from imagination to impact
DESCRIPTION
From imagination to impact. High Impact Research Directions. David Skellern CEO. Presentation overview. About NICTA NICTA’s Research Directions Themes and business areas NICTA’s approach to research Some examples Strategic planning at NICTA Why strategic planning is important. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
From imagination to impact
High Impact Research DirectionsDavid SkellernCEO
Presentation overview
• About NICTA• NICTA’s Research Directions
– Themes and business areas– NICTA’s approach to research
• Some examples• Strategic planning at NICTA• Why strategic planning is important
About NICTA
NICTA• National ICT Research
Centre of Excellence• Not-for-profit Company• $83m per annum including
- Australian Gov (~60%)
- Regional Gov (~15%)
Recruit commercial and research staff from Australian
and global communities
Seven university joint venture partners
contribute researchers and students
R&D partnerships with industry, research institutes & universities
Spin-outs, licensing &collaborations with leading users & industry
Knowledge diffusion andenhanced ICT skills base
NICTA Founders & Partners
(2003) (2004) (2005)(2002)
NICTA Vision and Mission
Our Vision is that our imaginative research drives Australia’s ICT
future
Our Mission is to be an enduring world-class information
and communications technology research institute that generates national benefit
NICTA Objectives
Our People objective is to bring together world-class researchers and professional staff, enhance their skills and build a culture of entrepreneurship and achievement in use-inspired basic research, enhancing Australia’s ICT capacity and capability.
Our Research objective is to carry out research that advances knowledge, is recognised for its excellence and generates breakthrough, user-focused technologies.
Our Education objective is to work with universities to provide Australia with ICT researchers who have deep technical expertise supported by strong professional and entrepreneurial skills.
Our Linkages objective is to increase our impact and results by working with targeted research, government, education, industry and domain partners.
Our Commercialisation objective is to facilitate technology transfer and create channels to market for NICTA research.
What Will Success Look Like?
Measurable industry growth & competitiveness from NICTA research outcomes
Measurable industry growth & competitiveness from NICTA research outcomes
Stronger ICT skill base – NICTA alumniStronger ICT skill base – NICTA alumni
National benefit from NICTA research
outcomes
National benefit from NICTA research
outcomes
National benefit through a stronger ICT
Skills base
National benefit through a stronger ICT
Skills base
One of the world’s top 10 ICT research centres by 2020One of the world’s top 10 ICT research centres by 2020Research expertise
and scaleResearch expertise
and scale
Business Model
090721 NICTA Overview 10
NICTA People
705 people (June 09)– 273 full-time PhD students– 432 staff (373 FTE)
Staff (FTE) and students by sites - update– 131 / 55: Sydney - Eveleigh Aust. Tech Park Lab &
HQ– 53 / 66: Sydney - Kensington Neville Roach Lab– 69 / 62: Canberra: Canberra Research Lab– 74 / 97: Melbourne: Victoria Research Lab– 41 / 18: Brisbane: Queensland Research Lab– 5: Adelaide: Office
So how are we going after 6.5 years?
• 11 technology licence agreements• 4 spinout companies
• 107 PhD graduates from NICTA partner universities• Alumni in universities, industry and government
• 75 active patent applications • > 3300 publications • > 130 prizes and awards
NICTA’s role - How
NICTA’s unique partnership with universities:
• Produces high quality PhD graduates who have additional professional opportunities and training through NICTA
• Maintains NICTA’s intellectual vigor through contributions of world class university researchers
• Achieves national benefit by harnessing disparate university ICT researchers and building critical mass to achieve international impact.
NICTA’s role - How
NICTA has a systemic approach to achieving significant national outcomes from its research:
• Our use-inspired basic research approach ensures that research is undertaken only after competitor and market analysis confirm good prospects for impact.
• Our aim is to make step changes in knowledge that are embodied in technology platforms to allow the research to be more readily transferred into use across the economy.
• Commercial considerations are imbedded into our projects at the outset and ongoing entrepreneurial support works to transfer research outcomes into commercial results.
NICTA’s model: Use-Inspired Basic Research
• Our challenge is to develop long term projects that will both advance knowledge and enable the development of globally competitive products, processes or services.
Use-inspired basic
research
Use-inspired basic
research
Purely applied research &
development
Purely applied research &
development
Pure basic research
Pure basic research
Approach to Research
New Knowledge
New Technology
ExistingTechnology
ExistingKnowledge
ICT CapabilityICT Capability
Themes
Researchers are grouped across the company by Theme:
Embedded Systems – developing ‘smart’ productsNetworked Systems – technology that connects
‘smart’ products to form ‘smart’ networks Making Sense of Data – making sense of large
amounts of data created by ICT systemsManaging Complexity - designing ICT systems
that are fit for purpose, cost effective and don’t have nasty side effects
ThemesThemes
• What they are– Larger collections of research capability– The line management structure of our research– A good level of aggregation for joint strategic planning with
partner universities
• Why we have them– A vehicle for long range (10 years) strategic planning...– ... Which will hopefully engender larger, riskier higher payoff
projects– A home for Lab staff
• Who we encourage (insist!) they have around 30% unstructured unmanaged time for research
• Great ideas start in a single person’s head...
Business AreasBusiness Areas
Our Business Areas are the sectors in which we build market knowledge and commercialisation experience.
They are where we seek the majority of our use inspiration.
• Biomedical and Life Sciences• Intelligent Transportation Systems• Safety and Security• Mobile Systems and Services• Software Infrastructure• Environmental Management
Themes and Business Areas
NICTA’s Research Directions
a selection!
Embedded Systems Research Areas
• GOAL: Model-driven process for fitting architectures and designs to problems.
• Challenge: Combine with “Design by Composition” approach for re-use.
• Virtual System Prototyping
Embedded Systems Engineering 1
Embedded Systems Research Areas
Secure, Reliable, TrustworthyEmbedded Software 2
• GOAL: De-facto standard for vendors of embedded systems.
• Trustworthy microkernel-based operating systems
• Component-based systems constructed upon microkernel.
• System services to higher-level layers, such as a secure GUI.
• Distributed Systems & Multi-Core
Embedded Systems Research Areas
• GOAL: World-leading computer vision systems for dynamic scene understanding.
• Smart networked cameras with reconfigurable architectures
• Computer Vision processing for bionic eye• Combination of geometric and statistical
methods =>Moving Cameras + Moving Objects
Dynamic Scene Understandingon Visual Sensor Networks 3
Embedded Systems Research Areas
• GOAL: Pervasive wireless systems and sensors.• Single Chip WPAN in CMOS at 60GHz
– Integrated radio transceiver with phased antenna array
– Digital baseband, MAC processing– WirelessHD, 802.11.AD (WiGig)
• Sensor technologies & applications– Body Area Networking– Implanted devices
Wireless systems and Sensors on-a-Chip 4
Embedded Systems Research Areas
• GOAL: Systems that adapt to changing requirements.
• Reconfigurable systems with HW/SW agents. Integrate 3rd party components.
• Breakthrough scalable architecure
Reconfigurable Systems5
Solving real problems creates impact
Impact comes from applying ICT to real world problems!
• Making the digital economy more accessible to Australians.• Help maximise the efficiency of Australia’s infrastructure
and logistics through advanced systems which speed-up and simplify traffic, freight, port and airport operations and will also assist streamlined delivery of emergency services
• Maximising farm yield by developing and deploying ICT systems which minimise the use of scarce water resources
Strategic issues for NICTA – future outcomes
4. Safer food produced more efficiently for Australians and as exports.
5. Computer technologies for enhanced health and well-being, including bionic eye and improved cancer treatment.
6. Gain without the pain: effective service delivery to government and business without the implementation and cost
7. Hybrid vehicle control development in Australia driving competitive global green vehicle manufacturing
Ap
pli
cati
on
s
& C
on
ten
t S
ma
rt
Dev
ices
inventing next generation Internet infrastructure
Research for the Digital Economy
bringing everyday services to the Digital Economy
• Human body monitoring for sport and medicine
• Building confidence through mobile security - already in over
250 million mobile phones
• Content compression for mobile devices
devices delivering reliable data for the Digital Economy
Dig
ital
S
ervi
ces
Bro
adb
and
In
fras
tru
ctu
re • Increasing capacity and reliability of the existing Internet backbone
• Creating the next generation Internet with EU and US researchers
• Increasing wireless Internet capacity outdoors
• Developing wireless for home high-definition entertainment
Fast and scalable social networking
Remote office applications
Automatic update of in-car navigation systems
Efficient movement of goods
Applications bringing together content and services, securely over the broadband network
Personalised medicine
Location aware media distribution
More crop for less water
Digital conveyancing and mortgages
enabling new applications in the Digital Economy
NICTA
GENERIC DIGITAL ENABLERS eg• Context/Location • SOA• Security • Optimisation• Mobility
• Search• Cognitive • Systems• Collaboration• Cloud/Virtualisation (computing, storage …)
SECTOR SPECIFIC eg• transport, health, water, logistics, eGov, emergency, enterprise …
Lending Industry Example
LIXI Valuations Reference Implementation
Internet
LenderBPEL engine
Valuation request
Backchannel
Valuation report
Internal Workflow
• Task Mgt•Applications
Internal Workflow
• Task Mgt•Applications
ValuerBPEL engine
Intelligent Transport Systems
Active Traffic Management
Our 2020 Vision
A significant and measurable
reduction in thetotal social cost attributable to
congestion.
A significant and measurable
reduction in thetotal social cost attributable to
congestion.
If nothing is done, the total avoidable social cost of congestion in Australia will exceed $20bn per annum by 2020”
– BTRE 2007
And that’s about 1% of GDP!!! (…and that’s reflected world-wide)
A new, better informed Traffic Management
Infrastructure
+Better decision support
and incident management
Smart Sensing
• Data Fusion ++
• Invariant feature detection• Headlights• Windscreens• Edges• …
• Shadow/reflection removal
• Low camera height
Classification, flows, speeds, queue lengths, incidents with occlusion in extreme conditions (weather/light)
Control Optimisation
loop detectors,cameras, etc
Control actions(switch lights)
Actuators
Sensors
Dynamic Traffic Model
Smart Intersection Control
Optimise Control Plan
Albion Park Test Bed
• Major intersection of Pacific Hwy and Illawarra Hwy
• Currently roundabout controlled• Grid-lock in AM and PM peak hours • All day grid-lock in
vacations • Problem caused greater
traffic flows than original design scenario
• Installed signals…now…• Further opportunities for
efficiency.
Cameras at Albion Park
Albion Park Test Bed
Entire Transport System Design & Optimization
Example: For Technologically and Economically Developed Countries• Optimizing the control of vehicles, traffic & infrastructure to:
– Minimize – fuel intake, emissions, traffic impact on infrastructure costs– Maximize – static & dynamic safety, energy conversion efficiency – Guarantee – sustainability of energy use and impact on global climate
change
Strategic Planning at NICTA
Strategic planning at NICTA
• Important for ensuring outcomes for our research
• Strategic planning occurs at three levels:– NICTA Corporate Strategic Plan 2007-2011– Research Theme Strategic Plans– Project Strategic Plans
Theme Strategic Plans Theme Strategic Plans
• What– 10-20 page high-level 10 year research visions
• Why?– To develop longer range, higher risk, step-change projects– Useful for relations with universities and other strategic
linkages– Connection with international linkage strategies
• Status– Beginning to have some influence– Fair to say its a hard sell – But we are convinced it is the right thing to try
Why Strategic Planning is Important
Why strategic planning is important
Dr Michael Spence, Vice Chancellor University of Sydney
Talk of a “mission statement” in a university and many of our colleagues will roll their eyes. Others will hardly be so polite. But however difficult it may be to articulate the primary purpose of an institution so complex and diverse as ours, the process can be very helpful. It helps to know our goals, and while they may never be fully realised, and measurement is difficult, to know how well we are doing in achieving them.
Why strategic planning is important
Strategic planning gives direction and establishes co-ordinated effort. It also minimises wasted effort and redundancy.
• Arenas: where will we be active? • Vehicles: how will we get there?• Differentiators: how will we win in the market
place?• Staging: what will be our speed and sequence
of moves?• Economic logic: how will we obtain our returns?
Why strategic planning is important
NICTA’s Theme Strategic Plans:• Specify the research areas where we want to
achieve impact• Specify our goals within those areas• How we will get there
• Provides a clear direction for our researchers.
• Ensures co-ordinated research effort• Minimises wasted effort.
Why strategic planning is important
Strategic planning sets standards of success and performance
• How will you achieve your objectives?
• How will you know when you’ve got there?
• What measures or targets will you use?
• Who are your competitors, and what is your differentiator, or ‘edge’?
Why strategic planning is important
Strategic planning empowers people to make decisions and take initiatives.
• Collective purpose and shared research direction
•‘Buy-in’ from team members
•Maintaining flexible parameters to empower researchers
Strategic plans also play an important role for people outside the organisation or team.
Questions?
Research Overview
Themes Disciplines Business AreasICT used for…
• Trust and Security • Reliable Operating Systems• Tools and Platforms for ES
• Trust and Security • Reliable Operating Systems• Tools and Platforms for ES
Embedded Systems
Embedded Systems
• Communications Stack• Sensor Network Platforms• Networking Technologies
• Communications Stack• Sensor Network Platforms• Networking Technologies
Networked Systems
Networked Systems
• Formal Methods• Software Design Process• Constraints• Control• Optimisation
• Formal Methods• Software Design Process• Constraints• Control• Optimisation
ManagingComplexityManaging
Complexity
•Machine Learning•Reasoning•Knowledge Representation•Image Understanding•Data Understanding•HxI (Human-x Interaction)
•Machine Learning•Reasoning•Knowledge Representation•Image Understanding•Data Understanding•HxI (Human-x Interaction)
Making Sense of Data
Making Sense of Data
Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences
Intelligent Transportation Systems Intelligent Transportation Systems
Safety and SecuritySafety and Security
Environmental ManagementEnvironmental Management
Mobile Systems and ServicesMobile Systems and Services
Software InfrastructureSoftware Infrastructure
NICTA’s role - Why
Where is the Australian ICT sector now?
• ~9% (~$98B FY2007) of Australian economy• Sector trade deficit of $21B (FY2007)• Export performance $5.7B 0.18% sector
worldwide, including re-exports of over $1.4B
• Composed of Australian SMEs and relatively small subsidiaries of MNCs
• There is no large Australian MNC ICT company• 26500 companies• < 1% (~260) have 100 or more staff• 95% have < 20 staff