News |
From Pearcey
This page contains an archive of news items featured on the front page.
2012
Summary of 2012 National Awards
In 2012, the Pearcey Foundation National Awards were held on Thursday 9th August at Crown Melbourne. The awards were part of the 2012 iAwards event a collaboration between the Pearcey Foundation, the Australian Computer Society (ACS) and the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA), Australia's ICT industry, premier awards event.
- Lifetime Awards
- 2012 National Medal - was presented to Dr Mal Bryce from Western Australia
- 2012 Hall of Fame - in addition to Dr Mal Bryce was Dr Craig Mudge from South Australia and Dr Greg Clark from New South Wales.
- 2012 Benson Award - was presented to Bevan Slattery from Queensland
- 2012 State Entrepreneurs Awards
- 2012 NSW Award took place on Wednesday 17 October 2012 at the NSW Parliament Theatre 5.00pm-7.30pm with special guest the Deputy Premier, the Hon Andrew Stoner. This year there were joint winners, with the presentation being made to Jo Burston, founder of “new age” professional services firm Job Capital, as well as Mitch Harper and Eddie Machaalani, founders of e-commerce platform company BigCommerce.
- 2012 ACT Award took place on Thursday evening 15 November the 2012 ACT Pearcey Entrepreneur of the year was awarded to Dr Vikram Sharma and special mention was made of runner-up Joshua Luono, a 16 year old high school student. The awards were presented as part of the annual ACS/Pearcey Awards black tie dinner held at The Boat House by the Lake in Canberra
- 2012 Qld Award was held on Tuesday 3 July at the Sebel & Citigate, King George Square,Brisbane . The Hon. Ros Bates MP, Member for Mudgeeraba, Minister for Science, Information Technology, Innovation and the Arts presented the 2012 Queensland Pearcey Entrepreneur Award to Neil Glentworth, a young entrepreneur with his own Information management firm in Brisbane.
- 2012 Vic Award was jointly with ACS, AIIA and Pearcey joined forces to hold the 2012 Vic iAwards event on the 4 July. The event was held at Telstra's Theatrette in Melbourne. The Hon Louise Asher MP, Member for Brighton, the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party and the Minister for Innovation, Services and Small Business and the Minister for Tourism and Major Events presented the 2012 Victorian Pearcey Entrepreneur Award to Oliver Roydhouse, Founder and CEO of Inlink, a digital-out-of-home advertising technology company.
- 2012 Tas Award was hosted by ACS Tasmania, the Premier and Patron of ACS Tasmania, The Hon Lara Giddings MP presented the 2012 Tasmanian iAwards and the Minister for Innovation, The Hon David O'Byrne MP presented the 2012 Tasmanian Pearcey Entrepreneur Award to Jared Hill, Founder and CEO of 'insight4' on the 12th July, at a gala dinner held at the Henry Jones Art Hotel, Hobart.
- SA: no event this year
- WA: already held as part of WAITTA program
- NT: no event this year, but anyone interested please call ACS NT Branch
AIRG Winter Conference, 20-21 August Melbourne
The meeting is on the topic of Innovation and Technology in Australasian SMEs, and is co-sponsored by ATSE with support from AusBiotech and the Pearcey Foundation.
This follows on from previous AIRG National Meetings on this important topic. The meeting will examine how innovation and technology is being managed in small to medium enterprises (SMEs) across Australasia. The meeting will seek to contrast how this is done in different high technology SME sectors: IT, devices and biotechnology. Discussion will contrast recognised SME best practices with those in place in larger industrial settings and lead to a sharing of any crossover opportunities and learnings presented by the meeting.
Further information and registration can be seen at http://www.airg.org.au/upcoming/airg-winter-meeting-2012.html. Please note there is Early Bird registration until Friday 13 July and Pearcey Foundation members will receive the same rate as AIRG Members.
At the Conference Dinner on Monday 20 August, the second AIRG Medal for Australasian SME Technological Innovation will be awarded. Information on the Awards can be seen on the AIRG website.
Newsletter June 2012
[19 June 2012] - For Friends of Pearcey please read our June 2012 Newsletter for information on 2012 Pearcey Medal nominations; State and National Award events; Australia 3.0 Forum and MasterClass.
Brand Hoff AM, 2011 Pearcey Medallist honoured in Queens Birthday's Honour Lists
[11 June 2012] - Brand Hoff, 2011 winner of the Pearcey Medal, was recognised as a Member (AM) in the General Division of the Order of Australia in the Queen's Birthday Honours announced today. Brand was recognised for his 'services to the Information and Communications Technology sector'. The Pearcey Foundation acknowldges and congratulates Brand and his family for this justly deserved recognition.
CSIRO ICT Executives reconnect with CSIRAC – Australia’s first electronic digital computer
[23 Jan 2012] The new world of computer science met the old in late January when senior executives from CSIRO’s ICT Centre paid a visit to CSIRAC. “I first saw CSIRAC when I was in Melbourne on holiday recently,” said ICT Centre Director Dr Ian Oppermann. “I was truly inspired by its complexity and power and hoped it would similarly move my colleagues so I wrote an excursion to the museum into our meeting schedule.”
Dr Peter Thorne (who worked on CSIRAC when an undergraduate and decades later, while Head of Computer Science at the University of Melbourne, initiated and led the project to document the history of the computer and ensure its place in our nation's history) gave the visitors a guided tour of the computer. He reminded the visitors that the CSIR MK1/CSIRAC is the only intact survivor of the machines which launched the information age. Dr Thorne is also a member of the National Committee of the Pearcey Foundation named in honour of Dr Trevor Pearcey who led the team at CSIRO that designed and built CSIRAC in 1949.
Museum Victoria CEO Dr Patrick Greene dropped by and explained his connection with early computer history; he once lived in a property originally owned by Charles Babbage and he was later involved in the creation of the replica of the first stored program machine - the Manchester Baby.
2011
December 2011 Pearcey Newsletter
[13 December 2011] For friends of Pearcey please read our Newsletter December 2011 for a summary of our awards made during calendar 2011, This is of special interest as this was the first year we combined our National pearcey event with the ACS and AIIA as part of the new iAwards national event.
Summary of 2011 State Entrepreneur Awards
2011 Tas Award was presented to Daniel Harrison CEO and Founder of QikID in Hobart on Friday evening 25th November 2011 as part of the 2011 Annual ACS National Congress.
2011 SA Award were held on Thursday 17th November 2011 at Innovate SA premises in Adelaide. The 2011 SA Pearcey Entreprener Award winner was Matthew Michalewicz.
2011 Vic Award - was presented to Dr Elaine Saunders as part of the Victorian iAwards presentation lunch, Wednesday 6 July 2011 in Melbourne. (more...)
2011 Qld Award - was presented to Bevan Slattery and Janine Garrett as part of the 2011 Queensland iAwards dinner in Brisbane on Tuesday 5 July 2011.
2011 NSW Award - was presented to Simon Poole and Steve Frisken at NSW Parliament on the 12th of October, by the NSW Deputy Premier, the Hon Andrew Stoner, in an event that included a very lively "The Secret Sauce" for Technology Entrepreneurs" panel discussion.
2011 ACT Award - was presented to Matt Bullock at the annual ACS ACT Branch Awards evening held at the 'Boathouse', Canberra on Thursday 15th September 2011.
The Secret Sauce for Australian Tech Entrepreneurs
[12 Oct 2011] At the 2011 NSW Award's held at NSW Parliament 12th October 2011, we had a very stimulating panel discussion with Dean McEvoy (Spreets), Karaline Loiterton (Wedding List Co), Richard White (WiseTech Global and CargoWise) and Ruslan Kogan (Kogan), MC'd by Mark Jones (Filtered Media and AFR The Scoop). This picked up and discussed Mark Andreesson's excellent Wall Street Journal article Why Software Eating The World, and discussed The Secret Sauce for Australian Tech Entrepreneurs. Click here to download the transcript.
Pearcey Portrait in Foundation's hands at last!
[24 Aug 2011] Trevor Pearcey Portrait handed to the Pearcey National Committee
On Wednesday 24th August 2011, Members of the Pearcey National Committee were delighted to receive from Davey Adams, Managing Director of IDG Communications, a portrait of Dr Trevor Pearcey. In the early 90’s IDG commissioned Majella Barbe to undertake this work and through persistent efforts of Len Rust we have been able to take ownership of this iconic piece of art. Later in September, the committee will mark the occasion with a formal ceremony at AC3 where the committee will have the artist formally handover the painting. At that time we will recover the full provenance of the piece. We are currently working out what to do with it and would appreciate any suggestions.
August 2011 Newsletter
[19 Aug 2011] For friends of Pearcey please read our Newsletter August 2011 for an update on current activities.
August 2011 iAwards National Event
[4 Aug 2011] The Pearcey National Awards for In 2011 was presented at a gala event in Melbourne on Thursday 4 August at Palladium at Crown. This premier Australian ICT industry event was called the 2011 iAwards in a joint effort by the Pearcey Foundation, AIIA and ACS. At the gala dinner several major awards for outstanding individuals were presented:
- 2011 Pearcey Medal to Brand Hoff
- 2011 Pearcey Hall of Fame inductees Dr Ann Moffatt and Dr Dennis Moore
- 2011 Benson Entrepreneur Award to Jens and Lars Rasmussen
During the day, an iAwards Australia 3.0 Forum was held to discuss the Digital Economy and the Impact of ICT on Innovation and Productivity. A full report on the outcomes of this meeting are being prepared for release during August 2011.
AIRG/AIC Winter Meeting 29-30 August 2011 in Brisbane
[1 July 2011] Next Generation Networked R&D: Tired of one-dimension answers to complex problems? New thinking about how R&D and Innovation really works in Australasia
- The conference will seek to understand how, across industrial and public sector organisations, primarily working within (or from) Australasia, networked R&D and technology is operating today and how that may develop into the future. Comparisons with international trends and evolving best practices will be considered.
- For full details on the topic and program, please see AIRG/AIC Winter Meeting
June 2011 Newsletter
[26 Jun 2011] In our Newsletter June 2011 we cover lots of activity from your State and National Committees (all of whom give of their time freely) points to a very active second half of 2011 for our Foundation.
Pearcey joins AIIA and ACS in National ICT awards program consolidation
[25th May 2011] The Pearcey Foundation National Executive took the bold decision in May 2011 to join with the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) and the Australian Computer Society (ACS) National Board in consolidating all three entities' respective national awards programs under the banner of the well known iAwards program. The intent is to form a separate organisation managed jointly by the three entities to present the consoldated awards annually so that the Australian technology sector can celebrate every level of achievement within the industry at a single gala event and through a uniform process of nomination, judging and assessment. We believe that this is something the whole of the ICT sector can readily support including industry, academia and most importantly government. Removing the apparent fragmentation caused by multiple awards programs, will also provide external stakeholders from business, industry and government with a clear view of the people leading ICT in Australia and the quality of innovation abounding in the industry.
Passing of Tom West, a Massachusetts computer designer extraordinnaire (1940-2011)
[19th May 2011] The passing of Tom West, former head of R&D at Data General (DG) in Westboro MA last week, is a sad but significant moment in the history of ICT. Earlier this year, Ken Olsen, founder of Digital Equipment (DEC) in Maynard MA, also passed away (see below for more on Ken Olsen). These two great pioneers transformed the computer industry in the 70’s and 80’s. There is a strong link to Australia here in that 2009 Pearcey Medallist Prof Murray Allen, had close links to DEC via Dr Gordon Bell (a frequent visitor to these shores even today) who was Tom West’s contemporary over at DEC. During these years the architecture of 32 bit computers was defined for the first time and DEC’s VAX along with DG’s Eclipse family set the standards of the day. Murray Allen’s role in these ground breaking developments is grossly under recognised. The technology transfer between the University of NSW and DEC was an international first which has benefited all computer architects who followed. Tom West is perhaps best known for his starring role in Pulitzer prize winning book written by Tracy Kidder entitled “The Soul of New Machine” (1981 Atlantic – Little, Brown), not dissimilar to recently published David Kirkpatrick’s “The facebook EFFECT”; a different genre perhaps? Ken and Tom were geniuses who will be sincerely missed. An excellent Obituaryfrom the Sunday Globe in Boston is worth reviewing.
2011 AIRG Conference
[27 Feb 2011] The Australasian Industrial Research Group’s (AIRG) 2011 National Meeting focussed on the topic “Managing Mission-Critical R&D and Technology”. Held at the Grange at Cleveland Winery & Conference Centre in Lancefield, Victoria from Sunday February 27 to Tuesday March 1 2011, the conference attracted near 100 industrial and government R&D professionals exploring the challenges of aligning R&D with an enterprises business strategies.
Prof John Bennett AO Memorial Service
[24 Feb, 2011] A memorial service celebrating the life of Prof John Bennett who passed away in early December 2010, was held on Thursday 24th of February 2011 at the MacLaurin Hall of the University of Sydney. Over 200 Friends and colleagues of Emeritus Professor Bennett (2004 Pearcey Medallist) attended this ceremony to mark the passing of Australia's first Professor of Computing Science, ICT pioneer and ACS Founder. Eminent speakers included Dr Jane Bennett (Prof. Bennett's eldest daughter), Prof. Tommy Thomas, Prof. Harry Messel, Dr Peter Jones (1998 Pearcey Medallist), Prof. Jenny Edwards, Mr Anthony Wong, President of the ACS and Prof. Sanjay Chawla, Head of the School of IT at Sydney University. A full record of the proceedings in audio form will be available soon, courtesy of the ACS, and will be posted on this website.
Ken Olsen, Founder of Digital Equipment (DEC), dies at age 84
[6 Feb 2011] The passing of Ken Olsen is a sad loss of one of the world's truly great ICT pioneers. Many of us involved in the ICT sector will have worked on DEC's famous mini-computers sometime during our careers; the mini-computer is now consigned to the annals of computing history. The Pearcey Foundation acknowledge Ken's great contribution to our ICT industry here in Australia. For those who would like to know a little of Ken's life please read this excellent NY Times piece.
Roger Allen awarded Order of Australia
[26 Jan 2011] Roger Allen, winner of the Pearcey Medal in 2007, was made a Member (AM) in the General Division of the Order of Austrlia as part of the 2011 Australia Day honours list. Roger was recognised "for service to the information technology sector through leadership roles, venture capital investment and professional development, and as a supporter of the indigenous community".
2010
Pearcey comments on NBN
[15 Dec 2010] Wayne Fitzsimmons, chairman of the Pearcey Foundation, published A Perspective on the NBN in IT Wire. It shows that some of the complexity in the debate can be removed if the issues are separated into four distinct areas, viz infrastructure, regulatory environment, technology and economics.
2010 Pearcey Newsletter
[1 Dec 2010] The Pearcey Foundation would like to wish all friends of Pearcey a very happy Christmas and safe New Year. Highlights of our year is summarised in our Pearcey 2010 Newsletter.
2010 National Medal and Debate
[22 Sep, 2010] The 2010 National Pearcey Event was held on Wednesday evening 22nd September 2010 at a gala dinner in Brisbane as part of the 2010 World Computer Congress (WCC) held at the Brisbane Convention Centre. At this dinner:
- The 2010 National Medal was awarded to Mr John Grant by Senator Kate Lundy, Senator representing the ACT and Parliamentary Secretary, Prime Minister & Cabinet
- The 2010 Hall of Fame was awarded to Brian Finn AO and Emeritus Professor Peter Poole
- The 2010 Pearcey Oration was delivered by Dr Megan Clark, CEO of CSIRO
In the afternoon preceding the dinner, Pearcey ran a national debate entitled "Government Funded ICT R&D in Australia". The debate covered many contentious areas including research priorities, funding influences and industry engagement. The panel of speakers included Dr David Skellern (CEO of Australia’s National ICT R&D centre - NICTA) and Dr Alex Zelinsky, Group Executive, Information Sciences at CSIRO.
2010 Pearcey State Awards
2010 Tas Award - Tasmania, Thursday 16th December 2010 at Henry Jones Art Hotel in Hobart in conjunction with the Tasmanian Branch of the ACS was presented by the Premier of Tasmania Mr David Bartlett to Paris Buttfield-Addison and Jon Manning, co-founders of Secret Lab.
2010 NSW Award - New South Wales, at Parliament House Sydney on Tuesday 19th October 2010 in conjunction with NICTA - the NSW award was given to Lars and Jens Rasmussen by the NSW Treasurer and Minister for Stateg and Regional Development, Eric Roozendaal. A further 9 entrepreneurs were inducted into our Hall of Fame.
2010 Qld Award - Queensland, as part of the 2010 National Pearcey Event held on Wednesday evening 22 September at the Brisbane Convention Centre and was presented to Mr Peter Ward by the Queensland Minister for Public Works and ICT, Mr Robert Schwarten MP.
2010 ACT Award - Australian Capital Territory, was awarded to Dr Raymond Choo on Thursday 16th September 2010 by Senator Kate Lundy, Senator representing the ACT.
2010 SA Award - South Australia, was awarded to Dr Anton van den Hengel at a ceremony included in the SA ACS conference at the Adelaide Festival Centre on Thursday 21 October 2010.
2010 Vic Award - Victoria, was presented to Brett Paterson as part of the ACS Fellows dinner on Tuesday 22 June 2010
2009
[17 Sep 2009] Neville Roache participating in Indian Prime Minister's Global Advisory Council of Overseas Indians