Engineers Australia announces line-up for Future Tech Forum

The inaugural Engineers Australia Future Tech Forum, part of the ACI Connect conference being held in Sydney in August, will feature a strong line-up of expert speakers, covering a range of industry topics including IoT and M2M.

Futurist and ABC Nightline presenter Paul Wallbank will set the scene with an opening keynote on the impact that digitalisation and disruptive technologies are having on the manufacturing, mining, utilities and infrastructure sectors.

Professor Mary-Anne William, Director of UTS’s Innovation & Enterprise Research Lab, will cover the hot topics of big data and analytics in the engineering sector, in her presentation titled Fast-Tracking the Future with Advanced Robotics and Data Analytics. With better insights and analysis of the big (and small) data that your operational environment captures, businesses can greatly increase efficiencies and better plan for the future. This session will also focus on the many benefits that advanced robotics can deliver to your operations, especially in the connected future of the IoT.

Geoff Sizer, CEO of Genesys Design, will cover the future of sensor networks in automation and control, with specific reference to M2M communications and the Internet of Things (IoT), while Chris Vains, GM Factory Automation at Siemens, will present a case study on the role of automation, control and instrumentation in sustainable building control, featuring the recent Sydney Adventist Hospital redevelopment.

The ACI Connect conference and exhibition will take place at Sydney Olympic Park on 12-13 August. The two-day event will also feature the inaugural Future Networks Forum, a series of tech MiniLabs, and keynotes and leader roundtables featuring directors from IBM, Aurecon and Siemens.