UNSW Canberra Three Minute Thesis

Greetings from the Canberra round of the UNSW Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition. I was one of the judges. As always this is difficult. It is a little like assessing student presentations, but needing a bit more entertainment value. 

Civil Defence Apps

Rhys Kissell, at hackathon start

Greetings from UNSW Canberra, where the Australian Defense Tech Hackathon just started. There is a room full of people ready to build defence related inventions. It was a unique and sobering experience to have a minute silence in memory of those lost in the Ukraine war. It was also useful to be reminded that defence tech is not all about drones dropping bombs, this can include civil defence. This is in conjunction with the European Defense Tech Hub. One interesting aspect is the emphasis on industry implementation and deployment, rather than just invent something. This is also a very hands on experience with UNSW's marker space with electronics equipment and 3d printers. I am presenting "How to Pitch to a General: Presenting to a Military Audience" 11am tomorrow for the hackerthon participants.

Who Hacks Wins: Australian Defense Tech Hackathon

I am delighted to be mentoring teams in the Australian Defense Tech Hackathon, 6 to 8  February 2026, at UNSW Canberra. This is being held in association with the European Defense Tech Hub. The usual hackathon format is used, with teams spending a few days working on an idea & competing for prizes. But the point with a hackerthon is that you are not there to invent something, but to learn.

This will be my fourth time mentoring at defence hackerthon. 

Event canvas from NWIW 2020
by Paul Telling

Two were hosed by the Australian Computer Society for the DoD and one by Navy. 

Also I have volunteered to to run a workshop on how to present tech to senior people. This semester I will be also helping out with ANU's Software Construction course, which uses hackerthons for learning.

Focus areas include the expected topics of electronic warfare & drones, but also includes "Battlefield Economics & Scaling Production". While the headlines are usually grabbed by exotic high tech weapons, if you can't afford to buy them or can't build them, they are no use.

Also I have offered to run a workshop on how to talk to your client when they are a general. This is not that different to talking to senior executives in industry or government, but there are some unusual conventions.

ps: Yes, as one of my eagle eyed colleagues pointed out this is the "Australian Defense Tech Hackathon", spelled with an American style "S" US, not the "C" of Australian English. This is in association with a European organisation, so it is not like it is a US thing. NATO use a "C" for English documents and "S" for French.  When I worked in HQ ADF I had a complaint from a US journalist that we had misspelled "Defense" in a policy document. A short time later we received a groveling apology. ;-)

"Goals

​​1) Solve urgent defense and security challenges ...

​​2) Launch new careers and companies...

​​3) Strengthen Australia through defense innovation... 

Focus Areas ...

1. ​SIGINT & OSINT
2. ​Computer Vision & Edge AI
3. ​Unmanned & Autonomous Systems (UxS)
4. ​Electronic Warfare (EW)
5. ​Modular Sensors
6. ​Drone & Counter-Drone Tech
7. ​Battlefield Economics & Scaling Production
8. ​Hypersonics and Missile Defence ...

Agenda

​
Friday, February 6, 2026

​​12:00 - Doors open, Networking

​13:00 - Welcome and Opening Program

​14:00 - Workshops

​17:00 - Introduction to Mentors & Challenges, Last-Minute Team Formation

​18:00 - Start of Hacking

​Saturday, February 7, 2026

​Hacking continues all day

​Sunday, February 8, 2026

​12:00 - End of Hacking, Lunch Break

​Demo Day (Open to Visitors)

​13:00 - Pitches of the winning teams

​15:00 - Award Ceremony

​15:30 - After-party & Networking"

Cyber security industry

Greetings from Launch on Northbourne, UNSW's startup centre in Canberra. They are hosting a Canberra Cyber Hub panel on research collaborations with industry. Andrew Muller from Ionize represents industry and Professor Debi Ashenden academia. The panel emphasized relationship over a transactional arrangement. The different speeds of industry and academia are also an issue. The chair is Melissa Larkins, from Canberra Cyber Hub.

Stackable Micro Credentials from UNSW Canberra

  Professor Blackburn, UNSW.
Photo by Tom Worthington CC-BY 2024.

Greetings from First Wednesday Connect at Canberra Innovation Network. The pitch from Professor Deborah Blackman hooked me with on Stackable Micro Credentials UNSW Canberra. UNSW offers very short training modules (called microcredentials). These can be used for credit towards a larger qualification, usually a graduate certificate. The idea is to supplement, rather than replace, conventional courses and qualifications, to top-up skills and knowledge quickly where needed. 

UNSW Canberra were hosting the event and this was a good opportunity to learn more about the business model behind their new Canberra CBD campus. What I couldn't understand was where UNSW was going to get all the students to fill the new classrooms: where they expecting to attract undergraduates to canberra from around Australia, or the world? The answer which became clear from a series of pitches from UNSW staff was that the new campus would focus on postgraduates, work shills and the needs of the Australian Public Service, the defence community and industry.

Australian industry, the public service and defence needs workers with new skills. Outbidding other employers for experienced staff is expensive, as is headhunting abroad. The better way to acquire stared staff is to take the staff you have and train them further. In 19 years with the Australian Public Service I was regularly sent on training courses run by top people in their field*. One problem in that system was the training was not formally recognised. Systems of nested microcredentials allow for recognition. I suggest this is the core of the future of Australian higher education. Unfortunately Australian universities are well behind their international competition, especially Singapore, with this.

ps: * Sometimes the training could be excessive. I was sent on two project management courses back to back. After a few days of intensive training I was ready to knot the sheets together and escape from my monk-like room in the Melbourne Business schools, but the windows did not open. ;-)

Billion Dollar UNSW Canberra Campus

Greetings from First Wednesday Connect in Building K at Canberra Institute of Technology. Normally this is at Canberra Innovation Network's office and I went there finding only two confused students. We found the event at the other side of the city, after a quick number 3 bus ride. We are here to celebrate approval of UNSW's new campus and new CIT courses.

The catering for this event was excellent, as Building K is the CIT Hospitality and Culinary School. ;-)

Is a New Canberra Campus Needed?

UNSW Canberra at ADFA are planning a new university campus in Canberra, on the site of the old Canberra TAFE. The current UNSW Canberra campus is described as being "now at capacity". However, universities are currently teaching online, with almost all students and staff off campus. That situation will change in the next few months, as students and staff return to campus. But, the COVID19 emergency has accelerated the long term trend to e-learning.

As this is integrated into routine university teaching, the capacity of Canberra's university campuses will increase five-fold. Domestic students will only need to be on campus for about one day a week and international students in Australia only for a brief part of their studies, if at all. There is scope to repurpose some of the surplus space for research and for co-working, but even so, there is likely to be more than enough space on Canberra's campuses for the foreseeable future. 

It does make sense to reuse the old Canberra TAFE site for a university, but it is unlikely Canberra will have the hundreds of thousands of additional students which this, and the existing campuses, could accommodate. 

Cyber Storm Conference in Canberra

UNSW Canberra has invited papers for  “Cyber Storm”, 18-20 February 2019. The conference will focus on training for cyber warfare.

"Australia’s former Minister of Cyber Security, Hon. Dan Tehan, warned in November 2016, of the need for the country to prepare for a cyber storm, even if it was an unlikely contingency. One view of the Cyber Storm sees it as the contingencies arising from protracted and complex, multi-vector, multi-wave, multi-theatre attacks against cyber assets. Such assets can include critical civil infrastructure, military C4ISTAR, computerised systems in weapons platforms, and even other civilian targets of military or national security significance.

This conference will concentrate on the role universities and professional education institutions, such as military colleges, can play to address the unique challenges of workforce formation for the Cyber Storm.

For middle powers like Australia, immense challenges exist in framing education and training solutions for these contingencies, as the research foundations on which these policy responses depend, are very weakly developed, or even non-existent. This is especially case in the sub-field of simulations. The conventional wisdom, or at least the dominant practice, has been that the knowledge, skills and abilities needed would be acquired “on the job” in highly classified environments. There has been little space for open-source research and therefore minimal open-source education and teaching. This scholarly conference will discuss research papers on these subjects by leading specialists from universities, professional colleges, think tanks, government, and industry. The academic portion of the conference will not have any special national focus, but papers that can address the U.S. experience or that of middle powers like Australia will be highly regarded. The academic portion will be followed by a one-day invitation-only policy workshop to give strategic planners in government, the armed forces and business the opportunity to reflect on practical recommendations arising from the scholarly research."

Canberra into Space

Greetings from the UNSW Canberra Campus, hosting the  Canberra Innovation Network's First Wednesday event. The host told us about UNSW Canberra Space, their motto should be "It is rocket science!". There were then eleven sixty second pitches. If you have a bright idea and have thought about turning it into a product, you should come along to such a pitch night at your local startup center. The room has a positive vibe.But the most useful part of the evening are not the formal presentations (which are short), but talking to people. I am interested in how to teach innovation online to graduate students and happened to meet someone enrolled in such a course.

Research to Impact Program

The Research to Impact program is on at Canberra Innovation Network (CBRIN), starting 14 March. This consists of four workshops, over two months, with participants undertaking exercises between. The workshops are derived from those at CBRIN for entrepreneurs to find market needs, value propositions, business models, value chain, collaboration and pitching. But the workshops have been adapted for researchers who want their work to have a real work impact and be applied. I attended these workshops when they were run in-house for ANU by Petr Adamek and Craig Davis in 2016 and they were excellent. Staff of ANU, UC, CIT, Data61, CSIRO and UNSW Canberra can attend for free.

Mental Models for Decision Making

Greetings from the Systems Modelling Conference at the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra. The keynote is by Associate Professor Shayne Gary, UNSW on Mental Models and Dynamic Decision Making. In several training courses I have been encouraged to draw a mental model and even shown software to help with the drawing. However, there was never any rigor to this process, nor theory behind it, just "draw something", so I dismissed this as trivial. However, Professor Gary is pointing out there is research into how these models help people understand a complex problem.But mental models can be misleading.

References

Gary, M. S., Yang, M. M., Yetton, P. W., & Sterman, J. D. (2017). Stretch Goals and the Distribution of Organizational Performance. Organization Science. URL https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2017.1131
Gary, M. S., Prietula, M. J., & Feltovich, P. (2017, January). Mental Models as the Interface between the Business Environment and Strategic Decisions. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2017, No. 1, p. 14588). Academy of Management. doi:10.5465/AMBPP.2017.14588abstract

Mastering the Cyber Security Skills Crisis with a Framework

Adam P. Henry, UNSW

Greetings from UNSW Canberra at the Australian Defence Force Academy, where Adam P. Henry, is speaking on his report "Mastering the Cyber Security Skills Crisis: Realigning Educational Outcomes to Industry Requirements".

Adam asserted that there is a shortage of cyber security personnel in Australia. However, his report is on university degrees, which are not necessarily intended to to provide "job ready" staff. University degrees provide a broad education and it is expected that industry and specific employers will provide specific job skills.

Some university degrees do provide specific work skills and experience, such as engineering and computer science. I am tutoring ANU engineering and computer science students in the ANU Techlauncher course after this seminar.  Some of these students undertake group projects for companies and government agencies, while others are individual "interns" working under supervision in organisaitons.

Adam emphasized practical time on task and testing of students on work-relevant exercises. He looked at different forms of education, including industry certifications, as well as higher education. Adam divided expertise into five levels, from basic to advanced expert. It would be useful to relate these to the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF), which has ten levels. He also divided the field of education into five areas, including "people". He also had nine purposes in his framework.

Adam conducted surveys of students. Interestingly, 40% of students were not already working in cyber security and 56% were studying to get a new job. Also 34% were interested in going on to a PHd. One this last point, I suggest a Professional Doctorate may be better than a PHd.

Adam compared the offered Australian degrees with a the requirements for the US standard cyber security job characteristics (NIST KSA).  However, he also pointed out that some cyber security jobs may be so specialized that the employees don't have a career path. That suggests that education needs to be broad to get the employees out of that trap.

This 28 page report argues that Master of Cyber Security programs in Australia do not meet the requirements of industry. However, this is based on comparing what is in the Australian degrees with U.S. Government requirements. As a trained and qualified educational designer, specializing in IT and with a background in defence, if you give me that as the requirement, I could design a degree program, to meet that specification. However, are the US requirements what Australian industry needs and who says what is required?

When designing engineering and computer science programs and courses, there are professional bodies for universities to turn to for guidance. Engineers Australia and the Australian Computer Society accredit relevant programs. There seems to be a lack of equivalent in the cyber security area. This is something the universities can help rectify. In practice many of the people who write the "industry" requirements for education are actually academics seconded to committees by EA and ACS.

The report is on firmer ground suggesting "... mission-specific and purpose-driven courses may better prepare students and address the skills crisis than generalist degrees." (p. 3). However, I suggest that purpose-driven courses can be incorporated into degree programs, using tools such as e-portfolios. The degree can provide a general framework, into which specific industry certifications can be inserted, as required.

Australia has an advantage when it comes to designing practical, flexible, education.  The vocational and university arms of education are able to support each other. The workforce can be trained by a combination of university degrees, vocation programs at government TAFEs and commercial training organizations (RTOs), plus training in the workplace RTOs.

ps: I prepared a Cyberwar Hypothetical for Teaching ICT Ethics at ANU.

Mastering the Cyber Security Skills Crisis in Canberra This Thursday

Adam P. Henry, UNSW

The report "Mastering the Cyber Security Skills Crisis: Realigning Educational Outcomes to Industry Requirements", by Adam P. Henry, has been released by the Australian Centre for Cyber Security (ACCCS). There will be a seminar about the report, 11:00am, 24 August 2017, at UNSW Canberra.

This 28 page report argues that Master of Cyber Security programs in Australia do not meet the requirements of industry. However, this is based on comparing what is in the Australian degrees with U.S. Government requirements. Australia's needs may not be the same as the USA and the UK's approach (coming from GCHQ) may be more appropriate. Also what is suitable for government and military requirements may not be what commercial industry need.

The report is on firmer ground suggesting "... mission-specific and purpose-driven courses may better prepare students and address the skills crisis than generalist degrees." (p. 3). However, I suggest that purpose-driven courses can be incorporated into degree programs, using tools such as e-portfolios. The degree can provide a general framework, into which specific industry certifications can be inserted, as required.

ps: I prepared a Cyberwar Hypothetical for Teaching ICT Ethics at ANU.

University Open Day in Canberra on Saturday 26 August

Canberra's universities and Institute of technology are having an open day on Saturday 26 August 2017. Prospective students, and anyone else who would like to see what happens at a university, can come and look:

1. Australian Catholic University (ACU)
2. Australian National University (ANU)
3. Canberra Institute of Technology (CIT)
4. University of Canberra
5. UNSW Canberra/Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA).

Each institution has its own character.  ACU is calm and cloistered, being a former seminary. ANU has a grand tree lined avenue, from North America's Ivy League. CIT has workshops and funky designers. UCan has gone upwards with new high rise accommodation. UNSW/ADFA is a modern interpretation of West Point Academy, with a parade ground and everything squared away.

New UNSW Campus in Canberra for 10,000 Students

The ACT Government has announced discussions with the University of New South Wales for a new campus for up to 10,000 students in Canberra. The ACT Government describes this as being "alongside" the Canberra Institute of Technology (CIT) Reid campus. However, news reports, such as in the Canberra Times, characterize this as a   redevelopment of the CIT site for UNSW and CIT.

The CIT Reid campus is in need of renewal (I was a student there in 1990 and it does not seem to have changed much). The building need to be refurbished or replaced to suit the new teaching techniques.

One aspect not discussed in the announcement, or media reports, is a possible role for the National Convention Centre Canberra (NCCC) in teaching. The NCCC is across the road from CIT and linked by a pedestrian bridge. The NCCC is also in need of renewal, no longer being adequate for national or international conferences. However, there has been no viable strategy to upgrade the NCCC by the ACT Government. It may be possible to have NCCC as part of a dual use university facility.

Modern university teaching facilities resemble a convention center, with large flexible spaces, movable seating and walls. Universities don't need large permanent lecture theaters, as students spend very little of their time in lectures. The new Australian National University union court will have large flat floor rooms, with Tiered Retractable Seating. At the push of a button a room can be converted from a flat open conference exhibition space, to a theater. Other rooms will have movable walls for meetings of dozens to hundreds of people. Something similar might be provided for UNSW/CIT.

As the ACT Government announcement notes, higher education is an important part of the Australian and Canberra economy. However, this depends on a fickle international student market which, like the extractive industry, can change rapidly. Australia is currently experiencing an unprecedented boom in student numbers. This could change without warning in a matter of days due to regional tensions, or incidents involving international students in Australia.

In the longer term, developed nations (including Australia) will continue to expand e-learning as an alternative to international student travel. I spent the last three years as an international Canadian graduate student, without ever having set foot on the campus I was studying at in Canada. Next week I will discuss a proposal for ANU to have 200,000 m-learning students.

Also countries in our region will continue to build their own universities to educate their own, and international students. Canberra's institutions will need to be able to offer a reasonably priced, quality blended programs to remain competitive with these international offerings.

Defining the ICT Curriculum

Greetings from the UNSW Canberra (at ADFA) where Lynette Johns-Boast from ANU is speaking on "A Definitional Framework for curriculum" at the "Conveticle on Computing Education". It is surprising that what a curriculum is could be so unclear. However, what a curriculum is depends on what the purpose of education is, what outcomes are expected and how prescriptive  the process to get there is. Lynette suggests a software engineering approach can be applied to curriculum design, working from the purpose of the course to the desired outcomes and from this set out the required content. This prevents courses growing in an uncontrolled way, with old content just accumulating. Lynette uses the analogy of university degrees built from building blocks, but I suggest my analogy of car "platforms" works better. Building blocks are of a fixed size, but car platforms are designed so they can be adjusted in size (within set limits) to build a small or large car. In the case of curriculum you could apply the platform to a short diploma, a degree or a masters.

Coming up is:

2:40 Potential for Secondary and Tertiary IT Pathways in the light of the Digital Technologies Curriculum, Bruce Fuda, Gunghalin College
3:20 Computing Ethics Education, Richard Lucas, UC
4:00 Close

Teaching Innovation in Canberra

Greetings from the UNSW Canberra (at ADFA) where Richa Awasthy, from ANU is speaking on "TechLauncher: A university course creating industry-ready graduates and entrepreneurship". I have been the "client" for one of the teams of students doing the TechLauncher Program at ANU (building webinar software to plug into Moodle). Richa described the complexities of having IT students do a real group project where they have to produce a product (and optionally do a company start-up). May institutions now have some sort of project course and possibly a start-up, but the interesting thing about TechLauncher is that it links together existing project and start-up programs.

Coming up are:

1:40 A Definitional Framework for curriculum

Lynette Johns-Boast, ANU
2:20 Afternoon tea
2:40 Potential for Secondary and Tertiary IT Pathways in the light of the Digital Technologies Curriculum, Bruce Fuda, Gunghalin College
3:20 Computing Ethics Education, Richard Lucas, UC
4:00 Close

ps: This morning I talked on Evolving Content and Assessment for an International Moodle Course

Looking for Graduate Outcomes

Greetings from the UNSW Canberra (at ADFA) where Tim Turner just opened the "Conveticle on Computing Education". This is a free, informal one day conference where researchers and practitioners can present and discuss.  The first speaker is Chris Johnson from ANU on "Academic Peer Assessment for Learning Standards". The issue is how you compare the educational product which different universities produce.  Interesting, while universities compare a lot of time and resources assessing their students, they do not like to be assessed themselves. ;-)

Chris went through some of the reasons for learning standards: for the university, government and employers (one not mentioned was the community). He suggested that the final capstone project which ICT students do would be one option for benchmarking.

I suggest that university, government and employers may have different priorities for what graduates should be able to do. Hamilton, Carbone, Gonsalvez, and Jollands (2015) have looked at what ICT employers want. In terms of the public interest I suggest that competence is sufficient: that is graduates should be able to do what they are supposed to do without accidentally killing anyone. Universities and employers might want some form of ranking above competent. Also, I suggest, that universities and employers may have different priorities.

One issue for employers have been the professional skills of the graduates. That is can they work in teams, deliver on time, understand business processes and communicate with non-specialists. Universities have responded by claiming students have these skills, by having them in extra-curricular activities, as separate courses or integrated. The latter two approaches I suggest could be implemented using e-portfolios.

Coming up are:

9:40 Evolving Content and Assessment for an International Moodle Course, Tom Worthington, ANU
10:20 Morning tea
10:40 Teaching Human Computer Interaction to International Students, Jennyfer Taylor, ANU
11:20 Teaching Technical Subjects on Moodle, Michael de Raadt, Moodle
12:00 Lunch
1:00 TechLauncher: A university course creating industry-ready graduates and entrepreneurship, Richa Awasthy, ANU
1:40 A Definitional Framework for curriculum
Lynette Johns-Boast, ANU
2:20 Afternoon tea
2:40 Potential for Secondary and Tertiary IT Pathways in the light of the Digital Technologies Curriculum, Bruce Fuda, Gunghalin College
3:20 Computing Ethics Education, Richard Lucas, UC
4:00 Close

Reference

Hamilton, M., Carbone, A., Gonsalvez, C., & Jollands, M. (2015, January). Breakfast with ICT Employers: What do they want to see in our graduates?. In Proceedings of the 17th Australasian Computing Education Conference (ACE 2015) (Vol. 27, p. 30). Retrieved from http://www.tomw.net.au/education/online_professional_education/eportfolio/

ps: Most of the time the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA)  campus looks like any other university (except the students are in uniform). But today I noticed a sign pointing to a cyber-security course and there are helicopters landing on the playing field.

Computing Education Conference in Canberra

UNSW Canberra (at ADFA) is hosting the "Conveticle on Computing Education", 27 October 2015 in Canberra. This is a free, informal one day conference where researchers and practitioners can present and discuss. Contact Tim Turner, for more details.

Draft Program

8:30 Arrival tea and coffee
9:00 Academic Peer Assessment for Learning Standards, Chris Johnson, ANU
9:40 Evolving Content and Assessment for an International Moodle Course, Tom Worthington, ANU
10:20 Morning tea
10:40 Teaching Human Computer Interaction to International Students, Jennyfer Taylor, ANU
11:20 Teaching Technical Subjects on Moodle, Michael de Raadt, Moodle
12:00 Lunch
1:00 TechLauncher: A university course creating industry-ready graduates and entrepreneurship, Richa Awasthy, ANU
1:40 A Definitional Framework for curriculum
Lynette Johns-Boast, ANU
2:20 Afternoon tea
2:40 Potential for Secondary and Tertiary IT Pathways in the light of the Digital Technologies Curriculum, Bruce Fuda, Gunghalin College
3:20 Computing Ethics Education, Richard Lucas, UC
4:00 Close

Forum on Computing Education in Canberra

UNSW Canberra (ADFA) is hosting the "Conveticle on Computing Education", 27 October 2015 in Canberra. This is a free, informal one day conference where researchers and practitioners can present and discuss. Tim Turner, has asked for presenters:

"I am writing to invite you to attend this year’s Conventicle on Computing Education. UNSW Canberra agreed to host the event in Canberra this year. ... Please feel free to forward this invitation to other peers with a similar interest. The conventicle is a free one-day forum where computing education practitioners and researchers share their innovations, ideas, and findings with like-minded people working in the same geographic region.

The conventicle is often used to pre-present or re-present recently accepted papers, but it is also a venue for presentation and discussion of hot topics or work in progress. Proposals are not formally reviewed, as they would be for a conference or journal, but are considered by a local organising committee.

No publication ensues, as many of the conventicle papers have been or are soon to be published elsewhere. Please respond to me with your interest in attending and your willingness to make a presentation at the conventicle.

I’ve scheduled the whole day (9:00am to 4:00pm) and would assume that we can have between 8 and 10 presentations (30 – 45mins each) separated by relevant breaks for tea/coffee/lunch/etc. ... I’m happy to discuss the day and expectations on participants in more detail with you, as required.

Please send along proposals for a presentation as soon as practical so that I can build a program. I look forward to seeing you all on 27 October. "

Dr Tim Turner, FACS Director, Undergraduate Studies School of Engineering and IT UNSW Canberra at the Australian Defence Force Academy Chair ACS Canberra Branch