The NSSN Sensing the West Forum has heard there is great opportunity for innovative smart sensing solutions to reduce risk and enable evidence-based decision making in Western Sydney.

More than 100 leading experts across industry, government and research attended the Parramatta forum last month, which explored smart sensing opportunities as part of new Western Sydney developments.

Western Sydney University’s Urban Transformations Research Centre, CSIRO and Celestino Developments supported the NSW Smart Sensing Network (NSSN) to deliver the forum.

In his opening video address, the NSW Minister for Innovation, Science and Technology, the Hon. Anoulack Chanthivong, said smart sensors were at the leading edge of innovation with the power to improve the way we work, communicate, live and work.

"With a population expected to grow by 1 million people by 2041, Western Sydney's fertile ground for new smart sensing partnerships and opportunities,” he said.

“The Western Sydney Aerotropolis and the Bradfield City Centre are greenfield sites designed to be cyber smart and digitally led. And having access to the right data is vital for future evidence-based planning and policy.”

Introducing the Leaders Panel at the Forum, Director of Questacon and Chair of the NSSN Board, Jo White, said innovation was important and necessary to deal with complexity and competing needs of stakeholders in growth areas such as Western Sydney.

“Innovation pioneered in Western Sydney can be applicable to other parts of New South Wales and elsewhere,” she said.

“So, bringing together the magic of government, industry and researchers sectors working together is what we aspire to in the network. It's our triple helix model of innovation.”

The Smart Place planner

Acting Executive Director, Smart Places at Transport for NSW, Rory Brown, described the department’s Smart Western City Program, which sets out a vision for what Western Sydney could be as a smart place.

“What would the infrastructure need to be, what type of investments, what type of services, how that could all come together,” he said. “One of the biggest things that the smart Western city program actually was calling out and in terms of how it got born, was that collaboration is key.”

Mr Brown urged the forum to make sure the opportunity provided by smart technology and data has impact and has impact for stakeholders.

“We're talking about a million people in Western Sydney,” he said.

“We're talking about a huge area and a great opportunity. So trialling great, fun new technology, sure, but scale and investment to create great value is where we need to make sure that we are thinking and challenging ourselves.”

The Airport’s Chief Technology Officer

Chief Technology Officer at Western Sydney International Airport, Tom McCormack, said the airport which is “66.3 percent done” will open for domestic, international and cargo freight services in 2026.

He described setting up enabling platforms as “absolute rolled gold” but doing this in greenfield sites “is really, really hard”.

“I've had many people tell me that every single sensory device is cyber proof. And that's a fallacy,” he said.

He urged the workshop to “make decisions”.

“We are at the point in terms of our build program that not making a decision is worse than making a decision,” he said.

“My role as a CTO (Chief Technology Officer) is not about having the shiniest disco ball on day one of airport operations: It's actually having an environment, enabling platform, sensory devices and a team that can actually use cases after day one, and continue to evolve the environment over and over again,” he said.

The airport would have some sensory devices working on day one of operation.

“We will have 48 robots handling your baggage in our terminal, they will be whizzing around under your feet as you're enjoying a coffee, or a drink, or a meal before you board the plane,” he said.

“We will have a number of sensory devices working across a site, which is twice the size of Kingsford Smith Airport.”

(From left to right): Director of Questacon and Chair of the NSSN Board, Jo White; Chief Technology Officer at Western Sydney International Airport, Tom McCormack; Acting Executive Director, Smart Places at Transport for NSW, Rory Brown; General Manager – Business Development at Celestino, Duncan Challen; Principal Research Scientist at CSIRO, Dr Tim Muster.

The Developer

General Manager – Business Development at Celestino, Duncan Challen, said the developer had zoning for 3400 homes and about 440,000 square meters of commercial space, retail and education near the Aerotropolis.

“We think we could probably have about 15,000 homes because we could build those homes on 18% of our property. So, we've got a big increase in population.”

He described the Aerotropolis as the engine room of the Australian economy but said the reality for developers in the Aerotropolis is that it is “very expensive to develop”.

“The NSW Government has mandated these planning policies and planning controls which are very ambitious, and rightly so, because we will know that we are dealing with the crisis in terms of sustainability, heat, vegetation destruction, and so on,” Mr Challen said.

“The challenge for us then, is how do we make it economically viable to develop the homes that we need, and the jobs that we need to create through commercial and through retail development?” he said.

“And that's where we see that sensing and sensors can help us address that key element around cost.

“Because if the costs are too high for private developers to develop in Western Sydney, projects will be mothballed.”

More than 100 leading experts across industry, government and research attended the Parramatta forum.

The Scientist

Principal Research Scientist at CSIRO, Dr Tim Muster, said Australian cities are liveable in terms of global standards but face many interrelated sustainability and resilience challenges.

“We've got national challenges around Net Zero, and other emerging targets, such as the Circular Economy,” Dr Muster said.

“In the local context, we've also got Western Sydney changing, we've got the planning department putting down development control plans for the Aerotropolis that are setting performance benchmarks that are not what we're used to doing.”

He said new solutions are required for the Aerotropolis.

“We’re looking at things like: how do we do soil differently? How do we meet tree canopy targets? How do we develop walkable streets? How do we get increased renewables? How do we electrify cool rooves?” he said.

“The opportunity is to try (new solutions) early and to measure their performance. If we're not measuring, then we're not kind of learning and we miss the opportunity.”

(From left to right) Senior Manager- Strategic Partnerships & Growth at Western Sydney University, Tim Horan; Co-Director at NSSN, Professor Ben Eggleton; Smart Cities Theme Leader at the NSSN, Peter Runcie.

Smart Cities Theme Leader at the NSSN, Peter Runcie, said many tangible project ideas were discussed in workshops, in the areas of planning, development, service delivery, and people and the environment.

“It was pleasing to see such an engaged group from government, industry and the research sector all working together to find solutions to the pressing issues facing us in Western Sydney,” Mr Runcie said.

“Using smart sensing to reduce risk and enable evidence-based decision making were common themes. 

“We saw these at the core of many ideas identified in workshops on planning, building and construction, service delivery and people and the environment.”

A final report on the event will be released soon. A range of collaborative projects are expected to result from the forum.

Sensing the West Forum hears new ideas for Western Sydney