Professor Hugh Durrant-Whyte, NICTA: Undertaking large scale, world class research to drive the Australian economy forward

NICTA Copyright 2013 From imagination to impact

NICTA:Driving Innovation in ICT for Australia

Hugh Durrant-WhyteCEO, National ICT Australia

[email protected]


What is NICTA?

• Australia’s National Centre of Excellence in Information and Communication Technology– 700 Staff, 5 labs, $100m/y revenue

• NICTA objectives– Research Excellence in ICT– Wealth Creation for Australia

• Transforming Industry– $330m/y direct impact on GDP from projects

• New Industries– Twelve spin-outs, working with ICT SMEs

• Skills and Capacity– 22 University partners, 280 PhD Students


What is NICTA?

• A not-for-profit company with universities and state governments as members, founded 2002

• Designed explicitly to address Australia’s perceived ICT capacity gap

• I am a regular company CEO with a Board, etc• Funding (of $100m/yr):

– 50% from Federal Government– 25% from State Governments– 25% external

• Additional $40m of contributed in-kind staff• We see ourselves as a “connector” and “amplifier”

of research already going on in universities• We see role as the creator of the right culture and

ecosystem for ICT in Australia

Kerneldevice software

seL4 microkernelHardware

seL4Hardware

seL4 isolates critical components from software failures

critical componentisolated and protected

untrusted, complex user interface


NICTA: Research and Outcomes

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RESEARCH EXCELLENCE WEALTH CREATION


NICTA - Research Groups

• Machine Learning• Optimisation

Research Excellence in ICT

• Software Systems• Networks

• Computer Vision• Control and Signal Processing


NICTA-University Partnerships

• Deep Engagement– 22 University partners– 160 Seconded staff from universities– 280 PhD students currently funded

• Connecting Universities to Industry– NICTA Research Groups led by senior

university professors (often joint appointments)– Projects delivered with NICTA and university

staff, engineers and students• University planning Committee (UPC)

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Promoting Research Excellence

• Publications– 600 papers/year, 65% in top-tier– 73 staff with over 1,000 citations– 18 with over 5,000 citations– International Benchmarking

• Measures of Esteem– 58 Fellowships incl. 3xFRS, 8xFAA, 10xIEEE– 38 national and international prizes in 2012 – 80 plenary and keynote talks

• Full-on international review every 18 months7


NICTA – Business Teams

Broadband and the Digital Economy

Security and Environment

Infrastructure, Transport and Logistics

Health and Life Sciences

Wealth Creation for Australia


Broad-Band and Digital Economy

• Machine Learning– Deep analytics finance/telecoms– Federated analytics, cloud migration

• Automated Logic Tools– Performance Assurance, – Business Process Compliance– Software verification

• Networks– Content dissemination, privacy– 60GHz wifi, peer-to-peer systems

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Infrastructure, Transport, Logistics

• Infrastructure– Analytics and maintenance– Design optimisation

• Transport– Intelligent vehicle systems– Public transport models

• Logistics– Supply chain optimisation– Fleet logistics

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Health and Life Sciences

• Medical devices– Pain management implants– Bionic Vision

• Personalised medicine– Nano devices; protein expression– Medical text record analytics

• Diagnostic genomics– Genome-wide association– Cancer diagnosis and prediction

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Security and Environment

• Security– Food supply chains– FarmNet Information systems

• Trusted systems– Verified RT operating systems– Safety critical systems

• Environment– Geological and aquifer systems– Spatial Analytics

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A i j a L e h t o n e n / S h u t t e r s t o c k . c o m


NICTA: Some Personal Views


That “Innovation Culture”

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An organisational culture which promotes deep research, innovation and entrepreneurship.

The best possible people working on the hardest and most interesting problems

Moral and practical support to assist the transition of ideas, technologies and businesses out of the door


Removing Organisational Impediments

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“You can do anything you like providing you become rich and famous and it is legal and ethical”

“You each have the authority, responsibility … and the accountability”

“There are no rules, and if you break any one of them, I will fire you”


Critical Organisational Issues

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Connecting business and research: Role models for successful commercial engagement

That “Vision” thing:Research Excellence in ICTWealth Creation for Australia

In an innovation organisation, the CEO must be a leader and not a manager


The Culture of Risk

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Success means embracing failure, but we are not comfortable with failure

We simply need to get more technology out of the door, to let go and accept that there is a good chance

for failure from which we can all learn

Let a thousand flowers bloom

NICTA Copyright 2013 From imagination to impact 19

Professor Hugh Durrant-Whyte, NICTA: Undertaking large scale, world class research to drive the Australian economy forward

Education

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