THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA
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“ The feature on the mobile application , Transparent Mode , is defaulted to be off , so students have to switch this on . Once they opt in , we can track where they ’ re going and what they ’ re doing ,” he says . “ The reason to turn it off is , to protect their right to privacy . If they say they want to know where their friends are , they can then do so . The data is associated with Involvio ’ s base in the cloud which has tight security around it . Approximately 60 universities in the US are also using this technology .”
Even travelling to and from the university is set to be revolutionised , with autonomous vehicles being deployed to support students ’ travel across campus , which would work to protect them from the harsh 40-degree heat in the summertime .
“ We trialled this autonomous vehicle to look at how can we can transport people around campus , but also looked at the broader context of incorporating this into the public system . We ’ re working with the Department of Transport to try and work out how to take this forward . There ’ s a lot of things we are looking at more broadly than just the university itself – we ’ re
looking at the community that supports us and to engage more effectively , and in some areas , partner up to deliver innovations which everyone can benefit from ,” observes Calkin .
Throughout its expansive digital investment , from student focused technologies to its extensive research capabilities , UWA has sought to implement cloud software to protect up to six petabytes ( PB ) of research data , which previously sat in an
MARCH 2019