Self Steering Antenna Research at Queens University Belfast

Speaker: Dr. Rowan Gilmore

Chief Executive Officer, Australian Institute for Commercialisation

When: 6.00 PM for 6.30PM START, Tue 10 August 2004


Venue: Room 420, GP South Building (number 78) 
              University Of Queensland, St Lucia. 
              http://www.uq.edu.au/maps/

 Host: Prof Marek Bialkowski (ITEE)/Dr Ashley Robinson (IEEE)

Abstract:

Innovation and industry-related R&D can be a significant contributor to a country's economic growth. While Australia is generally acknowledged as being productive at 'turning dollars into R&D', it is less efficient at 'turning R&D back into dollars'. This presentation compares Australia's commercialisation performance over the past three years against international benchmarks, and investigates local variations in commercialisation performance. The presentation will discuss the difficulties of commercialisation in Australia, and suggest possible solutions that are being facilitated by the Australian Institute for Commercialisation, founded in 2002 as a Smart-State initiative of the Queensland Government. In particular, while Australia has in place many of the assets and building blocks that are necessary for commercialisation, it generally lacks
the 'soft infrastructure' that allows these elements to interact smoothly and efficiently.  The presentation will also talk about other State and Commonwealth initiatives
 intended to foster the growth of small start up companies and assist the formation of clusters and economic growth.

Biography:

 Rowan Gilmore received his undergraduate education at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, where he was awarded the University Medal and the B.E. degree in Electrical Engineering (Hons) in 1976, and his graduate education at Washington University in St. Louis where he was awarded the D. Sc. Degree in 1984. His main area of research concerned the modelling of nonlinear behaviour in microwave MESFET circuits.

During his professional career he held a number of prestigious appointments such as Vice President of Engineering with Compact Software, where he led the introduction of Microwave Harmonica, the world's first commercial simulator applicable to the nonlinear design of microwave and RF circuits, and Vice President at SITA-Equant, operator of the world's most extensive data network, working with a number of airlines and multinationals on their data telecommunications and IT needs.

In the last two years, he has worked as the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Institute for Commercialisation, Brisbane, Australia, being responsible for establishing liaisons and facilitating technology transfer between universities and industry.

He has been active in the education of graduate engineers in industry, having taught courses around the world to nearly fifteen hundred practicing RF and microwave engineers for the over a decade. With Dr. Besser, he is co-author of the widely read two-volume textbook 'Practical RF Circuit Design for Modern Wireless Systems'.

Dr. Gilmore is a Chartered Engineer and Senior Member of the IEEE.

He is an Adjunct Professor in the School of ITEE at The University of Queensland.