In this Thought Piece, NSW Smart Sensing Network Chief Operating Officer Nicholas Haskins reflects on the NSSN’s 10th Anniversary and why the community, relationships and trust built over the past decade are among the network’s most enduring achievements.

Founders, university partners, researchers, industry, government and collaborators who have helped shape the NSSN over the past decade came together to celebrate the network’s 10th birthday at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney on Monday night.

Australian-made aircraft, advanced manufacturing and smart sensing technologies were in focus at the NSW Smart Sensing Network’s first Sensing Industry Connect event at Western Sydney University’s Bankstown City campus.

In this Thought Piece, NSSN Natural Hazards and Smart Cities Theme Lead Peter Runcie writes that environmental sensing should become essential public infrastructure, enabling governments, emergency services and communities to make better decisions through shared, local environmental information.

Adrian Tyson is the founder of Neuranext, a company which is helping build the next generation of talent in smart sensing and robotics through immersive learning experiences featuring computer vision systems, autonomous vehicles, AI-powered drones and advanced robotics.

As the NSSN marks its 10-year anniversary this month, the people who helped create and lead the network reflect on why it was needed, how it was built, and why its collaborative model remains as important today as ever. 

Dr Anastasiia Tukova is a Lighthouse Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Natural Sciences at Macquarie University, where she designs plasmonic nanostructures and applies Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy for biosensing and bioimaging.

From AI-powered bird monitoring at wind farms and a low-cost hearing screening test for newborns to satellite-enabled forest monitoring in remote areas and an early warning system for electric vehicle battery fires, five innovative projects have secured funding through this year’s NSSN Grand Challenge Fund.

The NSSN is proud to announce the newest additions to its Board: Tara Croft, Ellen Gorissen, and Jeff Oatman.  

Australia is home to world-leading smart sensing research, yet many promising technologies struggle to achieve commercial scale. In this Thought Piece, technology executive and NSSN Board Member Loïc Barancourt explores one of the sector’s greatest challenges: turning technical excellence into commercial success.

Dr Thor Slater has joined the NSSN as Net Zero Theme Lead and Business Development Manager. He brings more than 25 years’ experience connecting university research with industry and government across Australia and the UK.

Jo White steps down as Board Chair of the NSSN at the end of June after four years in the role. Here, she reflects on “an extraordinarily rewarding journey - one that has reinforced for me the power of connections, collaboration and purposeful innovation.”