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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-07-01 Daily Xml
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Premier's Research and Industry Fund

The Hon. J.M. GAZZOLA (14:30): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Science and Information Economy a question about research.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.M. GAZZOLA: Recruiting leading researchers is highly beneficial to South Australia as it enhances the state's reputation. It increases our capabilities in priority areas and complements the state government's economic priority of being the knowledge state. Can the minister inform the chamber about the recent appointment as part of the government's fellowship program?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills, Minister for Science and Information Economy, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Business Services and Consumers) (14:31): I thank the honourable member for his most important question. Recently I spent the afternoon undertaking a visit to UniSA's Mawson Lakes campus where I was very pleased to be able to meet one of the researchers who has recently commenced his appointment as part of the Premier's Research and Industry Fund Research Fellowship Program, Professor Mark Billinghurst.

Attracting world-leading researchers not only builds the state's research capabilities and knowledge base but it also leads to the growth of the research centres and provide significant economic benefits to the state. The Premier's Research and Industry Fund (PRIF) Research Fellowship Program aims to expand the state's research capability and target research activities that are of direct economic benefit to industry by attracting world-leading researchers to South Australia.

Attracting Professor Mark Billinghurst to South Australia is quite a coup for South Australia. Professor Billinghurst is a multi award-winning researcher who assisted in the development of the Google Glass, a head-mounted, wearable camera developed by Google. Professor Billinghurst has had an incredibly impressive career. He is a multi award-winning researcher whose research work has been published in almost 300 technical publications, and he has an extensive career history which includes time with Google, Nokia and MIT, as well. As part of Professor Billinghurst's appointment he will be investigating wearable devices that could benefit the mining and manufacturing sectors.

During my visit to UniSA I was fortunate enough to be able to try out some of these wearable devices. They were quite remarkable and contained some pretty impressive technology. When wearing one I was even able to be transported to a Tuscan village and, whilst this application is pretty entertaining, this research is actually aimed at producing tools to assist industry, predominantly mining and advanced manufacturing, with productivity gains. It was certainly a cheap holiday, I can say that.

This type of technology could be used commercially to allow people who are working in a decentralised way to interact as though they were face-to-face. For example, a worker in a remote mining site could use the technology to work in collaboration with an expert in Adelaide in order to undertake repairs on an expensive or complex piece of equipment. Allowing repairs to take place in this manner would remove the need for an expert to travel directly to the field, saving not only time but money. These things can be streamed in real time and it also has remarkable applications for health as an online diagnostic tool. This research will also directly involve industry partners who will work in conjunction in order to develop and test this particular technology.

The state government has committed $1 million in funding over four years to support Professor Billinghurst's investigations, which will focus on technologies such as wearable computers, virtual reality and augmented reality that will connect workers in remote areas of South Australia with experts from around Australia and, for that matter, around the world.

A total of nine fellowships have been awarded via the PRIF since 2012 in critical areas such as medical devices, unconventional gas and clean technology. Seeing highly celebrated researchers such as Professor Billinghurst come to South Australia to undertake this type of work is incredibly exciting for the state and I certainly look forward to seeing the outcomes of his research and providing updates to the chamber.

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