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The University of South Australia is hosting the inaugural Defence Research Symposium in the Adelaide Convention Centre today.
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The University of South Australia (UniSA) has launched its inaugural Defence Research Symposium at the Adelaide Convention Centre today, fostering greater collaboration between researchers and industry to support the Australian Defence Force.
The Symposium hopes to bring together key representatives from the ADF, Department of Defence and small to large defence companies from around the country.
Matt Opie, director of defence and space at UniSA, explained that it was critical for researchers in the industry to understand how Defence operates and onboards technological capabilities.
“We do world-class research in many areas of defence technology, but what really counts is how it ends up being used by our defence force,” Opie said.
“Defence capability is often a combination of university research and industry know-how and this symposium will showcase some of what we have done with industry.
“Today’s event is a great opportunity for discussions and networking to support our research and collaborations into the future.”
The symposium will further host discussion panels from leading defence experts on current defence issues, including how best to negotiate events such as the recent AUKUS partnership.
According to an event spokesperson, Wing Commander Maria Jiminez, Deputy Director Orion AP-3C/Triton Sustainment Manager for the Royal Australian Air Force at RAAF Edinburgh, is expected to be the symposium's keynote speaker.
Throughout the event, researchers will also showcase key findings including an “invisibility cloak” to evade drone detection, human support factors to improve the liveability of defence members, and even a financial model to support defence SMEs.
The research was conducted between UniSA, industry and the defence force.
The symposium was launched following a turbulent few months for defence events following the COVID-19 outbreak in June.
In September, Defence confirmed that it had cancelled October’s D+I 2021 Conference and Awards scheduled to take place in October, citing the COVID restrictions that impacted interstate travel and venue limitations.
Defence outlined that the event is also unable to be hosted virtually, but expects that the 2022 conference will be able to take place.
Meanwhile, AMDA Foundation has confirmed that it cancelled AVALON 2021, initially scheduled for the back-end of 2021.
This follows repeated postponements of the event amid uncertainty over venue and travel conditions.
“Delivering such a highly complex, hallmark event in these challenging circumstances would involve risks of uncertainty for attendees, participants, industry and the Australian public,” AMDA noted in a statement.
[Related: Defence cancels D+I 2021 Conference]
[Related: AMDA cancels AVALON 2021]
