Federal Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen joined us on 26th of Feburary for a tour of TMI and demonstrations of advanced manufacturing research, enterprise support and industry collaboration at Flinders, Tonsley.

Flinders’ Cyber Physical factory and robotics laboratory was put through its paces to demonstrate the University’s capacity for research in the industry 4.0 space.

Accompanied by Flinders alumna and Kingston MP Amanda Rishworth and candidate for Boothby Nadia Clancy, Mr Bowen also visited the New Venture Institute’s Flinders Innovation Centre where he saw a Flinders-developed low-cost field testing microscope kit for disease identification in remote areas, and experienced Voxon Photonics’ voxie-box 3D hologram generator. Industry collaborators Redarc and SAGE automation detailed the research and development ecosystem that is evolving at Tonsley with the support of Flinders’ research capacity. Mr Bowen was accompanied by the Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research, as well as Pro Vice-Chancellor Research Innovation Professor John Spoehr.

“This was an important pre-election visit by the shadow Treasurer, elevating University research and industry engagement support of innovation on the agenda ahead of federal election. Higher Education will be a strongly fought policy area ahead of the poll and we were pleased by Chris’ enthusiasm for the cutting edge research that distinguishes Flinders” Professor Spoehr said.