Tag / artificial intelligence

by brandsa2018

Artificial intelligence a game-changer for future jobs

From complex software systems that sort through medical data, to drones that monitor crop health, South Australian industries are embracing the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) and cutting edge technologies.

International AI expert Dr John Flackett says SA is well placed to adopt AI and machine learning in health care, defence and agriculture sectors, providing new job pathways for future generations.

According to Dr Flackett, an AI researcher and co-founder of start-ups koolth and AiLab, we’re ready for the transformation but need to ensure we have policy and regulation in place.

“We have a really forward thinking start-up economy in SA and we have people interested in innovation,” he says.

“There are some fine opportunities for using AI, if we look at space, agriculture, tourism and healthcare. Having doctors look at hundreds, even thousands of x-ray images to try and spot cancers or health issues, when we can train machines to do that work in a fraction of the time.

“But I think it’s really important that when we apply AI to sectors such as healthcare we don’t take the human out of the link totally. When we’re using AI tools and techniques we have to think carefully about the way we’re using the technology.”

Dr John Flackett’s Adelaide-based AiLab assists individuals, academia, industry, communities and governments worldwide on how to navigate the complex field of AI.

The gradual take-up of new-tech is slowly making its way into workplaces, with the demand for AI talent set to grow in the state as entrepreneurship and innovation become key career opportunities in the future.

A number of industries and businesses are already thriving with AI and machine learning technologies including Adelaide-based company Presagen which recently raised $4.5 million in seed funding to market its AI medical technology that improves fertility outcomes for IVF couples.

The product, Life Whisperer, uses a cloud-based analysis platform that improves the accuracy of healthy embryo selection in IVF treatments.

AI-driven technologies are also emerging in the agricultural industry, with drones carrying sensors and infrared mapping capabilities used to assess crop health and give a clearer picture of crop yield.

Dr Flackett, also a software engineer, has more than 20 years’ experience in AI, achieving a PhD in AI (machine learning and natural language processing) in 2005. Migrating to Australia from the UK around the same time, he co-founded smart web specialist company koolth before embarking on his second business venture, AiLab, with co-founder Emma Berry.

Dr Flackett regularly runs AI workshops and presents at events in the UK, Europe, the US and Australia to help demystify the world of AI and educate people on how it can empower businesses and transform how we live. The role of AiLab is to assist individuals, academia, industry, the community and government across the globe on how to navigate the complex field of AI and stay up to date with relevant progressions via education programs.

Dr Flackett says the field of AI – a term coined in the 1950s – is thriving “because humans have always wanted to automate tasks and build machines that can help”.

“AI as a field is really about that lofty goal of ‘can we build machines that are as intelligent as us?’ That’s called artificial general intelligence,” he says.

While Dr Flackett believes that the take-up of AI will be a huge disrupter to industry and workplaces, the key is to “not take the human out of it”.

AI is used in the ag-tech industry through drones that can assess crop health and give a clearer picture of crop yield.

“Personally, my approach is to embrace the advances and work with the technology. But you can’t take the human out of the process. You can’t get that personal customer experience with AI, so we need to be looking at AI to help inform our decisions, free up our time to interact with people and collaborate with others.

“The thing about automation and AI is that it drives a collaborative approach to jobs. For instance, the development of smart drones … in order to build such a system, many companies need to collaborate. If we’re producing AI-based image recognition technology we probably wouldn’t want to build the actual drone so we’d collaborate with a company that builds drones and then we’d supply the AI software skillset.

“I think that’s what we’ll start to see around future jobs, those skills sets of people being able to collaborate and communicate.”

Dr Flackett, who recently founded and organised Adelaide’s Artificial Intelligence meetup series, sponsored by AiLab and the Australian Institute for Machine Learning, says more work is to be done to encourage more investment into AI in Australia, and to develop policy and regulation.

He says SA is already ahead in nurturing talent for transforming industries as we have a highly skilled workforce that is ready to transfer its skills into emerging industries such as space and ag-tech.

Dr Flackett also explains that future employment pathways for today’s young people are likely to be varied and take more than one route.

“I refer to future jobs rather than future careers,” he says. “The career path that we’re used to is disappearing … according to the FYA (Foundation for Young Australians) people leaving school are going to have 17 different jobs, that whole career for life is virtually gone now.

“What we need to do is leverage the skills we already have, and transfer these skills to a rapidly changing workplace.”

Industry in focus: Careers of the Future

Throughout the months of May and June, future careers in South Australia will be explored as part of I Choose SA.

Embracing innovation, creativity and an understanding of building quality partnerships with technology is key to ensuring career opportunities in the future. SA is taking necessary steps to equip future generations with the skills for future careers and current workforces to transition to the future industries.

Read more Careers of the Future stories here.

Visit I Choose SA to meet the people building business and industry in SA, and to find out how your choices make a difference to our state.

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by brandsa2018

Adelaide BioMed City’s double Dutch research

Adelaide’s impressive new hospital, the striking South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI) and the legion of learning facilities nearby sealed the deal in attracting Dutch cardiologist Johan Verjans and Yvette van Eenennaam to the city.

It was two years ago when the talented couple was in the midst of exploring health research opportunities including in Sydney and Amsterdam, when Adelaide emerged the winner.

“Seeing the new hospital, it exemplified the ambition of a city to create change, and I think that is what helps attract people,” Johan says.

“Australia is a relatively well funded country but competitive and it’s hard to find that whole package like it is in Adelaide in other places, with liveability, ambition and world-class research.”

Both Johan and Yvette have stepped into leading health research roles for the city after arriving in Adelaide in 2017 with their two daughters aged seven and five.

Yvette Eenennaam and Johan Verjans chose SA over other states and cities to pursue their medical and health research careers.

Johan works as a cardiologist and heart health researcher at the Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH) and SAHMRI. Last year he was appointed deputy director of Medical Machine Learning at the recently established Australian Institute of Machine Learning (AIML) to apply artificial intelligence to biomedical research.

Yvette was made the first general manager of Adelaide BioMed City, one of the largest health and life sciences clusters in the southern hemisphere, after it was officially launched last year. Before joining Adelaide BioMed City, Yvette worked for large multinationals in leading roles and had a focus on organisation development, change management and expansion through partnerships.

Located on North Terrace, BioMed City is a partnership between the state’s independent, flagship health and medical research institute SAHMRI with its more than 600 medical researchers, the Central Adelaide Local Health Network and the state’s three universities.

Its mission is to be a globally recognised partnership leading the world in research, education, clinical care and population health.

“Our goal is to build impact, leverage investment and inform evidence-based healthcare and innovation in ways that could not be achieved separately,” its statement says.

Yvette saw the group’s strategic plan signed off in February and is working to make plans to further strengthen the collaboration and to jointly bid for infrastructure and research funding.

“We’re a decent sized city, but compared to the east coast it’s very competitive, we need to work together in specific domains if we want to leverage the huge potential and make a global impact in any way,” she says.

Yvette is already hosting delegations of potential investors from Singapore, Taiwan and Sweden keen to see the opportunities.

“Particularly with plans for SAHMRI 2 there is a dedicated floor space for industry and additional clinical trial space,” she says.

Inside SAHMRI.

This new building will have lab and office space for biomedical companies and educational institutions. It will also house Australia’s first proton therapy unit to provide the most technologically advanced precision radiation therapy ever seen in the southern hemisphere, delivering cancer destroying protons to the tumor site of otherwise inoperable cancers, without affecting healthy tissues.

Gaining the expertise of Johan and Yvette has been a coup for the city. Johan is also a senior lecturer at the University of Adelaide and an associate investigator of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Nanoscale Biophotonics. He is associate editor of the Netherlands Heart Journal, and author of Springer/Nature’s first book on AI in medical imaging – and recently was awarded the Ahrens Researcher Award by the Australian Heart Foundation.

Johan believes there is great interest and opportunity in using artificial intelligence (AI) to advance health care, and his push to grow this has led to the job as deputy director of Medical Machine Learning at AIML.

“We see opportunities in reducing congestion in emergency departments of hospitals, since 12% of admissions in the emergency department are for chest pain of some sort,” Johan says.

By using existing data from ECG, biomarkers and AI, it could potentially provide better feedback on the risk of that pain to an individual patient, and to see whether it is safe for them to be sent home or be admitted, he says.

“Research is exploding in the AI space and in Adelaide we have a clear advantage, with leading groups in AI at AIML and world class biomedical research at SAHMRI,” he says.

“Adelaide BioMed City has so much potential. I don’t think people in SA realise with AIML we have one of the best machine learning groups in the world on North Terrace, together with three highly ranked universities, and SAHMRI which recently made the top 40 of the world’s best research institutions. We can make a difference in one of the world’s most liveable cities.”

Industry in focus: Health

Throughout the month of April, the state’s health industry will be explored as part of I Choose SA.

South Australia’s health sector is among the best in the world, renowned for developing new and advanced technologies and research outcomes. Our health industry infrastructure is world-class, providing new pathways and job opportunities, as well as a growing potential for health tourism.

Read more health stories here.

Visit I Choose SA to meet the people building business and industry in SA, and to find out how your choices make a difference to our state.

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by brandsa2018

Embracing the new technological frontier starts in SA

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are the great engines of change driving the Fourth Industrial Revolution – or Industry 4.0, as it is commonly called – and Adelaide has quickly positioned itself as an important hub for helping businesses implement the great challenge to adapt and innovate.

This has resulted in local companies automating tasks from screening for urinary tract infections to monitoring pests inside horticultural greenhouses, using innovative computer programs and machines that have been invented locally.

The Australian Institute for Machine Learning (AIML), located on North Terrace but soon to be relocated within the Lot Fourteen innovation hub (the former Royal Adelaide Hospital site), offers South Australian businesses the chance to be early machine learning adaptors.

Having emerged in early 2018 from the University of Adelaide’s Australian Centre for Visual Technologies (ACTV), led by global expert in video semantics Professor Anton van den Hengel, the AIML has received $7.1 million funding from the State Government (in addition to $5 million invested by the University of Adelaide) to work on such programs as improving traffic flow, defence projects and assisting the progression of emerging small and medium-sized enterprises.

The AIML is ranked third in the world in computer vision research. Its work is also focused on applying research outcomes to industry.

The institute’s impact and influence is growing rapidly. In the decade since ACTV began and morphed into AIML, the team has grown from five people to more than 100, including the brightest minds emerging from the university’s mathematics and computer science courses.

While a third of AIML’s work pursues pure research, which has it currently ranked third in the world in computer vision, it also focuses on applying research outcomes to industry needs.

“This research is keeping us ahead of the curve. Technology has a six-month cycle before it takes the next leap – it truly is moving that quickly,” explains AIML business development manager Paul Dalby. “Most organisations can’t afford to staff this, so we have the pool of talent they can draw upon.”

AIML researchers and technicians are trying to teach machines new ways of solving complex manufacturing and industrial problems, training computers how to do tasks on their own through deep learning programs, and implement faster ways of completing tasks.

LBT Innovations was among the first SA-based businesses to achieve commercial outcomes from working with AIML. The company, which focuses on clinical microbiology, initially went to ACVT in 2010 with the idea of automating the reading of inoculated petri dishes while screening for urinary tract infections.

CEO of LBT Innovations Brent Barnes.

This is a time-consuming task for scientific specialists that mostly registered negative readings, and after extensive research, testing and trials, LBT had its own patented machine (the Automated Plate Assessment System) ready for international sale by the end of 2018.

“It’s not a speedy process to develop an original idea – creating and testing something that is not an off-the-shelf algorithm – but now we have arrived first in this part of the global healthcare market,” says Brent Barnes, CEO of LBT Innovations. “It’s great that we have been able to initiate this world first from Adelaide.”

Machine Learning can also take effect at more simplistic levels for businesses. AIML has supported graduate Jordan Yeomans to launch his company Advanced Innovations, which is helping farmers growing vegetables in greenhouses at Virginia, just north of Adelaide.

He has switched their pest monitoring from a manual to automated system, using smartphone links to custom-designed AI computer software.

The success of this process – which Jordan estimates saves about 20 hours of manual labor a week – will provide the springboard for Advanced Innovations to work with greenhouses around Australia.

Other early adopters taking advantage of this homegrown expertise include Maptek, Sydac and Signostics. AIML will also reinforce and improve leading SA organisations from SAHMRI to the renewable energy sector, ensuring they remain at the forefront of global attention and success.

However, beyond these success stories, more needs to be done and with urgency – 80% of small and medium-sized businesses in Australia are delaying adaptation of machine learning, while overseas comparisons show that the rush to make sustained investments in AI and machine learning has commenced in earnest.

“What AIML offers is a huge leg-up for SA business,” says Paul Dalby, “but at the moment, not enough are taking up this opportunity. We are doing more work with companies in Sydney and Melbourne, so we need more mid-sized companies to get on board and build now.”

AIML is offering training programs for company CEOs to be introduced to machine learning concepts and possibilities.

The first free event for this year is being held on April 10 at the University of Adelaide’s Nexus Building on Pulteney Street. (Register here).

“We want to initiate the conversation with SA business leaders to discuss what is possible, and what steps can be taken for their enterprises to move beyond existing boundaries,” says Paul.

“This is very important, because if some companies don’t take swift action in this very dynamic era of change, their business models could very quickly become obsolete.”

Visit I Choose SA to meet the people building business and industry in SA, and to find out how your choices make a difference to our state.

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