Fortescue pounces on Sparc ultra-green hydrogen

Fortescue Future Industries has pounced on an Australian technology that produces green hydrogen through the use of a thermo-photocatalyst and solar radiation, avoiding more traditional and costly electrolysis. FFI today announced it had bought a stake in South Australian company Sparc Hydrogen, an offshoot of graphene technology company Sparc Technologies that is developing next-generation green…

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Cybersecurity – Identity and Access Management: Six ways to make sure your manufacturing business is cyber-secure  

Thomson Mathew runs us through a half-dozen ways to keep your factory safe from cyberattacks in this part of our Cybersecurity – Identity and Access Management series.  While smart factories are revolutionising the manufacturing industry, being connected comes with new risk factors that must be addressed. A Deloitte study revealed that 48% of manufacturers identified…

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More questions than answers in new commercialisation funding

Comment by Peter Roberts The university sector has has been sadly neglected by the federal government in the past decade, and yesterday Prime Minister Scott Morrison signaled that academic research would continue to come second to a national priority on research that leads to manufacturing and other economic outcomes. The neglect of science is unforgiveable…

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Lynas receives ministerial approval for Kalgoorlie plant

Australia’s largest producer of minerals used to manufacture high technology products, Lynas Rare Earths has received ministerial approval for the rare earths processing facility it is constructing at Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. The company announced that a ministerial statement had been issued under the Environmental Protection Act 1986 (WA), one of a number of approvals…

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Silex plans first production of silicon for quantum computers

Technology developer Silex Systems hopes to produce initial commercial quantities of zero-spin silicon (ZS-Si) used to make computer chips for cutting edge quantum computers from 2023 onwards. The company announced that it had completed the second stage of its ZS-Si project and successfully demonstrated silicon enrichment at a prototype scale. ZS-Si is a unique form…

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Swinburne to invest in new supercomputer assisted by $5.2 m Vic government grant

Swinburne University of Technology’s Hawthorn campus will get a new supercomputer, which will support research activities including in space, neuroscience and understanding the natural world. The new supercomputer will replace the OzSTAR machine, which has been in use since 2017, supported a variety of research topics, and acted as a “de facto national facility for…

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Cybersecurity — Identity and Access Management: Five steps towards getting a ransomware attack on your company

In day two of @AuManufacturing’s Cybersecurity – Identity and Access Management series, Ryan Ko offers some friendly advice to those who want to be victims of ransomware.  In my experience working with the INTERPOL tracking digital payments towards ransomware, and research with antivirus companies understanding how ransomware works, I have seen ransomware in action and…

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