University of Melbourne, RMIT build ties with AWS

Two Victorian universities have unveiled collaboration agreements with Amazon Web Services this week, powering digital infrastructure transformation and innovation initiatives.

University of Melbourne signed a “strategic collaboration agreement” with AWS, which deputy vice-chancellor (research) Professor Mark Cassidy said “could transform our crucial digital infrastructure and cloud technologies to improve the ways we work and study to enhance our student experience, research capability and entrepreneurial innovation”.

“We are at an inflection point where transformative technologies, including AI, are both challenging us and providing opportunities for our systems and scholarly work,” Cassidy said.

The university’s chief operating officer Katerina Kapobassis said the agreement will “help guide the [its] state-of-the-art information technology”, facilitating access to a range of supports from technical expertise and training to “cloud migration support”, and more.

Meanwhile, RMIT University said a similar strategic collaboration arrangement would help establish “a dedicated AWS cloud innovation lab” on campus called RAIL - the RMIT AWS Innovation Lab (RAIL).

RAIL, the university said, “will provide researchers, students and external partners with access to advanced AWS cloud technologies, AI and data services, specialised training programs and hands-on project support.”

It “is designed to shorten the pathway from research concepts to deployed solutions by bringing together cloud specialists, research experts, and structured innovation processes.”

Initial projects accelerated through RAIL will focus on digital health, connectivity, aerospace, security and resilience, and public sector innovation.