Posted by Davina Jackson on 28 Aug 2014
After four years spending $20 million of Commonwealth Super Science funding, the Australian Urban Research Infrastructure Network (AURIN) is now presenting a promising online 'workbench' for public sector researchers to test and simulate urban development challenges and solutions.
AURIN's Strategic Implementation Co-ordinator, Dr Chris Pettit, this week demonstrated the main Beta 4 capacities of the workbench, which was funded by the Education Investment Fund Super Science Initiative, and
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Queensland's Premier, Campbell Newman, is releasing 1400 new state government datasets for free public use – and hosting a competition for best applications.
The 2014 Premier's Award for Open Data offers $A5000 each for best use, best commercial app and best community app exploiting datasets released via the Queensland Government's Open Data program (based in the Premier's Office). Smaller prizes are offered for best entries from school students and public servants – and Microsoft is sponsoring 
A Swiss simulations expert has demonstrated to Australian urban researchers a futuristic 'city lab' for testing urban strategies by manipulating and watching dynamic virtual models.
Dr Bernhard Klein, a leader of the Simulation Platform research team at ETH-Zurich's Future Cities Lab (FCL) in Singapore, showed advanced urban modelling presentation systems at this week's launch of Simulation Australia's new architecture and urbanism simulations group.
He demonstrated various uses of 
New geospatial 'special interest groups' (SIGs) are being launched by several Australian industry organisations.
—Simulation Australia, generally promoting simulation expertise relevant to the defence, aerospace, transport and health sectors, will this week launch a new SIG for architecture and urbanism. It is intended to attract building and city modelling experts who have not got a critical mass at existing professional institutes for architecture and urban planning. Engineers Australia 
After almost a decade of resistance to 'data cities' advances by many built environment and research leaders, Australia's first significant public workshop on digital urban modelling systems is being organised by Simulation Australia.
Sim AU's Architecture and Urban Planning Think-Tank will introduce Australian specialists to latest simulation research thrusts at ETH-Zurich's Future Cities Lab – following the sale of FCL's ground-breaking procedural modelling software to Californian GIS