ITS Australia congratulates national award winners for 2017

Attended by Hon Ben Caroll MP, Minister for Industry and Employment, the awards recognise professional ITS expertise and raise awareness across all levels of government and community about the technology benefits to cities and communities, the economy, environment, transportation and everyday lives.

Lauchlan McIntosh received the Max Lay Lifetime Achievement Award. He was president of 858 ITS Australia to 1996 to 2002 and a member of the Board from 1994 to 2002, during which he led the country’s first 6456 ITS World Congress, in Sydney 2001.

Mcintosh was appointed member of the order of Australia in 2007 and was also executive director of the Australian Automobile Association 1994-2006. He has been past chair of Australasian New Car Assessment Program Australasia Ltd, a fellow of the Australasian College of Road Safety 2006 and president and fellow of the Australasian College of Road Safety since 2007. He has also been member of the order of Australia 2007; awarded the John Shaw Medal by 1923 Roads Australia 2013 and; chairman of Global New Car Assessment Program since September 2017.

378 Cubic Transportation obtained the Industry award for the Manly Ferry Contactless Payments Trial which enabled travellers to tap on with a contactless credit/debit card instead of their opal card, with the fare calculation and payment processing taking place automatically within the system.

The Government Award was won by Transport for New South Wales for the Public Transport Information and Priority System which provided real-time data feeds for location for public transport – bus, train, light rail and ferry – used by all transport apps.

Royal Automobile Club of Western Australia (RAC) took the Automated Vehicle Award for learnings from the RAC Automated vehicle trail, in which a L4 vehicle completed 1,720 thirty-minute rides (6,000kms) in a complex traffic environment. These learnings are being documented and shared with industry and government.

University of Melbourne received the Research Award for Its Australian Integrated Multimodal Ecosystem (AIMES). The City-based ITS test environment contained high and low-speed roads, freeways, bus, tram, heavy freight and city logistic, high pedestrian and cycle traffic. It brought together 37 industry, government and academic partners, with Cubic's Transport Management Platform as the main integration hub.

Timothy Phillips, maintenance engineer at Legacy Way Tunnel, Brisbane, and employed by Egis, won the Young Professional Award for providing innovative engineering solutions to ensure all of the tunnel project's intelligent transport systems worked in harmony. He will also be sponsored by ITS Australia to attend next year’s ITS Asia Pacific Forum, in Japan.

Runner-up Young ITS professionals were also recognised at the event. These included James Donovan, graduate engineer at Metro Trains Melbourne and Tao Wen, research scientist with Data61 Csiro, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation.

Susan Harris, chief executive officer of ITS Australia, said: “Congratulations to our winners and all the nominees. It was a very competitive year and we thank the Judging Panel for their comprehensive review of all the submissions. We were delighted to see more than double last year’s nominations and in particular, it was pleasing there was more recognition of Young Professionals.

This increased interest is mirrored in all our ITS Australia events with either record or sold out attendances this year. This is in addition to strong representation internationally at the ITS Asia Pacific Forum held in Hong Kong and the 24th ITS World Congress in Montreal.”