The agreement covers the delivery of intensive artificial intelligence short-course training, and masters-level research into the validation of synthetic environments for use in T&E, which will ensure Australian professionals have access to the skills and research needed to test and assure disruptive technology.
In addition to the new agreement, the Nova Systems Test & Evaluation Centre of Excellence (T&E CoE) and RMIT’s School of Computing Technologies have collaborated to create a one-day intensive training program on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) for defence industry professionals.
Pictured: Tim Grabert, Test & Evaluation Capability Lead at Nova Systems, Timothy Wiley, Lecturer in the School of Computing Technologies at RMIT University and Dananjaya Rankothge, Systems Engineer at Nova System
This new course provides a deep dive into the technology that encompasses AI such as computer vision algorithms, predictive regression algorithms, neural networks, and large language models. In addition to the theoretical coverage of these topics, students participate in practical exercises involving the training, validation and testing of ML applications and the application of emerging safety standards and guardrails.
The course will be delivered to a combined cohort of Nova T&E practitioners and defence industry professionals at the RMIT’s City Campus and as a staple of the Nova Systems Advanced T&E Practitioner Course.
Nova Systems has also formally partnered with RMIT to commence research and development of uncertainty quantification and validation methods for mission simulations involving systems of systems.
This research will be conducted by a sponsored Master of Philosophy student at RMIT and will directly enhance Nova Systems’ ability to utilise synthetic (digital) T&E environment for system assurance.
This research will develop methods for use by T&E practitioners to evaluate the validity of outcomes predicted by advanced simulations of systems of systems. This research will be supervised by RMIT with industry guidance provided by senior personnel from Nova Systems T&E CoE and is planned to commence in the 2026 academic year.
This research project is funded by CSIRO’s Next Generation Graduates program. The Next Generation Graduates program is working in partnership with industry and universities to grow a pipeline of home-grown, job-ready graduates to unlock the immense economic opportunity offered by AI and emerging technologies, such as robotics, cyber security, quantum computing, blockchain and data.
The focus of the research is aligned with similar initiatives being conducted by the US Department of Defence and will ensure that the Nova Systems T&E CoE remains at the cutting edge of thought leadership in the use of digital tools and environments to hasten speed to capability for disruptive military technologies.