CSIRO is providing $1.2 million to support eight robotics scholarships at Queensland University of Technology, targeting high-achieving students from underrepresented groups in the industry.
The funds come from CSIRO’s earnings from its historic podium at the DARPA Subterranean (“SubT”) Challenge 2021. The “SubT Challenge” is a competition organized by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency of the United States Department of Defense. It aims to explore new approaches to quickly map, navigate and search underground environments.
A world-class robotics research and education institution, QUT has a proven track record of nurturing some of the best and brightest minds in the robotics industry.
Professor Elanor Huntington, CSIRO’s executive director for digital, national installations and collections, said the scholarship fund was an investment in the future of Australian robotics and would spread the profits from winning across the country. community.
“In 2021, a group of robotics experts from Queensland took on the best in the world in a competition dubbed the ‘Robot Olympics’ and finished second in a photo-finish,” Prof Huntington said.
“Using this award to educate a diverse cohort of robotics experts – who could be a team in the DARPA Challenge 2031 – will help Australia seize the AU$22.17 trillion global AI opportunity. .
“We know that diversity drives innovation, and we hope to inspire and support a dynamic new generation of robotics talent,” she said.
Diversity in the Australian robotics industry is one of the main obstacles to its growth according to Robotics Australia Group. A report on the Robotics Roadmap for Australia 2022 released late last year. The government’s 2021 STEM Equity Monitor reported that men made up 87% of national STEM-skilled occupations in the 2020s.
CSIRO and QUT will jointly oversee candidate selection, course design, education, and mentoring. Applications will open in September 2022 and close in 2027.
