Digital disruption—data analytics, computing, automation and robotics—is transforming the world we live in, challenging and destroying conventional business models. But it’s also providing new opportunities for industries not yet dreamed of and opportunities for profound social and economic change. This conversation will paint an Australian picture of digital disruption, from the rise of robotics in key industry sectors such as mining and agriculture, to the increasing use of massive real-time data in these sectors, for modelling for prediction and for decision-making.
Together these are building a future of data-driven and autonomous operation for whole industries in Australia. This talk will also look at how this disruption is creating new businesses in robotics, data science and autonomous decision-making—and what this will mean for the future of the economy and society in Australia and internationally.
About the speaker
Hugh Durrant-Whyte is a professor and ARC Federation Fellow at the University of Sydney. From 2010 to 2014, he was CEO of National ICT Australia (NICTA) and, from 1995 to 2010, Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Autonomous Systems and of the Australian Centre for Field Robotics. He has published over 350 research papers and founded four successful start-up companies. He has won numerous awards and prizes for his work, including being named the 2010 NSW Scientist of the Year. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and of the Royal Society of London.
