MIT host Adelaide workshops

23 Jan 2024
One of the world’s top ranked University’s is running workshops in Adelaide this week after the Minister for Trade and Investment Nick Champion secured the deal on his trip to America last year.
  
Off the back of an agreement signed between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT’s) Connection Science Initiative and the South Australian Government last year, MIT are in Adelaide this week to host three days of insights, ideas exchange, collaboration and discussions.
  
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by Minister for Trade and Investment Nick Champion at MIT Connection Science in the United States in June during his visit to the country.
  
The agreement builds upon the MIT Adelaide Living Lab, established at Lot Fourteen in 2019, and will support student exchange and research collaboration between our universities and MIT.
  
The program, which runs from Monday 22 to Wednesday 24 January, has been put together by MIT Professor Sandy Pentland, Dr Thomas Hardjono, CTO at MIT Connection Science; former University of Adelaide student, Tobin South PhD at MIT Media Lab and Robert Mahari JD-PhD, Harvard and MIT, in partnership with the Department for Trade and Investment, and is set to benefit the South Australian industry, the public sector, academia, researchers, health practitioners and legal professionals.
  
The MIT partnership focuses on establishing a secure and trusted data framework that will underpin the developing global digital economy. This framework will be an important step in unlocking the state’s artificial intelligence expertise and delivering economic benefits for the state.
  
With MIT consistently ranked in the Top 3 of the Times Higher Education World Rankings, the MoU enables direct access to MIT’s knowledge and expertise, and supports student exchanges to MIT’s Cambridge campus, further developing Adelaide and Lot Fourteen’s connections as part of a global network.
  
South Australian data scientist and doctoral student, Tobin South, is based at MIT and helps to manage the Adelaide Living Lab from Cambridge. A recipient of the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship, Tobin is on a five-year placement, completing a PhD at MIT’s Media Lab, famous for its innovative research and products. He will present at the workshop on Reimagining the Legal Profession, outlining how Large Language Models work and understanding the fundamentals, as well as facilitating a discussion on trusted technology for health.
  
The three-day program features exclusive roundtables and workshops on topics such as: 

- Exploring collaboration between clinicians, researchers and industry 
- A deep dive into artificial intelligence and large language models for scalable legal services 
- An AI trust and sustainability symposium in partnership with Flinders University, MIT Connection Science and the Department for Trade and Investment will discuss how data and South Australia’s strong AI capabilities can be linked to advanced collaborative innovation opportunities for the green economy.

A range of South Australian industry, public sector representation, academia, researchers, health practitioners and legal professionals, will be in attendance throughout the program.