NICTA celebrates opening of ATP premises

Senator the Hon. Stephen Conroy, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, and Barry Buffier, Deputy Director General of the NSW Government’s Industry and Investment NSW, officially opened NICTA’s Australian Technology Park (ATP) Laboratory and Corporate Head Office this month.

“The NSW government built this landmark research facility to stimulate innovation and excellence in ICT research for the benefit of the state,” said NICTA CEO Dr David Skellern. “At NICTA, we are playing an important role in bringing that goal to fruition, so it gives me great pleasure to welcome Senator Conroy and Mr Buffier to these wonderful premises."

Senator Conroy welcomed the launch of NICTA’s new laboratory and head office. “NICTA is a world-class innovation player and helps demonstrate the great capacity for Australia to lead the world in the digital economy,” he said. “This new facility will strengthen NICTA’s ability to foster ICT innovation and skills, driving the development and commercialisation of Australian technology.”

NSW Treasurer and Minister for State Development Eric Roozendaal said that NICTA and the science and research hub around NICTA in Sydney are building a smart future for NSW and Australia. "The NSW government's priority is supporting jobs and the growth of the $360 billion state economy," he said. "The government is aware of the vital importance of NICTA's place at the centre of a vibrant hub of research and development that is world class and produces work of global significance. We are confident of the power of this hub, employing the best scientists to create economic growth, jobs, and to attract global companies to invest in NSW.”

The following demonstrations were shown to illustrate the innovative research being undertaken by NICTA:

• High school lesson on an iPod touch using NICTA’s mContext compression software.
• Public demonstration of NICTA’s intelligent traffic management technology via live video feeds to the Albion Park Rail intersection.
• Interactive surf-watch application on a touch table.
• Speech-based automatic cognitive load measurement system to monitor the task-handling ability of call centre agents.

The new NICTA laboratory houses around 134 researchers, corporate staff and 63 PhD students in state-of-the-art, energy-efficient premises. The building was designed to support collaboration, with an open internal staircase linking three floors of offices and laboratories. NICTA was previously located in temporary space at the Locomotive Workshop at the ATP.