Here's a conversation starter: ten top technologies Thursday, 15 September 2016

[Autonomous mining is an area where Australia is a world leader. Photo: Rio Tinto]

Australia's leading engineering faculties believe that a closer collaboration between industry, academia and government is fundamental to making a difference in the difficult problems facing Australia: an aging and growing population, climate change and the need to reduce our dependency on mined resources.

The Deans of Engineering at ten universities (Adelaide, ANU, Melbourne, Monash, Newcastle, Sydney, UNSW, UQ, UWA and Wollongong) have identified ten areas of technology development that they feel are important to the future and, in which a lot of work is being done in Australia.

Professor Iven Mareels, Dean of Engineering at the University of Melbourne, says a recent OECD report ranked Australia last out of developed countries for collaboration between industry and academia. While he doesn't agree entirely with the findings, arguing there is more collaboration that wasn't recognised in the report, he feels there needs to be better communication between industry and academia.

"First, why is there a communication breakdown?" he asks. "Why do we believe that technologies have to come from overseas and not from Australia? We are one of the few countries in the world with all these universities very highly ranked and there's a lot of innovation going on. Why isn't the translation happening? There may be a number of reasons, but I would think communication is a very important first step, so let's talk."

Mareels feels that their list of ten technologies is a good opening line in that conversation.

"Here are ten top technologies that, as universities, we believe are going to be important in the future and that we are making a contribution to," he says.

"Then maybe industry can react to that and say, 'Okay, we're not interested in any of these, but we're interested in this and that' and maybe there's a dialogue there that we can go forward with. The top ten technologies all have some conversations already happening in them. I just want to build on what is there and then make it better."

He cites automated mining and bionic devices such as Cochlear as examples of where Australia is leading the world.

"There are other places where we can do that," he suggests. "I would say solar energy is one of those. Although we have done very good work in solar energy, we actually haven't realised the opportunity to Australian companies."

The third area where the group feels there needs to be a better conversation is with government. Mareels feels that engineers in academia and industry should be sitting around the table with government discussing the problems faced and the options available.

"The next hundred years planning for the country is not going to be easy. We have climate change on our doorstep. We have some really big changes to make if we want to be sustainable in our economy with respect to energy," he says.

"How do we do that? How can we afford it? I do think that those conversations have to be had and, in the end, governments are going to responsible for the solutions that are going to be implemented."

Top ten technologies

1. Future cities

"Cities must adapt to climate change. Homes and offices won’t be just carbon neutral. They will move ‘beyond zero’, generating more energy than they use."

2. Energy

"Not only are engineers developing new technologies, they are creating ‘intelligent’ grids which seamlessly integrate and deliver electricity from different sources."

3. Advanced Materials

"Engineers are creating materials with designer properties which promise to transform manufacturing, medicine and the process of science itself."

4. Big Data

"Moving beyond ‘cloud computing’, Australian engineers are pace setters in ‘federated computing’."

5. Manufacturing

"Australian manufacturers must adapt to global competition pressure, and deliver into a global market in order to survive. Leading edge technology and innovation are key."

6. Robots

"Robotic technology has made its mark in manufacturing, and presently mobile robots and drones range from entertaining toys to combat hardened systems in the front line of conflict zones."

7. Precision farming and food security

"Engineers are working with agricultural scientists to improve strategies and technologies for dryland farming."

8. MedTech and Health

"Engineers are creating technologies to help people lead longer, healthier lives."

9. Cyber security

"Engineers design ‘intrusion’ detection systems adopted by financial organisations and ‘anomaly’ identification software to separate legitimate from malevolent clients."

10. The networked society

"Social scientists, legal experts, and engineering and IT specialist will need to collaborate to harness the true potential of a networked society in service of society."

 

Energy will be a major topic of discussion at the Australian Engineering Conference 2016 in Brisbane on November 23-25.