LUMEN Winter 2019 - Flipbook - Page 18
I
t was a love of the Japanese language that
led alumnus Alan Noble to Japan in the 80s,
a move that sparked a lifelong interest in
machine learning, artificial intelligence and
technology start-ups.
“As I spoke Japanese, I fell into working for a
translation company that was paying people to
do translations from Japanese to English, that’s
how people did it back then,” Alan said.
“The owner of that business got wind of the
fact I was an engineer, and figured that being an
engineer I could probably design something to
automate this work.
“Of course at the time, I had no idea how to
automate translation, but it kind of planted the
seed that maybe we could use machines one day
in the future to do what is today called
machine translation.”
Fast-forward thirty years and the University
of Adelaide engineering graduate and Adjunct
Professor has amassed an impressive career in
harnessing technology to solve problems.
Highlights include: seven technology start-up
companies including two not-for-profits, in
Australia and overseas, 11 years at Google as
engineering director, time as an advisor to the
Chief Scientist of Australia and five years on the
board of the South Australian Museum.
Alan is now channelling his expertise into
solving problems of a different kind. AusOcean,
his latest start-up, borne out of his passion for
and interest in the state of our oceans, is a notfor-profit company solving technical problems
relating to marine habitat monitoring
and restoration.
“Our mission is to use technology to help our
oceans. Our oceans are in trouble. We are really
putting them and the sea creatures under
enormous strain right now,” he said.
“So it’s a big objective. I like the fact that it’s
big, it’s hairy and it’s audacious. It’s good to
have some big missions.”
According to Alan, a major reason why many
ocean problems have not been solved already
lies in the cost and stop-start nature of
research using traditional methods of
collecting information.
Historically, to conduct ocean monitoring you
needed boats, divers and all sorts of equipment
to retrieve ocean information for later analysis.
“It’s quite expensive to do that, but it’s not just
the expense, the process is fragmented – you
have a little bit of knowledge at one point in
time and then gaps,” Alan said.
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THE UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE
“It dawned on me early on, what if we could
build a little low-cost platform that would
enable us to undertake continuous monitoring
and provide a holistic, non-fragmented view of
what’s happening on and in the water,” he said.
This drove the development AusOcean’s
sea-surface platform, a low-cost floating device
known as the rig, which is fitted with solar panels
and batteries to power sensors for monitoring
ocean activity, including temperature sensors,
audio sensors and low-cost cameras.
“The camera is actually a super sensor, and you
can do a lot of things in software once you have
video images,” Alan said.
“In the case of a coral reef, for example,
you could analyse polyp [tiny, soft-bodied
organisms that begin coral reefs] movements
and start to determine, through ocean
temperature, when they are getting stressed.
“But the other thing a camera does – which is
nothing to do with science but everything to do
with engagement – is provide a window for the
world to see what is going on.”
“Our mission is to use technology to
help our oceans. Our oceans are in
trouble. We are really putting them
and the sea creatures under
enormous strain right now.”
Currently, the majority of AusOcean projects
involve the use of sea-surface platform and
sensors to monitor interesting marine hotspots
in South Australia.
Projects include extensive marine life
surveys and monitoring of dolphin and
porpoise activity at Kangaroo Island's Smith
Bay, in partnership with Kangaroo Island/
Victor Harbour Dolphin Watch; and the
monitoring of seagrass health and water quality
in the Barker inlet, north of Port Adelaide, in
partnership with the Estuary Care Foundation.
AusOcean is also working on projects with the
University of Adelaide. In partnership with
the University and The Nature Conservancy
(TNC) Australia, the company is designing
and building an underwater sensor network to
monitor Windara Reef, a shellfish reef
restoration project on Yorke Peninsula,
South Australia.
A big believer in involving students and interns
in start-ups, Alan sees them as an invaluable
resource on AusOcean projects.
