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From Pearcey
This page contains an archive of news items featured on the front page.
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