In “Future Shocks: Rogue Technology,” panelist Feng Zhang, MIT neuroscience professor and one of the scientists who developed CRISPR gene editing, spoke of the promise and peril of advancing gene editing technology. “As we sequence more organisms, we can find interesting properties these organisms evolved to allow them to survive in their own environment and transfer some of those [properties] into other organisms…and prevent the extinction of species,” he said.
But he also emphasized the importance of exercising extreme caution when altering organisms’ DNA and developing a “containment mechanism” to control technologies that turn out to be dangerous for humanity.
Michelle Yvonne Simmons named 2018 Australian of the Year
From an early age, Michelle Simmons liked to understand things.
She used to watch her brother and father play chess, a lot.
"One day I asked if I could play my father and he was a little bit surprised. I could see he wasn't expecting it," the 2018 Australian of the Year said.
"After about 20 minutes I thought, 'gosh I think I'm going to check-mate him'. And I did and he was totally surprised.
"It made me think 'wow he didn't really expect me to be able to do this' and that really got me thinking 'there must be other things that people don't expect of me, let me find out what they are'."
Professor Michelle Simmons has placed Australia at the forefront of quantum physics researchABC News: Tobias Hunt
One of those things was understanding the world at a level of physics and mathematics.
"So I got into it," she says.
"And I found that the more difficult the challenges I took on, the more rewarding it was and I thought wow this is a phenomenal world to be in.
"It's absolutely rewarding in a way I didn't get with easier things. From that point on I thought what can I do that's going to be useful for the world."
She went on to become one of Australia's top scientists.
The 50-year-old mother of three is a professor in quantum physics at the University of New South Wales, and has placed Australia at the forefront of research that could reshape the way we live.
But even though her world is filled with fascinating concepts, Professor Simmons concedes being Australian of the Year is a bit unusual.
"As a physicist we fly under the radar a lot. We're not in the public eye very much so for that reason it's very strange," she said.
Calling Australia home
Michelle Simmons was recognised as the 2018 Australian of the Year.ABC News: Jordan Hayne
Professor Simmons grew up in London and went to some of the best universities in the UK.
She looked at going to the US and Europe but settled on Australia because of its society, ambitious attitudes and culture.
"I looked at Australia and I thought wow, they have an egalitarian society. You come in at an early age and they encourage leadership from a young age," she said.
"You're able to get your own funding, you're able to do your own thing.
"But also just the Australian culture of giving it a go, not taking themselves too seriously, working hard, being ambitious. I just thought 'wow, that's a place where I feel that I could actually do things in a way that would suit me'.
Michelle Simmons was also awarded the NSW Australian of the year last November.ABC News
Since arriving in Australia in 1999, Professor Simmons has transformed her quantum physics department into a world leader in advanced computer systems.
In 2012, her team created the world's smallest transistor made from a single atom.
They put out an eight-stage plan and it was questioned internationally over whether all, if any of those stages were possible. But that was no deterrence to getting it across the line.
"We thought, 'we think it's possible'," she said.
And it certainly was.
"When we got to the final stage ... you can actually see the atom in a microscope. So we could see it was there but then we had to prove that it behaved as a transistor," Professor Simmons said.
"And then when we actually saw that it worked, that feeling is absolutely phenomenal and it will stay with me for the rest of my life."
The next thing on Professor Simmons' radar is to build a quantum computer — one that could solve problems in minutes, that would otherwise take thousands of years.
"It really starts to allow us to do things that we simply wouldn't be able to do in a timely fashion," she said.
Something like this would have the potential to revolutionise things like artificial intelligence, self-driving cars and drug design.
Achieving the 'unexpected' in a male dominated area
Some would say quantum physics is a man's world.
But Professor Simmons said most of the time she has not been aware of a gender divide, other than the fact people had lower expectation of what she could achieve.
Michelle Simmons speaking on ABC News
"Because they're not expecting me to do anything, I can actually get on with it. No-one's paying attention to me, I can actually get on and see if I can achieve it," she said.
Only 5 to 7 per cent of her field is female and she knows there'd be benefits to boosting that number.
"I love having females in my group so I've been trying to figure out how to get more in the group," she said.
"There's all kinds of different schemes you can come up with but I think it's almost a cultural step change in just accepting that you've got to take on the hard challenges.
"Recognise that females, just as males, can do the hard challenges equally as well. And encouraging them not to lack confidence in what they can do, just get out there and do it."
Innovation and Science Australia has handed down a total of 30 recommendations to the federal government as part of the public release of its 2030 Strategic Plan.
The 2030 Strategic Plan is a roadmap delivered to advise the Australian government on how to develop the nation’s industry policies out to 2030.
“Looking towards 2030, innovation will be integral to the expansion of Australia’s economy, keeping its workforce strong, and addressing societal challenges,” ISA chairman Bill Ferris wrote in the plan’s introduction.
“Australia will need to be competitive in a global innovation race by scaling up more high growth industries and companies; commercialising more high value products and services; fostering great talent; and daring to tackle global challenges.
“Yet just at the time when Australia needs to accelerate its innovation performance, we are falling behind our global peers, particularly in student performance in science and mathematics, and in business investment in research and development. This is more than a canary chirp in our economic mineshaft: it is a clarion call for national action.”
The 30 recommendations have been delivered with five key policy imperatives in mind. These include education, industry, government, research and development, and culture and ambition.
The ISA also proposes within each key policy imperative strategic opportunities that are available to government to ensure each recommendation can be actioned.
Below is a summary of the 30 recommendations made in the 2030 Plan:
Strengthen training for pre-service and in-service teachers by investing in quality teaching that focus on a nationally agreed minimum number of annual hours in discipline-specific training, and monitor the entry standards for initial teacher education courses to include STEM teaching.
Prepare students for post-school STEM occupations by exploring opportunities to encourage participation in STEM subjects in high school, as well as strengthen education skills such as hypothesis-driven problem solving, systematic enquiry and logical thinking.
Improve transparency and accountability across the system including raising the national minimum standards in National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN).
Review the Vocation Education and Training (VET) system and report back in 12 months on strategy to ensure it can be responsive to new priorities presented by innovation, automation and new technologies, and can be internationally competitive.
Continue to expand and reform the VET system including linking VET student loan funding to employment outcomes, and encourage industry employers and VET providers to consult on identifying areas of expected skills shortages of potential high-growth sectors.
Reverse the current decline in business expenditure on R&D by improving government support and ensuring, at a minimum, the total government support for science, research and innovation does not fall below its medium-term average of 0.63 per cent of gross domestic product, and implementing the recommendations of the 2016 Review of the R&D Tax Incentive
Enhance efforts to help young firms access export markets by increasing funding for Export Market Development Grants
Prioritise investment in artificial intelligence and machine learning in the medium- to long-term as outlined by the forthcoming Digital Economy Strategy
Establish protocols including consumer data rights to maintain healthy levels of competition in knowledge-intensive industry sectors
Strengthen efforts in talent attraction and skilled migration through continuing improving marketing to suitable talent, especially through Austrade
Create a more flexible regulatory environment that fosters innovation by encouraging collaboration between all levels of government
Encourage social innovation investment and financial returns in Australia by strengthening the existing policy environment
Improve provision and use of open government data by developing government capability and capacity to deliver accessible, accurate and detailed public data
Grow government procurement from SMEs by 33 percent by 2022, and ensure the Department of Innovation reports of the progress of this annually
Increase the use of innovative procurement strategies such as establishing programs that promote, track and report on progress towards procurement practices that drive innovation, and develop contractual frameworks to facilitate procurement from startups and young firms
Maximise spillover benefits of major government programs such as, for instance, how Defence Science and Technology Group is engaging with companies to develop prototypes
Instruct the Digital Transformation Agency to explore opportunities to achieve half of the projected 12 percent of savings from digitising service delivery by 2022 and the balance by 2026.
Review the Australian government’s Public Service on how it can play a greater role in innovation policy development, implementation and delivery
Introduce a tax offset of up to 20 per cent to incentivise collaboration
Evaluate the benefits of scaling-up industry higher degree through research placement programs
Evaluate the impact of recent changes to incentivise collaboration in 2022 where the review should cover funding changes, progress on addressing the findings and recommendations of the Review of Australia’s Researching Training System, and progress on ensuring that university career paths allow for flexibility between industry and academia
Increase commercialisation capability in research organisations by establishing a new stream of funding for translational activities
Develop and release an Australian Innovation Precincts Statement to shape Australian Government involvement in emerging localised innovation ecosystems in cities and regions
Establish secure, long-term funding for national research infrastructure
Maintain a long-term policy commitment to a achieve greater gender diversity in STEM
ISA to monitor availability of risk capital to high-growth businesses
Establish a “National Mission” to help make Australia the healthiest nation
Adopt a framework to continue to identify and implement “National Missions”
Invest in developing a more effective framework to evaluate the performance of Australia’s innovation programs, including introducing a requirement that new government funding programs aimed at supporting innovation will dedicate 2 per cent of their budget for the evaluation of outcome
Support the development of innovation metrics and methodologies to fully capture innovation and link it to economic, social and environmental benefits. In particular, request the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and the Department of Innovation to review business and research and development data collections to ensure they are fit for purpose; and commission an independent body to review existing innovation metrics
The Australia-ASEAN Special Summit of 10 neighbouring countries are to be held in Sydney in mid-March presenting huge opportunities for Australian tech and innovation, and we are looking forward to engaging with the delegations that will be here .
ASEAN’s chair revolves annually, with Singapore at the helm in 2018.
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told a press conference to mark the start of its term as chair that it would “do its best to take the group forward” focusing on the themes of resilience and innovation.
Tech and innovation themes include cybersecurity to AgTech and food security, to data science and climate change, to advanced manufacturing, data science and digital supply chains..
“We hope during Singapore’s term as chair, we will start some ASEAN projects that will strengthen our collective resilience against common threats such as terrorism, cybercrime, and climate change,” Mr Lee said.
“We also hope to promote schemes that capitalise on innovation, to help ASEAN economies to innovate and to use technology, to make us a more dynamic and connected community.”
When the leaders of the ten ASEAN member countries arrive in Sydney for a weekend meeting in early March, it will mark the first time the Australia ASEAN Special Summit has been held in this country.
The centrepiece of the summit is the leaders’ meeting and retreat, while a Business Summit, SME Summit and Counter-Terrorism Conference will be held in the week preceding..
The Business Summit attach ASEAN-Australia Special Summit is stitched up by the Business Council of Australia, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Australian Industry Group and the Export Council of Australia.
This is a good time to host “a future of work summit” .
There are 660 million people who live in the ASEAN member countries with a combined GDP of $3.4 trillion. The bloc is growing at an average 4.6 per cent.
There are 100,000 students from ASEAN countries studying in Australia at any given time. More than 890,000 Australians claim an ASEAN heritage.
We look forward to be celebrating our close ties to Singapore and our ASEAN neighbours and cheering the arrival of their leadership delegations in to Sydney in March..
New research from Deloitte has predicted that this year will see a large amount of growth in the adoption of Machine Learning (ML) in medium and large-sized enterprises. In fact, according to their2018 Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT) report, in 2018 the number of ML pilots and implementations willdouble. For the uninitiated, Machine Learning is exciting technology that teaches binary logic computers to learn the way we do – by interpreting information around us and learning from successes or failures. This may sound a bit dystopian, but the technology can be extremely useful for personalising products, advertising to customers, and more
2. Increased adoption of cryptocurrencies
Bitcoin was certainly one of 2017’s favourite buzzwords – just don’t expect the cryptocurrency craze to slow down in 2018. TheCEO of Blockchain predicts that this will be the first year that we see banks hold digital currencies as part of their reserves in case they need to react to any market shocks – so we know things are getting serious. Of course, it isn’t just Bitcoin on the rise, other digital currencies like Ethereum, Ripple and Cardano are increasing in popularity. Will you get on board with the blockchain?
3. Prepare to talk to AI chatbots
Technology will affect every aspect of our lives – and that includes customer service! Customer experience (CX) is becoming more and more important for brands to survive, and companies are starting to get on board with Artificial Intelligence to interact with customers.Gartnerpredicted that by 2020, 85% of conversations with customers will be with chatbots. Some businesses like Qantas are already using chatbots to help people complete orders or even just engage with their content. According to a LivePerson report,How consumers view bots in customer care, most customers in Australia would still prefer talking to a human, with 57% people preferring to wait on hold for 3 minutes to talk to a human over talking to a bot. However, chatbot technology is getting smarter, and is going to be a way of life very soon – so watch this space.
4. VR introduced in the workplace
While we know some people (likethe Wallabies) already use VR tech at work, 2018 could be the year that we start seeing it more and more in businesses, according to Deloitte’sTech Trends 2018report. Deloitte identifies VR as a key ‘digital reality’ opportunity for organisations, as it could solve a lot of common business problems – like connecting remote teams, improving the employee training process, and even improving focus with virtual reality desktops. It could even be used in the recruitment process. Personally, we’d love to see how VR tech could be used in the workplace, too!
5. Longer battery life
There have been several reports that new technology in the new year will have significantly better battery life. The battery life of some laptops might last a full day (for instance, LG has claimed that its2018 Gram laptop will last up to 22.5 hours). Innovation continues for smartphone batteries, with some exciting smartphone releases planned for 2018, and technology is improving to charge less frequently, and charge faster.
6. Foldable smartphones
Microsoft, Apple and Samsung have hinted at plans to release foldable smartphones in the future, with bothAppleandMicrosoftrecently filing patents.Huawei has also recently suggested that they will release a foldable smartphone in 2018. The rumours are flying, so it’s time to wait and see what happens.
7. Drones will become more of a reality
At the moment, drones are somewhat of a novelty for most people, howeverdrone expert Elaine Whyte predicts that the drones market will become a ‘mature professional service offering’ in 2018. Potential uses include collecting 3D data for building information modelling, drone delivery, and of course, photography. With this also comes regulation, so it will be interesting to see where this goes in Australia.
8. Demand for more data
As smartphones develop their capability, there’s demand for more data in mobile phone plans, for video streaming, social media and file sharing. Currently, Vodafone is adapting to this trend – find out more about ourtriple data dealsandsummer sale on Red Plans.
It’s 2018, and I, like so many, often take for granted the condition in which we find our nation. I look around and see a myriad of people going about their daily life enjoying the freedoms that America affords.
I see school children spanning the vast arrays of melatonin playing and learning side-by-side... people of all ethnic backgrounds and religious affiliations working together, interacting with one another, worshipping together, and standing united in a common purpose - a common dream. Viewing the face of America today, I can scarcely believe this country I know, and love was the polar opposite of itself only fifty years ago. It is in this vein that I pause on this auspicious day to reflect upon a man who would come to epitomize the word "peace" in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The message that Dr. King espoused during his lifetime was, and remains a message that rises above partisan politics and resonates with all of humanity. While I'm not making a political statement, I would be remiss if I did not stop to recognize the work of a man who had a vision of peace and harmony for our great nation regardless of political affiliation.
Of the many adjectives that I can think of to describe the American people, hopeful is at the top of the list; however, for far too long, an important portion of our populace, the African American community, had little to hope for from a nation that had caused so much hurt to them, yet Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. came into the forefront bearing a message of renewed hope and healing to an injured people and nation.
In an effort to spur our country to live by its noblest principles, Dr. King put his life on the line in the pursuit of justice and freedom. He was a man acquainted with beatings, jail, and death threats, a man who paid the ultimate price for the sake of democracy... democracy for us all.
As we commemorate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we recall his life dedicated to the timeless values of truth, service, humility, love, compassion, courage, and peace. He championed the cause for our country to live by its noblest principles. His message and life’s work radically changed the United States of America, and as more than 100 nations celebrate his vision of ecumenical solidarity, indeed, the world.
Today, we not only remember the legacy of Dr. King but also thank him for his selfless dedication to the ideals of freedom and equality.
"Darkness cannot drive out darkness: Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: Only love can do that." – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
