SMART Infrastructure Facility
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| Established | 2010 |
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Field of research | Infrastructure |
| Staff | 150 research |
| Students | 200 postgraduate |
| Address | Building 6, University of Wollongong, Northfields Avenue |
| Location | Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia |
| Campus | 12,000 m2 (130,000 sq ft) |
| Affiliations | University of Wollongong |
| Website | smart.uow.edu.au |
SMART Infrastructure Facility (SMART) in Wollongong, Australia is one of the largest research institutions in the world dedicated to helping governments and businesses better plan for the future. SMART is an acronym for "Simulation, Modelling, Analysis, Research and Teaching".
Since its official opening in 2011, Australia's first multi-disciplinary applied infrastructure research and training facility has built an international profile working with government agencies in Australia and around the world. SMART has also developed a strong network of global collaborators, developing key international partnerships and collaborations addressing some of the big challenges in infrastructure.
Overview
SMART consists of:
- 30 integrated laboratories
- Simulation and modelling hub
- Rail logistics research centre
- 200 higher degree research students
- Executive Development Program
With offices in Sydney CBD and the Facility in Wollongong, SMART provides strategic advice, research and skills training across the whole infrastructure industry.
History
The Facility was created through collaborative funding from various sectors:
- $35 million from the Australian federal government (through the 2007 the Higher Education Endowment Fund[1]);[2][3]
- $10 million through RailCorp;[4]
- $16 million from the University of Wollongong;[5]
- Approx $800,000 from state government authorities(Queensland Rail, Integral Energy and Geoscience Australia), industry (BlueScope Steel, Cisco Systems Australia and Cognos), and other research bodies (Australian Bureau of Statistics and CSIRO)[6]
Research Groups
SMART's commissioned research program ranges from big data on cities, economic analysis and scenario planning tools for land use and transport. These demonstrate how infrastructure can be better designed, delivered and managed to meet the changing needs of the society over the long term.
Our capabilities is distributed across seven research groups. These various research groups contribute, whenever relevant, to specific commissioned research projects, and achieve pre-identified academic KPIs (publications, HDR students and competitive research grants). Commissioned research projects and consultancies contribute to the sustainability of the SMART Infrastructure Facility through revenue, impact and strategic partnerships.
The seven research groups consist of:
- Advanced Geomatics for Regional and Urban Planning
- Applying System of Systems Methodologies
- Computer Simulation for Sustainable Transport Systems
- Computational Intelligence for Optimal Decision and Operation
- Economics and Governance
- Geo-social Intelligence for Urban Resilience and Liveability
- Social Simulation for Demographic Analysis and Transitions
Directors
- Research Director: Professor Pascal Perez
- Director of Rail Logistics: Mr Andrew McCusker
Notable Academic Staff
- Professor of Infrastructure Economics: Prof. Henry Ergas[7]
- Research Fellow: Dr Tomas Holderness
- Research Fellow: Dr Nam Huynh
- Research Fellow: Dr Jun Ma
- Research Fellow: Dr Mohammad-Reza Namazi-Rad
- Research Fellow: Dr Nagesh Shukla
- Research Fellow: Dr Rohan Wickramasuriya Denagamage
- Associate Research Fellow: Dr AHM Mehbub Anwar
- Associate Research Fellow: Dr Johan Barthelemy
- Associate Research Fellow: Mr Vu Lam Cao
- Associate Research Fellow: Dr Ashkan Masouman
- Associate Research Fellow: Mr Robert Ogie
- Associate Research Fellow: Dr Jack (Jie) Yang
- Vice-Chancellor's Post-Doctoral Research Fellow: Dr Etienne Turpin
Honorary Academics
- Honorary Professorial Fellow: Mr Brian Collins
- Honorary Professorial Fellow: Dr Peter Campbell
- Honorary Professorial Fellow: Mr Graham Harris
- Honorary Professorial Fellow: Mr Les Hosking
- Honorary Professorial Fellow: Mr Peter McVean
- Honorary Professorial Fellow: Dr Amal Kumarage
Academic Collaborators
- Associate Fellow: Dr Rodney Clarke
- Associate Fellow: Mr Luke King
- Associate Fellow: Dr Stephen Lillioja
- Associate Fellow: Dr Albert Munoz
- Honorary Fellow: Mr Frank Sedlar
Major Projects
- Cancer Radiotherapy Modelling Project - This project aims to develop an integrated approach for radiotherapy service planning that combines future geographical projections of cancer incidence with the placement of new radiotherapy (RT) services designed to maximise patient uptake rates (due to travel distances).
- Constraint Modelling of Railway System - SMART has developed a simulation freight model ("RailNet") to provide the Port Kembla Port Corporation and Collaborating Partner Organisations with a tool to model the NSW rail network serving the Port of Port Kembla. The proposed objective is to maximise the freight throughput allowing for predetermined and ad-hoc network availability.
- PetaJakarta.org - PetaJakarta.org is a crowd-sourcing urban data collection project co-ordinated by the SMART Infrastructure Facility at the University of Wollongong, in conjunction with the Jakarta Emergency Management Agency (BPBD DKI Jakarta) and Twitter, Inc. A world-first collaboration between a research institute, government agency and private enterprise, the PetaJakarta.org platform harnesses the power of social media to gather, sort and display information about flooding for Jakarta residents and governmental agencies in real time.
- Shaping the Sydney of Tomorrow - Transport for NSW and SMART Infrastructure Facility have collaborated on developing an interactive, visually intuitive and highly flexible simulation platform to support transport and urban planning in Sydney.
- Vision Illawarra - Recognising the need for more integrated approaches to local and regional planning, SMART has developed a next generation model, called 'Vision Illawarra', that aims to provide a more transparent and dynamic visions on how to social and economic fabric of the Illawarra could look in the future. This tool will bring together economic, transport and land use planning. Registered subscribers will be able to access this online platform to test how new policies, macro-economic changes or infrastructure upgrades could affect socio-demographic trends, economic growth, transport patterns and local liveability.
Laboratories
SMART is home to UOW Formula-SAE Racing team workshop, dynamometer and mechanical CNC workshop. In conjunction with the University of Wollongong, SMART Infastrucutre Facility and local industry, UOW FSAE aims to develop a world class program for passionate students to gain practical knowledge in real world organizations and engineering methodology.
See also
References
- ↑ Media Release: Higher Education Endowment Fund, Department of Education, Training and Sciences Media Centre, 8 May 2007
- ↑ House of Representatives: Official Hansard
- ↑ University of Wollongong SMART Infrastructure Facility kicks off with 340 construction jobs, Joint Media Release, 29 May 2009
- ↑ "Premier announces SMART Rail Institute", SMART: Latest News, 10 July 2009
- ↑ University of Wollongong Annual Report 2010
- ↑ NSW Business Sector: Information & Communication Technology
- ↑ Leading Economist Appointed at SMART Infrastructure Facility, Campus Daily, 18 August 2010
External links
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Coordinates: 34°24′23″S 150°52′53″E / 34.4063°S 150.8813°E