Events

Sponsorship

Now is the time to sign up for ESA sponsorship!  Learn more here!

WELCOME

Welcome to ESA's third newsletter!  In these difficult times, ESA is working hard to deliver value to existing and potential members.  This newsletter will give you an idea of how we are progressing.

Embedded Systems Australia is a horizontally aligned, project-based national industry cluster. Our members are interested in developing embedded systems technologies and marketing smart products to global supply chains. The activities span the complete product life cycle of embedded systems development and deployment. These include Design: electronics, software, computer aided design and methodologies; Manufacturing & systems integration to create competitive smart products for vertical applications; and Marketing, sales and support of embedded systems product development.

FEATURES

2009 A New Beginning

2009 marks the beginning of ESA’s new management structure under a new funding model. Our Steering Committee has formally stepped down to make way for a new committee operating under the new model. This was part of a planned move as a step toward ultimately making ESA self sustainable. Most of you will have received emails inviting you to become sponsors. Gold sponsors can automatically be part of the new Steering Committee. 

Your feedback has indicated that events should be opportunities to meet customers.  In these tough times, we are offering our Gold and Silver sponsors opportunities to showcase their technologies to customers at key ESA events. 

Join now!  Please consider whether you believe ESA is an investment in the future of your company and your industry.  Contact ESA nicta.com.au to learn more.

National Computer Science School (NCSS)

Last summer holidays, 13 high school students had a competition to program a robot that would successfully navigate a maze in the shortest possible time. A tricky task since many had only had their first task of C programming in the same week! Some robots barely got started, others streaked ahead promisingly, only to take a wrong turn. This competition was the climax of an exciting new course undertaken by ESA and NICTA in collaboration with NCSS. See www.ncss.edu.au for program information.

Congratulations and thanks to ESA educators John Judge (NICTA) and Stuart Cummings (inContact) for running such an exciting and effective program. If you want to be involved in this year’s program please contact John.Judge nicta.com.au.

Schools Program

ESA is liaising with careers advisors to devise out-reach programs for secondary schools.  Nick Fondas (iTech) nfondas itechcorp.com.au is leading this team to build awareness amongst our youth of the fun and excitement that an embedded systems related career can bring.

ESA has the pleasure to announce that robotics guru Prof Rodney Brooks of MIT will be presenting to several hundred schools students in August.  Click here to see the kind of robots he works on.

Rodney Brooks in action:

ARTEMIS Orchestra

		Remember how ESA supported the Roboclarinet that won the Artemis Orchestra Competition in Europe?  If you don't, then have a look at this video.

Two ESA members contributed to this success — a ResMed pump provide the ‘lung’ pressure and LX Innovations did circuit board layouts and assembly.

The competition is on again.  This year it is a robot Concertina from the University of Adelaide. The Concertina is short-listed for a state iAward. Contact John.Judge nicta.com.au if you wish to learn more.

ARTEMIS Projects

However, our connections with the EU are not just about competitions.  ESA members have been able to join forces to work with NICTA for submissions for Artemis projects.

Excerpt from Prof. Neil Bergmann trip report from Artemis Project Brokerage Workshop, Jan 2009. 

The ARTEMIS JTI (Joint Technology Initiative) is a research funding program for European projects in the area of Embedded Systems. Funding comes from both the EU and from the science and technology research administrations in individual member countries. Projects need to include industry partners and research partners from at least 3 member countries. Projects are funded approximately ½ by industry in-kind contributions, 1/3 by home-country research administrations (paid to researchers in that country), 1/6 from EU funds.

 There are annual project calls — this meeting was promoting the 2009 call for proposals. ARTEMISIA is an Industry Association which promotes the ARTEMIS JTI. The ARTEMIS JU (Joint Undertaking) is a joint venture between the EU and ARTEMISIA which administers grants.

The 2008 Round

In summary, 27 proposals were received, 17 were judged as fundable, there was sufficient funding for 12 to be funded, with a total budget of approximately 90 million euros. Some projects were not funded because proposals were top-heavy with French and German applicants, so those countries’ funding pools were most quickly exhausted.

The largest 3 projects were allocated 65% of the budget, the other 35% was distributed amongst the other 9 projects. So there are 3 very large projects at around 20-30 million euros cash (+ matching in-kind). Typically projects were 3 years. A number of projects had non-ARTEMIS member country partners, such as USA or Japan. This is OK, but these partners can’t get any ARTEMIS funding.

The 2009 Round

This round will run similarly to 2008, with a few enhancements.

The submission process is a two stage process

1. A compulsory expression of interest / summary proposal is due in April.
   Feedback is provided, but no culling of applicants.
2. Final applications are due in August.
   Decisions in November/December with projects atrting as early as January 2010.

The funding pool will be slightly larger in 2009, somewhere in the 100-150 million euros. There are 8 different sub-programmes ranging from Safety-Critical Systems to Human-Computer Interface.

See www.artemis-ju.eu for information on Artemis.

 NICTA is leading ESA engagement in the following Artemis project proposals:

1. Reconfigurable Image Processing Chains (RICH) — contact Dr. Lars Petersson of NICTA (Lars.Petersson nicta.com.au) for more information on this project. Currently three Australian SMEs are involved in this prioject.
2. Smart homes for the Smart Grid — Contact John Judge of NICTA (John.Judge nicta.com.au)  for more information on this project.

Contact Chris.Nicol nicta.com.au to learn more about the Artemis JTI in the 7th Framework

New Website

If you're reading this on the internet, chances are that you've discovered ESA's new website at www.embeddedsystemsaustralia.com.au.  The new site enables ESA members to log on and contribute content, e.g. project discussions and comments.  We plan to extend this capability to have our Industry and Research Capability Directory able to be updated on line.

Project Roundup

ESA has four project concepts in various stages of team formation.

Wireless Vehicle Communications via DSRC (aka DSRC — Dedicated Short Range Communications)

Enabling wireless vehicle communications via DSRC is already in the production plan of several manufacturers of highend vehicles. Vehicle to vehicle and vehicle to infrastructure communications unlocks many applications for safety (collision avoidance), congestion minimisation and business (tolling and payments). It will undoubtedly revolutionise the road user’s experience. The potential for positive impact in Transport and Logistics has already attracted the strong support of the NSW Dept or State and Regional Development via a matching funds grant of $100,000. ESA is working closely with the AusDSRC consortium.

Contact Neil.Temperley nicta.com.au to learn more.

Assisted Living

How can technology improve the lifestyle and safety of the elderly or disabled living at home? Is it possible to make technology so easy to use that it elderly people will embrace it? Mark Steiner (HETECH/Techome) mark techome.com.au  is leading the team exploring these possibilities.

Assisted Vision

Couple a miniature camera in a headset with some world-leading embedded system smarts and you get a system that can aid a visually impaired person to recognise the visual world — from identifying friends to find the margarine at the supermarket.

[This project is currently 'on-hold' as our project champions have had to focus on more pressing matters.  Contact Neil.Temperley nicta.com.au if you'd like to get involved.]

Funky Kiosk

This is a project that has been given new life as the ESA cluster mechanism has uncovered synergies between members. Innovative customised advertising and the potential to wirelessly download high definition movies in less than a minute are the ingredients to make the future kiosk funky and fun. Chris Nicol (NICTA) Chris.Nicol nicta.com.au is the interim leader of this team.

ESA announces first industry course for members!

Advanced Embedded Systems Design (June, 2009)

Presenter: Dr Rami Mukhtar, NICTA

Further details and registration forms are available here.

State Project Meetings

ESA Queensland Project Meeting — March 2009

On Thursday March 5th, at the offices of Sage Consulting, a meeting was held to discuss the feasibility of an ESA group in Queensland. The participants included: 

• Grant Wensor — Sage
• Barry Sutherland — Boeing
• Neil Davidson — CMD
• Bill Horton — Direct TV
• Chris Bishop — Intellidesign
• Neil Bergmann — University of Qld
• Bob Waldie — Snapgear
• John Judge — NICTA
• Chris Nicol — NICTA
• John Humphreys — GIC

Three market areas that best aligned with Queensland Government/Queensland Industry were identified as follows:

1. Mining/Mining Technology Services,
2. Transport & Logistics,
3. Emergency Services/Security.

It was agreed that project opportunities for each of these areas would be investigated over the next few weeks, with a further follow-up meeting to be held post-Easter. Following the second meeting, focus group meetings will be arranged to further discuss the projects. It was agreed that the following people would be responsible for following up the sectoral projects as follows:

1. Mining: Grant Wensor and Bob Waldie
2. Transport & Logistics: Chris Bishop (supported by John Humphreys)
3. Emergency Services/Security: Barry Sutherland, Chris Bishop and Bill Horton  

 For information on the ESA Queensland activity (Chris.Nicol nicta.com.au)

ESA Victoria Project Meeting — March 2009

On March 23rd, ESA held a project workshop at the offices of Innovation@257 in Melbourne. The meeting was attended by:

• Trish Messiter — Clarinox
• David Levy — Tectonica
• Rached Hussein — Tectonica
• Chris Farmer — CPE Systems
• Mark Brydon — Hydrix
• Daryl Chambers — M2M Connectivity
• David Jones — VPAC
• Prof Jack Singh — Latrobe University
• David Harris — Dejai Live
• Sean Worth — Procept
• Chris Nicol — ESA/NICTA
• John Humphreys — Global Innovation Centre
• Janice Humphreys — Global Innovation Centre

The group identified the following areas of focus in Victoria.

• Automotive (including fleet and aftermarket)/Public Transport
• Human Performance (defence), including fitness and cognitive training
• Telemedicine, incorporating assisted living
• Environmental — Efficient Energy as a sound project area to explore, given that it would have immediate impact and funding is available through the Climate Ready Fund
• Smart Grid Project
• Rapid Prototype Laboratory

Overall, the group wished to pursue larger infrastructure projects which would attract/leverage on Victorian government funding and grant schemes. David Levy (Tectonica) indicated there are two possible sources of funding within Victoria and  provided further information on the following programs: 

• Smart SMEs Market Validation Program
• Victoria's Science Agenda Investment Fund
• ICN Victoria

It was agreed that the following potential project areas would be pursued by smaller teams, including:

1. Telemedicine (including Assisted Living): Trish Messiter (Clarinox) and Chris Farmer (CPE Systems)
2. Environmental/Efficient Energy: Prof Jack Singh, Daryl Chambers (M2M Connectivity)
3. Human Performance (defence), including fitness and cognitive training: David Levy (Tectonica), Mark Brydon (Hydrix), Sean Worth (Procept)
4. Public Transport/Automotive (including fleet and aftermarkets): David Harris (Dejai Live), David Levy (Tectonica), Daryl Chambers (M2M Connectivity)

For information on the ESA Victoria activity (Chris.Nicol nicta.com.au).

About ESA

Embedded Systems Australia was launched on Tuesday 11 December 2007 at the Premier's Reception Room in Governor Macquarie Tower. Its members are collaborating to strengthen the embedded systems and related industries in Australia. The cluster aims to provide the following business benefits to participating companies:

• expanded market opportunities
• resource exchange
• joint tendering
• identification of skills and synergies
• development of leads in new markets
• collaborative projects

The initial cluster consortium was representative of prominent companies, industry associations, NSW government and ICT research. The founding steering committte members were: AiGroup, BCS Innovations, CiSRA (Canon), Cochlear, Global Innovations Centre, iTech, Invetech, Machinery Automation Robotics, Microsoft, NICTA, NSW Department of State & Regional Development, ResMed, Sinclair Knight Merz and The Warren Centre.

The founding chairman was NICTA's CTO of Embedded Systems Dr Chris Nicol.

Sound Bytes

"The best way to predict the future is to invent it." ~ Alan Kay

Contact

General Enquiries	ESA nicta.com.au
Dr Chris Nicol	Chris.Nicol nicta.com.au
Neil Temperley (Editor)	Neil.Temperley nicta.com.au

ESA Sponsors

Gold

Silver

Bronze

Supporters