$3.7m boost for academic-industry collaboration

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The University of Sydney has been awarded six new grants, totalling $3.7 million, to work with industry partners on research ranging from Holocaust education to solar farms.

Professor Stefan Williams with an autonomous underwater vehicle
Robotics expert Professor Stefan Williams has been awarded almost $420,000 to improve the functionality of underwater robots, used in offshore industries, such as oil and gas, as well as in scientific exploration and defence.

Each of these projects will bring together the expertise of academics, industry partners, and community organisations to tackle important issues and advance knowledge in their respective fields.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Emma Johnston offered her congratulations to the recipients, saying, “We are thrilled to see the diverse range of projects that have been awarded funding through the ARC Linkage program.”

“The University of Sydney is dedicated to advancing knowledge and making a positive impact on society, and these projects show the innovative thinking and hard work our academics and industry partners are applying to help our world change for the better. I look forward to following their progress.”

Professor Stefan Williams, from the Faculty of Engineering and the Australian Centre for Field Robotics, was among the funding recipients. His team will partner with Reach Robotics and Geo Oceans, as well as academic partners, on a project worth $419,886 to improve the functionality of underwater robots.

In particular, Professor Williams and his team hope to improve robotic intervention and inspection tasks, which are essential in offshore industries, such as oil and gas, as well as in scientific exploration and defence.

“Our approach will improve perception and situational awareness through the fusion of multiple navigation and camera sensors,” Professor Williams said.

“We will use this improved scene understanding to effectively plan the motion of vehicles and manipulators through larger and more complex workspaces, enabling semi-supervised and autonomous task execution. Our project will demonstrate these capabilities in real-world marine deployments relevant to industry and marine science.”

Other successful projects and their lead academics are as follows: