Professor Myriam Amielh
UTS Faculty of Engineering and IT’s Professor Myriam Amielh says much of her job is about “connecting the dots”. As Associate Dean (External Engagement), it's her role to facilitate the link between industry challenges and academic excellence, a role she finds both exciting and rewarding.
“Each day, I get the opportunity to meet with industry, where I listen to their needs and learn of the challenges they face. Most of the time, I leave the meeting with these ‘lightbulb moments’, excited by the fact that here at UTS, we have the academic expertise and research know-how to help address so many of these challenges.”
Most of the time it’s easy to find ways to build mutually beneficial partnerships.
“I can tap into an incredibly broad range of expertise at UTS, ranging from data analytics, robotics, construction engineering, water technologies, telecommunications, Internet of Things (IoT), 5G, software engineering, 3D printing, 3D scanning, virtual reality and augmented reality technologies. Such expertise is in high demand for many local and global businesses today.”
Industry partnerships are as diverse as they are unique. For example, a decade long partnership with Sydney Water has been built on a history of trust and demonstrated results.
“For over 10 years, our researchers have built a strong collaborative partnership with Sydney Water on a range of sensing, analytics systems and robotics solutions in particular for smart asset management. As our industry partner, they get access to first-class expertise, where our researchers provide the robotics, the data analytics, and knowledge of the latest water technologies to help solve a very real industry challenge faced in their sector.”
Amielh recently facilitated the establishment of a partnership between UTS and Nokia, to collaborate on developing IoT-based business applications using high-speed, ultra-low latency technologies such as 5G. The five-year agreement covers R&D projects and other collaborative activities, including the establishment of the UTS Nokia Innovations Centre, a proof of concept research lab, and the next generation of the Nokia Academy, a program where UTS teaches the knowledge of Nokia technologies to its graduates.
Mutual benefits are at the heart of these industry partnerships, says Amielh. “From an industry perspective, they get direct access to the latest research and technologies, to address both current and future needs within their organisation. And from a UTS perspective, we get the exciting opportunity to translate our research into practice.”
What’s so special about the way UTS connects industry and academia?
“UTS has a very entrepreneurial and bold approach to industry engagement. We’re not afraid to come up with innovative and creative engagement models, and most importantly, put these into action. Because of this, we are able to support many companies in achieving strategic shifts for their business and provide rigorous, impact-driven research”.
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