Newsletter Volume 31 Issue 6, Jun 2019
From The Editor
“With a population of 25 million people, does Australia need 40-plus universities? Probably not if it means 40-plus big stores whose business models require mass lectures in the first year, bolstered by increasing international student enrolments to fund high infrastructure and staffing costs. But there is a bright future ahead if universities redefine themselves beyond the rhetoric of value propositions and marketing schtick, and fully embrace the below three key pillars.” This quote is from a June 19, 2019 essay in The Conversation, part of a series of articles on the future of education. See below The three things universities must do to survive disruption.
“Corruption impedes equitable development, destabilizes societies, and undermines the institutions and values of democracy. It is viewed by many as one of the world’s greatest problems. According to a Gallup poll, a majority of people even place its negative impacts ahead of global problems like climate change, poverty and terrorism.” This quote is from June 10, 2019 paper provided by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis which notes that “In their study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), researchers from IIASA, the University of Vienna, and two Japanese universities focused specifically on one form of corruption, bribery in public institutions.” See below, Exploring the causes of persistent corruption.
“Australia’s inability to consistently leapfrog competitor countries in key indicators of competitiveness for the knowledge economy are well documented in annual indexes by the World Economic Forum. By 2018, after quite a deal of backsliding, Australia had reached one spot above the ranking it held in 2010 in the Global Competitiveness Report” This quote is from a June 6, 2019 article in The Mandarin by Greg Austin , who gives informed advice on how Australia can move forward. See below, Australia can’t afford ‘tech passivity’ in parliament any longer.
“A new type of computer memory to solve the digital technology energy crisis has been invented and patented by scientists. The device is the realization of the decades long search for a ‘Universal Memory’ to replace the $100 billion market for Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) and flash drives. It promises to transform daily life with its ultra-low energy consumption, allowing computers which do not need to boot up and which could sleep between key strokes.” This quote is from a June 20, 2019 ScienceDaily article, contributed by Lancaster University, which points out that “Universal Memory, which has robustly stored data that is easily changed, is widely considered to be unfeasible, or even impossible, but this device demonstrates its contradictory properties.” See below, Discovery of a ‘holy grail’ with the invention of universal computer memory.
Current Issue
Articles in the current Issue cover:
The three things universities must do to survive disruption
“To remain relevant, Australia’s universities will need to transform into very different entities, with new business models that foster innovation and embrace the interconnection technology offers. And they will need to do so quickly.”
Exploring the causes of persistent corruption
“The team analyzed a basic model of bribery using evolutionary game theory—a framework originally developed to describe biological evolution and increasingly used to analyze social evolution. By adopting this viewpoint, the researchers explain, they posit that socioeconomic role players are guided by self-interest.”.
Australia can’t afford ‘tech passivity’ in parliament any longer
“ Only a rapid and radical shift by Australia to a more vigorous knowledge economy, driven by a much faster take-up of information technology across the country, will enable Australia to adapt to the several global crises the country now faces—in ICT trade wars, cyberspace security, geopolitical confrontation, and sustained drought (known by some as the climate emergency).”
Discovery of a ‘holy grail’ with the invention of universal computer memory
“Our device has an intrinsic data storage time that is predicted to exceed the age of the Universe, yet it can record or delete data using 100 times less energy than DRAM…”
QESP Blog
QESP Editor’s Note: The following blog is from a June 12, 2019 post in The Conversation by Jennifer Burn, Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Technology Sydney
Human trafficking and slavery still happen in Australia. This comic explains how
Events
Consensus Software Awards
World’s Most Successful Awards
2019 Awards Presentations
The second round of 2019 Consensus Software Awards are now open for entries to the end of September and will be presented at the end of October. There are now 9 Awards Programs with new ones for FinTech, Blockchain, Agriculture, Education and Cognitive. See www.consensus.com.au
The first set of 2019 Awards were presented on 9th May at PwC. If you would like to receive further information, please email.
Quotes
Quote of the Day
“An asteroid or a supervolcano could certainly destroy us, but we also face risks the dinosaurs never saw: An engineered virus, nuclear war, inadvertent creation of a micro black hole, or some as-yet-unknown technology could spell the end of us.” Elon Musk
Quote from Yesteryear
Credibility of the Media –“Modern man is staggering and losing his balance because he is being pelted with little pieces of alleged fact which are native to the newspapers; and, if they turn out not to be facts, that is still more native to newspapers.” – G K Chesterton Illustrated London News, April 7, 1923
Ted Smillie
QESP Chair