Robot Bartender at University of Sydney

The standout display at the University of Sydney "Anthelion" Graduate Show for Design Computing and M.IDEA last night was the "barcadekuka", robot bartender. This was an industrial robot arm mounted in the center of a semi-circular bar. The patron places a glass on the bar and the robot arm picks up a cocktail shaker, adds ingredients, shakes and pours the drink into the glass.

There were some non-obvious sophisticated features in this design (it seems to have been worked on over several years by the USyd students). Industrial robots are hazardous and normally require a safety barrier to prevent anyone getting too close. In this case, the bar itself acts as the safety barrier. The counter-top is larger than the reach of the robot arm, so a patron cannot get too close. To allow the drink to be delivered, there are two Lazy Susans built into the counter. The patron places their glass in an indentation in the Lazy Susan, which then rotates to place the glass under the arm. Another feature is that the counter-top is made from Formply, a low cost plywood coated with black waterproof laminate.

There were many other impressive projects on display. However, one problem is a lack of on-line documentation about the projects. The Anthelion website allows browsing student details, but not what projects they worked on, making it next to useless. What you get is a set of photos of students and generic skills for each, but no which student did which project.

Transformation of US Emergency Management

Greetings from a meeting organized by the University of Sydney's "Interoperability for Extreme Events Research Group" (IEERG) where Bob Jensen from Strat3 LLC is speaking on how the transformation of US emergency management after Hurricane Katrina. He pointed out there was little comment after Hurricane Sandy because of the lessons learned from Katrina. The main thrust of this appears to be that the US Government took a more proactive role in preparing for disasters and coordinating state and local resources, rather than just responding afterwards. Bob pointed out this was not just a matter for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

One non-government response to Hurricane Katrina was the establishment of the Sahana Software Foundation in California. Sahana is free open source disaster management software developed in Sri Lanka for the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. This was then offered world wide for free use in other disasters. Hurricane Katrina showed that software which could be run on the computers in local shelters (typically local schools) would be useful. In response the Foundation was set up to better work with US agencies (I am a member of the foundation).

Bob mentioned the importance of disaster management personnel having current training. This is an issue in Australia,  as the Australian Government announced in 2014 that its Mount Macedon emergency management training campus would close by mid-2015, to save money and be replaced by a Canberra based virtual "Australian Emergency Management Institute". On 12 August 2015, Michael Keenan, Federal Minister for Justice, announced that a "New partnership to deliver emergency management professional development", indicating that the new virtual institute was not in operation and not delivering training. The institute says "accredited training opportunities will be available in late 2015". Given that Australia is on a heightened state of terrorist alert and has recently suffered fatalities from brushfires it is of concern that the Australian government does not have in place emergency management training. The financial cost, let along the human cost of this cost cutting could be considerable.

Australia is fortunate in having formal national qualification standards in emergency management, including:

1. PUA60112: Advanced Diploma of Public Safety (Emergency Management)
2. PUA52312: Diploma of Public Safety (Emergency Management)
3. PUA42712: Certificate IV in Public Safety (Emergency Communications Centre Operations)
4. PUA33012: Certificate III in Public Safety (Emergency Communications Centre Operations)

The highest of these qualifications, the Advanced Diploma of Public Safety (Emergency Management), is offered by ten Registered Training Organizations. One of these is the Attorney-Generals Department Trading as: Australian Emergency Management Institute, AEMI. However, from discussions at the IEERG meeting it appears that the Attorney-Generals Department will no longer be delivering courses and will be instead working with RTOs.

Open Source Software for Disaster Management in Sydney

Michael Howden, CEO of the Sahana Software Foundation will speak on "Open Source Software for Disaster Management" at the University of Sydney, 2pm, 24th February 2015.

The Interoperability for Extreme Events Research Group [IEERG] is hosting a presentation by Michael Howden, CEO, Sahana Software Foundation, who is visiting Sydney.

Date: Tuesday 24th February
Time:  2.00pm
Venue: University of Sydney CBD Campus, Level 17, 133 Castlereagh Street, Sydney.

Coffee and tea will be served from 1:30pm and again after the presentation.

If you would like to attend (and if you know of someone else who would like to attend) please RSVP to Christian Ehnis by Friday 20th Feb, 2015.

The Sahana Software Foundation has developed the Sahana Open Source Disaster Management Platform and deployed it around the world to assist organisations and emergency services to record, coordinate and share their disaster management information.

It was first developed during the 2004 tsunami and since then has been deployed as a Resource Management System by the International Red Cross, for tracking relief goods in the Philippines, a Community Resilience Mapping Tool in Los Angeles and a Maritime Common Operating Platform in Puget Sound.

Michael will be discussing these deployments and how Sahana has become a leading internationally recognised platform for disaster management and extreme events. He will also talk about the Sahana Software Foundation, which relies mostly on corporate sponsorships and volunteers internationally and how interested people can become engaged.

This presentation will be of interest to those involved in disaster research, software development, open source solutions, geo-science, social media, or the management of disasters and extreme events.

Michael Howden (Sahana Director, President & CEO): Michael has worked on delivering Sahana solutions to the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in the Asia Pacific Region (the Resource Management System), the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (DRR Projects Portal), the City of Los Angeles (Give2LA), the Helios Foundation (HelioShare) and other organizations.  He trained as a software engineer from New Zealand and has worked  with humanitarian organizations throughout the world since 2005.  He has served as a member of the Sahana Eden Project Management Committee and the Sahana Community Development Committee for several years, and leads our facilitation team for our SahanaCamp program. Prior to becoming CEO of the Sahana Software Foundation, Michael was the Managing Director of AidIQ, a social enterprise that provides intelligent business solutions to the humanitarian and development community with the Sahana platform.  Michael has also served as the Sahana Eden coordinator for the Sahana Google Summer of Code Progam (2010-11) and as SSF Coordinator of the Sahana Google Code-In Program (2010/11 & 2011/12).

Planing The New Sydney Harbour Bays Precinct

Greetings from the University of Sydney, where a panel of planning experts is speaking on "What’s the Plan? The Bays Precinct panel". The  "Bays Precinct Urban Renewal Program" includes 80 hectares of Government owned land, the White Bay Power Station, Glebe Island, White Bay, Rozelle Bay, Rozelle Rail Yards and Blackwattle Bay and the Sydney Fish Markets.

A two day by-invitation summit on this will be held in Sydney on 19 to 20 November 2014 and workshops for the public in February 2015. This evenings event is in addition, as part of the Festival of Urbanism.

In 2002 students and staff from the "new" Bauhaus Dessau visited Sydney and undertook a planning exercise for the city foreshore. They were interested in the role of computers and telecommunications on the city, so I gave them a talk on Canberra's fibre optic broadband system: "Canberra: Encircled by Light". The results of the Bauhaus study were published in 2003, as the book "Serve City: Interactive urbanism" by Neil Leach, Wilfried Hackenbroich and Regina Sonnabend, available in the libraries of the University of Sydney and Western Sydney and from Amazon.com.".  The effect of ICT on city design and innovation industries is even more important today.

One of the urban waterfront mentioned by this evening's panel is Vancouver. A few weeks ago I was on that waterfront on the Eastern side of Vancouver harbor, around  Lonsdale Quay. This development has managed to retain some of the harbor industry, as well as building offices, shops and homes.

Berlin also got a mention as a location which has had significant development. My impression was that Berlin has rushed into high value development and ended up with more than needed.

What interesting aspect of this development is what would attract Google, who are reported to be looking for a new larger Australian headquarters ("Google searches for blue-ribbon HQ - but can it fit in Sydney?", Mercedes Ruehl, BRW, 2 October 2014).

The topic of "affordable housing" and "key worker housing" came up on the panel. In London this seems to be dome by having very small apartments which are reserved for specific  low salary essential staff, such as nurses, police. Islington has a Shared Ownership Scheme.

One issue which came up is corruption.Currently a significant number of NSW government officials are under investigation for corruption for having accepted illegal payments from developers.

An example coted of a successful waterfront redevelopment was Honeysuckle, Newcastle, NSW. However, I found it a little sterile and Disneyland-like.


I got to ask a question: "My question is has the effect digital tech will have on the urban fabric being taken into account in the Bays Precinct planning. I helped a design study by students from the "New" Bauhaus, which included digital. Has anyone got the copy of their report out of the University of Sydney library. Also have you asked Alan Noble at Google what to do?" None of the panel answered.

It was an interesting evening. There is further event tomorrow: Dr Kate Shaw: Melbourne Docklands – where it went wrong and why Australian governments don’t learn, October 21, 2014, 1:00pm 2:00pm

Interoperability for Extreme Events

Greetings from the University of Sydney, where I am taking part in a Symposium on "Resilient Disaster Systems: Improving Service Delivery to Disaster Areas". This is being hosted by USyd's  Interoperability for Extreme Events Research Group (IEERG). My talk is late in the day on "Sahana: a practical information solution path for international disaster management". Michael Howden, CEO of the Sahana Software Foundation provided materials for my presentation, and he will be visiting Sydney in late November 2014. Professor Deborah Bunker heads the IEERG is also running a symposium in the UK in October.

The first presentation for the day is discussing some of the systems used for a recent explosion in the Sydney suburb of Roselle. The second presentation mentioned that there is an Inquiry into the Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements (NDRRA), which allocates recovery for recovery between federal and states. One problem mentioned which has come up recently was asbestos risk after a fire.

One interesting comment in one presentation was about  making communities more resilient. Helping people meet their neighbours, so in a disaster they will know who can help, would be useful.

Statistics on where people got their information in recent bushfire showed that the official website is used mostly, followed by local radio. Social media was used by only a few percent of people. This raises a resourcing issue for emergency organisations: they may be better off spending more money on their website and connections to the media, even though this is not a seen as glamorous as use of social media.

One issue which came up was how to make official online communications look credible.  In 2004 I had a student prepare criteria for making an emergency web page look credible. See: "Evaluating Emergency Management Websites".

Late in the day the topic of terminology came up. Someone from the Red Cross commented they got invited to speak at IT events on "Emergency Management", but that has a whole different meaning in the IT field. I looked up the SFIA Skills and found that the closest term in the IT area was "Availability management".

Much of the discussion today assumes that Internet access, mostly via mobile networks, is available in an emergency. A parliamentary Inquiry looked at  a “Priority over-ride service", so emergency service workers could use the mobile service in an emergency. As far as I can see no action was taken on this. Rather than have some sort of manually prepared master list of key personnel's phone numbers, it would seem to me simpler to have all mobile phones issued to government employees and those from service companies (energy, telecommunications, medical services and supply companies).

More than the SUMS of their Parts

The Sydney University Musical Society (SUMS) performed Vivaldi Magnificat last night in the Hunter Baillie Church Annandale, in Sydney’s inner west. The old sandstone church, with the choir in academic gowns looked like a scene out of an Inspector Morse episode. An Australian touch was added by the crickets chirping from somewhere in the church roof.

Wikimedia in Higher Education Symposium in Sydney

The University of Sydney is hosting a free one-day "Wikimedia in Higher Education Symposium" 5 April 2013,  on the use of Wikipedia for teaching in universities. Speakers include Toby Hudson, School of Chemistry, (USYD),  Kerry Kilner, Research Fellow, School of English, Media Studies and  Art History, University of Queensland (UQ),  Liam Wyatt, Queensland University of Technology, James Neill, University of Canberra,  Kathryn Barwick and Mylee Joseph (State Library  of New South Wales).

Gardener's Lodge Café Sydney

The Lord Mayor of Sydney opened the Gardener's Lodge Café in Victoria Park on Saturday. The cafe  is on the corner of Broadway and City Road, Camperdown in Sydney, between the Sydney University campus and the CBD. The cafe serves breakfast from 7am to 11:30am, then lunch (it is not open for dinner but can be booked for functions).

The catering style is described as modern Australian menu with a bush-tucker twist. The "big breakfast" was good, but the only hint of "bush tucker" was a bush tomato sauce. In a similar style to the Charcoal Lane Restaurant Melbourne, the cafe provides on-the-job training for Aboriginal people. The staff coped well with the crowd at the opening.

The restoration of the historic building won the Valuer General Heritage Award from the Australian Property Institute NSW. The outside of the building retains its 1888 façade by Colonial Architect to NSW, James Barnet. But inside I was disappointed to find a modern stark white bistro look, with few traces of the original building left. In particular the use of small LED down-lights is not in sympathy with the building’s heritage (there are LED lights which fit better with historic buildings).

The building has very limited space for tables inside. There is an outdoor table area, but this needs a cover to be added to block the harsh Australian sun.

Fostering research skills

The University of Sydney Strategic Plan 2011–2015, includes a series of Strategies for Integrated education & research this includes fostering research skills from undergraduate to postgraduate.

Sydney's strategies appear workable, except for the proposal to extend a full-time PhD to four years:

9(a) Embed discovery-based learning in all curricula, with opportunities for research experience appropriate to discipline and level. ...

9(b) Develop coordinated faculty, divisional and University-wide programs for researcher induction, and for research training and mentoring at all career stages. ...
9(c) Extend the standard full-time duration of the PhD program to four years to provide scope for broadening methodological and generic skills training, where appropriate. ...

9(d) Develop clearer pathways to the PhD from honours and alternate prior programs. ...

9(e) Establish discipline-specific guidelines and training for supervisors, including provision for co-supervisors. ...

9(f) Charge the Graduate Office with enhanced responsibility for candidate administration, monitoring of consistency of practice and policy, and procedural development across the University. ...

9(g) Develop a more transparent model for the allocation of income from research students, consistent with the University Economic Model. ...

9(h) Develop programs to extend the leadership skills of researchers heading major research initiatives. ...

From: University of Sydney Strategic Plan 2011–2015.

David Malouf on Jeffery Smart

Greetings from the University of Sydney, where David Malouf, author of Ransom: A Novel, is talking about the work of Jeffery Smart. The exhibition "Jeffrey Smart: Unspoke" is at the Unviersity of Sydney until 27 November 2011. An excellent 12 page exhibition catalog) is available for download and on paper. Mark Ledbury, Power Professor of Art History and Visual Culture, started by asking about the portrait of David Malouf, which depicts the author as a gas pipe worker.

Jeffery Smart's paintings of urban landscapes, often emphasizing transport (with buses, trains and trucks) often feature anonymous small figures. Malouf claimed that Smart had a classical training but deliberately went against it. However, his works appear to display the use of the ‘Golden Ratio’.

Smart was arts critic "Phidias" in the ABC children's radio series The Argonauts Club from 1951. The Argonauts are associated with the story of Troy, the subject of Malouf's book Ransom.