CSIRO ICT Centre ready to innovate
CSIRO ICT Centre ready to innovate
Oct 27, 2004: The Australian Government's chief scientist, Dr Robin Batterham used the platform of yesterday's official public launch of CSIRO's ICT Centre in Sydney to issue a rallying call to the Australian ICT industry to embrace change in order to help the country fulfil its potential of becoming a real powerhouse in the global ICT market.
Dr Batterham, who was recently at the centre of a conflict of interest row over his other role of chief scientist at energy giant Rio Tinto, told the assembled crowd of scientists and technology experts at the National Maritime Museum in Darling Harbour: "We have a responsibility to encourage the development of the original thinkers among us. Too often I have seen examples of people hiring others who are in their own image, a type of cloning. This only serves to stifle innovation, as people tend to follow a well worn path instead of exploring new ideas."
Batterham said the launch of the CSIRO ICT Centre represents a huge opportunity for the Australian ICT sector as it seeks to raise Australia's profile in the fiercely competitive global market.
In the Centre's developing partnership arrangements with National ICT Australia (NICTA) and the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO), Dr Batterham said the potential is there to combine areas of Australian research excellence to develop new products and markets not only within Australia, but also to offset Australia's huge ICT trade deficit.
Dr Batterham pointed to CSIRO's significant successes in ICT research from its role in building one of the world's first digital computers, CSIRAC, to present day successes in areas as diverse as search engine technology, wireless networking technologies, robotic vehicles, and privacy of health data.
Dr Batterham used the occasion to congratulate CSIRO on the extension of funding for the highly successful, CSIRO-led, Centre for Networking Technologies for the Information Economy (CeNTIE).
The Centre is funded by the Australian Government through the Advanced Networks Program of the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts.
"This renewal of funding ($10.1m over 3 years, with a total project value of $23m) means that CeNTIE can continue its important work in researching and building the advanced networks of the future - and the applications and services they enable," said Dr Batterham.
"With this new funding CeNTIE will continue that work but will also form a First Mile Forum to address Australia's performance in broadband uptake, and create a regional pilot to bring the benefits of CeNTIE to non-metropolitan areas," he added.
CSIRO chief executive Dr Geoff Garrett said that the formation of the ICT Centre represents a major step forward in how the organisation approaches its work in the sector.
"CSIRO is re-inventing its capability in ICT - emphasising collaboration not just with industry and business, but with the other key players in ICT research - NICTA, DSTO and the ICT CRCs, as well as - and particularly - leveraging the potential to ICT-enable science innovation across the whole spectrum of CSIRO's activities."
Dr Alex Zelinsky, the inaugural Director of the CSIRO ICT Centre, who is currently leading the development of the Centre's research agenda, industry alignments and partnership strategies, commented: "This is a great occasion, marking both our first scientific conference and the public launch of our Centre. There are enormous opportunities to deliver benefit to Australia through ICT and my goal is to ensure that we form the right partnerships to ensure that benefit is realised."
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