As the year rolls on, QDSA activity continues to gain momentum. Our team is in great demand as research institutes and organisations seek to be connected to Defence opportunities.
Here is what October had in store for the team.
QDSA Visit to QUT
Professor Prashant Sonar at Queensland University of Technology was recently announced as a successful recipient who received a Defence Science and Technology Group (DSTG) & The Defence Science Institute Hazardous Agent Challenge (HAC) grant.
Professor Sonar and his colleagues Prof Nicolas Voelcker from Monash University & Tushar Kumeria from UNSW received the grant for their project titled ‘Porous photonic microcavities – enhanced in-field toxic chemical sensor’.
Early in October, QDSA was invited to tour the lab of Professor Sonar and the QUT facilities. It provided us with an opportunity to congratulate the team on their successful submission and provided a fascinating insight into their work.
Welcome USC and Dr Adrian McCallum
The beginning of October saw QDSA welcome Dr Adrian McCallum as the new Defence Collaboration Coordinator for the University of Sunshine Coast. Dr McCallum, met with our own Acting Director, Jeremy Anderson, on 11 October at USC Petrie Campus. We look forward to a further visit in the coming months where the university will be showcasing its overall capability to QDSA.
Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine Breakfast
On the 13th of October, the Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine at James Cook University hosted a breakfast at Parliament House. The QDSA team attended. This event provided a great opportunity to establish our relationship with JCU that will assist the institute in contributing to health innovation and biotechnology across Queensland.
Queensland’s new Chief Health Officer, Dr Krispin Hajkowicz, Sandy Bolton MP and Paul de Barro from CSIRO also attended the event.
Disruptive Weapons Effects STaR SHOT Virtual Information and Q & A Session
Disruptive Weapons Effects (DWE) is one of the eight STaR Shots (Science Technology and Research) priorities outlined in the DSTG “More Together: Defence Science and Technology Strategy 2030”.
QDSA hosted a virtual information and Q&A session where Dr Nathalie Colineau, the DWE STaR Shot leader, provided a presentation and then engaged in Q&A with the participants.
QDSA facilitated a call out for Queensland Capability Statements: Enabling Complex and Agile Operation in Contested Environments. The call-out invited professionals in AI, robotics and autonomous systems, distributed and coordinated sensing, systems guidance, navigation and control, teaming, swarming and collaborative behaviour, advanced propulsion systems, advanced material and energetics to submit their capabilities for consideration of future funding.
This submission round has now closed, and we look forward to sharing stories of successful recipients in our future announcements.
QDSA Strategic Planning Workshop
QDSA hosted 60 key stakeholders from Defence, State Government, Universities & Industry who met on 20th October to discuss and workshop the strategic plan for QDSA & how the Alliance can be shaped in response to stakeholder needs.
The purpose of the workshop was to facilitate engagement and feedback from stakeholders in order to shape the strategic goals of the QDSA and to identify the activities to occur in 2022-2023. Thank you to all of you who participated in person and online. And a very big thank you to our facilitator, Associate Professor Judith Smith (Pictured).
Defence Industry Networking Event
QDSA Manager Mark Witham and Associate Director Jeremy Anderson attended the Defence Industry Networking event, which was a fantastic opportunity to connect with stakeholders and organisations who could potentially benefit from a collaboration with QDSA. It was a great evening in a relaxed environment that fostered healthy discussion.
Engagement with Army
Acting Director Jeremy Anderson, along with Damian Bushell (Office of Defence Industry Support) and Kevin Hernan (Defence Innovation Hub) has been engaging with 6th and 7th Brigades at Gallipoli Barracks to help with innovation and better understand Army requirements. As a result, QDSA will facilitate Army engagement with Universities and Industry early next year. Stay tuned for details.
SFDesign Director’s Breakfast
Acting Director, Jeremy Anderson, attended the Director’s Breakfast hosted by SFDesign on 22nd October. William Ilicic, Business Development Manager SFDesign (Pictured), then visited QDSA to showcase Markforged impressive capability in additive manufacturing. https://sfdesign.com.au/
AIAUST Autonomous Vehicles Australia Visits QDSA
Phillip Lutkens (CEO) and Shayne McCulloch (CIO) visited QDSA to explain AIAUST’s capability in AI, Threat detection, Millimetre-wave RF Communications and advanced RF mobile device detection. AIAUST was introduced to QDSA having relocated to Queensland from Western Australia, by our colleagues at the Defence Science Centre in WA. It was great to meet Phillip and Shane and we are looking forward to helping AIAUST connect through the alliance.
Defence Jobs Queensland, Department of State Development, Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning
We were honoured to host Steve Rowson and Jane Fuhrmeister in the QDSA office to discuss the Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance Enterprise. QDSA will work closely with Defence Jobs Queensland to help communicate opportunities with Defence and mobilise the Queensland workforce across Universities and Industry. Thank you Steve and Jane we look forward to working closely with you.
QDSA Upcoming Events and Opportunities
QDSA has many upcoming events and opportunities, with more being added each week. Want to find out what is on the horizon? Check out our News section on our website here or subscribe to our e-newsletter here.
For real-time events and information, be sure to follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.
QDSA Upcoming Events and Opportunities
QDSA has many upcoming events and opportunities, with more being added each week. Want to find out what is on the horizon? Check out our News section on our website here or subscribe to our e-newsletter here.
For real-time events and information, be sure to follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.
The Queensland Defence Science Alliance (QDSA) is a university-led initiative to grow and connect an agile Defence innovation ecosystem, leveraging Queensland’s strengths, to deliver trusted solutions to meet Defence requirements.
