Events

The Future of Work in the Digital Age Seminar Series

What is digitalisation doing to the nature of work? Can we predict the skills we’ll need in 2051? What can ‘economic complexity’ tell us about the future of Australian manufacturing? What does a society focused on quality of life look like?

The Australian Industrial Transformation Institute is pleased to host some of Australia’s leading academics as we examine the future of work.

Future Skills: More than Programming?

Prof. Toby Walsh | Laureate Fellow & Scientia Professor of AI, School of CSE, UNSW Sydney

12 May 2022, 1:30pm RSVP

What are likely future demands on workers’ skills and what are the implications for Australia’s training system?

From a perspective of organisational readiness and scientific advances, Australia is amongst the global leaders in developing applications for, and with, Artificial Intelligence.

The AI Roadmap prepared by CSIRO/data61 for the Australian Government in 2019 identifies opportunities for the greater use of AI - and ways to realise them.

Having adequate numbers of qualified data scientists and machine learning experts is seen as one of the challenges ahead. What does this mean for Australia’s education and training system? What do we need to teach and learn?

Is it all about technical skills – or, as argued in this presentation, are there soft skills to be considered as well?

Prof. Toby Walsh will discuss the implications and impacts of future demands for workers’ skills on Australia's training system.

RSVP to 'Future Skills: More than Programming?'

Professor Toby Walsh is Laureate Fellow and Scientia Professor of Artificial Intelligence at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of New South Wales and research group leader at Data61. He is a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), and of the European Association for Artificial Intelligence.

Professor Walsh’s research focuses on Artificial Intelligence, particularly trustworthy AI. He has contributed to Australia's ethical framework for AI and has worked with Government departments, such as Education and Industry, and bodies such as the Human Rights Commission to ensure the impact of AI is beneficial. Most recently, Professor Walsh contributed to the NSW Department of Education's project on "Education for a Changing World" looking at skills to teach the future workforce.

Professor Walsh’s latest publications include "2062: The World that AI Made" and “Machines Behaving Badly-The Morality of AI", both published with La Trobe University Press.

AITI is pleased to host some of Australia’s leading academics as we examine the future of work.

In our next seminar Prof. John Quiggin Professor of Economics, University of Queensland will reach for utopia. How might the redistribution of work and leisure enable us to leisure to live a more just and dignified life?

Location

Level 2, Flinders at Tonsley
1284 South Road, Clovelly Park
SA 5042
(see map)

Postal address

Australian Industrial Transformation Institute
Flinders University Tonsley
GPO Box 2100
Adelaide SA 5001

(08) 8201 5083

aiti@flinders.edu.au

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Past Events

AUTOMATION NATION

Dr Navinda Kottege|CSIRO

In this first instalment of the Australian Industrial Transformation Institute's (AITI) Future of Work in the Digital Age Seminar Series Dr Kottege talked about the current state of robotics and automation and, drawing on insights from global trends, attempt to paint a picture of what the future of work may hold. 

In 2021 Dr Kottege led the CSIRO’s Data61 robotics team as they placed second in the ‘Robotic Olympics’ - the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Subterranean Challenge, a global robotics challenge to send field robots into unknown underground environments.

Australia is undoubtedly punching above its weight in robotic developments, but our robotics ecosystem is fragmented. Dr Kottege discussed some of the challenges of the adoption and commercialisation of cutting-edge technology in Australia in the light of current capabilities. And how the collaborative sub-systems of humans and robot interactions means we should anticipate a future of work that includes jobs we have not yet imagined.

This event was held on 17 Feb 2022.

THE PROMISE OF AUTOMATION AND DIGITALISATION

Professor Hugh Bradlow|Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering

The rise of the so-called “Internet of Things” (or “IoT”) over the last decade promises digitilisation of the physical world through measurement, analysis and control. This, combined with Artificial Intelligence, creates the promise of automating many tasks currently done by humans.

But the nature of this automation is yet to be understood. Although there is widespread fear that automation will supplant human jobs Prof. Bradlow argued there is a greater likelihood that automation will complement human work, not replace it. In other words, automation will be no different from other technological advances that humans have applied since the beginning of time – it will just be another tool to make humans more effective.

In this presentation, Hugh Argued that the advantage of automation is not productivity (even though it will inevitably lead to changes in productivity) but the reduction, and possibly ultimately elimination, of human error. He will focus on the progression of automated vehicles and smart buildings as examples.

This event was held on 3 March 2022.

CHARGING AHEAD. ELECTRIC VEHICLES AS INDUSTRIAL OPPORTUNITY FOR (SOUTH) AUSTRALIA

Dr. Mark Dean | Laurie Carmichael Distinguished Research Fellow at the Carmichael Centre, Centre for Future Work at The Australia Institute

Australia possesses many of the key elements to develop an electric vehicle manufacturing industry: critical minerals, advanced industries, skilled workers and consumer demand.

But it lacks an active industrial policy for manufacturing that could coordinate these elements and create a major industry at the core of a sustainable, renewables-focused advanced industrial economy. There are significant opportunities for (South) Australia’s urban centres and regions to benefit from a national EV-focused industrial transformation.

What opportunities are there for state and country, and how can they be captured by federal industry policy and a state government strategy? This question is explored in relation to the key role of public investment in Australia’s renewables-driven future.