Australia's national science agency has awarded RMIT University a share of $24.4 million to lead graduate training programs in the fields of AI and emerging technology.
The CSIRO's Next Generation Graduates Programs are industry-university partnerships aimed at developing a pipeline of home-grown, job-ready graduates to unlock the immense economic opportunity offered by AI and emerging technologies. In this latest round, 14 programs were funded, with RMIT to lead four, including two by our Centre for Industrial AI Research and Innovation (CIAIRI), one by our Enterprise AI and Data Analytics Hub, and one by the Sir Lawrence Wackett Defence and Aerospace Centre. RMIT will also support a further three.
These programs will provide generous scholarships to domestic PhD students which allows them to be part of a multi-disciplinary team aimed at solving real-world challenges.
RMIT Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Innovation and Vice-President, Professor Calum Drummond AO, said the CSIRO Next Generation Graduates Programs provides a great opportunity for RMIT.
"RMIT is a university with technology in its name and industry partnering at its core," he said
"This important suite of projects showcase our strength in embracing existing and emerging technologies to help combat the most important issues facing our community."
He said RMIT's involvement in seven programs - the most of any Australian university - was also a recognition of RMIT's very strong capability in these critical research and innovation areas:
AI for Next Generation Food & Waste Systems (RMIT led, La Trobe supported)
This program addresses the skills shortage in adopting advanced AI technologies in the areas of food and waste, a critical national manufacturing priority. This will boost food productivity, improve food quality control and logistics, reduce, and better manage waste generated during the life cycle of food production and consumption.
This program is of great significance as the global food crisis deepens day by day. Through a range of industry-driven research activities, this program will produce a cohort of graduates that are not only equipped with practical AI skills but also ready to integrate into food and waste related industry sectors to generate real impact.
