David Curran

Chancellor Brian Wilson, Vice Chancellor and President Professor Attila Brungs, Mr Bill Paterson, Associate Professor Rob Jarman, Associate Professor Louise McWhinnie, Dr Merilyn Sleigh, Staff, Distinguished guests, Family and friends of today’s graduates, and, of course, the wonderful reason we are all here, graduates.

I too would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, the Gadigal and Guring-gai people of the Eora nation, and pay my respects to their elders both past and present.

It is a great honour for me to have been asked to present this occasional address and to stand before this amazing group of engineering and technology students.

To begin, I have a confession to make…this is my first graduation! I sadly missed mine. I was in Egypt with a beard, a backpack and about $12.50. That sense of adventure that took me to far-flung corners of the world has never left me – although thankfully I now have a bit more than $12.50. It’s that thought of adventure that I’d like to extol this evening. The world that lies at your feet as graduates of this world class institution is exciting, demanding and ever-changing – and I challenge you to embrace it for all that you are worth.

If I had attended my graduation, it would have been in 1986. 30 years ago! The backpack has long since decayed and the beard has turned grey. As my daughter tells me, “dad, you grew up in black and white”!

But it was an exciting time. It was the early days of technology becoming available to the masses. I had my first personal computer – an Apple 2e. It was the bee’s knees and came with 64k of RAM – yes I did say ‘k’. The ultimate super computer of the day, the CRAY 2, had less compute than you have in your mobile phone.

I studied computer languages like Fortran, LISP and Pascal and, like the generations before me, believed I was learning skills that would see me through my career. My engineering colleagues were experimenting with new materials and techniques – predominantly doing all their calculations by hand – and they too believed they had the learnings they needed for the careers that lay ahead.

But mine was one of the first generations where your university learnings dated well before your career reached maturity. Moore’s Law has had a profound effect on the world and in particular, on the careers of technologists and engineers.

The super computers of the 1980s – the ones that first started beating grand-masters at chess – are now dwarfed by modern computational capabilities. Chess is easy, Jeopardy has been conquered and, in the last year, the game of Go, the one that computers could never win, has been conquered. Artificial Intelligence is no longer sci-fi and will become a true reality in your working careers. These are things I dreamt of at university but never expected to happen in my lifetime, let alone in my working career.

So why am I telling you this? Am I implying your time here at UTS has been wasted? Or suggesting that the qualification that you are about to receive is not valuable? Absolutely not. On the contrary – you are about to be bestowed an incredible honour, one that tells you, and everyone around you, that you can think and that you can learn.

It was Albert Einstein who once said, “Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school”. So never forget – you can think and you can learn!

These are powerful abilities and ones that stand you in good stead for your future careers.

Ladies and gentlemen, my university learnings lasted me about 15 years before I realised they were not enough. It was then I realised I had to continually learn in this modern world to stay relevant. Previous generations could get most of the way through their careers on their early learnt skills. Not anymore.

In my world, the world of technology in big banks, technologies used to last 20 to 30 years. In fact, only last month, we finally replaced a system implemented in the 1980s. As the CIO at one of Australia’s major banks I now must consider that any new large project we undertake will be out of date by the time it is implemented. This is the working world you are entering.

You should be excited by this! This University has prepared you better than most people on the planet for the challenges of the modern world – a world being reshaped by a technical revolution.

That said, I urge you to continue to learn. This is not the end of your studies, it is simply a point of achievement and a recognition that you truly can think and learn. You’re about to embark on an adventure in a world that is evolving more rapidly than at any point in our history. To enjoy an adventure, in my opinion, is all about attitude. So, if I may, a few tips from an older adventurer who started his journey in black and white:

1. Be inquisitive. What you know is good, but it is never enough. It will also age quickly, so you must retain your thirst to learn and to explore.
2. Be bold. Now that you have built all these wonderful skills and worked so hard for the achievements bestowed upon you tonight, take the opportunities that allow you to see how far your skills can take you and where you can go. It’s a big world out there, and the opportunities aren’t just endless, they are there for you to invent for yourselves!
3. Celebrate the diversity of life. What I hope you have realised is that the skills you have developed have nothing to do with gender, race or persuasion. For whatever reason, society has created these myths. It greatly bothers me when I hear people opine that STEM is for boys. What garbage! To the girls in the room thank goodness you are here! To the boys in the room, know this, diversity of thought always brings about a better answer – welcome it, embrace it, spread the word!
4. Be a leader. In times of change, leadership is crucial. I believe you have the skills to be our leaders of tomorrow. You need to believe it as well. And lastly;
5. Do good. You will bring your skills to bear in a world of technological advancement that has never been previously experienced. True artificial intelligence and the human/machine convergence will be realities in your lifetimes. As I observe the ever growing cyber-security challenges of today for example, I would reflect that there is great potential to use modern technology for ill intent. Please do good and never lose your moral compass. The old grey-beards like me are depending upon you!

Finally, can I say, embrace your adventure. Your starting point is amazing. It was the great American author Helen Keller who said, “Life is either a great adventure or nothing”.  Grab hold of your adventure and make it something.

To each and every one of you congratulations and good luck!