Can Australia compete in the global innovation and commercialisation race?

A strong, vibrant research and innovation ecosystem is critical to Australia’s future economic and social wellbeing. Last year’s pandemic-triggered a global shutdown. Still, collaboration and innovation across the community saved thousands of jobs. Despite this momentum, Australia has fallen to 23rd in the latest Global Innovation Index.

So why is Australia falling behind? And how do we bring our world-class research institutions and business together to create more jobs and boost innovation capacity? The answer lies in getting the R&D system right.

Join La Trobe’s online Thought Leadership event and hear from La Trobe Alumnus Dr Shane Arnott, Chief Engineer at Anduril, as he discusses the importance of strengthening Australia’s R&D system and creating a better environment for collaboration between research and industry.

This will be followed by a panel discussion of industry leaders discussing their experience as entrepreneurs and innovators in Australia. The panel will explore how they’ve managed to keep R&D and innovation in Australia while still being involved in running an international business from Australia.

Keynote Speaker

Dr. Shane Arnott is a Chief Engineer at Anduril Industries, a venture-backed defense technology company bringing cutting-edge artificial intelligence, sensor fusion, edge computing and more to the United States military and its allies. At Anduril, Dr. Arnott directs major engineering programs centered around autonomy, simulation, high performance user interfaces, and new product development.

Prior to joining Anduril, Dr. Arnott spent 23 years at The Boeing Company across Australia, United States and United Kingdom. He was the founding leader of the global Phantom Works division, most recently Program Director of the Airpower Teaming System (“loyal wingman”) program and one of Boeing’s most senior engineers as a Boeing Senior Technical Fellow. As Program Director of the loyal wingman, he brought the autonomous fighter from sketch to flight within 3 years to open up a multi-billion dollar market. In recognition of his work on this program, Dr. Arnott was awarded an Innovator of the Year and his team an Aviation Week Laureate for outstanding innovation in aerospace.

Dr. Arnott has worked as an Adjunct Professor at Queensland University of Technology in the Computer Science and Electrical Engineering Departments, is a GoFly Master Mentor and Lecturer on Model Based Engineering, a Techstars industry.