Energy Beyond Bab al-Mandeb

Greetings from the ANU Energy Update 2026 subtitled "Beyond Hormuz - Australia and the new energy geopolitics". Things are moving fast in the energy sector, with the title already out of date, the geopolitics having shifted focus to the Bab al-Mandeb Strait. More locally, Anthropic has announced a $31bn data centre in western Queensland, which will require a considerable amount of energy. I am in the room at the Australian National University, but the event is also available live online. 

Taking the second point first, the Anthropic facility will likely to contract for its own renewable supply, use its own batteries, and supplement this with locally extracted gas.

Essentially, a data center is a large shed, built on a concrete pad. There will need to be a lot of plumbing for cooling, & power installed. After than racks of equipment are trucked in, bolted down & plugged in. After being built, a few people are needed to guard the premises, clean & carry out maintenance. The programmers & other software staff are elsewhere. So there will be very few long term jobs in Queensland, or Australia, from the facility. 

Some data centers dispense with the big shed & simply put the computers in shipping containers, looking much like a big battery. 

One area which might take off in Australia is plug-in solar panels. In Europe these are seen as being for balconies of apartments. However, in Australia they may become popular for detached houses. The practical limit for a plugin system is about 7 square meters of panels. This is about as much as you can hang off a balcony & as much as the household wiring can easily carry. However, adding a battery to the system could provide all the off peak energy a small home needs. One potential application would be a standalone solar carport to charge an electric car. 

AI in Practice in Industry

Back in July I took part in"Still figuring out what AI means for your business?", a webinar by Siobhan O'Sullivan for the Future Skills Organisation. This demonstrated the Australian Government sponsored SME AI Coach. FSO have having two new seminars on "AI in Practice" & "AI in Industry, both on 30 September. 

Designing Assessment in the AI Age

Greetings from the Teaching and Learning Showcase 2026 on the "Super-floor" at the Australian National University, where educators are work shopping how to change assessment in the light of the use of AI. The first point there was general agreement that the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) preferred approach of more exams was not a good idea. One thought was that assessment should not be a form of sadomasochism. 

My preference is "show your work", where students learn good professional practice, having to show every detail of how & when they developed their final solution. Rather than the assessor trying to work out if the student did the work themselves, require the student to provide evidence of what they did. 

ANU STEM Interns Available

The Australian National University is looking for organisations to host interns, in early 2027. I mentor computer interns who are placed in consulting companies, software developers, & government agencies. The students learn to deal with corporate culture, having to dress appropriately, prepare presentations, and go out for coffee. One group of students, at one of the world premier consulting companies, were worried that they did not do anything "technical", just make slides. I congratulated them for making the "big time". It took me 19 years working for government to be doing power point slides for the senior executives. ;-)