Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing

The Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing (IPAS) was founded on the success of the Centre of Excellence in Photonics, a joint centre of the University of Adelaide and DSTO, and the recognition of the importance that new forms of Advanced Sensing will play in the world.

IPAS brings together over 130 physicists, chemists and biologists to pursue a new transdisciplinary approach to science. The Institute is developing novel photonic, sensing and measurement technologies that will change the way science is done within traditional discipline areas, stimulating the creation of new industries, and inspiring a new generation of scientists to be engaged in solving real-world problems. IPAS research targets applications in four key market areas: defence and national security, environmental monitoring, preventative health, and food and wine.

Working in partnership with government and industry we will work to translate discoveries into practical solutions.

The Federal Government, State Government, DSTO, Defence SA and the University of Adelaide have committed over $38 to IPAS. Further to this has been the award of $29M from EIF, supplemented by $5M from Government of South Australia and other monies from DSTO and NCRIS schemes. This funding will be used to construct cutting edge advanced sensing laboratories, fibre optic production facilities and offices to house IPAS. In 2010 planning approval was granted by the Development Assessment Commission for the New IPAS Building on the North Tce Campus.

Our team of world leading scientists is pledged to creating a culture of research excellence and making IPAS a place where collaboration will create significant breakthroughs and the development of new technologies.

2010 ERA Results

The Federal Government recently released the results of the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) exercise. This was an assessment of the quality of research in all subjects in all Australian universities.

The outcome for the Institute for Photonics & Advanced Sensing at the University of Adelaide was outstanding - awarded a score of 5, the maximum possible, for the overarching area of Physical Sciences as well as a 5 in the discipline area of Optical Physics.

A score of 5 is defined by ERA as indicating the research is well above world standard.

Exceptionally high scores were also awarded to areas that are the basis of many IPAS transdisciplinary collaborations, such as:

Medical and Health Sciences
Environmental Sciences
Paediatrics and Reproductive Medicine
Nutrition and Dietetics
Medical Microbiology

These ERA results confirm that the activities of IPAS researchers are of the highest quality, and that their innovative advances are supported close proximity to equally outstanding collaborators.

IPAS research in focused on developing solutions in four key markets:

Defence and national security
Environmental monitoring
Food and wine
Preventative health

IPAS Mission

To bring together researchers from different disciplines focused on developing new platform technologies with those who traditionally use commercial measurement tools.

To build sustainable critical mass in research capacity and capability in photonics and sensing to deliver outcomes and provide support and a rich experience for researchers, postgraduates and undergraduates.

IPAS Vision

The vision of IPAS is to pursue a transdisciplinary research agenda, working at the boundaries of physics, chemistry and biology to create knowledge and disruptive new technologies, and solve problems for health, the environment, defence, food and wine.

What is transdisciplinary research?

A transdisciplinary approach brings discipline specialists from different areas together to work side by side with the common purpose of evolving new research methodologies and frameworks that span the discipline boundaries. This goes beyond simply contributing different disciplinary techniques or viewpoints to a problem at hand, as is done in multidisciplinary research, or bringing the tools of one discipline to bear on another a problem in another discipline, as is done in interdisciplinary research. A transdisciplinary approach aims to provide solution to challenging real world problems that cannot be tackled with the tools of any one discipline alone.

Role of the Institute

To provide support to its Centres and Members in order to maximise their research outcomes and their contributions to the Objectives by

Providing access to leverage and seed funding schemes (for equipment, feasibility studies, etc)
Provision of administrative support - Travel organisation, Meeting co-ordination, Expense claims, Recruitment support, Video/tele-conferencing systems, customer relationship management systems, inventory management etc.
Publicise the achievements of the Institute, Centres and the Members to internal and external audiences via websites, media and PR activity.
Provide research grant support - awareness of programmes, grant development, and finance planning.
Help the Centres and members get the best support from the central University systems - IT, Finance, Marketing, HR.
Provide accurate research statistics to Members and ensure that their research metrics are accurate and optimised.
Provide commercial support for commercial interactions, contract research, collaborative research, patenting and spin out activities.
Provide a new building as the focus for the Institute activities with meeting rooms and other facilities. Research and office space for constituent Centres and Members will be agreed on a case by case basis.

Defence and national security

IPAS is performing research projects for DSTO and a number of defence companies including BAE Australia. The precise nature of this research is sensitive but includes from the development of new fibres with specific transmission properties, fibre lasers and fibre sensors.

The Federal Government, State Government, DSTO, Defence SA and the University of Adelaide have committed over $38M to IPAS. This funding will be used to construct cutting edge advanced sensing laboratories, fibre optic production facilities and offices to house IPAS.

Environmental monitoring

The sensing technologies being developed at IPAS have many applications in environmental monitoring and IPAS is working in collaboration with the Environment Institute at the University of Adelaide to develop a range of sensors that can measure specific chemicals which are regarded as specific pollutants or markers showing environmental stress.

Food and wine

The sensing technologies being developed at IPAS have many applications in Food & Wine. These are industries of key economic importance to Australia. IPAS is collaborating with Professor Dennis Taylor, from the School of Agriculture, Food and Wine at the University of Adelaide to develop 'smart bungs' with fibre sensors which will monitor a range of chemicals present on wine as it matures without interfering with the process. We are developing an early warning system that could be used not only for wine but potentially for beer and the dairy industry.

Photonic fibre sensors being developed at IPAS allow the rapid measurement of specific chemical and biological markers with very small sample volumes. This enables analyses to be performed that previously not been possible. We are keen to collaborate with academic teams and companies to develop new fibres sensors to solve a range of problems where current technology is unable to provide sufficient sensitivity and rapid reporting of results.

Preventative health

The sensing technologies being developed at IPAS have many applications in Healthcare and Medical Diagnostics. We are working with IVMS to develop new point of care sensors that can be deployed in airports during flu outbreaks to give rapid diagnosis of infections. We are also partnering with the Robinson Institute at the University of Adelaide on a project to increase the probability of successful IVF treatments.