2005 Young Tall Poppy Science Award Recipient

Dr Stefan Williams
School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, University of Sydney

A world full of robots might not be very far away. Dr Stefan Williams, systems design engineer, is developing autonomous robotic systems for a variety of application domains. Autonomous systems fuse mechanical engineering, computing, sensing, and software to create intelligent machines that interact with their surrounding world.

Among his most significant contributions to this field is Stefan’s development of the Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping algorithm in reef habitats. This algorithm allows an autonomous system to build a map of an environment while using the map information to help itself figure out where it is in the world. One of the outcomes will be methods for modelling spatio-temporal variation in natural reef environments using data collected by an autonomous robotic system capable of surveying the Great Barrier Reef.

Stefan is a Senior Lecturer at the University’s School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering and is a member of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Autonomous Systems and is the Director of its Marine Robotics program.  Recognition of the importance of this work comes in the form of numerous successful competitive grants, totalling nearly $1 million.

After completing a 1st class Honours Systems Design Engineering degree at the University of Waterloo in Canada, Stefan moved to Australia in 1998 and undertook a PhD at the University of Sydney’s Australian Centre for Field Robotics.

Stefan has been active in promoting science and engineering both within and outside the University, with appearances on radio and TV. He has visited schools to raise awareness of his exciting field of research and has also coordinated the ARC Centre of Excellence for Autonomous Systems activities during National Science Week with appearances at the Amazing World of Science.

Stefan received a Young Tall Poppy Science Award in 2005.