisbane, Australia
CORE MISSION:
• A distributed meta-institute advancing guided research, innovation, and scientific communication
• Connecting rigorous inquiry, translational thinking, and real-world relevance
• Enabling students and emerging researchers to develop into future innovation leaders
An independent deep-tech research and innovation initiative based in Australia
Private initiative; not a university, RTO, CRICOS provider, or accredited education provider
Call for Abstracts: International Conference
WELCOME TO THE NANOTRIZ INNOVATION INSTITUTE
As a pioneer in nanotechnology, I came to a clear realization: creating yet another structure that merely goes deeper into the nanoworld is no longer enough. NanoTRIZ is a Meta-Institute for the Future. We move beyond traditional, fragmented research models to focus on the architecture of discovery itself: how problems are framed, how ideas are generated, how claims are validated, how research is communicated, and how scientific concepts can move toward real-world application. By combining structured methodologies NanoTRIZ revives the full-cycle science-to-invention and product paradigms. Our mission is to help scientists, students, and institutions transform complex challenges into validated concepts, research pathways, and future-ready innovations. I invite you to explore the NanoTRIZ ecosystem and identify the pathway most relevant to your goals. We welcome students, collaborators, mentors, builders, and institutional partners across four pathways:
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For senior scientists: affiliate PIs, research leads, and expert mentors may support thematic research tracks, project groups, review sessions, and selected student or early-researcher cohorts
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For students and early researchers: participants may join selective research-enrichment and portfolio-development tracks designed to strengthen research literacy, responsible AI skills, academic writing, scientific communication, and documented project outputs.
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For technical builders: selected builders, engineers, and AI developers may collaborate on scientific software, research automation, validation workflows, simulation tools, and AI-assisted research systems under project-specific agreements
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For industry partners: NanoTRIZ can support innovation sprints, problem-framing workshops, technical roadmaps, research translation, and early-stage concept development for complex scientific or technological challenges
Professor Alexander Solovev
Founding Director, NanoTRIZ Innovation Institute (Australia | Global Operations)
Previous affiliations: Harvard University • Columbia University in the City of New York • Max Planck Institute • IFW Dresden • TU Munich • Fudan University • University of Toronto
Phase I: 3-Month Research Sprint
Phase II: 12-Month Research Residency (Online)
The NanoTRIZ Research, AI and Academic Portfolio Program is a selective, output-oriented non-accredited enrichment program designed to help motivated participants move from academic learning to guided research development. Participants receive structured support in research topic selection, literature review, responsible AI use, academic writing, scientific communication, and portfolio development. The program combines AI-enabled research workflows with TRIZ-based problem-solving to help participants produce documented academic outputs such as a research proposal, short report, presentation, and portfolio artifact. Program fees support the digital research workflow, AI-assisted tools, templates, review processes, hosting, and portfolio-development infrastructure.
Optional non-accredited enrichment only. NanoTRIZ does not provide AQF qualifications, CRICOS enrolment, visa outcomes, migration services, scholarship awards, employment, university admission, or guaranteed publication outcomes. Internal NanoTRIZ program titles are used for program structuring only and do not constitute university appointments or accredited academic awards.
Guinness World Records–Recognised The Smallest Man-Made Jet Engine / Catalytic Nanojet
The original experimental work behind the Guinness World Records–recognised Smallest Man-Made Jet Engine (nanomotor) was carried out in the Dresden rolled-up nanotechnology environment led by IIN, IFW Dresden director Professor Oliver G. Schmidt. At that time, Alexander A. Solovev was a PhD researcher under Prof. Schmidt’s supervision, with Dr. Yongfeng Mei playing a key scientific and group-leading role in the rolled-up nanotechnology research activities.
The foundational paper was: A. A. Solovev, Y. F. Mei, E. Bermúdez Ureña, G. Huang, and O. G. Schmidt, “Catalytic Microtubular Jet Engines Self-Propelled by Accumulated Gas Bubbles,” Small, 5(14), 1688–1692, 2009. DOI: 10.1002/smll.200900021.
Prof. Alexander A. Solovev was the first author of this original Small 2009 paper, which formed the scientific basis for the Guinness-recognised catalytic nanojet / nanomotor, approximately 600 nanometres in diameter.
The result received early German media attention, including BILD coverage on 17 February 2010 under the headline “Researcher Built the Smallest Rocket in the World.”
Samuel Sánchez joined the Dresden / Max Planck research environment after the original Solovev et al. Small 2009 experimental work had already been established. Later publications and public materials further popularised the “smallest man-made jet engine” narrative.
At NanoTRIZ Innovation Institute, this landmark work is presented as an example of how PhD-level experimental creativity, expert supervision, nanofabrication, catalytic propulsion, and scientific problem-solving can lead to internationally visible breakthroughs.
New Method Invented: Strain-Engineered Nanomembranes & Integrative Nanotechnology
Strain-engineered nanomembranes are a key concept in integrative nanotechnology: ultrathin films are transformed into functional strain-engineered 3D micro- and nanostructures through controlled strain, curvature, geometry and material integration.
Within the Dresden rolled-up nanotechnology environment led by Professor Oliver G. Schmidt at IFW Dresden, Alexander A. Solovev contributed to the early development of strain-engineered nanomembranes on polymers using angular deposition.
This approach helped overcome limitations of earlier rolled-up nanomembrane methods that relied on epitaxial films and harsh chemical etching. The foundational work was: Y. F. Mei, G. S. Huang, A. A. Solovev, E. Bermúdez Ureña, I. Mönch, F. Ding, T. Reindl, R. K. Y. Fu, P. K. Chu, and O. G. Schmidt, “Versatile Approach for Integrative and Functionalized Tubes by Strain Engineering of Nanomembranes on Polymers,” Advanced Materials, 20, 4085–4090, 2008.
This polymer-based strain-engineering concept provided an important fabrication platform for later rolled-up micro/nanotubes, catalytic microengines, biosensing interfaces and integrative micro/nanosystems, including Solovev’s first-author Small 2009 work on catalytic microtubular jet engines.
Meet Our Administration & Affiliate Principal Investigators
Dr. Ilya Vinnikov
Dr. Brij Briz Mohan
Mrs. Inessa Gor
Dr. Alessandro Bernardi
Dr. Alexander Solovev
Research Projects Available for Students
Harvard Research Experience & Informal Scientific Advisor
NanoTRIZ is informed by Professor Alexander Solovev’s international research experience, including his time as a Visiting Scholar in the laboratory of Professor David Weitz at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Professor Weitz, a world-leading scientist in soft matter, microfluidics, and translational science, has also provided informal scientific advice to Professor Solovev in a personal academic capacity. This advisory relationship helps shape NanoTRIZ’s broader translational perspective: research should not stop at publications alone, but should be structured, communicated, validated, and, where appropriate, developed toward practical applications. NanoTRIZ applies this philosophy through responsible AI-assisted research workflows, SciViD-style scientific communication, innovation sprints, student research enrichment, and early-stage technology roadmapping. Professor Weitz’s informal advice is provided in a personal academic capacity. No institutional endorsement, partnership, sponsorship, or formal affiliation with Harvard University is implied.
Global Seminars: Building a Competitive Edge
TRIZ + AI + Meta-Skills for Researchers
The NanoTRIZ approach combines three complementary capabilities. TRIZ-informed problem framing helps researchers identify contradictions, constraints, and alternative solution pathways. Responsible AI-assisted workflows support literature analysis, cross-disciplinary synthesis, drafting, visualization, and structured comparison of ideas. Meta-skills — including critical thinking, research judgment, communication, and ethical reasoning — help the human researcher evaluate, refine, and defend the final output. Together, these elements support a more systematic research-development workflow: not only testing existing models, but also identifying better questions, generating clearer hypotheses, comparing possible solution directions, and communicating results with greater discipline.
Towards a Theory of Systematic Discoveries
Altshuller’s ideas on the methodology of discoveries should not be presented as superior to modern scientific methodology, but as complementary to it. Modern science provides rigorous tools for testing, measurement, reproducibility, statistical analysis, modelling, peer review, and experimental validation. Altshuller’s discovery-oriented logic is especially valuable at the earlier stage of research: how to search for anomalies, identify unexplored “white spots,” expose contradictions, question accepted explanations, study exceptions, and generate promising discovery directions before formal validation begins. Today, AI, machine learning, scientific databases, simulations, computational modelling, visualization, and experimental platforms can make this front end of discovery more systematic. AI can help map knowledge gaps and compare hypotheses; simulations and models can test plausibility; experiments provide decisive validation. In this sense, NanoTRIZ aims to connect Altshuller’s discovery-oriented logic with modern research methodology: from anomaly to question, from question to contradiction, from contradiction to hypothesis, from hypothesis to model, and from model to experimental proof.
Collaboration with Industry
NanoTRIZ supports industry and institutional partners through flexible research and innovation engagement models. Depending on the challenge, this may include a focused Rapid Innovation Sprint for early feasibility assessment or a deeper Sponsored Research Track for structured problem framing, technical analysis, solution mapping, and prototype-oriented planning. Our approach combines TRIZ-informed problem solving, responsible AI-assisted research workflows, scientific review, and translational thinking to help partners clarify technical bottlenecks, compare solution pathways, reduce avoidable trial-and-error, and develop evidence-based R&D roadmaps. Project scope, confidentiality, intellectual property, deliverables, timelines, and commercial terms are defined in a separate written agreement before work begins. Where relevant, Australian companies may seek independent professional advice on whether eligible R&D activities and expenditure may qualify for the Australian R&D Tax Incentive, subject to applicable registration, eligibility, record-keeping, and claim requirements.
