story by Kelly BrownAustralia’sbest defenceDecisions by the Australian Government over the past 12 months havecreated a wealth of new opportunities in research and education in the areaof defence. As a long-time partner of the defence sector, the University ofAdelaide is well-positioned to increase its involvement.Professor Michael Webb wasappointed Director of Defence andSecurity at the University in 2016to help drive new collaborations withindustry and government. Michael hasworked in the sector for almost 30 years,20 of those at the Defence Science andTechnology Group (DST Group) – theAustralian Government’s lead science andtechnology defence agency. He has beenwith the University for almost 10 years.Lumen caught up with Michael todiscuss our past, present and futureinvolvement in defence.Where are the opportunitiescoming from?The opportunities have arisen from acouple of places. In its 2016 DefenceIndustry Policy Statement, the AustralianGovernment identified an approach todefence innovation that includes theNext Generation Technology Fund of$730 million and the Defence InnovationHub of $640 million. That’s almost$1.4 billion over 10 years, a significantinvestment. The University has alreadybeen successful in winning project workfrom this funding and there is potentialfor more to come.There are also the major maritime projects– the Future Submarine and FutureFrigates programs and, critically, thecontinuous shipbuilding program in SouthAustralia. These are all areas where theUniversity has a role to play.12 Lumen | Autumn 2017What skills and expertise do we offer?Most people wouldn't know this, but theUniversity of Adelaide does more workwith defence than most universities in thecountry. I’ll mention a few examples ofresearch to illustrate different aspects andexcellence of our work. In our Institutefor Photonics and Advanced Sensingwe have developed the world’s mostprecise clock, a cryogenically cooledsapphire clock which loses no more thana second every 40 million years or so.This precision measurement of time is vitalin many systems – navigation and radarto name two.In our School of Medicine, a group isresearching the neural physiology ofthe dragonfly. The dragonfly is widelyconsidered to be nature’s most effectivepredator, able to capture tiny flying prey inmid-air at speeds of up to 60 km/h withan incredible hit-rate of over 95 per cent.Recently this research has been usedto build an autonomous robot that caneffectively and efficiently pursue targets inunstructured environments.For almost a decade, Researchers atthe University of Adelaide’s Centre forDefence Communications and InformationNetworking (CDCIN) have been workingwith the Department of Defence and theAustralian Defence Force (ADF) to ensureits communications remain at the cuttingedge. CDCIN assists in both optimising theperformance of existing ADF systems, andexploring, assessing and developing newconcepts and approaches so that systems,equipment and people can interact rapidly,effectively and securely at all times.Research conducted at the Universityin collaboration with DST Group hasled to the development of a softwareperformance modelling environment, calledMEDEA. This technology allows missioncritical software systems in submarines,aircraft and armoured vehicles to beperformance tested early in their design tohighlight problems that would traditionallybe found only towards the end of projects.What is our history in defenceand partnering with governmentand industry?It goes back to early days. In 1948 ourfirst full-time Vice-Chancellor was SirAlbert Percival Rowe, the Chief ScientificOfficer for the British rocket programin Australia and scientific adviser to theAustralian Department of Defence. If youlook at any of DST Group’s history, youwill find University of Adelaide scientiststhroughout; we’ve had a close workingrelationship with the group for decades.We have members of DST Group andthe defence industry on the boards ofsome of our Institutes. Members of ourfaculty, including myself and ProfessorPascale Quester, Deputy Vice-Chancellorand Vice President (Academic), sit onindustry boards including Defence SAand Defence Teaming Centre.We are also a participant in the rapidprototype development and evaluation(RPDE) program, which is run by theDepartment of Defence and involves acouple of hundred companies that solveshort-term defence problems, oftenwith a technology focus.
It seems that your browser's pop-up blocker has prevented us from opening a new window/tab. Please click the button below to open the link manually.
