Some of the operational challenges and smart sensing needs of Australia’s Defence Force and the NSW Rural Fire Service were discussed at the Sensing Technologies for Australian Resilience (STAR) CRC workshop hosted by the NSW Smart Sensing Network (NSSN) last week.

University of Sydney physicist and STAR CRC bid leader Professor Sergio Leon-Saval (left) and NSSN Co-Director Professor Ben Eggleton (right) at the workshop.

More than 100 representatives of industry and universities attended the workshop.

The University of Sydney is leading the bid with the support of the NSSN for a STAR CRC which will foster greater collaboration between Australia’s defence and emergency response sectors to deliver dual-use technologies for safeguarding Australia from both external threats and natural disasters.

Professor Sergio Leon-Saval, a physicist at the University of Sydney who is Director of the Sydney Astrophotonics Instrumental Laboratory and Director of the Institute of Photonics and Optical Science, is leading the bid on behalf of the STAR CRC.

He said the CRC would help industry develop and use the latest smart sensing technologies which would increase our Australia’s national resilience.

“(Natural hazard) events are becoming more and more regular, so we need to start thinking of a new way to achieve situational awareness,” he said. “How we get that situational awareness is underpinned by smart sensing technologies and infrastructures.”

He said the focus of Australia’s defence and emergency response sectors are similar in that they both need to detect and respond to threats in a timely manner.

“There is a lot of crossovers and they both use similar technologies. They both will benefit from the development of dual-use purpose and composite technologies.”

NSSN Co-Director Ben Eggleton said the purpose of the workshop was to have “great conversations”.

“This represents an exciting and timely vision that responds to some of the great challenges of Defence and the natural hazards sphere, with a clear focus on industry and dual-purpose opportunities,” Professor Eggleton said.

Other speakers at the workshop were: Major General Ret’d, Fergus McLachlan AO (top left); Deputy Commissioner Field Operations at NSW Rural Fire Service, Peter McKechnie (top right); Director – Privacy Risk Advisory at Ashurst, Leon Franklin and Crisis Management Executive at Ashurst, Sanjay Vinoharan (bottom left); Associate Director, Defence Strategy & Engagement at the University of Sydney, Adeline Williams (bottom right).

The workshop also heard from Major General Ret’d, Fergus McLachlan AO, who had a 37-year career with the Australian Army and who led the Land Forces Command of 35,000 women and men.

He told the workshop the challenges faced in 2016 were no longer “black swan events” and described the current global defence challenges as being China, Russia, Iran and the Middle East.

“We are now focused on the ‘porcupine force’ which is tailored much more to the security force of Australia in the Asia-Pacific region and based on the theoretical ability to detect our forces at very long ranges and deter them taking coercive or aggressive behaviour towards Australia through a series of capabilities,” Maj Gen Ret’d McLachlan said.

These capabilities include the nuclear submarine capability and the investment in long range missiles.

“For all of us in this room, the ability to sense and target and make use of those systems is incredibly important,” Maj Gen Ret’d McLachlan said.

He said decision superiority – placing Australia’s military “in exactly the right place at the right time to achieve a decisive event” — would help the small defence force win.

“Our resources can’t spread across everything, so again a group like this is important in identifying where are the most important place to have a technological advantage and where to invest in those.”

He said the Defence force needed “sensors that can detect what our potential adversaries are doing…across multiple domains, from space, air, sea, land, under sea and in the cyber domain.”

The Deputy Commissioner Field Operations at NSW Rural Fire Service, Peter McKechnie, said there was an “absolute link” between the two paths of both the civilian and military forces.

“The more we can do to support decision makers and take them further down the path of their decision before they have to gather everything manually the better off we are, both in terms of speed of decisions, the more informed the decision and ultimately to that decision superiority perspective.”

He said there were opportunities for smart sensing technologies in the planning, preparation, response and recovery space cycle of natural hazards management.

“During incidents, if I had to pick one thing in a smart sensing space that would make the world of difference, it is knowing about the incidents earlier. It is about, in a fire sense where are the ignitions and when are they occurring...to see the flood occurring sometime before it actually occurs, after the forecast but before the water is in the stream.”

Sensing technologies need to be accurate, timely, dynamic and flexible and “able to be used across a whole landscape”. Data needs to be presented in a way that the general public can use it.

More than 100 people attended the workshop, with more participating online.

Director – Privacy Risk Advisory at Ashurst, Leon Franklin, discussed some broader considerations for dual-use opportunities related to data.

He said the problem for data in Australia was that “we are in a quickly evolving regulatory landscape” which meant the risk of designing “something that will no longer be legally compliant and that will be a regulatory risk”.

“You need to be able to explain your AI, or your algorithm, or collection of data to put into a sensor network to determine when a bushfire starts or a flood may begin, to a 16-year-old,” he said.

Minimising the data that is collected is key, he said, and there needs to be “a clear vision of what you are doing with data and what is the purpose of the data”.

“AI (artificial intelligence) isn’t an off the shelf product, it’s almost an end state and a product,” Mr Franklin said.

He urged the workshop to get their data, privacy and structure right “and have a very good understanding of the laws and regulations that you operate within”.

Associate Director, Defence Strategy & Engagement at the University of Sydney, Adeline Williams, said the workshop was an important step in helping to shape the bid for the STAR CRC.

“Academia is not going to find and create the bid and the topics: you are going to give us the problematics and we are going to help find the right solution,” she said.

“When it’s awarded and established, you are going to help shape the project and focus areas and be part of the evolution of the centre.”

The bid for the Sensing Technologies for Australian Resilience (STAR) CRC will be developed over the next 12 months. Industry partners interested in joining the bid are encouraged to express their interest.

For more information go to https://starcrc.com.au.

STAR CRC workshop hears challenges and opportunities for Australia’s resilience