SMART Infrastructure Facility (SMART) is a research institution in

Wollongong Wollongong ( ), colloquially referred to as The Gong, is a city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The name is believed to originate from the Dharawal language, meaning either 'five islands/clouds', 'ground near wate ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. SMART is an acronym for "

simulation A simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time. Simulations require the use of Conceptual model, models; the model represents the key characteristics or behaviors of the selected system or proc ...

, modelling, analysis, research and teaching". It opened in 2011 as Australia's first multi-disciplinary applied infrastructure research and training facility.

History

The facility was created through funding from: * $35 million from the Australian federal government (through the 2007 the Higher Education Endowment FundMedia Release: Higher Education Endowment Fund
, ''Department of Education, Training and Sciences Media Centre'', 8 May 2007House of Representatives: Official Hansard
University of Wollongong SMART Infrastructure Facility kicks off with 340 construction jobs
Joint Media Release, 29 May 2009 * $10 million through

RailCorp Rail Corporation New South Wales (RailCorp) was an agency of the State of New South Wales, Australia established under the ''Transport Administration Act 1988'' in 2004. It was a division under the control of Transport for NSW since the latter' ...

;"Premier announces SMART Rail Institute"
''SMART: Latest News'', 10 July 2009 * $16 million from the

University of Wollongong The University of Wollongong (abbreviated as UOW) is an Australian public research university located in the coastal city of Wollongong, New South Wales, approximately 80 kilometres south of Sydney. As of 2017, the university had an enrolment of ...

;University of Wollongong Annual Report 2010
/ref> * Approx $800,000 from state government authorities (

Queensland Rail Queensland Rail (QR) is a railway operator in Queensland, Australia. Owned by the Queensland Government, it operates local and long-distance passenger services, as well as owning and maintaining approximately 6,600 kilometres of track and relate ...

Integral Energy Integral energy is the amount of energy required to remove water from soil with an initial water content \theta_i to water content of \theta_f (where \theta_i > \theta_f). It is calculated by integrating the water retention curve, soil water poten ...

and

Geoscience Australia Geoscience Australia is an agency of the Australian Government. It carries out geoscientific research. The agency is the government's technical adviser on all aspects of geoscience, and custodian of the geographic and geological data and knowl ...

), industry (

BlueScope BlueScope Steel Limited is an Australian flat product steel producer that was spun-off from BHP Billiton in 2002. History BlueScope was formed when BHP Billiton spun-off its steel assets on 15 July 2002 as BHP Steel. It was renamed BlueScope ...

, Cisco Systems Australia and

Cognos Cognos Incorporated was an Ottawa, Ontario-based company making business intelligence (BI) and performance management (PM) software. Founded in 1969, at its peak Cognos employed almost 3,500 people and served more than 23,000 customers in over 1 ...

), and other research bodies (

Australian Bureau of Statistics The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is the independent statutory agency of the Australian Government responsible for statistical collection and analysis and for giving evidence-based advice to federal, state and territory governments ...

and

CSIRO The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentar ...

)NSW Business Sector: Information & Communication Technology
/ref>

Research groups

SMART's commissioned research program ranges from

big data Though used sometimes loosely partly because of a lack of formal definition, the interpretation that seems to best describe Big data is the one associated with large body of information that we could not comprehend when used only in smaller am ...

on cities,

economic analysis Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyzes ...

and scenario planning tools for

land use Land use involves the management and modification of natural environment or wilderness into built environment such as settlements and semi-natural habitats such as arable fields, pastures, and managed woods. Land use by humans has a long h ...

and

transport Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipeline, an ...

. They investigate how infrastructure can be better designed, delivered and managed to meet the changing needs of the society over the long term. Research groups contribute to specific commissioned research projects, and promote academic

key performance indicator A performance indicator or key performance indicator (KPI) is a type of performance measurement. KPIs evaluate the success of an organization or of a particular activity (such as projects, programs, products and other initiatives) in which it en ...

s such as publications, HDR students and competitive research grants. Commissioned research projects and consultancies fund the facility through revenue and strategic partnerships. The seven research groups consist of: *Advanced

Geomatics Geomatics is defined in the ISO/TC 211 series of standards as the " discipline concerned with the collection, distribution, storage, analysis, processing, presentation of geographic data or geographic information". Under another definition, it ...

for Regional and

Urban Planning Urban planning, also known as town planning, city planning, regional planning, or rural planning, is a technical and political process that is focused on the development and design of land use and the built environment, including air, water, ...

*Applying System of Systems Methodologies *

Computer Simulation Computer simulation is the process of mathematical modelling, performed on a computer, which is designed to predict the behaviour of, or the outcome of, a real-world or physical system. The reliability of some mathematical models can be dete ...

for Sustainable

Transport System A transport network, or transportation network, is a network or graph in geographic space, describing an infrastructure that permits and constrains movement or flow. Examples include but are not limited to road networks, railways, air routes, ...

s *

Computational Intelligence The expression computational intelligence (CI) usually refers to the ability of a computer to learn a specific task from data or experimental observation. Even though it is commonly considered a synonym of soft computing, there is still no c ...

for Optimal Decision and Operation *Economics and Governance *Geo-social Intelligence for

Urban Resilience Urban resilience has conventionally been defined as the "measurable ability of any urban system, with its inhabitants, to maintain continuity through all shocks and stresses, while positively adapting and transforming towards sustainability". Ther ...

and Liveability *Social Simulation for

Demographic Analysis Demography () is the statistical study of populations, especially human beings. Demographic analysis examines and measures the dimensions and dynamics of populations; it can cover whole societies or groups defined by criteria such as edu ...

and Transitions

Henry Ergas Henry Isaac Ergas is an economist who has worked at the OECD, Australian Trade Practices Commission (now the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission) as well as at a number of economic consulting firms. He chaired the Australian Intellectu ...

is a professor there. Leading Economist Appointed at SMART Infrastructure Facility
, ''Campus Daily'', 18 August 2010

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:SMART Infrastructure Facility Institutes of the University of Wollongong