Our vision for a Parramatta/Westmead campus

Artificial intelligence, machine learning and big data are becoming increasingly integrated into our worlds; 90 percent of all existing data has been created in the last two years, and new technologies are emerging to analyse and handle this unprecedented volume and diversity of data. This situation challenges us to fully understand the implications of these technologies, to avoid bias, stratification and inequality.

Radical inequality affects our health and our security, our job prospects and our environment, our wellbeing and our prosperity. It is arguably at the core of society’s most serious and recalcitrant problems, including preventable disease, unsustainable development, and ideological violence. We all stand to benefit from addressing the problem, whether we are in business, government, science, arts, or the community.

The technologies underpinning advanced manufacturing are a major agent for technological innovation, as they change the materials we can create, the designs we can deliver, the properties we can elicit, and the way we distribute our products. This has particular relevance in the Australian context, where these technologies offer the opportunity to negate traditional disadvantages (eg, ‘tyranny of distance’, high labour costs) to generate a renaissance in Australian manufacturing.

Australia’s health system faces serious challenges to quality and financial sustainability. We have an ageing population and a growing burden of chronic disease, which lead to increasing costs and difficulties with service delivery. These challenges can only be overcome if the University, in collaboration with health providers, industry and government, explores different approaches to health and wellbeing.