Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS (15:18): My question is to the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment. Can the minister update the council on how the relationship with MIT is continuing to grow and deliver outcomes for South Australian businesses and organisations?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment) (15:18): Relationships, as we know, are crucial to furthering international engagement, which is why the government made a decision to open five new trade offices in key markets around the world. By building relationships you build trust, which helps facilitate business to business interactions.

Recently, the Department for Trade, Tourism and Investment facilitated a small business mission to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US to further build on the relationship between our state and one of the world's leading universities: MIT, of course, who chose Adelaide as the location for one of its Living Labs, which was announced in July this year with the help of BankSA, Optus and DSpark.

Representatives from the University of Adelaide, the University of South Australia, BankSA, Adelaide city council and Adelaide-based tech company FOUR took part in the week-long trip. Over the course of the week, the attendees had the privilege of being hosted by MIT and chaperoned around their state-of-the-art facilities. The delegation met with a number of senior staff, including Professor Sandy Pentland, who is one of the most cited authors in computer science and who visited Adelaide for the launch of the Living Lab earlier this year.

MIT are very keen to work with South Australian businesses and organisations to identify ways to grow the South Australian economy through data analytics and cutting-edge technology. The lab itself is at Lot Fourteen and on track to open early next year. An immediate outcome of this trip has seen MIT agree to fund an additional three interns through its MISTI program to come to South Australia to work with local researchers and companies on future technologies like data analytics, artificial intelligence and virtual and augmented reality. An MOU was also signed between MIT and UniSA.

Other promising opportunities to be further developed between South Australia and MIT include school linkages and how we can expand on our Living Lab model. One of the attendees was small business FOUR, which was thrilled to have the opportunity to travel to MIT and believes that prospects such as MIT's Living Lab are key to making South Australia a magnet for talent and keeping young people in our state. Without the Living Lab having been established in South Australia, opportunities like this would never have happened. The relationship that we as a government built with MIT has enabled these economic opportunities to appear.

I am certain that this trip will result in even more collaborations and announcements between MIT and local players in the future, which I look forward to updating the council on as they arise. I am excited to see where the relationship with MIT can take our state as it continues to grow and have long-lasting impacts for South Australians.