Swinburne Uni, Cisco sign research agreement

Swinburne University of Technology and Cisco are set to collaborate on ‘Internet of Everything’ research projects designed to enhance university student lectures and increase student participation rates, as part of an agreement signed by the two organisations.

“Cisco and Swinburne share the common vision of enhancing educational outcomes through the use of technology to improve lecture practice, underpin modern facilities development and improve student/community engagement in learning,” said Swinburne’s acting vice-chancellor, Professor Jennelle Kyd, said in a statement.

“We share a commitment to innovative teaching and to research that focuses on digital frontiers.”

Cisco defines the ‘Internet of Everything’ as encompassing networked ‘people, process, data, and things’.

Swinburne University recently signed a partnership with Cisco and Logicalis Australia to provide networking, software and services for the university’s project to upgrade its existing campus ICT infrastructure.

This upgrade will deliver a next-generation platform for communication and collaboration across the university.

Kyd cited, as an example of the possibilities that networking technologies had opened up, work that Swinburne researchers had conducted with colleagues 700 kilometres away at the CSIRO Parkes Radio Telescope to fine tune observations in real time.

“Technology trends at Swinburne have included greatly increased adoption of mobile and tablet devices by students and staff. These require significant bandwidth, increased video chat between students and teachers, and greater demand for high-performance applications,” she said.

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