Translating excellence in engineering research and training into strategic defence advantage for Australia and its allies.
We are strongly committed to working with our Defence partners in industry and government to ensure the safety and prosperity of Australia. Defence technologies are advancing at an enormous rate, and it is critical to ensure that technologies, processes and tools remain ahead of the state-of-the-art to prevent technological surprise. Through our many partnerships, our world-class researchers are leading fundamental and applied research programs across a broad range of disciplines, including:
- Advanced sensors and photonics
- Computer engineering
- Networks, communications, cyber
- Robotics and machine learning
- Computational design and engineering
- Materials design and modelling
- Medical devices and technology
Each of these areas has a substantial track record of existing and past projects which have delivered tangible outcomes for our research partners – in most cases unique and exciting sovereign capabilities.
Leading research groups
Advanced sensors and photonics
Our advanced sensors and photonics portfolio includes: The photonic engineering group has unique capabilities in the development of nanophotonic circuits for sensing and signal processing, from wafer to device to prototype. Our Computing and Audio Research Laboratory specialises in sound event detection, recognition and localization, both in air and underwater with capabilities in compressed sensing and …
Computer engineering
The Computer Engineering Lab focuses on how to use field programmable gate array (FPGA), VLSI and parallel processor technologies to solve difficult computing problems. Our strengths include: FPGA Technology FPGA Applications Embedded Systems We develop novel architectures, applications and design techniques to solve problems in signal processing and machine learning. In collaboration with Xilinx Research …
Networks, communications, cyber
Networks, communications, and cyber are arguably some of the fastest moving research fields that are of significant importance to defence and intelligence, and the Faculty of Engineering has recognised research strengths in: Encrypted Traffic Analytics and Defence Secure physical-layer protocols 5G/6G Communications Reliable and low latency satellite networks for IoT Our researchers are internationally recognised …
Robotics and machine learning
The Australian Centre for Field Robotics (ACFR) is dedicated to the research, development and dissemination of autonomous and intelligent robots and systems for operation in outdoor environments. The ACFR is one of the largest robotics research institutes in the world and has a long history of close engagement with industry, partnering to deliver impact across …
Computational design and engineering
We have longstanding collaborations with defence in developing and translating state of the art computational engineering approaches into practise, spanning the full range from computational fluid dynamics through to computational material science and finite element analysis, all integrated with advanced optimisation methods. Specific strengths include: Defence projects in this area leverage fundamental advanced made through …
Materials design and modelling
Our materials design and modelling capabilities span the full range of length-scales from individual atoms through to the macro scale, including: Microscopy 3D Printing Technologies Relaxor ferroelectrics Composites Materials Characterisation; Degradation & Uncertainty Qualification We have Australia’s best microscopy facilities and expertise, including ex-situ and in-situ electron microscopy and atom probe tomography. Our composites research …
Medical devices and technology
Enormous advancements in health care can provide correspondingly enormous impacts in Defence applications. Our research spans: Human: performance, rehabilitation and acute monitoring Materials: biofabrication and extreme conditions Surveillance: detection and tracking While the human brain remains unparalleled in its ability to perform highly sophisticated information processing on extremely limited energy resources, our research in the …
Core research team
Advanced sensors and photonics
Computer engineering
Networks, communications, cyber
- Professor Branka Vucetic, Professor Yonghui Li, Dr Suranga Seneviratne, Dr Kanchana Thilakarathna, Dr Shuaiwen Song, Professor Joseph Davis, Professor Bernhard Scholz, Professor Albert Zomaya
Robotics and machine learning
- Professor Stefan Williams, Professor Ian Manchester, Dr Gilad Francis, Professor Fabio Ramos, Professor Sally Cripps, Professor Hugh Durrant-Whyte, Dr Viorela-Simona Ila, Associate Professor Dries Verstraete
Computational design and engineering
- Associate Professor Ben Thornber, Associate Professor Matthew Cleary, Associate Professor Dries Verstraete, Professor Liyong Tong, Emeritus Professor Grant Steven, Dr Gareth Vio, Associate professor KC Wong, Professor Chengwang Lei
Materials design and modelling
- Professor Julie Cairney, Professor Simon Ringer, Professor Brian Uy, Professor Kim Rasmussen, Professor Gianluca Ranzi, Professor Anna Paradowska, Professor Xiaozhou Liao, Dr Ali Hadigheh
Medical devices and technology
Presentations
6/5/21 Prof Xiaoke Yi “Nanophotonic sensors for Defence”
20/5/21 Dr Suranga Seneviratne “Cybersecurity in an AI-driven Digital Society”
3/6/21 A/Prof Ben Thornber “Computational Aerodynamics in Defence Applications”
17/6/21 Prof Hugh Durrant-Whyte “Transforming Defence”
1/7/21 A/Prof Dries Verstraete “Drone-on-Demand: Next Gen Drone Solutions for Defence”
15/7/21 Dr David Boland “Opportunities for Hardware Accelerators in Defence Applications”
29/7/21 Prof Ania Paradowska “Application of neutron based techniques to defence sector”
12/8/21 Dr Gilad Francis “Decision-making under Uncertainty”
26/8/21 Prof Stefan Williams “DSI-Defence Remote Underwater Surveillance Capabilities”
09/09/21 Dr. Andre Kyme, “Opportunities for Biomedical Engineering Research”
23/9/21 Dr Sam Davey STaR Shot Lead, “Remote Undersea Surveillance”
07/10/21 Prof Julie Cairney “Materials characterisation for defence”
17/11/21 Maurice Amzallag, ‘Digital Engineering’, Thales Australia