- Visiting_residents - Australian Centre for Robotics

[Everybody at ACFR] Placeholder ACFR Seminar Series: Dr. Graeme Best from UTS
by Sabrina Asri 07 May '26

07 May '26

Hi everyone, This is a placeholder for a seminar by Dr Grarme Best from UTS. Further details on his talk will be updated soon. Thank you. _______________________________________________ Everybody mailing list -- everybody(a)acfr.usyd.edu.au To unsubscribe send an email to everybody-leave(a)acfr.usyd.edu.au

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[Everybody at ACFR] Tutor for Space Eng 2
by Salah Sukkarieh 07 May '26

07 May '26

Hi All, Anyone interested in being a tutor for Space Eng 2 (third year) AERO3760 - let me know. Salah _______________________________________________ Everybody mailing list -- everybody(a)acfr.usyd.edu.au To unsubscribe send an email to everybody-leave(a)acfr.usyd.edu.au

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[Everybody at ACFR] TODAY: ACFR Seminar Series -
by Australian Centre For Robotics Administration 06 May '26

06 May '26

Hi everyone, A kind reminder about today's seminar as detailed below. A light lunch will be served from 12.30pm: Faculty of Engineering ACFR Seminar Series [https://d31hzlhk6di2h5.cloudfront.net/20260501/44/a0/ac/85/83de99ae1318da0a…] [https://d31hzlhk6di2h5.cloudfront.net/20260501/c6/93/17/4e/93651822f71449ac…] Optimizing for the Unknown: Toward Robots That Can Go Anywhere, Handle Anything, and Learn from Little Presented by Dr. Ian Abraham Date: Thursday, 7 May 2026, at 1:00 pm AEDT Venue: ACFR seminar area, J04 level 2 (Rose St Building<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/OzZuCJyBrGf1L7EEniYcoUyzu3x?domain=t…>) Zoom ID: https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/s/87306457455<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/A_lJCK1DvKTBxj551TNf4U5Ca3P?domain=t…> **RSVP by Tuesday 5 May for catering purposes. Accept this calendar invitation if you plan to attend the seminar in person and join us for a light lunch at approximately 12.30pm. Abstract: Robots have the potential to become extraordinary tools that extend humanity's reach, automating tasks that range from exploring the solar system and the vast oceans to manipulating delicate objects in our homes. Across these settings, robots face a common challenge: they must make good decisions when the world is only partially known, data are scarce, and mistakes are costly. In this talk, I will present recent work from my group on principled numerical optimization methods that enable robots to reason, act, and learn in these partially observable, remote, and uncertain worlds. I will show how these methods expand robotic capabilities to support long-horizon ocean exploration by balancing information gathering, safety, and resource constraints; improve precision manipulation by accounting for uncertainty in perception, contact, and dynamics; and accelerate multi-modal (visual) policy learning by extracting more capability from limited experience. Across these domains, the central theme is that optimization provides a powerful language for building robots that are not merely reactive, but purposeful robots that can plan over long timescales, adapt to changing conditions, and learn efficiently from the data available to them. Together, these methods point toward a future in which robots can go farther, handle more varied tasks, and learn faster in the real world-bringing robust autonomy to environments where human presence is limited, uncertainty is unavoidable, and intelligent decision-making matters most. Bio: Ian Abraham is currently a Senior Lecturer in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Sydney with an affiliation at the Australian Centre for Robotics. His research sits at the intersection of robotics, optimization, control, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. His work develops computational methods that enable robotic systems to intelligently interact with, explore, and learn in extreme and remote environments. He has been recognized with numerous prestigious awards, including an NSF CAREER award as a professor in the US. Prior to joining the University of Sydney, Ian was an Assistant Professor at Yale University in the Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science Departments. He received his PhD degree from Northwestern University and was a Postdoctoral Scholar at the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. [Register for Event >] <https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/1mkXCL7EwMfmMJnn3H4hkUyqGzZ?domain=t…> [https://d31hzlhk6di2h5.cloudfront.net/20260501/2e/8d/c7/1c/1c70baef8b350e38…] [Web Site]<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/1RTYCNLJyQUE52mm6igszUyIpoe?domain=t…> [LinkedIn]<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/ZAjdCOMKzVT0r6mmOiBtrUG-FCk?domain=t…> [X]<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/tHjKCP7LAXfoA7EE6ikugUxRwh7?domain=t…> [YouTube]<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/adihCQnMBZf345jjRi0COUG06Tr?domain=t…> Copyright (c) 2026 The University of Sydney Please add acfr.admin(a)sydney.edu.au<mailto:acfr.admin@sydney.edu.au> to your address book or senders safe list to make sure you continue to see our emails in the future. Cricos Code 00026A TEQSA PRV12057 Disclaimer<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/DeIBCROND2uRPAqqOc2FGU1iv17?domain=t…> | Privacy statement<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/OKN3CVARKgC5jDooZS1HBUEczsO?domain=t…> | Manage<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/6LJ1CBNqjlCMJg55ntQI5U2S4iA?domain=a…> your preferences | Opt Out<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/iVkdCD1vlpTnrRllxcvSrUjYjgq?domain=t…> using TrueRemove(tm) Got this as a forward? Sign up<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/tfZrCE8wmrtgoQ55qUkTxU7Qf4G?domain=a…> to receive our future emails. View this email online<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/TNoSCGv0oyC0ZV558iPU4UB0lhc?domain=t…>. Rose Street Building J04 Level 2 | Darlington, 2008 AU Best regards, Sabrina Sabrina Asri | Senior Admin Officer The University of Sydney Faculty of Engineering, Australian Centre for Robotics Rose Street Building J04 | The University of Sydney | NSW | 2006 +61 2 9351 7126 | sabrina.asri(a)sydney.edu.au<mailto:sabrina.asri@sydney.edu.au> | sydney.edu.au<http://sydney.edu.au/> [A black background with a black square AI-generated content may be incorrect.] CRICOS 00026A TEQSA PRV12057 This email plus any attachments to it are confidential. Any unauthorised use is strictly prohibited. If you receive this email in error, please delete it and any attachments. Please think of our environment and only print this email if necessary. _______________________________________________ Everybody mailing list -- everybody(a)acfr.usyd.edu.au To unsubscribe send an email to everybody-leave(a)acfr.usyd.edu.au

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[Everybody at ACFR] PhD Oral Thesis Defence: Milan Tomy
by Sabrina Asri 06 May '26

06 May '26

Faculty of Engineering PhD Thesis Public Presentation [https://d31hzlhk6di2h5.cloudfront.net/20260505/44/a0/ac/85/83de99ae1318da0a…] [https://d31hzlhk6di2h5.cloudfront.net/20260505/42/ec/a6/5b/4d1562c49d2410a9…] Milan Tomy will present her thesis titled Integrating Non-Markovian Constraint Satisfaction in MCTS for Haul-Truck Dispatch Under Operational Constraints. Please join us in recognising this significant milestone in Milan’s academic journey and celebrating her sustained commitment and extensive research in this field. Date: Tuesday, 12 May 2026 Time: 08:00 AM (AEDT). *Light breakfast will be served Venue: ACFR Seminar Area J04, Level 2 Seminar Room (Rose Street Building<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/vzpLC2xMQziRx4N8wimUjU5fI1l?domain=t…>) Online: https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/j/83901112732?from=addon<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/hGt0C3QNPBiG8P52QC8cyUQJYjR?domain=t…> Abstract: Operational constraint satisfaction in haul-truck dispatch planning is essential for ensuring safety, equipment longevity, and continuous production at mine sites. Many operational constraints are non-Markovian, as they depend on execution history and anticipated future system evolution to ensure feasibility. In practice, such constraints are often handled outside the dispatch optimisation process using heuristic controllers or human intervention. Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) has emerged as an adaptable approximate approach for large-scale haul-truck dispatch optimisation. However, satisfying non-Markovian constraints within MCTS is challenging due to incomplete tree exploration and uncertain future violation estimates. To address these challenges, this thesis investigates opportunity-cost-based and robustness-based violation measures, together with algorithms for balancing exploration, exploitation, and constraint satisfaction in MCTS. The proposed non-Markovian constrained MCTS planners are evaluated in simulated mining domains of increasing complexity and constraint interdependence. Results demonstrate the potential of constrained MCTS methods for adaptable non-Markovian constraint handling under dynamic operational conditions. Bio: Milan is a PhD researcher with the Rio Tinto Sydney Innovation Hub at the University of Sydney, undertaking her PhD in the School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering (AMME), working on constrained planning algorithms. She completed her MSc in Robotics at the University of Birmingham and her BTech in Electronics and Communication Engineering at National Institute of Technology Calicut, India. Her research interests include task planning and decision-making under uncertainty. Her work spans applications in mining logistics, robotics, epidemiological modelling, and power signal analysis. [https://d31hzlhk6di2h5.cloudfront.net/20260505/2e/8d/c7/1c/1c70baef8b350e38…] [Web Site]<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/7r7nC4QOPEimjnpl1i8f7U4AwBK?domain=t…> [LinkedIn]<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/HYaHC5QPXJixnzV6Gt3hNUkXc9G?domain=t…> [X]<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/qPy4C6XQ4Lf13gnyKt1irU5NZdP?domain=t…> [YouTube]<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/ndn-C71R2NTQP0OZki5sAUon35T?domain=t…> Copyright © 2026 The University of Sydney Please add acfr.admin(a)sydney.edu.au<mailto:acfr.admin@sydney.edu.au> to your address book or senders safe list to make sure you continue to see our emails in the future. Cricos Code 00026A TEQSA PRV12057 Disclaimer<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/Pz4BC81V0PTzJA7YRsxtvUyaVih?domain=t…> | Privacy statement<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/hKdIC91WPRTMZ652BCJunUq5KL_?domain=t…> | _______________________________________________ Everybody mailing list -- everybody(a)acfr.usyd.edu.au To unsubscribe send an email to everybody-leave(a)acfr.usyd.edu.au

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[Everybody at ACFR] ACFR Seminar Series: Dr Ian Abraham - Optimizing for the Unknown: Toward Robots That Can Go Anywhere, Handle Anything, and Learn from Little
by Sabrina Asri 01 May '26

01 May '26

Faculty of Engineering ACFR Seminar Series [https://d31hzlhk6di2h5.cloudfront.net/20260501/44/a0/ac/85/83de99ae1318da0a…] [https://d31hzlhk6di2h5.cloudfront.net/20260501/c6/93/17/4e/93651822f71449ac…] Optimizing for the Unknown: Toward Robots That Can Go Anywhere, Handle Anything, and Learn from Little Presented by Dr. Ian Abraham Date: Thursday, 7 May 2026, at 1:00 pm AEDT Venue: ACFR seminar area, J04 level 2 (Rose St Building<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/OzZuCJyBrGf1L7EEniYcoUyzu3x?domain=t…>) Zoom ID: https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/s/87306457455<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/A_lJCK1DvKTBxj551TNf4U5Ca3P?domain=t…> **RSVP by Tuesday 5 May for catering purposes. Accept this calendar invitation if you plan to attend the seminar in person and join us for a light lunch at approximately 12.30pm. Abstract: Robots have the potential to become extraordinary tools that extend humanity’s reach, automating tasks that range from exploring the solar system and the vast oceans to manipulating delicate objects in our homes. Across these settings, robots face a common challenge: they must make good decisions when the world is only partially known, data are scarce, and mistakes are costly. In this talk, I will present recent work from my group on principled numerical optimization methods that enable robots to reason, act, and learn in these partially observable, remote, and uncertain worlds. I will show how these methods expand robotic capabilities to support long-horizon ocean exploration by balancing information gathering, safety, and resource constraints; improve precision manipulation by accounting for uncertainty in perception, contact, and dynamics; and accelerate multi-modal (visual) policy learning by extracting more capability from limited experience. Across these domains, the central theme is that optimization provides a powerful language for building robots that are not merely reactive, but purposeful robots that can plan over long timescales, adapt to changing conditions, and learn efficiently from the data available to them. Together, these methods point toward a future in which robots can go farther, handle more varied tasks, and learn faster in the real world—bringing robust autonomy to environments where human presence is limited, uncertainty is unavoidable, and intelligent decision-making matters most. Bio: Ian Abraham is currently a Senior Lecturer in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Sydney with an affiliation at the Australian Centre for Robotics. His research sits at the intersection of robotics, optimization, control, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. His work develops computational methods that enable robotic systems to intelligently interact with, explore, and learn in extreme and remote environments. He has been recognized with numerous prestigious awards, including an NSF CAREER award as a professor in the US. Prior to joining the University of Sydney, Ian was an Assistant Professor at Yale University in the Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science Departments. He received his PhD degree from Northwestern University and was a Postdoctoral Scholar at the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. [Register for Event >]<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/1mkXCL7EwMfmMJnn3H4hkUyqGzZ?domain=t…> [https://d31hzlhk6di2h5.cloudfront.net/20260501/2e/8d/c7/1c/1c70baef8b350e38…] [Web Site]<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/1RTYCNLJyQUE52mm6igszUyIpoe?domain=t…> [LinkedIn]<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/ZAjdCOMKzVT0r6mmOiBtrUG-FCk?domain=t…> [X]<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/tHjKCP7LAXfoA7EE6ikugUxRwh7?domain=t…> [YouTube]<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/adihCQnMBZf345jjRi0COUG06Tr?domain=t…> Copyright © 2026 The University of Sydney Please add acfr.admin(a)sydney.edu.au<mailto:acfr.admin@sydney.edu.au> to your address book or senders safe list to make sure you continue to see our emails in the future. Cricos Code 00026A TEQSA PRV12057 Disclaimer<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/DeIBCROND2uRPAqqOc2FGU1iv17?domain=t…> | Privacy statement<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/OKN3CVARKgC5jDooZS1HBUEczsO?domain=t…> | Manage<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/6LJ1CBNqjlCMJg55ntQI5U2S4iA?domain=a…> your preferences | Opt Out<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/iVkdCD1vlpTnrRllxcvSrUjYjgq?domain=t…> using TrueRemove™ Got this as a forward? Sign up<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/tfZrCE8wmrtgoQ55qUkTxU7Qf4G?domain=a…> to receive our future emails. View this email online<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/TNoSCGv0oyC0ZV558iPU4UB0lhc?domain=t…>. Rose Street Building J04 Level 2 | Darlington, 2008 AU _______________________________________________ Everybody mailing list -- everybody(a)acfr.usyd.edu.au To unsubscribe send an email to everybody-leave(a)acfr.usyd.edu.au

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[Everybody at ACFR] Congratulations to Heather!
by Stefan Williams 29 Apr '26

29 Apr '26

Hi All, Congratulations to Heather on her PhD thesis defence presentation yesterday. The presentation was very well received by the examiners and audiences both in person and online. I understand that this was followed up by a very productive discussion with the examiners. Well done! Stefan [Description: USY_MB1_RGB_1_Colour_Standard_Logo.jpg] Prof. Stefan B. Williams Professor of Marine Robotics stefan.williams(a)sydney.edu.au<mailto:stefan.williams@sydney.edu.au> +61 0403 849 183 _______________________________________________ Everybody mailing list -- everybody(a)acfr.usyd.edu.au To unsubscribe send an email to everybody-leave(a)acfr.usyd.edu.au

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[Everybody at ACFR] TODAY: ACFR Seminar Series: Dr. Clyde Webster - Three Years Sober: From Research to Commercialisation
by Australian Centre For Robotics Administration 29 Apr '26

29 Apr '26

Hi everyone, A kind reminder about today's seminar as detailed below. A light lunch will be served from 12.30pm: Faculty of Engineering ACFR Seminar Series [https://d31hzlhk6di2h5.cloudfront.net/20260424/44/a0/ac/85/83de99ae1318da0a…] [cid:image002.jpg@01DCD882.A8DB3A80] Three Years Sober: From Research to Commercialisation Presented by Dr. Clyde Webster Date: Thursday, 30 April 2026, at 1:00 pm AEDT Venue: ACFR seminar area, J04 level 2 (Rose St Building<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/gH37CK1DvKTBLzkOEuXcLT5OXhT?domain=t…>) Zoom ID: https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/s/87306457455<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/mITKCL7EwMfmLy2Kjcxf2TyqN6R?domain=t…> **RSVP by Tuesday 28 April for catering purposes. Accept this calendar invitation if you plan to attend the seminar in person and join us for a light lunch at approximately 12.30pm Abstract: This talk traces Dr. Clyde Webster's journey from the curiosity-driven world of academic research to the unforgiving realities of building a deep-tech robotics startup from scratch. Along the way, an unlikely detour through the biomechanics of parrot locomotion gave rise to a novel approach to robot design and a broader philosophy about where the best engineering ideas actually come from. Moving from research into commercialisation has been as much a personal journey as a professional one. Clyde's understanding of what it means to create value, validate ideas, and build something durable has evolved significantly along the way, and with it, his appreciation for what academic research does uniquely well and where the two worlds can complement each other most effectively. Drawing on three and a half years of building Crest Robotics from the ground up, Clyde reflects honestly on the transition, the mindset shifts it demanded and the ways his relationship with universities has changed from the inside out. Rather than a story of departure, this is a story about learning to engage differently, treating academic institutions as genuine partners for talent, collaborative research, and shared infrastructure while navigating the realities of building under commercial constraints. This talk is for researchers who want their work to reach further, and for anyone who has ever wondered what it would take to build something with it. Bio: Dr. Clyde Webster is the Founder and Managing Director of Crest Robotics, a company built on a simple conviction: the industries that keep our infrastructure running and our workers safe have never needed better tools more urgently, and robotic technology has never been more capable of providing them. The gap between those two facts is the problem Crest exists to solve. As the world's first self-proclaimed robotics morphologist, his career has been shaped by one recurring question: what form best serves a given function? His PhD at the University of Technology Sydney began with a practical challenge posed by the Tokyo Electric Power Company, on how to keep workers safe maintaining complex power transmission infrastructure. Searching for answers led him to an unlikely source of inspiration. Parrots use three limbs to navigate complex structures while performing work at height, a form perfectly matched to its function. That insight became the foundation of a novel robot architecture and a broader philosophy that has guided his work ever since. That question also took him to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a visiting scholar, publishing collaborative research on rover morphology for lunar exploration, and into industry as a lead engineer at Space Machines Company during Australia's largest ever spacecraft launch. But founding his own company was always the destination, and three and a half years ago Clyde launched Crest Robotics, building it entirely from sales and competitive grants. Within the first twelve months, Crest had signed Transgrid, breaking into the energy sector ahead of any realistic expectation for a bootstrapped hardware startup. The company has since grown to a team of seven, expanding its customer base to include Powercor, Powerlink, and Zinfra. That same form-meets-function thinking shaped Charlotte, a bio-inspired construction robot that straddles walls as it prints using locally sourced materials, deployable in a fraction of the time and footprint of conventional gantry systems. Developed with support from the NSW Space+ Program, Charlotte attracted letters of collaboration from commercial lunar payload providers including Intuitive Machines and ispace when demonstrated at the 2025 International Astronautical Congress in Sydney. Clyde is actively seeking collaborations with researchers working in construction, infrastructure, and related fields, and is particularly interested in connecting with academics ready to see their work create tangible impact in industry. [Register for Event >] <https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/RKjkCMwGxOtRjMYXOt7hXT8aeRn?domain=t…> [https://d31hzlhk6di2h5.cloudfront.net/20260424/2e/8d/c7/1c/1c70baef8b350e38…] [Web Site]<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/YGI0COMKzVT03zknRslsKTG4-Ec?domain=t…> [LinkedIn]<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/cgaoCP7LAXfoQ8nWGsptmTxjkbi?domain=t…> [X]<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/bjlqCQnMBZf37MLOAI6u6TGk1-G?domain=t…> [YouTube]<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/RILbCROND2uRNjXEmt7CRT10jA6?domain=t…> Copyright (c) 2026 The University of Sydney Please add acfr.admin(a)sydney.edu.au<mailto:acfr.admin@sydney.edu.au> to your address book or senders safe list to make sure you continue to see our emails in the future. Cricos Code 00026A TEQSA PRV12057 Disclaimer<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/nHGaCVARKgC5MN83whlFATE-uua?domain=t…> | Privacy statement<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/-xTJCWLVXkUP0R8O9fvHQTopIBq?domain=t…> | Manage<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/w9icCD1vlpTnXNZqvinI2TjZIIO?domain=a…> your preferences | Opt Out<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/VA49CE8wmrtgBVjL9IKSoT7YpiV?domain=t…> using TrueRemove(tm) Got this as a forward? Sign up<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/5sUFCGv0oyC0wK9kYsBTjTBgdGu?domain=a…> to receive our future emails. View this email online<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/VcqTCJyBrGf1x3oZrs8UyTyDvTc?domain=t…>. Rose Street Building J04 Level 2 | Darlington, 2008 AU Best regards, Sabrina Sabrina Asri | Senior Admin Officer The University of Sydney Faculty of Engineering, Australian Centre for Robotics Rose Street Building J04 | The University of Sydney | NSW | 2006 +61 2 9351 7126 | sabrina.asri(a)sydney.edu.au<mailto:sabrina.asri@sydney.edu.au> | sydney.edu.au<http://sydney.edu.au/> [A black background with a black square AI-generated content may be incorrect.] CRICOS 00026A TEQSA PRV12057 This email plus any attachments to it are confidential. Any unauthorised use is strictly prohibited. If you receive this email in error, please delete it and any attachments. Please think of our environment and only print this email if necessary. _______________________________________________ Everybody mailing list -- everybody(a)acfr.usyd.edu.au To unsubscribe send an email to everybody-leave(a)acfr.usyd.edu.au

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[Everybody at ACFR] J19 Tour - 30 April at 11.30am-12.45pm
by Annette Karydis 29 Apr '26

29 Apr '26

Hi All We have a small delegation coming to visit J19 at 11.30am tomorrow. Stefan Williams will be taking this tour. Please ensure any items are hidden or displayed as appropriate. Kind Regards Annette Annette Karydis | Operations Manager The University of Sydney Faculty of Engineering, Australian Centre for Robotics Rose Street Building J04 | The University of Sydney | NSW | 2006 +61 2 9351 8146 | +61 419 207 097 annette.karydis(a)sydney.edu.au. <mailto:annette.karydis@sydney.edu.au.%20> | sydney.edu.au<http://sydney.edu.au/> CRICOS 00026A This email plus any attachments to it are confidential. Any unauthorised use is strictly prohibited. If you receive this email in error, please delete it and any attachments. Please think of our environment and only print this email if necessary. [A black background with a black square AI-generated content may be incorrect.] CRICOS 00026A TEQSA PRV12057 This email plus any attachments to it are confidential. Any unauthorised use is strictly prohibited. If you receive this email in error, please delete it and any attachments. Please think of our environment and only print this email if necessary. _______________________________________________ Everybody mailing list -- everybody(a)acfr.usyd.edu.au To unsubscribe send an email to everybody-leave(a)acfr.usyd.edu.au

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[Everybody at ACFR] ACFR Seminar Series: Dr. Clyde Webster - Three Years Sober: From Research to Commercialisation
by Sabrina Asri 29 Apr '26

29 Apr '26

Faculty of Engineering ACFR Seminar Series [https://d31hzlhk6di2h5.cloudfront.net/20260424/44/a0/ac/85/83de99ae1318da0a…] [cid:image001.jpg@01DCD7DE.D6084510] Three Years Sober: From Research to Commercialisation Presented by Dr. Clyde Webster Date: Thursday, 30 April 2026, at 1:00 pm AEDT Venue: ACFR seminar area, J04 level 2 (Rose St Building<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/gH37CK1DvKTBLzkOEuXcLT5OXhT?domain=t…>) Zoom ID: https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/s/87306457455<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/mITKCL7EwMfmLy2Kjcxf2TyqN6R?domain=t…> **RSVP by Tuesday 28 April for catering purposes. Accept this calendar invitation if you plan to attend the seminar in person and join us for a light lunch at approximately 12.30pm Abstract: This talk traces Dr. Clyde Webster’s journey from the curiosity-driven world of academic research to the unforgiving realities of building a deep-tech robotics startup from scratch. Along the way, an unlikely detour through the biomechanics of parrot locomotion gave rise to a novel approach to robot design and a broader philosophy about where the best engineering ideas actually come from. Moving from research into commercialisation has been as much a personal journey as a professional one. Clyde’s understanding of what it means to create value, validate ideas, and build something durable has evolved significantly along the way, and with it, his appreciation for what academic research does uniquely well and where the two worlds can complement each other most effectively. Drawing on three and a half years of building Crest Robotics from the ground up, Clyde reflects honestly on the transition, the mindset shifts it demanded and the ways his relationship with universities has changed from the inside out. Rather than a story of departure, this is a story about learning to engage differently, treating academic institutions as genuine partners for talent, collaborative research, and shared infrastructure while navigating the realities of building under commercial constraints. This talk is for researchers who want their work to reach further, and for anyone who has ever wondered what it would take to build something with it. Bio: Dr. Clyde Webster is the Founder and Managing Director of Crest Robotics, a company built on a simple conviction: the industries that keep our infrastructure running and our workers safe have never needed better tools more urgently, and robotic technology has never been more capable of providing them. The gap between those two facts is the problem Crest exists to solve. As the world’s first self-proclaimed robotics morphologist, his career has been shaped by one recurring question: what form best serves a given function? His PhD at the University of Technology Sydney began with a practical challenge posed by the Tokyo Electric Power Company, on how to keep workers safe maintaining complex power transmission infrastructure. Searching for answers led him to an unlikely source of inspiration. Parrots use three limbs to navigate complex structures while performing work at height, a form perfectly matched to its function. That insight became the foundation of a novel robot architecture and a broader philosophy that has guided his work ever since. That question also took him to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a visiting scholar, publishing collaborative research on rover morphology for lunar exploration, and into industry as a lead engineer at Space Machines Company during Australia’s largest ever spacecraft launch. But founding his own company was always the destination, and three and a half years ago Clyde launched Crest Robotics, building it entirely from sales and competitive grants. Within the first twelve months, Crest had signed Transgrid, breaking into the energy sector ahead of any realistic expectation for a bootstrapped hardware startup. The company has since grown to a team of seven, expanding its customer base to include Powercor, Powerlink, and Zinfra. That same form-meets-function thinking shaped Charlotte, a bio-inspired construction robot that straddles walls as it prints using locally sourced materials, deployable in a fraction of the time and footprint of conventional gantry systems. Developed with support from the NSW Space+ Program, Charlotte attracted letters of collaboration from commercial lunar payload providers including Intuitive Machines and ispace when demonstrated at the 2025 International Astronautical Congress in Sydney. Clyde is actively seeking collaborations with researchers working in construction, infrastructure, and related fields, and is particularly interested in connecting with academics ready to see their work create tangible impact in industry. [Register for Event >]<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/RKjkCMwGxOtRjMYXOt7hXT8aeRn?domain=t…> [https://d31hzlhk6di2h5.cloudfront.net/20260424/2e/8d/c7/1c/1c70baef8b350e38…] [Web Site]<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/YGI0COMKzVT03zknRslsKTG4-Ec?domain=t…> [LinkedIn]<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/cgaoCP7LAXfoQ8nWGsptmTxjkbi?domain=t…> [X]<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/bjlqCQnMBZf37MLOAI6u6TGk1-G?domain=t…> [YouTube]<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/RILbCROND2uRNjXEmt7CRT10jA6?domain=t…> Copyright © 2026 The University of Sydney Please add acfr.admin(a)sydney.edu.au<mailto:acfr.admin@sydney.edu.au> to your address book or senders safe list to make sure you continue to see our emails in the future. Cricos Code 00026A TEQSA PRV12057 Disclaimer<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/nHGaCVARKgC5MN83whlFATE-uua?domain=t…> | Privacy statement<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/-xTJCWLVXkUP0R8O9fvHQTopIBq?domain=t…> | Manage<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/w9icCD1vlpTnXNZqvinI2TjZIIO?domain=a…> your preferences | Opt Out<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/VA49CE8wmrtgBVjL9IKSoT7YpiV?domain=t…> using TrueRemove™ Got this as a forward? Sign up<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/5sUFCGv0oyC0wK9kYsBTjTBgdGu?domain=a…> to receive our future emails. View this email online<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/VcqTCJyBrGf1x3oZrs8UyTyDvTc?domain=t…>. Rose Street Building J04 Level 2 | Darlington, 2008 AU _______________________________________________ Everybody mailing list -- everybody(a)acfr.usyd.edu.au To unsubscribe send an email to everybody-leave(a)acfr.usyd.edu.au

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[Everybody at ACFR] Today - PhD Oral Thesis Defence: Heather Doig
by Australian Centre For Robotics Administration 29 Apr '26

29 Apr '26

Hi everyone, Please join us in supporting Heather Doig at the public presentation of her PhD oral thesis defence, later today. Details are as follows: Faculty of Engineering Thesis Public Presentation [https://d31hzlhk6di2h5.cloudfront.net/20260421/44/a0/ac/85/83de99ae1318da0a…] Heather Doig will present her thesis titled Benthic Visual Recognition in an Annotation-poor Domain. Please join us in celebrating this significant milestone in Heather’s academic journey, which recognises her sustained commitment and extensive research in this field. Date: Wednesday, 29 April 2026 Time: 04:00 PM (AEDT) Venue: ACFR J04, Level 2 Seminar Area (Rose Street Building<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/h00kCQnMBZf3g05zEunU6TGAvLp?domain=t…>) Online: https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/j/87341223912<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/FnuVCROND2uRo2A7kFycRT1uunG?domain=t…> [https://d31hzlhk6di2h5.cloudfront.net/20260421/92/f7/f0/97/784c6220145aebd5…] Abstract: The ocean is a vital natural resource, providing food, transportation, energy, and recreation. Anthropogenic and other stresses are impacting benthic communities and habitats residing on or near the seafloor. Biodiversity monitoring using benthic imagery provides insight into how widespread or localised stresses are impacting the ocean, but manual annotation of this imagery remains a significant bottleneck, requiring up to 8 hours of expert labour per image. While machine learning (ML) offers a path toward automation, developing robust models is hindered by the scarcity of diverse training datasets and by the unique environmental challenges of the underwater domain, such as light attenuation and domain shift. This thesis addresses these limitations by investigating whether alternative data sources, such as weakly annotated data and synthetically generated imagery, can compensate for the lack of expert-labelled data. By developing a framework that integrates specialised training pipelines with unsupervised domain adaptation and model selection, this work demonstrates that high-performing species detectors can be trained with minimal to no human annotation. These contributions ultimately provide an applied solution that performs at a level comparable to fully supervised models, enabling the timely and automated generation of ecological insights needed to manage the benthic environment. Bio: Heather Doig completed her PhD (currently under examination) at the ACFR in 2025, during which she developed new machine learning approaches for environmental and ecological monitoring of the seafloor. Her research spans domain adaptation, synthetic data generation, and methods for learning from weak or sparse annotations in data‑limited environments. She holds a Master of Data Science from the University of Sydney and a Bachelor of Engineering from the University of Melbourne. Prior to academia, Heather worked in technology and operations management at Macquarie Bank and at ReachOut Australia. [https://d31hzlhk6di2h5.cloudfront.net/20260421/2e/8d/c7/1c/1c70baef8b350e38…] [Web Site]<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/ZzZsCVARKgC5mGDOLu5fATE-bxZ?domain=t…> [LinkedIn]<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/cH0ECWLVXkUPZJAlgC2hQToMEOI?domain=t…> [X]<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/aeyqCXLW2mUqjwxpysoiMTWy-NU?domain=t…> [YouTube]<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/K-ckCYW8NocNmrzGJT6sYTxBe9p?domain=t…> Copyright © 2026 The University of Sydney Please add acfr.admin(a)sydney.edu.au<mailto:acfr.admin@sydney.edu.au> to your address book or senders safe list to make sure you continue to see our emails in the future. 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Rose Street Building J04 Level 2 | Darlington, 2008 AU Best regards, Sabrina Sabrina Asri | Senior Admin Officer The University of Sydney Faculty of Engineering, Australian Centre for Robotics Rose Street Building J04 | The University of Sydney | NSW | 2006 +61 2 9351 7126 | sabrina.asri(a)sydney.edu.au<mailto:sabrina.asri@sydney.edu.au> | sydney.edu.au<http://sydney.edu.au/> [A black background with a black square AI-generated content may be incorrect.] CRICOS 00026A TEQSA PRV12057 This email plus any attachments to it are confidential. Any unauthorised use is strictly prohibited. If you receive this email in error, please delete it and any attachments. Please think of our environment and only print this email if necessary. _______________________________________________ Everybody mailing list -- everybody(a)acfr.usyd.edu.au To unsubscribe send an email to everybody-leave(a)acfr.usyd.edu.au

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