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Centres of Excellence

The University of Sydney hosts and is a participant in six Australian Research Council (ARC) Centres of Excellence:

The Centre for Ultrahigh-bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS) will, over the next five years, invent and develop a set of revolutionary optical devices and integrate these devices onto a photonic chip, for use in the next generation of ultrahigh bandwidth optical telecommunications systems.

The Centre for Autonomous Systems will bring together three leading research groups in robotics, learning and intelligent systems, offering the substantial possibility that this group could grow into the world's leading autonomous systems research centre.

The National ICT Australia (NICTA) Centre of Excellence is based at the Australian Technology Park, Redfern, with a branch in Canberra. The University of Sydney plays an important role in the new $129.5 million centre. We are among six partners contributing $96 million in cash and in-kind assistance to the centre in its first five years.

Research at National ICT Australia is expected to fall within five broad themes:

  • human-machine interaction,
  • intelligent systems,
  • infrastructure technologies,
  • software engineering, and
  • foundation sciences such as information theory, algorithms and logic.

The Centre for Quantum Computer Technology is undertaking research on the fundamental physics and technology of building, at the atomic level, a solid state quantum computer in silicon together with other high potential implementations. The objective is underpinned by a vigorous semiconductor research program that includes a sophisticated quantum measurement capability at ultra-low temperatures.

The Centre for Free Radical Chemistry and Biotechnology, based in Melbourne, will strengthen Australia’s formidable position in the field of Free Radical Chemistry and provide the breakthrough science to expand our understanding of the chemistry of free radical processes and enable the development of advanced materials and technologies for building and transforming industry.

The Centre for Design in Light Metals, based in Melbourne, embraces a novel ‘design-directed’ approach to the systematic identification of strategic research initiatives that will maximise the competitiveness of light alloys and light metal hybrid materials based on aluminium, magnesium and titanium. This approach provides an effective linkage between fundamental research and engineering applications.