ITRI turns one and already has many happy returns

By Professor Andrew Parratt, Executive Director of ITRI.

Deakin University’s Institute for Technology Research Innovation officially came into existence in April 2008.

And boy did we hit the ground running!

So much so that even though we only operated for eight months in 2008, we managed to meet all the performance criteria identified in April last year as crucial to our first year of operation.

That was a pleasing outcome and one that bodes well for the future as we go about reaching a longer-term goal to deepen and broaden our research.

We are going about this in a number of ways. Partnerships are one of those. Partnerships already in place include the work being undertaken with CSIRO to create a bio-economy joint program and the project with FaST to develop the Model T².

We are also now formally involved in four Co-operative Research Centres and three ARC Centres of Excellence.

Equally pleasing was the smooth way that three pre-existing organisations within Deakin University, the Centre for Material and Fibre Innovation, the Centre for Intelligent Systems Research and BioDeakin all come together under the ITRI banner.

In this regard I would like to thank my colleagues, Professors Peter Hodgson, Xungai Wang and Saeid Nahavandi.

Peter is now the Director of Research at ITRI, while Xungai heads up the materials and fibre research area and Saeid the ground-breaking work that continues in intelligent systems, haptics and robotics. The recruiting of new researchers has also proceeded well.

Two important recent additions our staff include Professor Kevin Nicholas and Professor Ian Chen.

http://www.deakin.edu.au/research/stories/dynamic.php?story_id=93

http://www.deakin.edu.au/research/stories/dynamic.php?story_id=96

They bring a great body of research to ITRI.

The response of all staff, old and new, to what we want to achieve at ITRI has been inspiring. A staff planning session late last year established a number of groups all with the specific responsibilities to go out and seek more opportunities and partnerships for the Institute.

We have also set about working with the Faculties here at Deakin, making a number of joint appointments.

These include:
Professor Colin Barrow (FaST) Dr Ken Walder, Professor Andy Sinclair and Helen Barry (HMNBS)
In addition two high quality post-docs support research in chemistry within theSchool of Life and Environmental Sciences - Dr Xavier Conlan and Dr Paul Francis.

Last month, we had a change of chair of ITRI, Professor Lee Astheimer replacing Professor David Stokes upon his retirement as Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) at Deakin.

I want to thank David for his amazing input and enthusiasm as we got ITRI off the ground. Like everyone at ITRI, I am really looking forward working with Lee.

There are a number of stories in this newsletter outlining other aspects of ITRI. I invite you to read them to get a fuller understanding of just what broadening and deepening our research base will be all about. I also invite you to read the full feature story that will appear in next month's newsletter looking at what Professor Peter Hodgson wants to achieve in his new role as Director of Research.

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