These are three of the books I’ve been enjoying this year and have provided inspiration for talks, research, new strategies and longer term plans for how to have impact from the research and developments we are involved with. One I backed as a kickstarter, one was a gift from a research lab and one was suggested by a leading design figure.

Watches Tell more than time:
From Audis to iMacs, Beetles to palm-tops, the design secrets behind some of the biggest business success stories of all times

“Del Coates has written a definitive playbook for product managers on how to cultivate winning design leadership strategies.” –Betty Baugh, President of the Industrial Designers Society of America

In “Watches Tell More Than Time,” award winning designer and mentor Del Coates explains the importance of product design for businesspeople and other nondesigners. From an explanation of the physiology of our responses to product design, to secrets of achieving harmony and elegance, to the impact of computer-assisted modeling on modern design, Coates covers the topic from every angle, using real-life product design case studies to illustrate his points. A lively and accessible exploration of the fascinating world of product design, written by an internationally acknowledged master, “Watches Tell More Than Time “will appeal to managers and executives, marketing professionals, and design junkies interested in the subject.

20 goto 10

A numerical adventure through the history of retro computers of the 1980s and 90s

Do you know what secret messages were hidden in Commodore BASIC? Why the highest score possible in Pac-Man is 3333360? That Steve Wozniak set the price of the Apple computer at $666.66? Or why the Amstrad CPC 472 had an 8K chip that was never connected?

From 0 to 2147483647, and from Acorn Atoms to VIC-20s, 20 GOTO 10 takes us on an adventure through the history of retro computers and games consoles – one number at a time.

By following the ‘GOTO’ instructions at the end of each entry, you’ll create a unique journey through this treasure trove of forgotten geek lore and fascinating trivia. With any luck, you’ll discover the number used to grant infinite lives in Jet Set Willy on the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, the reason a single digit might require seven bytes of memory, and how – through numbers – we can understand more than just the internal workings of our favourite retro machines.

Bauhaus
The Bauhaus continues to radiate exuberance 90 years after it was founded. The Bauhaus as a school, where handicrafts, art and technology were taught together, has outlived the subsequent fashions in architecture and design. This volume provides an insight into the historical, cultural philosophical, political and pedagogical circumstances of the early years. In the process it portrays the famous Bauhaus directors and teachers, shows the Bauhaus pedagogical methods and accompanies the readers through the individual workshops, where they can rediscover a wealth of form and ideas which retains its uniqueness today. The essays about the current discussion about the Bauhaus as fixed star of the avant-garde,” the fill of in part unpublished visual material as well as the multitude of the aspects covered constitute a comprehensive representation of one of the most significant institutions in the art and cultural history of the Modern

I was delighted to be able to arrange and join a meeting on the Presidents of IFIP and the ACM this week at SIGGRAPH Asia 2023 here in my hometown of Sydney Australia.

The International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) represents IT Societies from 56 countries/regions, covering five continents with a total membership of over half a million and the Association of Computing (ACM) is the world’s largest scientific and educational computing society with over 110,000 members.

Thanks to ACM SIGGRAPH for hosting this meeting and to Yannis Ioannidis and Anthony Wong for taking the time to meet to discuss the future of computing.

I look forward to seeing many people at ACM SIGCHI CHI 2024 next year.

The SIGGRAPH Asia Doctoral Consortium is a forum for PhD students to meet and discuss their work with each other and a panel of experienced SIGGRAPH Asia researchers in an informal and interactive setting. Ideal applicants will be within a year of completing their PhD and well into their dissertation research. Accepted students will receive a complimentary registration to the full SIGGRAPH Asia 2023 conference.

Participants were selected based on their anticipated contributions to the breadth and depth of the intellectual discussions at the meeting. Each applicant provided a short, written paper; no more than four pages including references, in the official SIGGRAPH Asia publication format, as described in the ACM SIGGRAPH Publication Guidelines.

Each student gave a short presentation of their work (15 minutes), which will be followed by a discussion with the panel and the other student participants. Each participating student presented a poster describing their work for presentation in the SIGGRAPH Asia posters program.

Doctoral Consortium Co-Chairs

Simon See, NVIDIA , Singapore and Aaron Quigley, CSIRO’s Data61, Australia and Mashhuda Glencross, University of Queensland, Australia.

Stories from industry and applied research at scale. How is applied R&D undertaken to achieve impact at scale for use by millions or billions? Discuss lessons on how R&D is put into production with stories and discussions from leading industry figures. Following a general introduction and setting we will have a general discussion on what it takes to take industry, applied research and startups along the R&D journey to achieve impact at scale. Join us to discuss how to avoid the valley of death, the tar-pits of tech transfer onto a successful journey to scaling impact.

Australian quantum students will participate in four cutting-edge research projects as part of the Next Generation Quantum Graduates Program, administered by CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency. 

These projects could help us understand the sub-atomic make up of life, as well as develop an understanding of algorithms and software on a future quantum internet.  

An international panel of experts selected the four successful projects the PhD students will work on, running out of 11 Australian universities. The $3.6 million program aims to solve real industry challenges, while helping grow Australia’s emerging quantum skills and capacity.  

InnovationAus.com noted that “Four university-private sector quantum research initiatives have been funded through the CSIRO’s $3.6 million Next Generation Quantum Graduates Program, effectively delivering on an Albanese government election commitment. Overall, the program will fund 16 PhD scholarships that will enable four research projects across 11 Australian universities. The work ranges from research into the foundations of a quantum internet to technology for observing biological processes at a sub-atomic level.”

CSIRO’s Data61 Science Director Dr Aaron Quigley said these grants would help Australian scientists remain at the forefront of quantum technology.  

“These projects represent some of Australia’s most ambitious work in quantum for the next generation” Dr Quigley said.  

“The research has the potential to revolutionise our understanding of not just computing but the world around us. Working alongside industry, these students will be able to take their ideas to impact the lives of people everywhere.  

“This pipeline of homegrown talent will help accelerate our thriving local quantum technology industry, right here in Australia. This is a key time for quantum technology globally, and projects like these further demonstrate Australia’s leadership.” 

Far from the stuff of Hollywood, quantum tech is rapidly becoming a reality, with Australian scientists taking a leading role globally. 

Quantum technologies can harness the power of sub-atomic particles to store and process information but go beyond just quantum computation to sensing, communications and developing quantum resistant cryptography.  

Quantum computers have the potential to one day solve complex problems far beyond what traditional computers could attempt.  

Deakin University’s Distributed Quantum Computing program aims to develop algorithms and software to utilise the power of multiple quantum computers networked together. This area of research could lead to advancements in an eventual quantum internet.  

ARC Centre of Excellence in Quantum Biology’s (QUBIC) research into the subatomic building blocks of life has the potential to span agriculture, energy, health, and manufacturing. QUBIC is a world-leader in quantum biotech and will observe biological processes through quantum technology. 

CSIRO Chief Scientist Professor Bronwyn Fox said these graduates would help build this exciting emerging industry.  

“Quantum is one of Australia’s most promising growth opportunities – a chance to create new markets, new applications, new opportunities and new jobs for our country. It’s an incredible opportunity, but far from guaranteed, and that’s why the Next Generation Quantum Graduates Program is so critically important,” Professor Fox said.  

“We need to be attracting, training and retaining Australia’s next generation of quantum technology specialists. We need to be creating a steady pipeline of talent and exposing them to collaborative research projects across the eco-system, including placements with partners that build career-ready skills. And we need to be developing their capabilities and connections through professional development in complementary, including business, management, entrepreneurship, ethics or human-centred design. 

“The Next Generation Quantum Graduates Program does all of that.” 

The Next Generation Quantum Graduates Program leverages existing university resources, activities, and networks to assemble cohorts of students to work directly on research projects that are informed by real-world challenges brought forward by industry partners. 

Australia has been a leader in quantum technology research and development for almost 30 years and these 16 PhD scholarships will help train the next generation of quantum graduates with new skills to expand the talent pipeline to advance Australia’s quantum industry.  

The Next Generation Quantum Graduates Program (NGQGP) is an Australian Government supported program set to fund nationally competitive scholarships to attract and train Australia’s next generation of quantum technology specialists. 

Successful projects include:  

• Quantum Biotechnology, ARC Centre of Excellence in Quantum Biotechnology
  • The ARC Centre of Excellence in Quantum Biotechnology aims to pioneer paradigm-shifting quantum technologies allowing researchers to observe biological processes and transform our understanding of life at a subatomic level. 
• Distributed Quantum Computing: Algorithms and Software, Deakin University
  • Quantum computing requires a new understanding of how computers talk to each other. This includes understanding quantum networking and developing a quantum internet. Deakin University and Cisco Quantum Lab’s program investigates algorithms and software (including architecture and systems) for distributed quantum computing working on the next generation of networking based on quantum engineering. 
• Creating the Future Leaders in Quantum Technology, Sydney Quantum Academy
  • Sydney Quantum Academy will fund the future pipeline of Australia’s quantum leaders. The program will provide the framework to develop projects to advance the quantum industry, from hardware and software to responsible innovation.  
• Developing an integrated, miniaturised experiment platform for cold atom quantum technologies, Swinburne University of Technology
  • Utilising promising cold atom technology and 3D printing, Swinburne University of Technology and Infleqtion Australia’s program aim to develop integrated, miniaturised experiment platforms to advance quantum technology. This aims to solve challenges making cold atom experimental platforms portable for real-world applications. 

Find out more about the Next Generation Quantum Graduates Program.

This $18m Tech4HSE Program Unites Leading Researchers In Emerging Technologies. The $18 million Tech4HSE program unites leading researchers in emerging technologies such as generative and immersive artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality and cybersecurity, to develop tech to aid those working in dangerous environments.

https://www.minister.industry.gov.au/ministers/husic/media-releases/ai-month-advance-safe-and-responsible-ai

https://www.csiro.au/en/news/all/news/2023/november/new-18m-partnership-building-digital-tech-for-safer-workplaces

Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, is collaborating with five universities to enhance workplace safety through cutting-edge digital technologies.

Spearheaded by CSIRO’s data and digital division, Data61, and the University of Queensland (UQ), the initiative has garnered support from Swinburne, UNSW, Curtin, and ANU as partnering institutions.

Science Director of Data61, Professor Aaron Quigley, said the technologies developed will support health, safety and environmental (HSE) objectives across a wide range of industries.   

“Whether they’re working with electrical equipment, heavy machinery or on our roads, millions of Australians put themselves in harm’s way every day to help and serve others,” Prof. Quigley said.  

“We’re bringing the best researchers in the nation together to help get everyone home safely, by creating advanced digital tools for training, identifying and monitoring hazards, and planning responses and actions.”  

Congratulations to Liming Zhu and collaborators across the nation for developing this program!

New international consortium formed to create trustworthy and reliable generative AI models for science

I’m the CSIRO contact for a new international consortium formed to create trustworthy and reliable generative AI models for science. The press release for this new consortia stated, “A global consortium of scientists from federal laboratories, research institutes, academia, and industry has formed to address the challenges of building large-scale artificial intelligence (AI) systems and advancing trustworthy and reliable AI for scientific discovery.”

The Trillion Parameter Consortium (TPC) brings together teams of researchers engaged in creating large-scale generative AI models to address key challenges in advancing AI for science. These challenges include developing scalable model architectures and training strategies, organizing, and curating scientific data for training models; optimizing AI libraries for current and future exascale computing platforms; and developing deep evaluation platforms to assess progress on scientific task learning and reliability and trust.

Toward these ends, TPC will:

• Build an open community of researchers interested in creating state-of-the-art large-scale generative AI models aimed broadly at advancing progress on scientific and engineering problems by sharing methods, approaches, tools, insights, and workflows.
• Incubate, launch, and coordinate projects voluntarily to avoid duplication of effort and to maximize the impact of the projects in the broader AI and scientific community.
• Create a global network of resources and expertise to facilitate the next generation of AI and bring together researchers interested in developing and using large-scale AI for science and engineering.

Trillion parameter models represent the frontier of large-scale AI with only the largest commercial AI systems currently approaching this scale.

Training LLMs (large language models) with these many parameters requires exascale class computing resources, such as those being deployed at several U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratories and multiple TPC founding partners in Japan, Europe, and elsewhere. Even with such resources, training a state-of-the-art one trillion parameter model will require months of dedicated time—intractable on all but the largest systems. Consequently, such efforts will involve large, multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional teams. TPC is envisioned as a vehicle to support collaboration and cooperative efforts among and within such teams.

“At our laboratory and at a growing number of partner institutions around the world, teams are beginning to develop frontier AI models for scientific use and are preparing enormous collections of previously untapped scientific data for training,” said Rick Stevens, associate laboratory director of computing, environment and life sciences at DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory. “We collaboratively created TPC to accelerate these initiatives and to rapidly create the knowledge and tools necessary for creating AI models with the ability to not only answer domain-specific questions but to synthesize knowledge across scientific disciplines.”

List of TPC founding members are listed here: https://www.anl.gov/article/new-international-consortium-formed-to-create-trustworthy-and-reliable-generative-ai-models-for

Text from this post sourced from the article linked above.

A visit from Ian Foster to Data61 to discuss the Trillion Parameter Consortium (TPC) earlier this year

I was honoured to be invited to participate in this Dagstuhl Seminar on Human – AI interaction. Following the event I’ve written to the SFI, ARC and NSF where I’ve mentioned this event along with mentioning it in the press around during our own AI for Science developments in Data61.

“Work is changing. Who works, where and when they work, which tools they use, how they collaborate with others, how they are trained, and how work interacts with wellbeing – all these aspects of work are currently undergoing rapid shifts. A key source of changes in work is the advent of computational tools which utilize artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. AI will increasingly support workers in traditional and non-traditional environments as they perform manual-visual tasks as well as tasks that predominantly require cognitive skills.”

https://www.dagstuhl.de/en/seminars/seminar-calendar/seminar-details/23452

This week I had the pleasure to attend UIST 2023 as a sponsor and co-author of the work Don Samitha Elvitigala, Yunfan Wang, Yongquan Hu, and Aaron J Quigley. 2023. RadarFoot: Fine-grain Ground Surface Context Awareness for Smart Shoes. In Proceedings of the 36th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST ’23). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 87, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1145/3586183.3606738

This was a great opportunity to meet with colleagues from our US office, our industry partners and to showcase some of the great work from across Data61 at the demo reception.