On 18 October, the Human Technology Institute at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) was officially launched by the Hon. Ed Husic, Minister for Industry and Science in the presence of 180 guests and institute partners. The Hon. Professor Verity Firth, UTS Pro Vice-Chancellor (Social Justice and Inclusion) chaired the event, while Professor Lesley Hitchens, UTS Acting Provost and Senior Vice-President introduced the Minister.
The Human Technology Institute (HTI) at UTS was founded by Professors Edward Santow and Nicholas Davis. Through its skills, tools and policy laboratories, HTI is building a future that applies human values to new technology.
Minister Husic endorsed the HTI’s ‘human-centred’ approach to new technologies stating ‘I want the technologies we design and use in this country to contribute to our national wellbeing. I want them to reflect our ideals as an egalitarian nation, and a proudly multicultural one’.
The event honoured the close collaboration with and significant contributions in resources and expertise from HTI's three advisory partners: KPMG Australia, Gilbert + Tobin and Atlassian. A number of HTI's valued project partners were also featured, including Microsoft, LexisNexis Pacific, Transport for NSW and the Minderoo Foundation.
The values, rules and strategies that Australians choose to shape technology design choices in the next few years will, in turn, shape how human beings experience the world for a generation - and likely more. HTI is proud to be at the frontier of developing and implementing skills, tools and policies to combat the tendency for the benefits of new technologies to accumulate to the well off, while threats disproportionately affect the vulnerable.
Read the full transcript of Minister Husic’s speech (PDF, 123kB).