Alex Sorina Moss’s family thought it was a joke when they discovered she had won the 2016 NASA Global Award in a field in which she had no formal training.

Entirely self-taught, the British-born Alex drew on her design theory background as a graduate of the famous Courtauld Institute at the University of London, to create a haute-couture headdress with a difference.

The high-tech earpiece is an advanced micro-computer she invented which predicts both fatigue and heat stress – a potential lifesaver for astronauts and miners in high-heat and high-pressure environments.

The team have designed and developed a real-time predictive biometric device which is powered by machine learning and inspired by the computer-assisted biomimesis movement in haute couture (as seen in the works of Iris Van Herpen and Daniel Widrig).

It’s one thing to have a brilliant idea, and a lot more work to bring it to fruition. The Canaria earpiece, for which Alex produced proof of concept for the NASA competition in just 48 hours, was the start of things to come.

One year later she took out the 2017 Richard Branson Worldwide Top 10 Technology Startups Extreme Tech Challenge, which was followed by a string of international achievements.

In 2018, Alex won the Sue Wickenden Entrepreneurial Start Up Award at Women in Technology Awards, after relocating to Australia in 2017.

Alex says that winning a WiT Award had helped build her profile in Australia which, in turn, helped establish the credibility and grow the business.

“I’m incredibly grateful for it and a huge continuing supporter. WiT makes a real difference and its value can’t be quantified.”

 

Fast forward to 2023 and Alex now heads a multi-million dollar business in Canaria Technologies, with co-founder and research head Dr Rob Finean and former WiT Board member Theodora Le Souquent as Managing Director. The 25 strong team is now on version 5.2 of the earpiece. It’s an achievement that speaks volumes considering only two per cent of the technology industry is led by women.

She also continues to be a passionate advocate for women in technology; regularly mentoring and running events to promote female leadership in STEAM (Science Technology Engineering Arts Mathematics).

“I believe we are all stronger together, not apart. Female founders for technology have so many more barriers to overcome than our male counterparts,” Alex said.

“And that’s where communities like WiT comes in. It’s just so good to be able to network, and the group has great emotional resonance.”

Read our feature article published in 2018 after Alex won the Sue Wickenden Entrepreneurial Start Up Award at the 2018 WiT Awards.