Swinburne Uni opens tech hub

Melbourne’s Swinburne University has opened a new $AU140 million hub for technology and entrepreneurial innovation, the Advanced Technologies Centre.

The ATC will facilitate research into manufacturing, high temperature processing, neurosciences, nano- and micro-fabrication, nanophotonics, product design engineering, robotics and mechatronics, microscopy and biotechnology.

The centre, which features transparent walls as a showcase, was partially funded by the Federal Government via Education Investment Fund (EIF).

“This great glass structure provides a window to the world the Swinburne community is trying to build…A world where 3D printing and ultra-fast broadband is going to be developed. A world of high skill, high wage manufacturing jobs,” Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research Senator Kim Carr said. The ATC also represents the first stage of the university’s $AU250 million investment in new research infrastructure.

At the opening Carr also announced a new global R&D initiative of around $AU250 million that will establish a new Industry Transformation Research Program, which aims to bring industry closer to students and research.

The two part program includes the creation of research hubs to focus on the new areas of research in engineering, material science, nanotechnologies and communications in addition to the development of a new set of training centres for 600 new industrial PhDs.

“What we're trying to do is to build lasting partnerships between our universities and our companies, particularly our manufacturing companies, so they can transform themselves for the twenty-first century,” Carr said. ®