Newsletter Volume 30 Issue 10, Oct 2018
From The Editor
“Cyber security has emerged as one of the most-high profile, borderless and rapidly evolving risks facing governments. Investing in strong cyber capabilities will provide confidence to citizens and business who trust us with their data,” This quote comes from a 28/09/2018 article in The Mandarin, reporting on a speech by the New South Wales government’s chief information security officer Maria Milosavljevic at the launch of the state’s first cyber security strategy. See below, NSW government launches $20m cyber plan, calls for cross-agency collaboration.
“Australia endlessly debates the ATAR level needed even to enter teacher-training programs for school teaching. But it doesn’t seem to care about the qualifications of those who teach our young people, workers and citizens in VET. For the last 20 years, VET teachers have only been required to have a Certificate IV level qualification in VET teaching, and the industry qualification at the level at which they are teaching people.” This quote comes from an October 5, 2018 article in The Conversation. It is part of a series on the Future of VET, exploring issues within the sector and how to improve the decline in enrolments and shortages of qualified people in vocational jobs. See below, Teachers and trainers are vital to the quality of the VET sector, and to the success of its learners.
“Using a PubMed search with ‘machine learning’ as the medical subject heading term, the researchers found that the number of papers published in the area of ML has increased since the beginning of this decade. In contrast, the number of publications related to undergraduate and graduate medical education have remained relatively unchanged since 2010”
This quote is from a September 27, 2018 ScienceDaily research paper from Boston University School of Medicine which notes that “graduate medical education and other teaching programs within academic teaching hospitals across the U.S. and around the world have not yet come to grips with educating students and trainees on this emerging technology.” See below, Educating the next generation of medical professionals with machine learning is essential
“Podger does not fantasise about the APS as a tabula rasa. His 8800-word submission is a discussion paper in itself, with six main parts: context; capability; culture; operating model; architecture; performance and effective use of taxpayers’ money; and governing legislation.” The Australian Government’s failures are not for want of external advice. With contributions from CSIRO’s Data61 Digital Innovation report, the Centre for Strategy and Governance, Tom Loosemore’s Public Digital, Paul Shetler’s Senate Committee report, the Financial Review and the IPAA, how could they go wrong? See below, Outsiders Tell How to Fix Australia’s Government Woes.
Current Issue
Articles in the current Issue cover:
NSW government launches $20m cyber plan, calls for cross-agency collaboration
“Effective, holistic cyber security is achieved through a strong sense of mutual responsibility between government, business, industry, researchers and the public.”
Teachers and trainers are vital to the quality of the VET sector, and to the success of its learners
“Some people imagine to get a university qualification in VET teaching, people must give up their jobs and go to university for three years. This could, of course, be difficult if it were true – but it isn’t.”
Educating the next generation of medical professionals with machine learning is essential
“As medical education thinks about competencies for physicians, ML should be embedded into information technology and the education in that domain”
Outsiders Tell How to Fix Australia’s Government Woes
“It’s “crazy” that so many ministers trust advice provided by consulting firms more than their own public servants, says the Grattan Institute’s Danielle Wood.”.
QESP Blog
An October 15, 2018 in The Conversation, Boyer Lectures: gene therapy is still in its infancy but the future looks promising, brings another reminder of forgotten female scientists. In 1953, four scientists co-discovered the double-helix structure of DNA, which formed the basis for modern biotechnology. In 1962 the three males, Watson, Crick and Franklin jointly received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The female, Rosalind Franklin (the only one who had any degrees in chemistry), had died in 1958 and although Watson recommended a posthumous award, none was made. The Royal Society Rosalind Franklin Award was established in 2003[1][2] and is awarded annually by the Royal Society to a woman for an outstanding work in any field of Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The Science History Institute gives a summary of the original research, including a short video, see James Watson, Francis Crick, Maurice Wilkins, and Rosalind Franklin
Events
Consensus Celebrates 20 Years of Recognition
Date: TBC November 2018
Location: TBC, Sydney CBD Hotel
Celebrating 20 years of operation, Consensus (www.consensus.com.au) was started in 1999 and runs a series of Awards Programs that identify the most innovative technology designed and developed in Australia (and some in New Zealand). Over 1000 evaluations of innovation have been conducted by more than 160 independent Judges since the Awards were started. Independent analysis of the Winners of the Awards shows that 9 out of 10 of the Winners of Consensus Awards have gone on to perform exceptionally well internationally. The same research showed that across the board, the companies have enjoyed over 1300% increase in sales or value since they have won Awards, which includes Atlassian and WiseTech Global
Based upon these achievements, Consensus can truly claim to be the World’s Most Successful Awards Program. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been invited to attend and present the 2018 Consensus Awards at a Gala Dinner in November 2018 (the date is to be confirmed.) For further information: contact@consensus.com.au
ACOSM18
Some new options are being explored for the ACOSM18 Australian Conference on Software due to the move of the ACS NSW office to Barangaroo. The plan is still for a joint QESP/ACS evening event, 5.30 for 6.00, keynote, 2 speakers and Forum till 7.30, drinks & fingerfood till 8.00. Watch this space.
Quotes
Quote of the Day
“K is for “Kenghis Khan”; He was a very nice person. History has no record of him. There is a moral in that, somewhere.” ? Harlan Ellison
Quote from Yesteryear
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable. John F. Kennedy
Ted Smillie
QESP Chair