Swinburne University / ADACS and EY Australia – Space Tech Hub

Swinburne University / ADACS and EY Australia – Space Tech Hub

Swinburne University of Technology and EY Australia have teamed up to create a new Space Tech Hub, which will seek to address some key environmental and economic issues while delivering technology solutions to industry partners via cutting-edge space research.

The collaboration has been boosted by a $3 million investment from EY Australia, who understand the unique opportunity offered by teaming up with Swinburne – a university with an established background in the space sector. Swinburne will not only provide the Space Tech Hub access to their innovative technology, but also to their world-class academics, software engineers and researchers, who will help to solve big problems on the ground using space-derived data.

Professor Alan Duffy, Director of Swinburne’s Space Technology and Industry Institute, noted how the Space Tech hub would be applying knowledge gained from astronomy research to the complex terrestrial problems faced here on Earth.

The involvement of Astronomy Data and Computing Services (ADACS) was critical to the successful realisation of the partnership. An unincorporated joint venture between Astronomy Australia Limited, Swinburne University and Curtin University, ADACS delivers software support, training and high performance computing resources to Australian-based astronomers. The ADACS@Swinburne team is comprised of dedicated professional software engineers augmented by computationally skilled scientists and certified product development professionals, all of whom will be working toward making the Space Tech Hub a reality.

Professor Duffy believes that the collaboration, with access to ground-breaking technology (like the Swinburne OzSTAR supercomputer) and dedicated experts across both EY Australia and Swinburne, will help the Australian space industry take advantage of the global economic, environmental, and social opportunities available from this growing sector – projected to be worth $1 trillion globally by 2040.

As it begins operations, three main points of focus will occupy the Space Tech Hub:

Improving community resilience and environmental health: Helping communities and businesses effectively respond to the impact of natural disasters (fire, flood, climate) and climate change-related pressures.

Improving productivity: Boosting the safety and performance for industry partners through the adoption of space technology for managing critical infrastructure and assets under challenging conditions.

Creating an ecosystem to solve problems of national interest: Positioning Australia to lead globally in space technology to resolve issues of climate impact, land management, logistics and defence.

For more information about space technology and how the partners are involved in this growing sector, please visit Swinburne and EY Australia online.