Locate Podcast Roshni Sharma

“I’m engaged in this because I was stuck in the fires with my two brothers. We fought for six and a half hours for neighbours in the house. We saved the property, but we shouldn’t have come out of it.”

Adrian Turner, CEO of Minderoo Foundation Fire and Flood Resilience Initiative, joins us in this impactful, heartfelt and grounded podcast episode that hits home. Tune in to hear the massive cost and impact of natural disasters - societally, environmentally and economically – and about the common-sense and attainable data-driven alternative that spatial data combined with machine learning technologies offers us. We could save billions of dollars and keep communities safe by reducing the harm caused by natural disasters. Learn about the resilience dividend Australia can earn by getting it right, and hear Adrian speak about the the technology, policy and data gaps in disaster response in Australia and globally and the many opportunities that these challenges present.

Join Dr James Johnson (CEO, Geoscience Australia) and Mr Tom Hamilton (Director, Australian Geospatial-Intelligence Organisation) as we hear from this powerhouse duo about opportunities, innovation, and inclusion in relation to government's role in a spatially-enabled Australia. We explore just how fundamental geospatial data is to the work that both of these organisations do, what priorities lie ahead to propel the Australian geospatial forward in this light, how they're equipping their workforces to manage these changes, and how partnerships are paving the way forward. 

Dr Johnson and Mr Hamilton will be presenting a joint keynote at Locate22 on Wednesday 25 May 2022 titled 'Government role in a spatially enabled Australia' - be sure to join us to hear more!

Listen in to hear how innovative drone technology is being used by Emesent to access hard-to-reach spaces and create point clouds, improve safety outcomes, and even being used on the latest 007 movie sets. Dr Stefan Hrabar, CEO and Co-Founder of Emesent, will be presenting his keynote "From CSIRO to global company" at Locate22 on Thursday 26 May in the 'Technical Innovators And Business Leaders' session. Stefan has been at the forefront of drone autonomy R&D for 20 years. Following his PhD in Computer Science / Robotics on this topic, he spent 13 years at CSIRO where he continued his work on vision and lidar-based perception and navigation for drones. He led the development and commercialisation of Hovermap in CSIRO, and co-founded Emesent in 2018 to bring this ground-breaking technology to market.

What makes industry-university collaborations succeed? And why is this vital for our industry, and Australia's economy? Join us as we speak with Dr Wachowicz, Associate Dean of Geospatial at RMIT University and Cisco Innovation Chair in Big Data. She is a world-renowned expert in Geospatial Data Science, with a unique multidisciplinary background in Geomatics Engineering, Geography, and Computer Science. She specializes in machine learning to analyze data streams from the Internet of Things, with the purpose of identifying opportunities and challenges in building sustainable smart cities. She has collaborated in research projects with many high technology companies, such as IBM, Cisco, Orange Communications, ESRI and Siemens, as well as academics from the USA, Canada, Australia and Europe. She has over 300 publications and 50 invited talks and keynote speeches at the United Nations, GIScience Conference and Big Data Congress. Her pioneering work in multidisciplinary teams from government, industry and research organizations is fostering the next generation of data scientists for innovation in green economies. Dr Wachowicz will be joining us at Locate22 to give a keynote presentation to take the ideas presented in this podcast episode further - join her on Thursday 26 May 2022 in the session 'Communities and Collaboration' to hear more!

We're delighted that Australian Statistician, Dr David Gruen AO, joined us on the Locate Podcast to speak about his keynote at Locate22, Building Geospatial data capabilities across the Australian Public Service. Join us in this episode as we explore with him the ways in which geospatial data brings value to the work that the ABS does, as well as what he sees as the future for data in the ABS. 

Dr David Gruen was appointed Australian Statistician on 11 December 2019. As Agency Head of the Australian Bureau of Statistics, he is accountable for the functions and operations of the Bureau. David was previously the Deputy Secretary, Economic and Australia’s G20 Sherpa at the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Before joining the Department in September 2014, he was Executive Director of the Macroeconomic Group at the Australian Treasury. David joined the Treasury in January 2003, before which he was the Head of the Economic Research Department at the Reserve Bank of Australia from 1998 to 2002. Before joining the Reserve Bank, David worked as a research scientist in the Research School of Physical Sciences at the Australian National University. With financial support from a Fulbright Postdoctoral Fellowship, David was visiting lecturer in the Economics Department and the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University from August 1991 to June 1993.  He holds PhD degrees in physiology from Cambridge University, England and in economics from the Australian National University. David was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (General Division) in 2022 for distinguished service to public administration, to economic research, to business, and to education.

Join us as we welcome Dr Fiona McKenzie to share with us why we, as an industry, should be thinking a lot more about megatrends. Fiona explores with us the sorts of influences that megatrends have on the process of disruption and innovation, why leveraging them helps us to remain relevant and on the front foot, and what steps we can take to do this. She will be giving a keynote presentation at Locate22  on Wednesday 25 May 2022 in the session 'Technology and Transformation', speaking about "From disruption to transformation: shaping the future in a rapidly changing world".

Dr Fiona McKenzie is the Director of Orange Compass, an organisation dedicated to supporting change makers on their journey to transform systems and build better futures.  With 20 years’ experience working with academic, corporate, government, non-government, and intergovernmental organisations in Australia and Internationally, Fiona and her team are sought after for their expertise in co-design, futures and systems thinking and in navigating complex challenges. Fiona is in- demand as a speaker, for her insights into today’s wicked challenges and trends shaping the future. Fiona has qualifications in Human Geography, a PhD on innovation; and expertise in both public policy and academic research, and has published on a wide range of topics. Examples of recent projects have included working with: CSIRO (Australia); Department of Social Services (Australia); David Suzuki Foundation (Canada); Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System (Australia); United Nations Development Programme - Green Commodities Programme (Indonesia); and the World Health Organisation (Western Pacific) to name a few.